7 Great Features for Authors on Goodreads

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Many authors mentioned to be overwhelmed after signing up at Goodreads  with the complexity of the site and I experienced the same initially and even had to write them several times e.g. to get advice how to take advantage of the blogging feature on their site.
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Yet, if taken one task at a time, you will be surprised how much you can get out of Goodreads’ site – even though they don’t explain it very well. Let me a bit clarify in a series of blogs how to maximize your social media presence – and the success of your book – at Goodreads. I have the impression that readers trust reviews and book recommendations more on Goodreads than on other sites.  Here is how you can improve your Goodreads presence:
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First of all:  Get more “friends” and “fans”.
To do this you can click on any persons name and when their site appears, “click on add as a friend”. Do the same also with their friends and fans and in no time you will have quite a few followers. You may also add FB or Twitter followers. When receiving a notification by email thank the person with a welcoming email to show your appreciation. Use the icons for Google+ and FB on the left hand site of their Goodreads page. Click on them to spread the word about this site (and invite your friends to do the same on your own one).

Join the Author Program
Published one or more books? It’s completely free to join this Author Program and it will allow you to manage your own book data.
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Here are just a few benefits of the Author Program:

1. Write a blog or import your blog. Authors are the only members of Goodreads who can have blogs, and author blogs are a great place to start a conversation. You can add a link to your personal website or blog and add the Goodreads Author widget to show off reviews of your books
2. Publicize upcoming events, such as book signings and speaking engagements
3. Participate in an online Q and A session with your readers
4. List giveaways for print copies of your books
5. Share excerpts of any upcoming publications
6. Post videos about your books or anything you choose
7. Share your list of favorite books and recent reads with your fans

How to join the Author Program? Start at your author dashboard:

• If you are already a Goodreads member, make sure you are signed in. If not, sign up for an account.
• Search for yourself and click on your published author name. The author name is listed below the title of your book in the search results.
• Clicking on your name takes you to your basic author profile page. This page has your name at the top and “author profile” to the right of your name. This page is part of our database of books and authors and is separate from your member profile page (which lists your bookshelves and friends).
• Scroll down to the bottom of the page. Click “Is this you?” to send a request to join the Author Program.
• It might take a few days to process your request. You will receive an email confirmation when your user account is upgraded to an author account. Joining the program merges your author page with your member page. The email will also contain further instructions for managing your author profile. .

Who can join?
The Author Program  is designed for writers with published books, or who are in the process of publishing a book. If your book is self-published and is not yet in the Goodreads database, you may manually add it.
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Take advantage of the great possibilities at Goodreads to present your book:
Listing your print book for a giveaway is a great way to get free exposure for a book before and during its launch. List any title that is not yet released or was released during the last 6 months. Or upload
an e-book with the “add e-book” links and let users browse, preview, download, and even purchase your work.

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Meet you at Goodreads  and please let me know of any Goodreads topics / questions you might learn about or have them answered here on this blog.  What are your experiences with Goodreads?

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 600 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

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And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks, Doris

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