Goodreads 201: Advanced Tips for Driving Book Discovery

I've made no secret about my unabashed love for Goodreads as both an author and a reader. The only downside is the knowledge that I'll never make it through all the books that are constantly being added to my "to be read pile." But I love the community and their enthusiasm for the written word. I think Goodreads is doing an excellent job fulfilling their mission "to Help Readers Find and Share Books They Love."

At this years BEA (Book Expo America) Patrick Brown, Director of Author Marketing, did a great presentation on tips that authors can use to make their books more discoverable.  Yes, I know that's not a word, but I'm exercising the authorial right to expand the English language through usage. I wasn't there, and I "sorta" knew it was occurring, because I started to see tweets about my name being mentioned. Yesterday, my wife ran across the online version of Patrick's slideshow.

This presentation covers a wide range of topics, and provide great tips. I highly recommend you check it out. It's well worth the time to watch.  Here is some of what is covered:

• Readers enthusiasm with author interaction (Bella Andre & Stephen King)
• Author on-line meetup Groups (John Green)
• Ask the Author Program (relatively new feature. I was part of the the debut launch and it's now available for any goodreads author
• Author's reviewing books they've read
• Author's posting bookclub discussion topics
• Making "quizes" for readers to show their knowledge of your books
• Publisher lead "re-readings" for earlier books in a series just before the launch of a new title
• Add Goodreads Reviews to your site
• Word-of-Mouth sharing through Goodreads News feeds
• Giveaways as social ads
• Goodreads notifys people who have shelved a book on release day
• Personal selection emails - sends a notification to anyone who rated author's book at least 3 stars
• Creating Book Challenges
• Author Groups (both public and private)
• Be a reader first!!  Participate in groups, review books.

This is  just one of several useful slideshow presentations put on by Goodreads. Here are some others worth checking out (there may be some overlap in content):

• Marketing Your Book on Goodreads for Goodreads Authors
• Promoting your Books on Goodreads
• Introducing the Goodreads Author Program