Goodreads Author Account

I previously did a post about setting up your Amazon Author Central account. Well, last week I realized I qualified to switch my regular Goodreads account to an author account. It's taken a few steps, but it was pretty simple overall.

You can view my Goodreads author profile, if you want to see what they look like. Click HERE. (And, hey, add me as a friend! I've been going through and adding people, but there's a limit on how many invites you can send out each day. But there's not a limit on requests you can accept!)

Instead of reinventing the wheel and telling you how to set your account up, I figured I'd point you to Goodreads own write-up on it. The information they expected was simple, and being able to send them a link to my Amazon Author Central profile was a help, as well. I sent in the request  in the evening, and it was approved when I got up the next morning.

Once it's approved, you can search out your books and have them added to your profile. Three of my books were instantly added under my name the moment it was converted to an author account. It asked me to confirm, and I did. Easy-peasy.

Three of mine were listed under the name Shannon Kenoyer-Lawrence. One did not have me listed at all. I was able to fix this issue easily by posting to a forum they have for that purpose. THIS LINK will take you to a help page on various issues you may need to resolve with your books. After I posted each issue separately to the forum, one was fixed within minutes, the other within a day. This was another place having the Amazon Author Central account helped things: I was able to put a link proving Amazon had already vetted me on those books. I imagine it would have been more complicated than that if I didn't have this simple proof.

Once I had my books set up, I fixed up my profile by adding photos, updating my profile information, adjusting the settings, connecting my blog to the account so my posts will show up there (you can also create a new blog there,) and all those good things. I then went through and started adding some of my connections, and I joined a couple groups, though finding other groups I'd like to belong to will take some time.

There are a lot of options I'm not utilizing on there yet, such as posting upcoming events and doing giveaways of books. They have author widgets you can put on your blog and Facebook, but I don't think I'll be using those until I have novels out. Though I'm curious as to how others in collections have utilized Goodreads.

I've got a lot more exploring to do, but it's a good start. I'd love to hear how you use it as an author, and any tips you might have!

Do you have your Goodreads author account setup? Do you utilize any of the extra features? If you're in collections with other folks, do you use Goodreads for those, or do you just use it for novels? Have you had any bad experiences on there? Do you have any tips or tricks?

May you find your Muse.

Book image by OCAL, clker.com

Do Writers a Favor--Review!

I don't do reviews on the blog, but I've repeatedly seen pleas by authors to review their books. Though I still have no intention to do reviews on here (the closest I'll get is Teaser Tuesdays), I did break out of my comfort zone to do a couple reviews on Amazon the other day. I have yet to do them on Goodreads, as I don't really go on there ever, but I will try to do so in the near future.

Indie and new authors need these reviews the most, in my opinion. Go to the page of an established author's book and you will find many reviews. Go to a new author's page and you may find zero reviews. Which one are you more likely to purchase?

In an age where more purchases are being made online, hearing what other people thought about the book is getting more important. If I can't skim through the book, having an array of reviews is incredibly helpful. Yes, Amazon offers the ability to look at random pages, and that's great, but it's not the same as being able to flip wherever you please (and I understand why they can't offer that ability, of course).

Blurbs on the back of a book can only give you so much of an idea about its contents. Reviews can offer a little more insight. Even before the digital age, word of mouth was an important selling point. Help a writer out and review their book, whether on your blog, Goodreads, Amazon or some other forum. They'll appreciate it!

Now for a quick Project 52 update!

My internet was down for hours the other day. Hours! Gasp! Had I not been in the midst of dying from some virus, I could have gotten far more done. However, I did take advantage of my social black hole to finally, FINALLY, transfer some short stories onto the computer. I learned that I need to take care to write legibly, as there were some parts it was a struggle to read. Whoops! That's alright, my handwriting is why everyone thought I'd be a doctor when I grew up. Showed them!

I've also done a considerable amount of research for the flash fiction contest I'm chairing, so I'm crossing that out to keep myself moving forward. I just need to compile some of the information to present to my Pen Women group in October and hash out the final rules. Then I can get it out there, and I really hope to see a bunch of entries from my fellow bloggers!

Lastly, I got a bunch of old photos scanned to disk. Now that I've started, it should be easier to continue. Crossing that one off my list, too! Woo-hoo!

What do you think about book reviews? If you're a published author, how do you find them helpful? If you do reviews, where do you do them?

May you find your Muse.