If you haven’t yet discovered Goodreads, you should! It’s a sort of social networking site for people who love to read. I set up an account last spring, after hearing my Apocalypsies pals gushing about it. I immediately added books to my “read,” “to read,” and “currently reading” lists. I posted ratings of some books I’ve read. I added a few reviews of books I’d read recently. Beyond that, I didn’t get too involved with it.

After I created my reader account, I noticed that many of my Apoc friends were listed as “Goodreads Author.”  Susan Raab discusses this in her book, and I wanted to also be listed that way. A few weeks ago, I was approved as a Goodreads Author. They sent me an email notification, along with a pretty exhaustive list of “dos and don’ts,” and a link to a page with suggestions and details of how to get started. I have to admit it was a bit overwhelming.

My notification also arrived the week I was heading out to Wichita to film the trailer. After that was Thanksgiving, then the end of the school term, with all the extra papers to grade. “Goodreads Author Page” has been on my to-do list now for almost a month. Now that the semester is finished, I’m finally getting around to it.

Goodreads does a great job of providing information to help authors get started. The site is pretty easy to navigate, even for me. I was a little frustrated when my photo appeared in thumbnail form, but not on my profile page, but I eventually figured that out. The thing that stumped me though was the “widget” option. I had seen the widget on Kimberly Sabatini’s blog, and I wanted one! I also wanted to add the “Add to Goodreads” button to appear next to my book cover on my site. Goodreads has all the information about how to do this, but the minute I saw HTML code that had to be uploaded I panicked. Luckily my son is fluent in HTML, so he managed to get the widgets loaded for me.

I’m excited to get more involved in Goodreads, both as a reader and as an author. I’ve been able to add a feed from my blog to my author page, and I’ll also be able to add events, contests, and reviews when those things come around. My next step is to add my Apocalypsie pals as friends and find out who else I know in the Goodreads world.