Dr. Ravi Singh

WHO IS Goodreads?

Goodreads is a social cataloging website that allows individuals to search its collection of books, annotations, and reviews for free. It’s a social-media page for tracking your reading and communicating with other readers, not a source for books.

WHAT THEY DO?

Goodreads allows you to see what books the people you follow/friends are reading. It helps you track the books you are reading, have read, and want to read.

HOW THEY WORK?

To use Goodreads, you must create an account first.

To start reading in Goodreads, you either buy a physical copy, borrow from your library, buy or borrow an eBook, or buy or borrow an audiobook. After reading, get on Goodreads to update and discuss it.

You can import or export a booklist from Goodreads by using the "Import and Export" button, found on "My Books."

HISTORY:

In 2006, Goodreads was founded by Otis Chandler and Elizabeth Khuri Chandler.

In December 2007, Goodreads received funding estimated at $750,000 from angel investors.

In October 2010, Goodreads opened its application programming interface, which enabled developers to access its ratings and titles.

In 2011, Goodreads acquired Discovereads.

In October 2012, Goodreads announced it had 11 million members, 395 million books cataloged, and over 20,000 book clubs.

In November 2012, Goodreads had surpassed 12 million members.

In the second quarter of 2013, Goodreads was acquired by Amazon.

In September 2013, Goodreads announced that without warning, reviews that threatened authors or mentioned authors' behavior would be deleted.

On March 16, 2016, Amazon shut down Shelfari in favor of Goodreads.

In April 2016, Goodreads had over 50 million user reviews.

BEST PRACTICE:

You can easily recommend a book to readers on Goodreads by posting a review.

Engage followers more via the comment section.

To grow your followers, try and post engaging and interesting content.

Utilize the Q&A tool to help give followers more insight into who you are as an author.

Be consistent with posting content.

TIPS:

To meet your goal to read more books, make use of the reading challenge option on Goodreads.

Download all your books in an excel spreadsheet using the import and export widget on Goodreads.

You can find out about new and upcoming book releases by going to browse and then selecting explore.

Create a bookshelf – go to My Books page, click the "edit" button next to your list of bookshelves and create a shelf based on topic or discipline.