Shawn P. B. Robinson

It’s time to explore Goodreads!  Goodreads is big. Big for readers. Big for authors.

Goodreads is owned by Amazon, and it’s kind of like a social networking site, just for books. Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re wondering why books would need a social networking site. Don’t they get enough contact with other books at libraries? Aren’t we going a little overboard when we try to provide opportunities for our books to connect up online?

Good point. I concede the argument.

There is, however, also a benefit to people when it comes to Goodreads. It functions as a place for readers to connect up over the topic of which books they like, and it allows them the opportunity to contact and interact directly with authors. As an author, this obviously means you have a forum through which you can interact with your readers. Goodreads is a place where people can ask you, the author, questions about your book or about you personally. You might get questions like, “how do you get through writer’s block?” or “where did you get the idea for your latest book?”

You can also, through Goodreads, do book give-a-ways and more. This can be a fun part of the marketing and promotion work for your book.

So, you have a book. How do you get to be recognized as the author of that book on Goodreads?  How do you set up your author profile?

I’m glad you asked. That’s what this blog is about.

When your book goes up for sale or it goes up for pre-sale, it’ll likely take a while (perhaps days) before it gets into the Goodreads system. Once it’s in their system, you can claim your author profile and start interacting with your readers.

Here’s what you do:

Go to Goodreads and set up an account. Once you’re set up, do a search for your book. If you’re not sure what your book is called, I think you might be defeated before you’ve really gotten started. Assuming you know your book title, search for it and click on the title. This should take you to your book’s page. There is a place there for people to give reviews, links for people to buy your book as well as the other stuff (cover picture, description, isbn, etc.).

Look for the name of the author of the book (presumably your name) and click it. Since you haven’t claimed your author profile yet, the author info won’t have much detail listed. Scroll down a little ways and look for a line of text that says,
“Is this you? Let us know. If not, help out and….”

This line of text is likely going to be in a very small font so don’t be surprised if you miss it the first time around. It also seems to only show up on the desktop version of the page so if you’re looking for this on your phone, choose the desktop version.

Click, “Let us know” and Goodreads will lead you through a very short process where you give them some information (such as your email) and they do some research to confirm that you are, in fact, the author.

When I set up my author page, my book was still for presale, but they were able to recognize me as the author, and they set me up to interact with my readers.

After I set my author page up with Goodreads, I received an email within about a day to say I had been approved and recognized as the author of the book.

So there you have it! Your books can now get the social interaction with other books that they so desperately need.

Make sure you also check out:
1. How to Set up a Facebook Author Page
2. How to Set up a Goodreads Author Page
3. How to Set up an Amazon Author Page

Shawn