Newbie Author's Guide

Helping new and aspiring authors navigate the publishing wilderness

Interaction on Goodreads Hazardous to Your Health and Your Career?

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Interaction on Goodreads

There has been quite a bit of content already about the general bullying, carpet bombing, and all those fun things going on on Goodreads before and after Amazon bought it. A lot of this ire seems to be pointed at authors, but I am beginning to find out more and more that professional reviewers, companies, as well as the casual reviewer are getting burned here.

A very prominent reviewer that I know simply asked a question in a discussion and all fiery hell broke loose. She also owns a company. The “readers” and “reviewers” descended upon her like a school of piranhas and started making incorrect assumptions and accusations against her within seconds and ran her out after tarring and feathering her. That is the point of a discussion among real readers and reviewers, isn’t it? To discuss books? You would think! She had just recovered from a different attack, so this was uncool on so many levels.

Another author I am friends with was discussing how he stays off of Goodreads except for the menial tasks and avoids discussion and interaction due to all mudslinging that goes on there with a newbie author. There has been a lot cleaned up but it’s not all the way clean yet.

I know quite a few businesses and blog tour companies that use Goodreads in their marketing plans in how they shelve books, utilize lists, and post reviews there. Authors and publishers do giveaways with ARCs there in hopes of reviews. They censor their connections so none of this crap happens to them or their clients.

As for me, I only respond to private messages on GR. I shelve books for my company for clients. I list books I would like to personally read and rate and review books that I did read. For author tasks I do the occasional giveaway and list the books there and upload the epub. I censor and respond to friend requests.

There is tremendous potential for the site, but staying clear from the minefield is key. The minefield seems to be with the interaction on the site in the forums and some group discussions. If you don’t know, then steer clear. Never, ever comment on a review on the GR site definitely if it’s negative. There are still some legit negative reviews there, but there are quite a few shill negative reviews. There are some questionable positive ones as well. Some reviews attack the author and have nothing to do with why the reader didn’t like a book. If a reader says the main character is stupid, that’s fine, but not so if the reader says the author is stupid. A negative review saying the formatting is terrible or the editing has a lot to be desired is okay, but it’s not okay to say the author’s face needs to be rearranged with a hammer. Get the idea? Find something that crosses the line? Flag them as inappropriate to the GR staff. Block people who attack you. Never engage.

You can find good readers and reviewers there to friend, but I would check their profile. Do their shelves have unfriendly names? What is in their reviews both positive and negative? What do they read? Are they in questionable groups? Is their review average very, very low? Do they have one star ratings (no reviews) on hundreds and hundreds of books (which they probably didn’t read)? Maybe even go to their site! There have been some top ranking people of Goodreads such as librarians and top reviewers that have done some of these things, so titles mean nothing! So check EVERYBODY out!

This could be advice for readers, reviewers, businesses, and authors alike. Know who you’re friending. Censor your connections. You don’t want to let a fox in the hen house do you?

The questionable people that are making the biggest stink are only a small percentage, but they do a lot of damage. They are known for causing so much trouble that people’s careers have ended, hazards to health, threats to person and property, and the list goes on. Books were even sunk before release because people wrote fraud bad reviews when the ARCs weren’t even sent out. It sucks to have to use street smarts on a book site, but if you have something to loose, then it’s prudent to do so. Stop by STGRB to ID known offenders or report some you know, so others can avoid them too. They’re here for everyone and the founders are reviewers, so it’s not all about authors.

It’s great to interact with readers, but it seems to be safer elsewhere like G+, Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook. GR has tools to find these people on Goodreads as well or you can find people from your book tour on Goodreads on their sites. They may invite you to their groups. That’s a safe way to build relationships there.

Have questions? Comments? A story to share? Leave them below!

New Author Resource: The Fussy Librarian

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The Fussy Librarian is a new free resource that helps pair readers and authors together. The program began around Sept 2013 and launched in Oct. It’s still a brand new, but it’s something worth checking out. This has the capacity to grow and become a very cool thing. It is noted that it is subject to change if it will remain free or not.

Readers and authors sign up for free. Readers tell them what their reading preferences are and authors put in what genre their books are plus a lot of other demographics.

However, it is noted that there are quality checks in place here. There are minimum requirements for rating and # of reviews. Authors: play fair and don’t cheat! It’s like Digital Book Today meets BookBub, but at the smaller stage and without the price tag.

I found out about this site on Twitter during the initial signup stage. It’s undergoing some growing pains and changes right now, but who doesn’t at start up?

Just like any site there is no guarantee of whose book will do better or if yours will do well. It’s a chance to be exposed to readers.

Check it out!

Guest Post: Should You Hire Someone to Run Your Social Media Campaign?

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Social media is a great way for authors to promote their writing, whether they are self-publishing or using a traditional publisher. Social media allows authors to connect with readers and promote their work to new readers. Authors can give readers a glimpse into the writing process, share sneak peeks of new works, and start conversations that can lead to long-term relationships.

You can either choose to run your own social media campaign for your work, or you can hire someone to do it for you. Here are the pros and cons of hiring someone to run your social media campaign to help you figure out what the right decision is for you:

Pros

Expert Advice

Creating a social media strategy can be more difficult than it sounds. You just post some updates and watch the followers flow in, right? Actually, it’s a lot more complicated than that. An expert can offer you advice on how to devise a social media strategy that works and can review the different options with you, giving you feedback on the benefits of each.

Faster Results

Hiring an expert can help you see results faster. Want more followers? Want more engagement with those followers? Want content that goes viral? A social media expert can give you those results much faster than you could accomplish them yourself — unless you get lucky or you just so happen to be a social media expert yourself.

More Time to Write

Keeping up with social media can be very time consuming, especially if you start to amass a large following. You have to manage posts, photos, comments from followers, attracting new followers, and more — and that’s for each social network on which you have a profile. Managing social media can easily take several hours each week. Hiring someone else to do it for you can free up your time for what’s really important: Writing.

Cons

No Personalization

The major drawback of hiring someone else to manage your social media campaign is that you are taking yourself out of the equation. People connect on social media to be social. With you. If someone else is scheduling your posts or responding to comments, they are likely to adopt a formal and impersonal tone, which can alienate your followers. If they try to imitate you, they can do a poor job and make interactions with followers awkward.

Expense

Hiring someone else to manage your social media can be quite expensive. Even the “budget” options can cost you a couple hundred dollars a month. Typical expenses can top over $1,000 a month. Unless you’re a big-name author who is selling a lot of books, it’s unlikely that you can afford such an expense.

Social media offers a number of benefits for authors, including creating buzz around their writing and establishing connections with readers. Hiring someone else to manage your social media could help you grow your influence more quickly. This list of pros and cons can help you decide if hiring someone to run your social media is the best option for you.

Did you hire someone else to run your social media campaign for you? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments!

About the Author

Sarah Rexman is the main researcher and writer for bedbugs.org. Her most recent accomplishment includes graduating from Florida State, with a degree in environmental science.  Her current focus for the site involves researching online guides.

Don’t be a Social Media Commercial

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tv commercials

Rachel Thompson, several others, and I have spoken a little about the prevalence of spam in social media, discussion forums, and everywhere in between. It’s not just authors doing it, but that is the community we reside in so that is what we mainly see, and this blog is for authors–especially for the new and aspiring ones.

Newbies are more inclined to spam because that’s what everyone else is doing, or they have been given wrong information.

Today I want to write about the same ol’, same ol’ in a new perspective. Instead of talking about that funky canned meat; I will write about this in a new perspective for 2 reasons:

  1. It is a new flavor for an old idea
  2. It is an expansion of a section for my upcoming book that this blog is built around: The Newbie Author’s Survival Guide

This section and this post has it’s foundations on ideas I have learned from Rachel Thompson with the ratio of promotional stuff to content stuff. Rachel puts more emphasis on Twitter since that is where she is 98% of the time, but this can be applied everywhere: Facebook, Google+, your blog…

Anyway, promotional stuff is basically centered around your or someone else’s (if you cross promote others) book stuff (since this is mostly for authors) or other secondary services that are offered. Or, it can be liking your Facebook page, friending on Goodreads, or some other type of social media activity. Most of the time it can be summed up as something that can lead outside of somewhere to something promotional or to a book or service.

Content is the fun stuff (most of the time without links) unless you are sharing someone else’s content from their blog or an article. This is the stuff that entertains, teaches, or informs your connections.

The general rule is to have more content than promo. 2 content for every 1 promo is the minimum. Even more content is better. Am I perfect? No. I try to be as entertaining and helpful as I can. Some days may be more linky than others, but that depends. I try to “bank” some content on non-promo days if some big promo thing will be going on. Topic for later?

Promo = TV Commercials

Liken your social media stream(s) and blog posts to TV if you will. Everyone has their favorite shows or a movie they like to watch, right (when it comes on a different channel than HBO)? Your content is basically like that said TV show or movie for the people who like to read your posts, tweets, etc. Promo is the commercials just like those on the TV or the radio. Doesn’t everyone hate it when the movie or TV program stops for commercials and have to wait for the movie/program to come back on?

You should be nodding. Unless, of course, you want to have a break to grab a snack or make a mad dash to the bathroom before the movie comes on!

Some channels seem to “love their commercials”. The last hour of the movie or the last few minutes of the program seems to have more commercial interruptions on certain channels–when there wasn’t enough commercials during the other part of the program… Annoying huh? What do we do? We record the movie or program with TiVo or a cassette (if you still have a VCR) or DVD to skip the commercials or we skip the channel unless there is nothing else on or that movie is not on any other channel or not in the “movie drawer”.

Other channels, on the other hand, seem to have “the right amount” to where it is not annoying, but still have commercials. The movie channels have commercials in between movies as “filler” with none during. These channels are the ones that are watched most of the time, right? You see what’s on these before the former channel example, right? That’s what you want to be!

The Superbowl: The Epitome of Commercial Coolness

During the Superbowl is probably the only time that I know of when people enjoy the commercials as much as the game. They actually want to see what comes out and these are the commercials everybody talks about. They talk about these just as much as what the cool/dumb things their favorite teams do during the game. What comes back to the via the “viral word of  mouth” is what is repeated after the weekend on other channels for a set period of time.

You can make your promo just as cool and as entertaining as the Superbowl commercials. People talk about your promo as much as your content or stuff you find to share for content.

There isn’t a TV channel that exists today that has Superbowl-grade coolness commercials at the right amount with the best programming (at least in my opinion). Movie theaters and DVD’s seem to be close here.

That’s what my goal is to be.

Now there is no formula or order of operations to become this. It takes time, and it takes experimentation. It takes feedback from your followers and other people, research, and observation. That’s how the Superbowl found the “right ingredients”.

I’m still experimenting–I’m still pretty much a newbie author with a little bit of age on her. I am nowhere near “veteran” stage. Still finding my way.

Keep Social Media Social

Now social media is still to be social, so interact with others when they try to interact with you! The digital age has made it possible for fans to interact with their ‘entertainment’ to some extent. This is another general rule to keep a cap on the promo. Sharing a bit about life (only as personal as you want others to see) is another form of content and creates interaction. It makes you a person rather than an intangible “commercial” (if all that is posted is promo).

Life is not a commercial, so I don’t know why some folks behave this way. It’s a little strange. Will likening promo to commercials help? Won’t know unless people tell me 😉

So to keep people coming back to your channel tone down the promo, turn up the content, and work on making everything cool!

Comments or Questions? Like to hear them! 🙂

Write It And They Will Come…NOT!

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I would like to welcome JP Thompson yet again for another informative, fantastic post!  If you have heard the before Field of Dreams adage, you’re hearing about it again, but in a whole new way! Enjoy!


If you are thinking that a bunch of ghosts of famous writers are going to show up on your site, and droves of readers are going to flock to see them to help promote your book…that’s not going to happen. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

If you search on Google for let’s say “romance novels,” it will return over 38 million results. There are about 10 results showing per page . . . well, let’s just say you are a penguin in a sea of penguins.

Let’s quickly do a reality check.

  • Google research indicates that there are approximately 130 million published books.
  • Amazon has approximately 1.7 million titles listed. Type in “romance novels” at Amazon/books and it will return approximately 38K results.
  • 2011: about 3 million books published.
  • 2012: is estimated to hit about 12 million books published.
  • Alison Flood of the Guardian points out that a DIY study suggests that self-published authors make less than $500.00.

The hard reality . . . books are easy to find; buyers are not.

If you are interested in selling your book, it’s now time to take off your author hat. You need to think like a marketer. You now need buyers…so, how do you get buyers?

  1. First and foremost is EXPOSURE
  2. ENGAGE your potential buyer
    1. Offer them interesting or helpful content

GOT FANS? Sometimes we are our own worst enemy when it comes to selling. I know; I am a master sales trainer of 34 years. What I hear from authors:

I don’t blog.

I’ll never guest post.

I don’t know what to blog about.

My book is not selling; can you recommend a top agent for me in NYC?

I will advertise when book sales are better.

I am too old to use twitter.

I hate Facebook.

I don’t want people to find me.

I won’t sell a book on twitter.

“Hello, McFly!” Where do you think your buyers are going to come from?

    • A search on Google? You’re 1 in 38M!
    • A search on Amazon? You’re 1 in 38K!

Get active! It’s all about getting your book or yourself out there as an author so potential buyers see you and what you write. There is a reason approximately $80B was spent last year on business to consumer advertising. EXPOSURE!

Here are 10 things you can do right NOW to EXPOSE YOURSELF:

  1. Create a blog

70% of the millions of people surveyed buy due to reading a blog.

50% of those people read a blog once daily.

  • Then drive traffic to your blog:
      • Get Reviews
      • Guest Blogging
      • Twitter
      • Face Book Fan Page
      • Google +1
      • Pintest
      • LinkedIn
      • GoodReads
      • YouTube Video
      • Use a book promo service
      • Advertise
  1. Create a book webpage
    1. Create a book website with a blog (e.g., humanbodydetectives.com)
    2. Create a blog with a link to a book webpage (e.g., rachelintheoc.com)
    3. Make the book webpage visually interesting and enticing
  1. Be sure to have a buying page or a link to where they can buy your book on your blog and book webpage with a strong call to action.
  1. Set up a Facebook fan page
  1. Set up a Twitter account
    1. You can tweet about your blog posts or book subject matter (just learn how to use the site properly so you don’t spam or self-promo exclusively).
  1. Reviews: Get beta readers to read your book.

Visit badredhedmedia.com for more information

  • Minimum of 10 reviews
  • Minimum 25 likes
  1. Set up a Google+1 account, LinkedIn account, GoodReads, and Pintrest account
  1. Set up a YouTube account.
    1. Create a video
    1. You can also advertise your video on YouTube for as little as $.01 per view
  1. Use a service to promote your book
    1. BadRedHeadMedia.com
    2. BookBuzzr.com
    3. IndieBookPromo.com
  1. Advertise
    1. Use AdWords (Google)
    2. or AdCentral (Bing and Yahoo)

Until next week, expose yourself!
J.P. Thompson

theadwordsguy.com

Also, visit my blog on selling at Salescafe

The Secret of Selecting Keywords Revisited

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NAG is happy to welcome back JP Thompson, aka the Adwords Guy back! JP has shared several posts with us about Google AdWords, and is back to share some more information. JP would love to help you with your AdWords Campaign. Please find his contact information at the end of this post!

For your final preparation before running off and setting up your AdWords campaign I wanted to revisit your keyword phrases you developed from the earlier post on The Secret of Selecting Keywords for AdWords.

When you finally setup your campaign, one of the final activities will be to choose and enter your keywords and phrases for your ad. Beyond that you will need to decide what search criteria (keywords and phrases) will actually trigger your ad. Not all search criteria are created equal!

The key question is:

How closely do you want a potential buyer’s search criteria to match your keyword phrase in order to trigger your ad?

This can be a challenging task. So, it is a good idea to think about it now. You will have a choice of the type of search criteria that could trigger your ad. You will need to decide if you want a “broad match,” “broad match with modifier,” “phrase match,” “exact match,” and/or a “negative match” for each keyword phrase. To keep it simple, below is an example of a term and the different types of attributes you can add to your keyword phrase to determine when a search term will trigger your ad to show. Keep in mind that as you move down the list, although you are using the same keyword phrase you narrow and make more specific as to what type of search criteria can trigger your ad to show.

For example: If you ad the keyword phrase:

Humorous Books

This is a broad match. Your ad can be triggered by synonyms or a search related to humorous books: E.g., Humorous books, funny stories, jokes funny stories, motivational stories, funny books, fun books.

+Humorous +Books – use of the +

This is a broad match with a modifier. Your ad can be triggered by close variants in any order of the words humorous books, just has to have those two words or variants of those two words in the search criteria. E.g., humorous books, best humorous 2012 books, humorous joke books, books on humor and jokes.

“Humorous Books” – use of “ ”

This is a phrase match. Your ad can be triggered by a search with the phrase humorous books in it. That means any term can come before or after this phrase. Will include close variant of each keyword. E.g., humorous books, jokes humorous books, motivational humorous books, humorous books of 2012, award winning humorous book.

(Humorous Books) – use of ( )

This is an exact match. Your ad can be triggered by an exact match for humorous books in it but will not show if someone adds words before or after the phrase. It will include close variant of each word. E.g., humorous books, humor books, humorous book.

Humorous Books – Jokes – use of the –

This is a negative keyword. Your ad will not be triggered if your keyword phrase is accompanied by the negative term in the search criteria. E.g., Humorous joke books, books on humor and jokes. This is very specific to the search criteria of humorous books.

There is an option to add a negative keyword globally. So, anytime that negative keyword is used with any of your keywords your ad will not be shown.

Typically if I use a broad match on a keyword, after a week I will check the “key word details” to see what the actual search criteria was that triggered the ad and received clicks. It can help to determine if there are any negative keywords that need adding or change a broad match to a more specific type of match. Also, it could give you additional keywords to use that you may not have thought to use and can add to your keyword list. The cons to this approach is that you can get a lot of non-target clicks and too specific search criteria can minimize your ad showing and a loss of potential targeted clicks.

So, it is a real art to managing your keyword phrases. You should review the “key word details” regularly and adjust keyword phrases accordingly to help you to manage and maximize your Clicks, Click Through Rate (CTR), and Cost Per Click (CPC) for your ad campaign.

You can also have a combination of the different types of matching options. Some of your keyword phrases might be broad matches where as others may be phrase matches and so forth. You decide.

This week, go through your keyword phrases and determine what type of matching option you want for each of your keyword phrases. Also, think about potential negative key words you might want to add. To make insertion into AdWords easy, I like to list them in note pad or textedit. Then just do a copy and paste when setting up the ad. Also, you can use an Excel Spread sheet and import the list to AdWords.

Next week, the campaign!

J.P. Thompson

theadwordsguy.com

 

Also, visit my blog on selling at Salescafe.

AdWords, as simple as 1-2-3. Get your ad campaign going in minutes! J.P. the AdWords Guy can help you with a task that will seem like you are in a cognitive learning experiment. If you are looking to GET EXPOSED fast and drive traffic to your Amazon page or book web site, J.P. the AdWords Guy can help you. Call, NOW!

949-431-3841

Manage Flitter Magic

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manage flitter

Is your Twitter account a little bit cluttered? Have you hit the “2000 barrier” and can’t follow new tweeps back until you drop the dead-weight to make room? Ever wonder who you are following who are not tweeting, not following you back, etc?

There’s hope and it’s called Manage Flitter.

What is Manage Flitter?

Manage Flitter is an app (application) that is specifically designed for Twitter housekeeping of this sort. It helps you find you eggs (no profile pic), nofollowbacks, ne’retweeters, and more, but the prior three are just enough to keep you Twitter account tidy.

It’s easy to use and its FREE!

I first heard of Manage Flitter from Rachel Thompson in a book she co-authored called Dollars and Sense. Since it is free after all I decided to try it out. She readily recommends this so I second her recommendation on this app because I use it. It reduces the amount of work you have to do by going through thousands and thousands of tweeps and looking at their timelines and trying to decipher if they are following you back or not.

You can be done with this work in as little as a few clicks and a few  seconds if you keep it up weekly (Rachel’s recommendation) and are not choosy on who you want to keep (i.e. book reviewers, celebrities, mainstream publishers, etc). Totally up to you.

How to Use Manage Flitter

  1. Go to Manage Flitter. Want to go now? Click Here
  2. Log in with your Twitter information. Note: Manage Flitter is a secure site so no one will hack you, and it doesn’t save your information.
  3. You will go to the Twitter “Authorize App” page and click the button to authorize it.
  4. It will go back to Manage Flitter and it will take a few seconds to go through your tweeps. Once you go to the dashboard you are ready to go.
  5. Go to each tab you wish to go and either select all or check the tweeps you want to unfollow and click the unfollow button.
  6. If you want to select all, but wish to keep your “popular” or “verified” you can keep them by clicking on the appropriate button and they will be unselected.
  7. Voila! You’re done! Just come back when you need to do more Twitter-keeping!

Note: Manage Flitter has a function to tweet how many tweeps you unfollowed or tweet out who used the app to unfollow you, etc.  I don’t know why they have this. DO NOT DO THIS!!!!! You will be come a Twitter jerk (can’t say douche; Rachel took that one :P) and no one will want to be your friend. It won’t work out the way you think it will.

It is 100% guaranteed to blow up in your face. The person who unfollowed you may follow you back later. They won’t if you nark on them in this way. Don’t make their mind up for them! It’s just Twitter.  It isn’t like they told the whole world your most personal secret and then dumped you!

Goodreads

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goodreads

Goodreads is the largest book social media site. It has many more features and author activities than Shelfari and Librarything. When something new comes out they are usually the first to implement it. For example, when Google+ and Pinterest came along Goodreads added +1 and “Pin It” buttons to book pages so authors and other people can share books on these new social media platforms!

For more tricks and tips you can visit Novel Publicity and read their Goodreads series in the Jan and Feb 2012 archives.

Achieving Author Status on Goodreads

Getting Author status on Goodreads works much the same way as it does on Librarything. First you find one of your books and click on the author name. Goodreads will ask you “if this is you” and then you click yes. A questionnaire will come up and ask a couple questions. If you use a pen name as your author name, you can explain that in the space provided. After you are done, then you submit the questionnaire for approval by Goodreads staff. They will contact you by email when you are approved. They tell you up to 48 hours in the worst case scenario, but they usually approve status much faster. You don’t have to log into your account to see the message like you do on Librarything. They will recommend for you to go to your “Author Dashboard” to begin doing your promotional activities. Notifications and messages from Goodreads will then be written to your author name instead of your real name if it is different.

The Author Dashboard

The author dashboard works much like the dashboard function on a blog. You have access to all of your author activities in one nifty place. Librarything and Shelfari do not have this function so getting to all your author stuff can take a little bit more time and leg work. The dashboard also displays your book(s) and the ratings, reviews, and number of people who have added it to their “to be read” (TBR) list or other lists. There is a “visit your dashboard” link to take you directly to your author stuff including your author statistics (stats) which include: ratings, reviews, and additions by other people for your book(s), books you have read and reviews, how many books you added to your shelf, number of friends, etc.

The Author Activities and Functions

There are many similarities of activities on Goodreads that are like those on Librarything, but Goodreads offers much more. Here is a list of them with the headings and names given on Goodreads. If you ever want to change something, you can. Just like everywhere else, nothing is permanent.

Your Blog 

You can create a new blog here or add the feed to an existing blog. On setup you are asked which you would prefer. Adding the feed to an existing blog helps with traffic and visibility to your blog, especially if it is unique, interesting, and serves as a home base for your books. This also alleviates the stress of trying to keep up with multiple blogs. As your visibility on Goodreads improves, so does your blog traffic. People will have links to see the post and comment from Goodreads. Goodreads also shows how many views you have for each post. Goodreads also displays how many fans you have for your blog and how many posts you have made on your blog.

Advertise you Book

You are basically putting up a paid ad just like the ones on Facebook. You can control how long you want it to run and your budget just like Facebook ads. Goodreads uses it word of mouth efforts to raise awareness for you.

Giveaways 

Giveaways work much the same way as the Early Reviewer program on Librarything; it is not like the Member Giveaway Program. On Goodreads giveaways are for print editions only and not for ebooks. This is a great way to spread the word and create awareness for a newly released book. You can also give away an older book than six months after publication, but you will not be able to include the publication date. It is not mandatory information. Goodreads determines who gets the books just like on Librarything. You are responsible for the fulfillment. Note: Goodreads serves a worldwide audience. If you would rather send your print books only in theUS, you have the option to do so. International shipping is costly, so keep that in mind when you set up the giveaway. You also set up how many to give away and the length of time the contest lasts just like Librarything.

When setting up the giveaway you are required to include a description. Don’t put your full synopsis here. Build intrigue by putting review blurbs if you have them. Indicate you are giving away an autographed copy. Do include a short version of the synopsis so people know what the book is about at the end. Indicating age range does help target the giveaway. Tags are also required in the tag space and they help target the appropriate readers.You can also upload a sample excerpt or an entire ebook for someone to download. If you are selling an ebook version you must include an excerpt. This can help out tremendously with entries or peeking interest. After setup Goodreads will do the rest until it is time to mail off the books!

When the giveaway is complete you will need to log back in and click on the giveaway that just ended. You will find a button that asks “sent books to the winners”. Click on it. It will ask “Are you sure” and click “yes”. This lets Goodreads know you have fulfilled the giveaway.

You will have to schedule an outside event or join a group for ebook giveaways on Goodreads since the main giveaway features print books only.

Ebooks 

Goodreads allows you to upload your ePUB or PDF ebook. MOBI (kindle) is a free standing edition on its own, so it should be included on your author profile with your books. If it is not, then you can add it manually or contact Goodreads staff. When you upload your ePUB ebook, you have a variety of options. You can offer it for free so someone could read it from their browser or Goodreads app (application). You can give the reader the option of either buying or reading it on the browser or Goodreads app. Finally, you can offer it for sale on Goodreads.

Note: you can only sell the ePUB version only. PDF is only available for freebies or excerpts only.

You determine the percentage of the book the reader can read for free for a teaser. Goodreads does take a small percentage of the sale which is about 20%, but that’s only fair since you are using their site to post your book like Amazon. You can get your royalty delivered as a check, paid to Paypal, or both. Goodreads will include you ebook with your other editions where the person can click on it and it will be listed in the Goodreads ebook catalogue based on genre, age group, and tags you provide.

Facebook Fanpage Wall Tab

Goodreads offers this feature for your fans to have access to your Goodreads information. First of all, you must create a Facebook fanpage for your book(s). Follow the step by step information on how to put it up. If you succeed it should be included among your application section on your timeline. It used to be located on the left hand side when we had the “wall” set up.

Widgets 

In addition to the Facebook wall tab, Goodreads also has a variety of widgets to put on your book/author website or blog. They have different appearances much like the Twitter and Facebook widgets, and they work much the same way. Pick out the widget(s) you want and copy the code and paste it to embed it. Follow the instructions you normally follow to embed code and putting up widgets as blog programs and websites have different prompts to put up widgets. Widgets can give people direct access to your books on Goodreads, your author information, or to add you book on Goodreads by clicking on the widget on your website or blog without logging in.

You also have badges to embed on your blog or website when you have a giveaway.

Quizzes 

This is a fun and effective way to raise awareness about your book. This comes as a recommendation from Goodreads when they send you the letter of approval for author status. Making quizzes is not just for authors only; readers and fans can make one too. For a new book it would be up to the author. The quiz is set up in a multiple choice format. The quiz can be up any number of questions, but the default is 10. You create the question and the right and wrong answers. You have to designate which answer is correct. You create tags and you determine that you created the quiz and for which book. You can use the linking function to post a picture link of you and the book where a person can access your book. Doing this also helps the quiz find its way to your author dashboard with the book that it belongs to for easy finding.

Question and Answer Discussions

You can set up a question and answer discussions to introduce yourself and your books. You can invite your friends to the discussion. Goodreads also uses its word of mouth tools to spread the word about it. The discussion will show up in your author profile for people to see.

Interviews and Placement in Goodreads Monthly Newsletter

You must contact Goodreads staff in order to do these. Instructions for these are in the frequently asked questions (FAQ) section or “help” option on the drop down arrow beside your username. They usually respond to the inquiry, but you are not guaranteed a spot since they have many, many requests for these. They do assure you that they read your request even if they don’t respond right away. Remember many authors are competing for limited space, so don’t be discouraged if you don’t get one immediately or at all. Always try again later since it’s harder for new authors to get a spot.

Premium Author Status

This is presently something in the works on Goodreads. This would be a paid level for a small monthly or yearly fee. Author status now is free and the existing author status will remain free. Goodreads is presently asking existing and incoming authors about this, and no one knows when they will implement this. When this is finalized, ads may come standard without any additional costs and VIP treatment and additional perks. The questionnaire about author feedback for this is accessed in the Author Dashboard, and this would be where the upgrade option would be located once it’s launched.

Normal User Activities 

Discussions, adding books, groups, etc is all the same here as it is with Shelfari and Librarything. Goodreads has tons more apps (applications) for its users than Librarything and Shelfari for ereaders, social media, etc. However, finding the new content for your discussions after your last visit or post is much easier here than elsewhere. It is set up with many of the same functions as forum discussions on Amazon  the number of new posts are shown in red beside the discussion title. Click on the red “# new” and it will take you to the new content. New posts have a red “new” beside the person’s name, and you also have the option of reading the new posts from your email.

Build Your User Profile Page

Put your picture, favorite books and user information here. You may have to make some edits when you are given author status if you didn’t write it that way to begin with in addition to your author profile page. Add your friends using the functions to find people on Goodreads who are also in your Facebook, email, and Twitter accounts and send them a friend request. You will be surprised how many people are on Goodreads.

Connect your Goodreads Account to Twitter and Facebook

Follow the step by step instructions to do this. When you do something on Goodreads or if someone reviews your work a tweet/status update post will appear with links or if you review a book or add it to your shelf. Fans and followers will know what you’re doing, and friends get notifications of your activities. Authors have a general user profile and an author profile to edit and add information. Everything is tabbed for easy finding and control off all your apps (applications) and settings. There are too many to mention here. Your author and general user information are all put together under one account.

Connecting Book Crossing to Goodreads 

When you set up your user account on Book Crossing you can connect it to your Goodreads account in much the same way as you connect something to Twitter. When you register your book(s) here, then the Goodreads community knows when it is “caught” by someone and when it moves again somewhere in the world by Book Crossing’s unique system. This is not an author only function since readers can get an account on Book Crossing and connect it to their Goodreads account.

Linking Functions

Linking functions work much the same way as the Amazon product links, but on Goodreads there are more options. On the post there is a link to take you to the book/author link function posts a picture or link of a particular book or author that takes them to the information. For you own books you may have one or more editions so double check to be sure it is the edition you want. All you editions will be listed in the dialogue box when the function is open. There is a tab for “book” and a tab for “author” and a bubble to click to choose “link” or “book cover/photo”. Once you click on the post button, then the code will appear where the cursor is. Once the post is made then the link or picture will display. Note: do you own book where it is appropriate (see below).

Sharing Functions 

The book pages for your and every one else’s book has sharing buttons for Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and Pinterest. Google and Pinterest are new. Just click on the desired button and follow the prompts to pin it on your board, tweet, or whatever the case may be.

You can also share your activity with friends when you review something, add a book to your shelf, etc. To Facebook or Twitter. Reviews can even be linked to your blog.

Taboo List for Goodreads

As there are so many things to do on Goodreads, there are things not to do. It is pretty much the same rules and regulations as on Librarything with the same penalties: getting kicked off or loosing author status. They give you the “Guidelines” at signup and there is a link to the guidelines on the Author Dashboard. If you do something and not realizing you’re doing something, Goodreads will flag a warning as a reminder and stop you before you do so in error. If you don’t proceed you’ll be fine, if you proceed despite the warning, then you are going to be penalized. Here is the list:

  • Recommending you book. You can’t do this at all with the “recommend” button. You can recommend other people’s books all day long with this function, but not your own at all. In appropriate  places to recommend books you must use the linking function (above) in a post.
  • Spamming people by sending your friends an ad email. If a friend does ask for a link or information, that’s fine. Don’t do a “blast” to all of them. That is also very irritating to your friends and damages your reputation. Nobody wants to be friends with a car salesman.
  • Plugging the book where it doesn’t belong. There are places for that here just like on Librarything and groups where that is appropriate: i.e. the Indie Book Collective, but there are many others too. Goodreads points you in the right direction.
  • Hijacking discussions. Don’t do this; this is rude. Amazon also has had to do things to enforce policies for this same thing and readers are griping everywhere where authors have hijacked and plugged their memoir in a fantasy forum discussion for example. Goodreads doesn’t tolerate it at all, and Amazon is still much more lenient. You can participate in the discussion, but don’t do a “drive by advertisement”, even if the book is similar. This is also rude and annoying. Don’t plug your book in a Harry Potter discussion even if you like Harry Potter and your book is similar to it. Just go there and talk about Harry Potter and if Harry Potter had any influence on you as an author. This issue may be inappropriate even in the Indie Book Collective. Some threads are conversational, so don’t plug the book, or theIBCcould ask you to leave or kick you out.  TheIBChas designated discussions for that too.

As long as you play by the rules, you’ll be just fine. Goodreads has so many things authors to do to share their books; there is no need for unethical behavior!

That’s a wrap for the “Big 3” book sites, but not for the series. I still have one more post for a helpful blog that helps spread awareness for your books. Tune in next week!

Librarything

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librarything

Librarything is another one of the three biggest book social  media sites. This is one of the bigger reader hot spots that provide authors with means to connect with readers and share their books with them and engage. Librarything has activities and tools than Shelfari, but it falls second to Goodreads.

How to Get Author Status on Librarything

  1. After you create your general account, try to find your book or one of your books by using the “find books” function.
  2. Once you find your book click on your name or pen name. After you click on the name, Libarything will ask “is this you?”
  3. Click yes and then your request for author status will be sent to Librarything staff for approval.
  4. Log in within a day or two to see if your request was approved. Once you are approved, you can begin building your author page and engaging in author activities.

Building Your LibraryThing Page

Building your page consists of putting books on your shelf, filling in your author information, and adding a photo. You may also put links to your website, blog, social media, and interviews. There is no limit to your number of links. Any function or group you are a member of will also display on your page. Your author page has several tabs of information about you that others can access as well. The home page keeps you in tune with what’s new on Librarything in general.

Author Activities

  • Author chat or interview. For established authors who have a big base, an author can participate in an author chat. This is not real-time, so the author can participate whenever, but don’t stay away too long. Newer or lesser-known authors can sign up for an interview instead. You start a new discussion thread with “Interview wanted with your name, genre”. The message will contain more information, but Librarything gives you all the information to include in the signup process. You’ll be contacted on your Librarything mail when someone wants to do the interview.
  • Early Review Program. You can sign up to be a reviewer or to give away ARCs (Advance Reader Copies) or books in the first six months of release. You must first enroll in the program to be able to participate. Once you register your book, Librarything will decide who will receive your books, but you are responsible for fulfilling the book orders. They will not send the books for you. Librarything checks that you take care of fulfillment and that the reviewers do their job.
  • Member Giveaway Program. To give away books you must sign up and have one of three credentials. Being a Librarything Author is one.  You can give away physical copies or eBooks. You also determine how long you want to run the giveaway and how many are given away. People will request your book if they are interested. After the giveaway term ends, Librarything will determine the winners and contact you. They will give you the winner’s information for delivery. Again, you are responsible for the fulfillment. You are also asked not to do anything with the person’s contact information except to deliver the book. You can request for the winner to post a review, but they are not required to do so.
  • Extras. Fill out extras about yourself and your books. This is a nifty way to add more information about you and your books to share with the community and build intrigue. It works the same way as it does for Shelfari.
  • The normal stuff. Groups, forums, and discussions are all the same here. Participate in the ones that interest you. Make friends and be friendly. Putting up your books helps people learn about you and looks good to the community. Put up your favorites and books about hobbies. You can put your own reviews up for your own books, but you must specify you wrote it by saying “posted by author”. Finding friends is pretty easy since they have a “friend finder” tool where you can see if any of your friends from Twitter, Facebook, etc are members.

Do Not Do On LibraryThing:

The same basic rules apply for Librarything as they do for Shelfari and other forums.

  • Recommend your own book at all.
  • Hijack discussions.
  • Spam people.
  • Plug your book where it doesn’t belong.

Librarything makes it clear in its TOS (Terms of Service). If you do any of these things, your author status will be revoked and you may be kicked off the site. They have a lot of author activities and they have places and discussions where it is okay to promote your book. Librarything will point you in the right direction, so ask or look around. The people there are friendly and eager to help you with any questions you may have. They encourage you to contact them with questions, and help is not far away.

Next week we will explore Goodreads and all of its cool features and glory!

Shelfari

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shelfari

This next series of posts will be about helpful book-related social media sites that I have come across that are helpful to your online platform. These are the big 3 book sites plus another blog I found to be helpful. I will start out with Shelfari since it is the simplest to explain.

What is Shelfari?

Shelfari is Amazon’s community for readers and authors that works much like Goodreads and Librarything where people can put up a virtual bookshelf and declare author status. Authors can put extras about their books that will display on their book listing on Amazon.com. It is separate from the discussion forums that are on Amazon.com itself. So, in summary, Amazon has created a binomial community here that readers and authors can come together and talk books and share information and connect.

BEWARE!: Amazon has cracked down on “shameless self promotion” in its discussion forums in 2011 since so many people complained about it. Authors did abuse this, and I did see it for myself. It’s not a good idea to spam and plug your book where it is not welcome. Authors (or their agents or publishers) posted the same message over and over or plugged a romance novel in a sci-fi forum. Not cool! 🙁 That is obvious spamming and breaks the rules of proper forum etiquette (a later topic) and goes against Amazon’s terms of service (TOS). Amazon has an author forum on it’s parent site, and there are book clubs on Shelfari. Be sure to follow the rules of the book clubs to the letter. Don’t give people a reason to complain or risk being removed or loose your social media privileges! The worst case scenario you would be banned from Amazon and their sites completely! Remember: Social media is a privilege, not a right!

How to Get Author Status on Shelfari

On Shelfari you can upgrade your account to an author account. Here’s how:

  1. First of all you must create an Amazon author webpage and a Shelfari account. I’ll talk about how to set up an AuthorCentral on Thurs. The other three sites will be on the regular Monday post.
  2. Once you create your webpage, you can visit your Shelfari page by clicking on the “books” link to display your books. Click on the book’s title and go to the “book extras” tab and click on “Visit Shelfari”.
  3. Log into Shelfari using your AuthorCentral username and password and begin adding information on your book(s). Shelfari and AuthorCentral both use your Amazon.com username and password

Things to Do on Shelfari 

Add information to your books. Adding information to your books helps solidify your author status and makes your profile more attractive to Shelfari readers. You can add character descriptions, settings, themes and symbolism, etc. You can include as much information as you want. This is good since this will be displayed on Amazon.com with your book’s listing!

Find and participate in groups and discussions. Find ones that interest you. If you find friends on Shelfari you may be invited to some of these discussions and forums. Some discussions are RPG  (Role Playing Game) where people “role play” just like it is done in real life. You have to follow the rules and participate, but if you lack the time or understand the rules it’s best not to join. You can choose to be alerted when new content is put up so you don’t miss something.

Put your book(s) on your shelf. This helps people see your books. You can post a review some one else had written and cite them, or write your own. If you write a review of your own book, please put “written by author.” You can mention in your review that it is based on feedback and standing reviews on Amazon. I would post my own after I had some reviews on Amazon to back it up. If you post a review written by someone else you can say “written by John Doe and posted by the author”. If John Doe’s review is also on Amazon, say so, and/or give a link.

Put your favorite books on your shelf. This helps round out your personality on Shelfari. People can see what you are like as a person. Put your favorite novels by others or any books related to any hobbies you may have. You can put your books as “to read” or “read” or “reading now.”

Find friends. You can find other authors or friends by participating. From your email list and social media platforms, you can find more friends through the “Find Friends” feature. You can follow them and/or be their friend there.

Things NOT to Do on Shelfari

Spam. Do not send people messages to advertise your book unless someone asks questions about it. When answering the questions, do not sound like an advertisement. An impersonal approach will do you more harm than good and turn people off.

Hijack a discussion. Plugging your book in a random discussion will give you a bad reputation. Only do this where it is appropriate. There can be some discussions and forums where authors have gotten together to talk about their books to each other, bloggers want books to review, or reviewers who want books.

Recommend your own book all the time. Shelfari is more lenient on this than Goodreads or Librarything, but I would not take chances, especially since Amazon has cracked down on “shameless self promotion” on its sites. This can be bad for your reputation as well or could get your author status revoked if too many people complain.

Shelfari is a straightforward and innovative way to lead people to your platform and help make your book visible to the Shefari community and add pizzazz to your Amazon.com listing!