Getting the Good out of Goodreads: Six Methods to get Your Novel Noticed

By: Heather Day Gilbert

(Goodreads illustration from Cass Co. Public Library)

I'd like to offer a few short and sweet tips on how to make Goodreads work for you; specifically if you are self-publishing, but much of this will also hold true if you're traditionally published. An alternate, yet equally effective title for this post could have been "Learning from Heather's Mistakes on Goodreads."

1) The moment your cover art and blurb are ready, list your book on Goodreads. This gives people time to get it on their To-Read lists, which will increase your visibility on search engine sites. I'd suggest getting your cover art and book blurb up about two months ahead of time to build buzz on all your social media sites. You can also post quotes from your novel, which is another effective way to draw people into the story. A fun way to do this is to use PicMonkey and edit free pictures (I got many from Morguefile), if you can find some that fit your fave quotes.

2) Give yourself an author page to link with your book, pre-publication. When you write your author biography, try to use action verbs as much as possible and don't make it all about the one book that is coming out. Take the long view of what kind of fiction you write and who you are as a person. 

You can also easily link your blog to your Goodreads author page, as well as upload vlogs, trailers, or YouTube videos so people get a visual picture of your novel.

3) Nominate your book for Listopia lists. Yes, even before it's released. Yes, it seems really self-serving, but it will help it get noticed sooner in its appropriate genre. Use judgment as to nominating your own book for "Best of" lists before it's even released/reviewed. I stuck to lists like "Eye-Catching Cover Art" or "2013 Releases." 

Oh, while you're poking around in Listopia, nominate your other favorite books for lists! Boost those authors, too.

4) Send out a Goodreads friend request to all your Twitter followers. This is something I did by accident, and I felt bad for asking all kinds of people to accept my Goodreads friendship. But it added a whole plethora of readers to my follower lists and increased visibility. In short, it was a brilliant mistake.

5) Join Goodreads groups in your genre, but READ the group regulations before linking to your book. I confess this is something I learned the hard way. I *gasp* got kicked out of a group, because I misunderstood their rules on sharing links to your own book. I felt like a heel and offered a personal apology, but never heard back. In short, I felt like a jerk. Make sure you keep your groups straight —if you're in several, it's easy to forget which ones allow author shout-outs and which ones don't. 

6) Once your book releases, if you have softcovers in hand, do a Goodreads giveaway. This is a GREAT way to gain exposure for your novel. You can't offer an e-book in a Goodreads giveaway, though—only hard copies. I would strongly recommend you offer at least three copies of your book to reach more readers, and run the giveaway for at least a month. 

I made the mistake of only offering one copy of my book for a two-week giveaway. I still got lots of requests, but I could've reached even more potential readers if I'd extended the giveaway and offered more copies. Bonus perk: when people sign up for the giveaway, there's a handy button they can hit to add your book to their To Read lists. I would rough-estimate that over 200 people added my book to their list in that two-week giveaway period.

In short, it's relatively easy to make Goodreads work for you as an author. You just have to spend time/effort getting your book cover/blurb ready ahead of release, fixing up your author page, and exhausting built-in marketing opportunities such as giveaways and groups. 

Here's hoping you go forth and get the good out of Goodreads!

Heather Day Gilbert enjoys writing stories about authentic, believable marriages. Sixteen years of marriage to her sweet Yankee husband have given her some perspective, as well as ten years spent homeschooling her three children. Heather is the ACFW West Virginia Area Coordinator.

You can find Heather at her website, Heather Day Gilbert--Author, and at her Facebook Author Page, as well as Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and Goodreads. You can find her Amazon best-selling Viking historical novel, God's Daughter, here on Amazon and Smashwords.

 

***Question for you: If you're an author, what's been the most helpful aspect of Goodreads for you?***

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Reaching Your Readers ~ by Laurie Schnebly

Laurie Schnebly Campbell combines work for a Phoenix ad agency with teaching other novelists about the craft of writing. She's also published half a dozen romances (including one that won "Best Special Edition of the Year" over Nora Roberts) and a how-to for fiction writers on creating believable characters. Check out her workshop on blurbs -- and more -- at www.BookLaurie.com

REACHING YOUR READERS

We all have our reasons for writing. Reaching out to others, expressing truth in fiction, offering inspiration...and so much more. But what if nobody reads what we wrote?

Some writers don't care, because they're perfectly happy just getting the story down on paper and shoving it in a desk drawer. Yet other writers WANT their words to resonate with readers, which means they need readers to find their book.

How can you make that happen?

Getting published by a major publisher is one way. So is hiring a marketing director who will publicize your work. But if you're not working with a full-service publicity team, one of the biggest advantages you can give yourself is something relatively simple:

A great blurb.

That's what readers will see on your back cover. And on your website. They'll see it in your bio with articles, in newsletters from bookstores, in reviews posted near your release date, and -- perhaps most important -- they'll see it when they're browsing online for books.

What Blurbs Do

You've seen blurbs that made you think "I've gotta get that book!" You've also seen blurbs that made you think "Nope, not what I want" and others that make you think "Hmm...keep browsing."

So how can you write a blurb that makes everyone think "I've gotta get that book!"?

The fact is, you can't. No matter how great your book, it's not going to thrill every reader in the world. Someone seeking a cookbook doesn't want a story about fly fishing. Someone who wants a thriller won't be satisfied with women's fiction. Someone shopping for first-graders doesn't want a romance novel.

That's okay. You don't care about those readers.

The readers you want already know what they're looking for...and it's the kind of book you write.

What about your book will appeal to them? That's what your blurb needs to feature.

Creating Your Blurb

Some writers have an easier time creating a 60,000-word manuscript than a 60-word blurb. Or 30 words, or 150, or whatever length you decide on -- and by the way, it's good to have different lengths available for different uses.

I used to think I was incredibly gifted because I had a much easier time writing blurbs than manuscripts, until I discovered my gift wasn't actually a special talent. It was from my day-job experience of writing ads.

Because, really, your blurb is an ad for your book. You've noticed how the headline of an ad either draws you in or makes you turn the page, right? The first line of your blurb is exactly the same way.

Websites that track the eye movement of people reading them (and I have no idea how they do it!) found that readers who aren't captured within the first eight seconds are lost.

How many words can you read in eight seconds? The average adult reads 200-300 per minute, so this gives you about 30 words to capture their interest.

And how do you choose those words? This is where it helps to think like an advertising copywriter.

The Advertising Basics

* Know what your audience wants. If you're not sure, ask them.

* Know what YOUR book offers that readers won't necessarily get in ANOTHER book they might also enjoy. If you're not sure, read others like your own.

* Know where your readers look for books, because that'll affect which blurb you use where.

Yes, you'll want different blurbs. Everyone browsing Amazon might see the same one, just like everyone reading the publisher's catalog will see the same one, but if you're indie-publishing you can change it as often as you like. You can even do test-marketing to see what works best.

Before you start testing, though, try writing half a dozen blurbs of (for instance) 30 words apiece. See which points you keep using. Odds are good that those reflect your opinion of what's most special about the book.

Then run those samples by people who know your book. Do they feel like you've left out something vital? What is it?

You can play with this for as long as you like, until you absolutely HAVE to get blurbs out to the public. But thinking about your blurb, even before you've finished your book, is a handy thing when it comes to marketing.

Which Leads To...

If you want some other tips on creating a blurb that'll attract readers, you could win free registration to August's yahoogroups class on "Blurbing Your Book" just by leaving a comment before tonight's prize drawing.

And since I'd love to get some comments I can quote during that class, here's my question for you:

When you're browsing for a book -- not one you've already chosen because you love that author / topic, but when you don't have any particular book in mind and just want to view some possibilities -- what do you do?

I can't wait to find out!

You can get Laurie's book Believable Characters: Creating with Enneagrams on her website: www.BookLaurie.com or on Amazon. 

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