Goodreads Tips for Authors

Alessandra Torre, NYTimes Bestselling author and Inker’s Con co-founder

Goodreads has over 125M readers and some fantastic free resources and opportunities for you to promote your books.

Here are my top tips for Goodreads:

• Claim your author profile and books. If you do nothing else on Goodreads – please do this. Goodreads has fantastic SEO which means when someone googles your author name, a Goodreads link will be in the top 5 results. You want to be sure that your information is up to date.
• Use Goodreads Giveaways (the $119 option). The key is to have your giveaway end before your release date. Goodreads will send a dedicated release day notification email to everyone that entered the giveaway – which often can be 700-1,200 readers!
• Use Goodreads as a reader. Share what you are reading and leave reviews for books that you love. Don’t leave negative reviews; it’s considered poor taste to speak poorly about fellow authors/books.
• Write a review of your book. The review section can be used as a billboard of information for your readers. This is your place to share deleted scenes, review snippets, video trailer links, teaser images, or a letter to your readers. Be creative! However, do NOT choose a number of stars, just skip that part of it. Readers will like/comment on your review, which will give it higher visibility on your book’s page and on the site.
• Use “general update” link to provide updates on author news. On the home page of your Goodreads login, there’s a “general update” link that can be used to share updates that aren’t specific to a certain book. Examples include author signings, a holiday sale, website updates, etc.
• Ask readers follow you on Goodreads. Don’t be shy. Ask your fans to follow you on Goodreads. Put it in your emails, social media posts, and back matter of your novels. Highlight and share great Goodreads reviews of your books so readers know you are active on the site.
• Thank 4 or 5 star reviewers. Personally thank and comment on high-star reviews. This is a huge compliment for the reader plus it shares the review in your followers newsfeed (and raises it higher on the page).

I hope these tips make you feel more confident on Goodreads.

Often, Goodreads is confusing, especially when you first start to use it. However, I really do feel like the effort put into maintaining a presence on Goodreads is worth it for authors.

P.S. The upcoming Inkers Con 2024 conference offers dozens of brand new classes, Q&As, author discussions and more! Join us in Dallas or online!