Owned by Amazon, Goodreads is the largest US social network dedicated to book reading, with more than 65 million members. Over its 11 years of existence, it has been both a blessing and a curse for authors. While it allows authors to identify, interact with, and directly reach millions of readers, it also has a reputation for harsh reader ratings and reviews. That reputation has led, in turn, to the advice to never engage with or respond to Goodreads reviewers—and to maybe not even read the reviews at all. But the site remains an attractive marketing and promotion platform because of its ability to get books in front of avid book readers.
One of the longstanding promotional features of Goodreads has been the ability for either a publisher or an author to schedule and run a print book giveaway campaign—for only the cost of the book and shipping to the winners. Goodreads has published numerous case studies demonstrating the effects of a well-coordinated Goodreads giveaway campaign and its associated buzz. (We looked at several in the very first issue of Hot Sheet.) In May 2016, Goodreads announced a long-requested feature: ebook giveaways, which we wrote about here. However, the feature has only been available to select publishers, and at a cost of $119 per giveaway.
Starting on Jan. 9, 2018, Goodreads is opening up its ebook giveaway program to all authors and publishers for $119, which covers the cost of one giveaway of up to 100 ebooks. For now, the program is only available to US authors, and giveaways can only be for the Kindle.
When the beta version of the ebook giveaway program rolled out in 2016, authors objected to the cost, and there are objections now. But perhaps the greatest sting isn’t that Goodreads is charging for ebook giveaways (which was expected), but that it’s now charging for the print giveaway program.
Goodreads will also charge $119 for print book giveaways. Again, the cost covers a single giveaway of up to 100 books. If an author or publisher wants to give away 100 print books and 100 ebooks, then that constitutes two giveaways costing $238. (It is not possible to split the giveaway across two formats.) All of the terms are spelled out at the Goodreads site.
Authors expressed anger about the giveaway cost in many online message boards and comment threads. The change seems to be adding insult to injury in the eyes of those authors who believe that print books given away through Goodreads rarely garner reviews and are sometimes sold by the recipient, turning up on Amazon, eBay, or elsewhere. Authors have also been suffering sticker shock at the new premium giveaway option for $599, which includes featured placement on the Goodreads giveaways landing page. However, the Goodreads giveaway page is among the most heavily trafficked of the site, with millions of people visiting it each month. The premium option is akin to an advertising purchase, giving publishers and authors a chance to be featured at the top of the section for the duration of the giveaway.
We talked with Kyusik Chung, VP of author services at Goodreads, about the changes, as well as authors’ frustration that giveaway copies can immediately end up in secondhand markets. He says that any authors who experience such behavior should reach out to the Goodreads team so they can look into it: “We don’t tolerate any abuse of our giveaways program—if you see something that you have concerns about, contact our customer service team and they will investigate and take appropriate action.”
Bottom line: For years, the author community has shared tips and tricks for maximizing the Goodreads giveaway promotional space. Two common pieces of advice have been: First, only give away a few books (or even just one book) at a time, because the giveaway has the same promotional value on the site regardless of how many titles are given away. Second, keep the giveaways short to maximize time in Recently Listed and Ending Soon alerts. (Third, do lots of giveaways, one after another!) Goodreads’ new giveaway program eliminates the economic feasibility of these tactics, which indie authors especially have been using for years. Thus the outcry. But the new programs will also thin out the playing field. Two things are clear: there’s marketing and promotional value in having a book listed on the Goodreads giveaway page, and Goodreads has every right as a business to charge for that value—and it may even preserve or amplify the value by charging. We anticipate no shortage of publishers or authors buying into the new program.
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.
