Goodreads is a great community for readers. Therefore, one might reason, it should be great for writers. It could be... as long as you don’t self-promote your work.
In a recent interview in Reddit, writer Michael J Sullivan shared an excellent piece of advice:
“The most important thing to remember about Goodreads is that members of this site REALLY hate self-promotion. Primarily because too many authors come to the site and do drive-by posts and leave. This makes their radar on such matters very sensitive. The key to goodreads is to become a member of the community first…and mention your writing only in context and when appropriate.”
You can read Sullivan’s counsel about Goodreads etiquette here.
Wattpad has become THE place for writers to showcase their work. Maryann Yin reported on Galleycat, December 21 that the site had reached the ten-million upload mark.
Members of the community upload one million new pieces on a monthly basis. Back in August 2011, the site reached one million site users. Several Wattpad writers, including book blogger Brittany Geragotelis and UK novelist Beth Reekles, have landed book deals with traditional publishing houses.
In an email announcement, product marketing manager Amy Martin shared the company’s next goal: “Given current growth rates we’re only looking at another three years until we reach 129 million uploads. That’s our next target because according to engineers working on the Google Books project it’s the total number of unique books that have been published worldwide since the advent of printing.”
Goodreads is a great community for readers. Therefore, one might reason, it should be great for writers. It could be... as long as you don’t self-promote your work.