As with other sites, every time a Goodreads member places a star rating for your book the total number goes up and your average rating is altered accordingly. Maintaining a high star average is of course important, but the number of ratings is also important as books with fewer ratings are treated with scepticism by the wider reading community, thinking they could be friends and family of the author. Having a foundation of at least a few hundred ratings is crucial.
Listopias
Goodreads Listopias are best-of lists voted on by members of the Goodreads community. There are some huge lists on there as well as a wide variety of genre niches, so room for the whole spectrum of fiction and non-fiction to shine. Having your book on as many suitable lists as possible is essential, but also placing as high up on those lists is equally important. To get into the top 200, or even the top 100, on high traffic lists ensures an ongoing stream of exposure to your target readership and a great way to drive sales over the long term.
Shelves (also known as genres)
Goodreads members have the ability to “shelve” books according to genre, likeability, or various other ways. Having your book on as many suitable shelves works in a similar way to Listopias, but this time books that are popular on shelves can be automatically recommended to readers who have also placed books on the same shelf.
Author Follows
Having as many Goodreads members as possible follow your author profile is highly beneficial as it gives a much wider reach to any blog posts you make, and also those followers are notified every time you have a new release or there is specific news about your books. Having a large follower count is also eye-catching for readers who are newly discovering you, as success breeds success. They are far more likely to linger on your page and find out more than if you have a small following of less than 100.
Quotes and Quote Likes
Having a good selection of quotes from your books added to Goodreads is a great way for readers to newly discover you. Popular quotes also find their way to Social Media, get added to Quote websites, and they can even go viral, instantly catapulting an author and book’s success.
We can help with recommendations of how to select your most suitable quotes, and also add them to Goodreads for you. Once promoted and lots of readers have liked your quotes, they rise up the quote lists through their associated tags, and are a very effective mechanism for long-term exposure.
Reviews and Review Likes
Reviews are of course a great way for readers to discover the impressions of other readers and help them decide whether or not to purchase your book for themselves. But seeing positive reviews that have been liked many times adds even greater credence to those reviews, encouraging other readers to take them more seriously, and provide an even greater lure towards purchasing. Reviews with the greatest number of likes are automatically moved higher up the page, so they are front and centre for readers coming to your book page looking to find out more.
