Goodreads

Most of you who read my blog regularly will know that I'm not paid by or connected to any website or product. I would like to recommend something for authors looking to increase awareness for their books. As always this is based on my experience.

Many of you will be aware of Goodreads.com which is a site for authors and readers to connect and share recommendations for books etc. I joined Goodreads roughly a year ago and set myself the target of having 100 people add my book to their lists within the first year. Not a very challenging target I thought but like all sites of this size how do you get yourself noticed?

I joined various groups on the website and interacted with other authors and readers. Gradually my list began to build and after ten months 76 people had added my book, The Viking's Apprentice. Now just two months after that 920 have added The Viking's Apprentice to read and 644 have added the second book in the series The Master's Revenge. How did this huge jump happen? What made over 1500 people suddenly add my books in a short period after only 76 had added it in ten months?

The answer is simple and something every author should do on Goodreads in my opinion. I did a giveaway for both books. I offered two copies of each book up for free. I opened the giveaways for a period of two months and did nothing else. I didn't even advertise the giveaways apart from two posts on my facebook page, The Viking's Apprentice FB. The reason I chose not to advertise the giveaway was that I wanted to see how much effect Goodreads could have on it's own with very little help from me. The results were amazing. Adding both giveways together, over 3000 people entered and half of them added my books to their reading list increasing the visibility.

Setting up the giveway is simple and takes five minutes. You select which of your books you want to giveaway, add some details about it and select which countries you are willing to send it to. The giveaway is for paperbacks/hardbacks only. It's not available for ebooks. Please remember that when you select the countries you will have to pay the postage cost for the books. Also remember to sign the copies.

It's simple, effective and it will get your book out there to the people you want to reach. Give it some thought and if you have any questions at all please get in touch either on the blog or through my website Kevinmcleodauthor.

If you were not one of the lucky winners or if you would like to buy a copy of my books you can get the ebooks for 0.99 for a limited time at all online retailers listed on my website, click the link to select your Ebook of choice. Buy the books

Book three in the series is coming in May 2014.