Tricks to using Goodreads!

As if me telling you that being on Facebook and Twitter isn't enough social media. . .GOODREADS is where you need to be. . .too!

Yes, you still have to be on Facebook and Twitter, but I also want you to start a Goodreads account.

Why?

Good question. You have a blog, website, Facebook and Twitter. You are reaching a lot of people this way, BUT are you reaching your READER target audience?

You know that I'm all about my readers! Goodreads is a place where readers and writers gather!

Think about this....readers join Facebook to connect with their friends, family, and maybe their favorite public figures (which include authors). Their main goal was to find lost people or keep in touch with family by sharing pictures, etc....

When someone joins Goodreads, they are there for the intent to connect by books. THAT is a plus for us! That is exactly what we are looking for.

Go to Goodreads and join. You will need to create an account. This is pretty easy and self explanatory.

NEXT. . .

I highly recommend that you join the Author's Program. You can only do this if you have a published book.
When you enroll into the program, you will be able to search for your book in the search box. If your book doesn't come up, you will need to ADD YOUR BOOK MANUALLY.
Wait. . . you aren't done. You will be asked to verify that you are the author. In the box where you verify, you will need to tell them that you would like to be enrolled in the the author program.

Then you will wait for Goodreads to verify who you are. This could take up to a couple days.

Don't sit on your laurels while you wait for them to get back to you about the author program. You are still a member from when you opened your account, so go to your profile page and beef it up. Be sure to add a profile picture (good one!) and blog site. You want to have all this done so when you do get approved for the author program, you are ready to go.

****IMPORTANT****
When you get approved for the author program, you are going to go back into your profile by clicking on your picture in the right hand corner. Click on edit. You will see a box that asks you to pick a URL user name. Make it simple, easy for people to find you! Mine is : goodreads.com/tonyakappes
Make sure you click save at the bottom of the page.

Now it's time to start building your "friends" list. Now some of my friends are carry over from Facebook and Twitter, while some are readers who happen to find me on Goodreads. Plus there is you! My blog followers.

Why blog followers? So glad you asked!!

You will need to put your blog RSS or Atom URL on your page. This will post your current blog posts on your Goodread page and you will reach more blog followers and that is NOT a bad thing.

How do you figure out the RSS or Atom URL of your blog? Here are a few simple steps that I took from the Blogger and Wordpress websites:

1. Go to your blog
2. On Blogger, scroll all the way down to the bottom and look for ‘Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)’
3. On WordPress, look to the right of the posts for ‘RSS – Posts’
4. Right-click on that link
5. Left-Click on Copy Link Address
6. Go to Goodreads
7. Click your name in the upper right corner to go to your author profile
8. Click edit profile
9. Under your picture, click add/edit blog
10. On the right side look for External blog feed URL
11. Click ‘change’ if the URL field isn’t showing
12. Right-Click in the space
13. Left-Click ‘paste
14. Your URL should now show up and look something like this: http://tonyakappes.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
15. Click the add feed button

SHEW! Did that wear you out??

There are over 5 million people on Goodreads. I can guarantee that there are a lot of readers that read your genre, that would LOVE to connect with you.

Now that you are well on your way. . .I think this is enough for one blog post. Stay tuned for Wednesday when I tell you tips on how to connect with some of the 5 million friends!

OH!! Friday we have a special guest explaining everything you need to know about TRIBBER!!!