Goodreads Guidelines for Authors
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Goodreads is the world’s most popular website for readers (with over 90 million members) to rate, review and recommend books to one another.
Their members like to show others what they are reading and their activity around your book can increase discoverability. This is a powerfully organic way to build buzz and momentum around your book.
Goodreads Author Profiles can help you drive this engagement and connect with readers globally. We encourage you to create an Author Profile and have put some tips together to help you get started.
Goodreads focuses on connecting authors with readers, and publishers take a hands-off approach.
Benefits of Goodreads:
- Keep your profile up to date - Goodreads automatically creates a basic, mostly blank, profile for the author of every book on its database. By claiming this as your own, you become a verified Goodreads author. You can then add extra information about yourself, like your author photo and biography, and keep it updated.
- Interact with your readers - there are a number of options for interacting with your readers and it is up to you how many of these you would like to be involved in. You can choose to enable the ‘Ask The Author’ function, which allows your readers to ask questions about your book. You can also post ‘status updates', create blog posts and even run book giveaways (your Marketing Executive can help discuss the available options for competitions). Having an active Goodreads Author account builds your personal brand as an author and creates long-term engagement, as readers can choose to ‘follow’ you.
- Generate more content for your other social media channels - if you’re answering some especially interesting reader questions on Goodreads, posting some exciting blogs or running a competition, you can promote and link to these on your other channels such as Twitter.
- Share other great books with your readers - you can list and review books that you’ve read that you think your readers would take an interest in, which can help further establish your credibility as an expert in your field.
How to create an Author Profile:
- Firstly, create a standard account here: https://www.goodreads.com/user/sign_up
- Then, search for your book and click on your name.
- Click “Is this you? Let us know!’ You will then be taken through the application process.
- Once this has been approved, you’ll be ready to go.
More information on why you might want to create a Goodreads Author Profile can be found at the below links:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/program
https://www.goodreads.com/author/how_to
Author Profile Best Practice:
- Do add a clear, recent picture to your profile, and keep you profile up to date. Your readers want to know about your experience and current projects, and they like to have a clear idea of what you look like.
- Do regularly engage with your audience to build up a following and generate excitement. Status updates, blog posts, and answering reader questions are great ways to do this.
- Do not interact with a reader who has negatively reviewed your book. Goodreads is a public space, and anyone is free to review or rate your book. Negative reviews should not be taken personally, even the most successful authors receive some negative feedback. By creating a Goodreads Author Profile, you are acknowledging that you may see some reviews you do not like, and that you feel you can ignore these and not take the feedback personally.
- Do not attempt to influence how your books are reviewed on the platform. Goodreads is about connecting with your readers and hopefully inspiring new ones; positive reviews are a bonus.
- Good examples include: Michelle Obama, Stephen King, Carlos Gill, Anne Boden
For more information on Author Profile best practice, Goodreads’ Author Guidelines can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/author/guidelines
These principles can help optimize your profile on other digital platforms. Wherever you are online, it’s always a good idea to keep an updated profile picture and bio, and to regularly interact with readers in a solely positive fashion.
Information on how you can also optimize your Amazon Author Profile can be found here: https://www.koganpage.com/page/amazon-guidelines
FAQs
Can Kogan Page create, edit or run my Author Profile for me?
Goodreads is a space for readers and authors, and publishers do not play an active role in the Goodreads community. As an author, you will have the freedom to run your profile and interact with readers directly.
Can Kogan Page resolve a problem with my Goodreads account, or intermediate on my behalf?
Whilst we are happy to provide advice on any matters that aren’t covered in our guidelines or the links contained herein, any issues that arise with your profile will largely be your responsibility. By creating an Author Profile, you agree to abide by Goodreads’ rules and author guidelines. You can contact Goodreads for support with a specific query by contacting them here or via their support page, here.
How does Kogan Page add its titles to Goodreads if they are not involved with the platform?
This is an automated process that uses the same information we send out to Amazon and large numbers of other websites that feature our books. Kogan Page has no direct relationship with Goodreads.
Want to find out how you can use other online platforms as an author?
Click here to learn more about Amazon, Medium or Clubhouse.
