Advertising on Goodreads

Well, it’s Wednesday!

I am just going to jump to the meat of the post today and put another one up right after this one for project updates, personal updates, etc. So today, my topic is Goodreads and essentially how powerful it can be.  I just recently made a Goodreads account and got it approved as an author page (link here.)

The Watchers and Iris were already books in Goodreads library added by a few readers. I went in and tweaked the little things (the title was off, there was a spelling error in the description of the Watchers, and the page count was wrong). I also found this incredibly useful link off to one side about advertising.

I love the banner ads around Goodreads, I would love to design one and put it up. Having those on Goodreads is, so I’ve heard, expensive. In fact, I haven’t been able to find anyone who had one under a $5,000 per week budget. Though, I haven’t gotten a quote from Goodreads, with the number of daily site hits there I wouldn’t be surprised.

From Goodreads Advertise section:

With over 300 million pageviews and 45 million unique visitors a month, Goodreads offers integrated advertising and book launch packages designed to target and reach readers.

The other paid advertising option are the little link ads at the middle to bottom sides of pages. These ones you can set your own budget using a prepaid Goodreads “bank” and everytime someone clicks on your ad an amount (that you set) is taken from your prepaid account. I went for it right away.

I also saw no change in anything, at all.

I went back in and changed a few things:

Preview

The Watchers Book 1

A future society governed by a corporation. Implants that monitor what you see. The lives of thousands are in your hands. What would you do?

http://www.goodreads.com

 

I made the book cover 3d in Photoshop and made the little line of text a less informative blurb.

I saw a spike of seven click throughs in one day! My stats spiked up to 13,000 views just that day.

Not one person added it to their bookshelf.

 

I agonized over this. What was wrong between the link and The Watcher’s Goodreads page?

 

It was the description blurb. That had to be it. There was nothing else (in my control) that it could have been.

 

I sat down and read through dozens of other blurbs of books in my genre, popular books, best selling books, not so popular books and tried to crack the differences. What made the good ones good and the bad ones bad?

 

To my amazement it was the amount of information.

 

The ones that left more to mystery, just barely hinting at the plot, giving little clues as to the world inside the book, did better. Fantastically better.

 

The Watchers’ blurb was all informational. I had detailed the basics of the colony, the Watchers, their initiative, Ellie (the main character), and the other secondary characters.

There was too much in it that was given away.

 

I took a step back and read it from another’s point of view. Would I have bought this book based on that description?

 

Heck no.

 

It was boring and sounded like every other dystopian sci-fi action-y book.

There was no charm, no draw in to the story. It needed to be more and to do that it needed to be less.

I cranked out a new one, without thinking, just trying to give a little and hint at a lot.

 

This new blurb is on the Goodreads page, the Amazon page, and on the backs of the physical paperback prints:

 

The Colony. Perfect. Safe. Wholesome.Not a single violent crime since its creation. People are given jobs based on their skills, housed in Quarters to cultivate the success of like-minded individuals, protected from disorder and the radiation beyond the walls by The Watcher Initiative.
The entry fee? A simple surgery.
Implants behind your eyes ensure your safety, monitor those you come into contact with.

Dr. Ellimeaux Edin is one of many who provides these implants. Fresh from school and ready to start her life she is tasked with implanting a little girl, far too young for the procedure.
Her choice will shatter her perception and change her life
forever.

In the colony,
What you see can change everything…

 

I saved it to Goodreads and walked away for a day. I didn’t think to check it, there was no reason to check it frequently before right?

 

I came back the night of the 25th and found another 6 ad click throughs. Only this time, 7 people had added it to their ‘To-Read’ shelves. Over-flipping-night! There was also another 5 star rating and a boost to the activity on Iris’ Goodreads page.

 

In total, I put out $25 on the Goodreads page, wanting to see how it went and have only spent $7.70 of it so far. There have been over 20,000 views of The Watchers ad and a boost in every other area of The Watchers’ pages (Webpage, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, etc.)

Just yesterday I used the ebook function of Goodreads and uploaded just the first chapter of The Watchers so people can take a look at it.

 

So far, so good.

 

Yesterday another person added it to their “To-Read” shelf. It won’t be fast or anything but, slowly, progress is being made.

 

Someone else also added The Life of a Keykeeper to Goodreads as a prepublished page. I was ecstatic. Yet I have no idea who did it. I posted it on Twitter hoping to find whoever did it and thank them and I still have no idea.

 

I updated it and put the book cover in, excited to see the “expected publication” line on the page.

Someone already added it to their “To-Read” shelf.

 

Another tool on Goodreads that I will be implementing in the coming months is the Giveaway.

 

I will be hosting a Giveaway of signed copies of The Watchers on Goodreads between now and Christmas so people can use them as gifts for their young adult or young adult-at heart readers.

This function is awesome and I am so excited to do it!

I will make another post closer to the Giveaway date!

 

So, to summarize, Goodreads has some really powerful tools:

The paid adverts

The ebook download function

The prepublished page option

and the giveaways

 

These can be fantastic but, as I learned, only if your content in them is solid!

 

With your book description, don’t give too much away! Why would anyone bother to buy the book when it is right there in the description?

 

Obviously the review functions, the recommend function, the ratings systems, are all massively beneficial. As indie authors, we need to push a little harder to make ourselves known.

 

My goal before I published The Watchers was for one person to read it and not hate it, just one.

I have 8 ratings/reviews with 4 or 5 stars. That’s 8 people who liked it. It is on another 9 people’s “To-Read” shelves.

 

This is such a fun journey and I am learning so much so quickly.

I want to thank everyone I’ve come into contact with for their support.

We have over 1500 twitter followers now and it keeps growing everyday.

Last week we had over 300 new followers, I’m excited to see what next week will look like.

 

I couldn’t ask to be a part of a better community or to have better readers. Even those who haven’t rated or reviewed it officially on Goodreads or on Amazon have told me that they loved it or really want to read it and I am over the moon.

 

Stay tuned, another post is coming up in about an hour!

I’ll be going over personal updates and project updates for The Watchers (like the fact it is now available in print!)

 

Thank you everyone!

We’ll keep on going, one step at a time!

Happy Reading,

J.A.