Patrick Brown, Goodreads Community Manager, was a guest at my local RWA chapter meeting a few months ago. I’ve finally translated my scribbles into a semi-coherent fashion. I’m posting it on my blog today because I’m having issues with posting this information on Facebook for one of my writers’ groups. It’s a quick overview on stats and author promotion.
Goodreads statistics:
8 million members
19 million monthly visitors
280 million books “shelved”
Every second, 2 books are added to someone’s shelf.
An average of 5.75 million books added every month.
The Romance Genre:
There are more than 85,000 shelved under romance making romance the top genre. Romance claims the largest share of chat and critique groups on Goodreads.
According to a Goodreads survey, 25% of romance readers read more than 6 books a month.
60% of romance readers read both print and e-books.
8% only read e-books.
40% of romance readers purchase books based on reviews, lists and group chats found on Goodreads.
How to get readers to discover your book:
Take advantage of the Goodreads Author’s Program. 38,000 authors have signed up, including John Grisham, Diana Gabaldon, and Jennifer Cruisie.
Reviews are extremely important in the early stages of marketing your book.
- Help new readers discover your book.
- Help readers decide to buy your book.
- Spread the word beyond Goodreads. Goodreads syndicates reviews to distributors such as Powell’s, Google and other e-tailers.
Tips for authors:
1. Build your community.
- Add a high quality photo and a bio to your author page
- Shelve some books (What are you reading?)
- Add an influence shelf (Books that influenced you)
- Add the Goodreads widget to your website
- Talk about what you’re reading
- Periodically check to see that your meta data is correct. (ISBN/Publication date, number of pages)
2. Ways to reach new readers – Giveaways
- Goodreads giveaways (for print books only)
- List a minimum of 10-20 copies for your giveaway. The more books you give away increases the chance of reviews.
- Be sure to use the giveaway widget. (available on the author dashboard)
- ARC giveaways increase buzz which translates into early reviews.
- Start another giveaway after publication.
- According to Goodreads, an average of 850 people signup for giveaways, however, 500 is a decent number.
- The biggest mistake authors make is to run the giveaway for a short time, i.e. a few days. Goodreads recommends running the giveaway for a minimum of 2 weeks to a month.
- Expanding the timeline of your giveaway allows more potential readers to enter. More readers means more reviews.
- Giveaways generate community for your new book. Goodreads stats show that 60% of giveaway recipients write reviews.
- Giveaway strategies:
- Start the giveaway on the third day (example only) of the month instead of the first day of the month like most authors.
- Be sure to use the giveaway widget on your blog, website and Facebook.
- Add the book to your shelf.
- Disregard the release date. Create buzz for your book as soon as possible.
- For books in a series, it’s recommended to giveaway book #1 in the series and state that everyone will win the same book.
- Goodreads does not recommend that you send thank you emails to people who have won your book in a giveaway.
- 500-1000 reviews and recommendations are needed before the Goodreads rating algorithms will kick in.
- Take advantage of the self-serve ads on Goodreads
- Target fans of the genre or similar authors
- Giveaways with ads attract 58% more entries than giveaways without ads.
Engage your fans
-
- Join Goodreads groups
- Start your own group
- Organize a group chat with 4-5 authors who write the same genre. Free form topics allow for broader discussion.
- Use an iPhone app to send messages to group members
- Create polls
- This allows “lurkers” to participate
3. Measuring Your Success
Track the number of people adding your book to their shelves.
Take advantage of the book statistics page.
Miscellaneous notes:
What are the top ten methods readers utilize to buy books? (Results from a Goodreads poll)
1. Known author
2. Goodreads recommendation
3. Recommendation from a friend
4. Browsing in a bookstore
5. Amazon
6. Library
7. Browsing on Goodreads
8. Newspapers
9. Author website
10. Radio, NPR (Who knew?), and television
96% of readers read an author they already know.
According to Goodreads studies, Twitter is dead last in new book discovery. Facebook is a more effective marketing tool.
For those of you who aren’t on Goodreads, it’s a fantastic way to reach readers. And while I’ve got your attention, I’m going to shamelessly promote Romance University’s post on Marketing for Authors. Indie YA author, Jillian Dodd, uses Goodreads and social media to promote her books. Be sure to check out her post.
I’m always interested in what others are reading, so feel free to friend me on Goodreads!
August McLaughlin said:
I’m bookmarking this post for future reference. Thanks!
jennifer tanner said:
Hi August!
I should have brought my voice recorder to the meeting, but I think I listed most of the salient points.
smartass romance (@carriecspencer) said:
Great post Jen! Definitely added to my keeper file!
jennifer tanner said:
Hola CC!
It’s probably a good thing that I posted this because my files are a mess.
Jean said:
Thank you so much for posting this. It’s most informative and helpful.
jennifer tanner said:
Hi Jean,
You’re welcome! I hope it helps.
Kelsey Browning (@KelseyBrowning) said:
Jen –
Great post – thanks! This one’s going in my Scriv file on all things marketing and promo. 🙂
Kels
jennifer tanner said:
Hey, Kelsey!
How are things on your side of the world?
Sherry Isaac said:
Fantastic information, Jennifer. Thanks so much for taking the time to post this. I’m sharing the luv by passing this on.
jennifer tanner said:
Hi Sherry,
Share away! Thanks for stopping by.
Sharon Clare said:
Fabulous information, Jennifer. Your time is much appreciated! I’ll share this with my fellow Crimson Romance writers. No doubt they’ll find it as interesting as I did!
Now off to work on my Goodreads account!
jennifer tanner said:
Hi Sharon,
It was a very informational meeting. I’m surprised I was able to translate my chicken scratch. Thanks for stopping by.
Tara Mills said:
Interesting. I’m marking this as well and plan to read it often, as a reminder as my books come out. Thanks.
jennifer tanner said:
Hello, Tara!
I hope this helps! Thank you for your comment.
annerallen said:
Great post, Goodreads is a great resource for writers. But writers should be warned there is a small group of highly vocal, sadistic bullies on Goodreads who love to leave random, cruel, nasty “reviews” of books they haven’t read.
It’s never happened to me, and I’ve been lucky to meet some wonderful people there, but I’ve read lots of horror stories. If it happens to you, be aware you’re not alone and it has nothing to do with your book Never engage with these people, and you may have to leave Goodreads for a while to be rid of them.
jennifer tanner said:
Hi Anne,
I’ve seen those nasty “troller” reviews. Some folks have too much time on their hands. Goodreads has a hands-off policy so they won’t remove them. I hope potential readers know the difference.
roguemutt said:
Sure quite a few people have my book shelved as “To Read” thanks to a giveaway. Have any of them gone out and BOUGHT a copy? Nope. My experience with Goodreads giveaways is you may as well buy a couple of copies and leave them in the bathroom of a gas station. It’ll do just as much good.
jennifer tanner said:
Hi Roguemutt,
I can’t remember the name of the author who said, “It is easier to get published than read.” What works for one author may not do squat for another. I hope you find your marketing nirvana.
kenebaker said:
This is an awesome ‘bookmark immediately’ article! Thanks for the excellent tips!
jennifer tanner said:
Hi Kenebaker!
Thanks, I hope it helps. Good luck with your book promo!
Coleen Patrick said:
Hi Jennifer!
I agree with everyone else–this is information that I must bookmark! Thanks 🙂
jennifer tanner said:
Hola Coleen!
Thanks for stopping in. Have a great week.