One Author's Marketing Discovery

I love to write, but dislike allocating time to sell! I understand marketing goes with the territory, yet find time spent promoting gets in the way of me penning my next great inspiration.

Still, in order to sell written words one must get exposure. And so especially for my friends and comrades at Writers of Central Florida or Thereabouts, I’d like to share a method I happened upon recently that has given my books excellent exposure. Free!

I had become a Goodreads.com member more than a year ago, but did not at first become a Goodreads Author. I now highly recommend every author consider doing the same.

Goodreads has been around for years, and has millions of members - people who actually joined because they like to read and/or write. I was slow in realizing that fact. Readers are of course the market we all want to reach. It costs nothing to join Goodreads! Becoming a Goodreads Author is likewise free! Getting valuable exposure therefore can cost you little to nothing at all (I’ll soon explain).

As I’m now nearing my 70^th year on this planet, I’ll admit I tend to be stubborn. Not only did I want to write, I also wanted the satisfaction of figuring out how to print and sell my books on my own. I tried Facebook, but 3,600 likes later, finally realized my followers were mostly people who liked to look at pictures. Also, Facebook is changing, limiting how many impressions you get if you try and refer followers to a website of blog. 

I finally realized that I needed a social media place having people who actually liked to read.

Goodreads.com is likely not the only such site, but it is an established site. Despite me being a member for nearly a year, I didn’t at first realize my books were already being rated and reviewed at Goodreads. Without an Author Page, those ratings were simply floating in a Goodreads cyber space. 

I decided to take the next FREE step by becoming a Goodreads Author. A writer must first be approved, but even that process is free. Goodreads verifies that you are indeed a published author, even if you are self-published.

After my profile page was approved as a Goodreads Author Page, I then had to merge my books all on my page. That's not the easiest process, but after doing so, I still had not spent a dime!

I like Goodreads as both a reader and an author. First, having set up a free membership, I could list and/or review books I’ve read. But even better, if I found a book I wanted to read some day, I can simply add that book by clicking “Want to Read.’

Let’s say I come across your book at Goodreads: I can click that I want to read your book and all my followers will then be notified that I did so. (That’s exposure!) 

After I read your book, I can then mark it as read, rate it, and even do a written review of the book. When I do so, my followers are notified of the review and rating. (More exposure, this time from a person who actually read your book!) And you still have not spent a dime!

As a Goodreads Author you can do 'giveaways' to really increase your exposure. There is no charge from Goodreads for the giveaway, and they have a Page where members can see all of the giveaways. I am currently in my fourth month of a giveaway offer.

My first giveaway was The Rutland Mule Matter. During a one month period, 787 people from all across the US registered to win 1 of 10 free books. Goodreads did the actual drawing, and emailed me addresses of where to mail each book. My only cost for this giveaway was printing ten books plus USPS Media mailing of $2.61 each.

BUT, here’s the best part of a giveaway. Of those registering to win, 338 people added my book to their “Want to Read,” bookshelf, so that each of their followers were also introduced to my book. (That is a whole bunch of exposure for a minimal cost per impression.) 

To date, in four giveaways, a total 1,044 individuals have added my books to their ‘Want to Read’ book shelves.

There are other benefits as well, such as setting up and/or following ‘Groups,’ in order to give yourself even more exposure. Orange County Library is one such group that I now follow, and Florida History is a group I recently set up. 

If you have a blog, you can even add a link on your author page to share with your followers.

If you haven’t yet checked into Goodreads, I highly recommend you do so. And if you are already set up or plan to do so, look me up at Goodreads Author, Richard Lee Cronin, and I’ll most definitely follow you back.