Skip to content

Category: Marketing

2

Published on 2 Comments on The Goodreads Revelation

Like many writers, the lion's share of my marketing efforts is directed at Facebook and Twitter. But the focal point of my recent engagement efforts has added a third leg to the marketing stool: Goodreads. It's not as if I've mastered the other two - I certainly haven't. But when another writer friend mentioned I hadn't set up an author presence on GR (thanks, Matt!), I did some checking and realized I was overlooking an important piece of the marketing puzzle.

As an avid reader, I've been enjoying Goodreads for years. It's a great way to organize reading lists and find book recommendations. Turns out it's also a great way to network with other readers. More readers mean more reviews. More reviews (even if they're not five stars) are better than no reviews.

In the process of setting up my author presence there, I discovered I had never invited my Facebook and Twitter friends to befriend me on Goodreads as well. This was a simple click that grew my GR friends from 60 or so to 350+ and counting. Investigating some of these new GR friends' profiles, reaching out via GR's email function, and joining special interest groups has already led me to some wonderfully generous authors who have shared some great tips with me, like Susan May. Thanks to her cogent explanation of how and why to use Goodreads, I am committed to making GR an equal partner in my social networking efforts.

By now I hope I've convinced you to include Goodreads in your engagement strategy. How much time, you may be wondering? On a recent day, this is how I spent the time I apportioned to marketing/platform:

  • I selected a page of Goodreads friends, around 30 names or so.
  • I clicked on each name to view their profile. 
  • I reached out via GR and introduced myself. 
  • If they had written any books, I selected at least one as Want To Read. 
  • I noted their Twitter handle and made sure I was following them. 
  • Ditto their Facebook page. 
  • If they had a website, I visited it. 
  • If they had a blog, I read a few posts and commented if I had something relevant to say. 
  • I subscribed to their website. 
  • I shared any posts I thought fit into my platform. 

This cost me nothing in actual dollars and cents, and took about one hour of my time. With over 300 friends on Goodreads, working through one page of friends per day, I estimate it will take about two weeks to complete this project. Once I'm caught up, I hope to stay current as I add friends, rather than doing them in batches.

If there are any programs or apps out there that will show me the social media info of people I already follow on Goodreads or Facebook or Twitter, please let me know what they are. I know you can invite FB and Twitter friends to GR, but I don't know of any way to do the reverse other than manually.

Let me digress (and it just wouldn't be one of my blog posts if I didn't digress, now would it?) and thank all of you who place your social networking gadgets in a prominent place near the top of your website. Hunting and gathering for links is the number one time waster in this whole platform/engagement endeavor. I can't tell you how many times I had to go searching manually for authors' Facebook pages because there was no indication on their website they the had ever heard of FB, much less set up a page there. But when I clicked over to Facebook on my own, just to double check, and typed in the author's name in the FB search bar, lo and behold! There was a perfectly nice FB page, all up to date with current posts and lots of likes and everything, just waiting to be discovered. People, for the love of all that is holy, please keep your websites updated with live links. If I hadn't been in OCD mode, bound and determined to track them down, I would have done the BOTH and zoomed on to the next author's site. That is all.

The Brushing Of The Hands (BOTH)

Being engaged is a good feeling. Human interaction can be a lot of work, but also very gratifying. I'm enjoying working with Goodreads. It's a nice change of pace from FB and Twitter, which, let's face it, can be something of a cricket echo chamber. And here's the requisite CTA: I hope you will take a minute and follow me on Goodreads. I follow back.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed reading this, I hope you'll take a minute to subscribe to my newsletter.

6

Published on 6 Comments on 50 Shades of Pandering

A version of this post originally appeared in 2012.

If I have to experience 50 shades, let's do these, please

Yeah, I'm old enough to get a daily dose of AARP emails. The fact that I no longer mind admitting that should also tell you something about my age. So I'm giving the daily email a quick once-over and slam on the eye brakes at an article about book recommendations. I love to read. Since my escape from the mass produced, over-hyped tree pulp spoon-fed by the Doubleday Book Club, I freely roam all forms of media looking for my next favorite book. And here's how the AARP article started:

AARP's antireview of 50 Shades:

. . . know what's in store for you: paper-thin characters spouting middle-school dialogue during mechanistic scenes of sex, bondage, sex, punishment, sex, spankings and yet more sex in a "playroom of pain." But if, instead, you're a fan of gripping, well-crafted tales about complex relationships . . .


. . . and on it went to talk about other books. Not exactly a ringing endorsement. So, they apparently hate the book, but they lead their summer reading review mentioning it? Do they want us to read it or not?

Seriously, I get it. They want to cash in on the hype, but they don't want anyone to think they actually approve of it ,or (heaven forbid) might have even read the thing.

Man, someone's SEO geek is really earning her salary. I appreciate the cleverness, but their shameless bid for youthful relevance ticked me off. And I am totally ripping off the concept for future blog posts. Here are a few ideas in draft mode. Let's see if they benefit from this new strategy.

As per Branding 101, I am planning several blog entries about evergreen topics, including the Olympics. How's this for a cruelly misdirected lead?

The wonders of network broadcasting technology provide us with nearly limitless opportunities to watch athletic competition. But they are not without their pitfalls. An innocent search for tennis programming may land you in Kardashianville. Beware the segment featuring the gals and their mom taking to the tennis court for a little R&R. If you were looking for an environment of etiquette and courtesy, look again. After approximately the fourth minute of pedestrian on-court hacking, trowel-applied makeup and disrespectful adolescent mockery, you will be desperate for something less soul-killing - like the Olympics!

See what I did there? I casually name-dropped a hugely popular trend (whose appeal completely escapes me) that had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH MY PREFERRED TOPIC, and used it to shill for said preferred topic.

Genius! Let's try another one!

Maybe I should re-think the intro to a previous blog entry featuring a recipe for chicken salad:

Found here

Have a hankering for some chicken, but tired of standing in line for hours behind a bunch of intolerant ignoramuses? Consider dishing up this homemade wonder that will have your family cheering for more (and spare you the overpowering compulsion to shower as soon you leave the Chick-Fil-A parking lot). 


I think the trick is to find the broad generality one loves, like books or chicken or tennis, and pinpoint the inevitable handful of unbelievably annoying fringe elements who have tainted it with their 15 minutes of fame. Quick! Glom onto their media-bloated coattails before the trend passes like black beans at a vegan potluck.

It just wouldn't be a proper blog post published in the spring of 2020 without a nod to the 800 pound gorilla of news topics, now would it? I'll wrap this up with a shameless attempt at some SEO traction:

Welcome to Day Whatever of the Covid-19 shelter-at-home order. What initially appeared to be a blessing in disguise (no work commute! loads of quality time with loved ones!) has quickly morphed into a real-life version of a prison apocalypse movie. Ready to escape? Check out my latest book. It's set in the 19th century Texas frontier, so social distancing is a piece of cake. The only people wearing masks are the ones holding up your stage coach. And there are no toilet paper shortages, because it hasn't been invented yet.

No kidding. You can actually buy my book here.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, I hope you'll take a minute to subscribe to my blog (the subscribe box is near the top of the right sidebar).