While the average person may not detect any changes at Goodreads, the company is retiring its API access and disabling existing API keys. So … what does that mean? In a nutshell, other websites or apps that make use of Goodreads data won’t be able to do so in the future. This makes it harder for readers, authors, stores, and librarians to access or use Goodreads information.
Joe Alcorn, the founder of a similar service called Readng, comments, “Amazon has been in charge at Goodreads for almost eight years now, and I think we’ve all been expecting this to come at some point. … The sad thing is it really only hurts the hobbyist projects and Goodreads users themselves.” As Goodreads has increasingly failed to innovate or even just improve its site design, it’s blocking others from crafting a better experience.
What will fill the void? Possibly the Open Library, run by the Internet Archive. They write in a blog post, “For years, the Open Library team has been enthusiastic to share the book space with friends like Goodreads who have historically shown great commitment by enabling patrons to control (download and export) their own data and enabling developers to create flourishing ecosystems which promote books and readership through their APIs. … We’d like to do our part to keep the landscape flourishing.” Their post lists a variety of alternatives to the Goodreads API, including their own.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
