If you haven’t taken advantage of Goodreads let me tell you a little more about it and why you as a reader or you as an author would want to use this in your arsenal of tools. I have had a lot of requests for me to write an article on Goodreads. Wish granted.
Let me start by saying that almost everyone reads books. Sure they read their eBooks, but you go over to your friends house and you are likely to see a bookcase with books on shelves. If you are anything like me, you are slightly curious as to what information is filling your friend’s mind and whom is writing what. You can learn a lot about what people read, or … what they don’t read. You might find some books that you really like, and all of the sudden have a totally new conversation that was unplanned that can take you off into a magical adventure.
So fortunately for the rest of the world, the founder of Goodreads had a great idea. He thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool to be able to somehow see all your friend’s libraries? Like online? And wouldn’t it be even cooler if you could quickly see what your friend thought of that book?” Of course it would, and Goodreads.com was born. They take it a step further and easier by allowing readers to scan the barcode of their books with their smartphone or tablet camera, and it uploads it to their library. As readers progress through the book they update it on their app. When they are done, they give it 1 to 5 stars and a quick short note.
There is this little marketing thingy called “word of mouth” referral. Believe it or not, it is the primary and basic “viral” technique. It works for celebrities, authors, movies, restaurants, websites, products, services, and the list goes on. One thing that I learned a long time ago is a basic principle of “K.L.T.” which I call, KNOW, LIKE & TRUST. If someone falls into that category you are very likely to spend your hard earned money to purchase that product or service. If someone tells you “Go watch this movie, eat at this restaurant, read this book” you are more likely to do it. I could write an entire book just on this concept and how it helps your business.
Long before my fiction book came out I worked on this strategy and for a very long time, gave my readers tons of reading … for free. Daily I showed up on their phones, browsers and tablets, giving people feel good messages. I confess, it wasn’t my driving passion to do it, but I accepted the role of being a spiritual messenger for angels and God/Allah. Lots of times the messages would go out and I would have no recollection of writing it. I often joke that angels frequently high jack my social media and go to town. It’s cool.
It was angels that told me to use Goodreads. I started by joining as a member and learning how their system worked. Later I applied to be an author, uploaded my book information and asked a couple of people to add it to their library. Goodreads has been a very good marketing avenue for Angel Academy. I did a few things to get the word out about my book, and that included a couple of free book giveaways. 10 books were given in one giveaway with certain countries, and another that was for the rest of the world. That was advertised on their site, my site and to my fans on my different platforms.
People on Goodreads give more honest reviews than those on Amazon.com. Why? Well for one, it’s easier. You’ve finished the book, you update it on your phone and there is no incentive to do so, other than to let YOUR friends know what you thought of the book. People on Goodreads are just using that word of mouth marketing that I just told you about. A few of the winners wrote reviews for me, and hundreds of other readers all put the book on their shelf “to read”.
Almost everyone reads more than one book at a time, or I should say, have multiple books on their list of books to read. Like any author, my book has to get in line with others. Stephen King is still sitting on my Kindle, waiting to be read. It’s just a fact of life, there is only so much time in the day, and Goodreads helps you from making bad decisions on books that were rigged by fake reviews. I also discovered that Goodreads has a plugin that many websites, including my own, post the reviews from Goodreads. There are hundreds of bookstores around the world that all are posting those reviews next to my book on their website. Very cool.
Goodreads allows you to see what books people want to read, have read, and how many people want to read a specific book. Amazon doesn’t tell you that. For instance, my book on Amazon only has a few reviews; but that doesn’t mean that people haven’t bought it, or have it sitting in the queue of eBooks. Goodreads shows actual people that have said “Hey, I want to read this, or I did read this and here is what I thought.”
I do think that reviews are important but I also think you can make your own decision if you want to make a purchase. Does the book have a catchy plot theme or if it is non-fiction, is it going to educate you on something you need or want? For myself I provided multiple blogs, websites and platforms for readers to decide if they liked me. It’s not a big surprise that a lot more people like me and they have never read my children’s book. Many are waiting for the new non-fiction books that I have talked about. Yes, I am still working on those, but they are going a littler slower.
So if you have not checked out Goodreads.com, spend some time there and check me out while you add your books to your virtual library. Angel Academy really is your next “good” read.
