Catherine Austen
Creative Writing
Oh my Goodreads!
The Goodreads folk are awfully good at keeping in touch. They send me monthly updates, alert me when a favourite author publishes a new book, advise me on how to generate reader interest in my own books, and notify me whenever someone likes one of my reviews.
Alas, I cannot reciprocate in good time! Even their notices reminding me, “You started Confessions 127 days ago; why not post an update?” rarely get me signing in. (I finished that book in two days. It took a while to update its status.)
I’ve developed a rhythm of adding reviews to my Goodreads account every, oh, six months. (A tad slower than adagio.) It goes on the to-do list at around 3 months, and then takes another 3 to cross off. By that time, I’ve forgotten half of what I’ve read, which significantly lessens the burden.
I only post ratings of books I really like, having been told once by an editor at The Malahat Review that bad books should be allowed to die quietly and there is no need to murder them–what fine advice! My Goodreads account thus makes me look easy to please. (But I’m not. Sometimes I yearn to mock a bad book in a biting review, but instead I bite my tongue because (a) not connecting with a book is hardly newsworthy; (b) nobody really cares about my opinion; and (c) the website is not called Badreads, is it?)
I may be slow, but I do love sharing good reads with good readers. So today I added a couple of dozen novels, picture books, and non-fiction titles to my online shelf.
Online activity does not come naturally to me. (I don’t often read blogs or watch YouTube videos or even check websites except to find a phone number. I go online mostly to scour the library catalogue and place books on hold.) So I’m doubling my return on today’s online investment by blogging here about my Goodreads additions. Hah! What social media savvy! Who knows? Maybe next week I’ll update my website and scan the thousand posts I’ve missed on Facebook and come up with something else to blog about. For now, I’m signing out.
Have a great weekend. (Yes, I know it’s Sunday afternoon.)
4 Comments on “Oh my Goodreads!”
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Catherine Austen writes books for kids and teens, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. She lives in Gatineau, Quebec.
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Catherine Austen 
I have that same relationship with Goodreads; I only rate books I really like (for the most part). I’ve done a couple of give-aways through them, which I don’t think are a great marketing tool, although it does make it look like a lot of people “want to read” your book (just because they’re trying to win a free copy, I suppose).
I always wish I was more active online – including Goodreads, which is a great site for authors – but it seems to either take all my time or none. I can’t tell what is “worth it” so I only do what I enjoy for its own sake now.😊 I hope we meet one day, Jan, in person.
“Bad books should be allowed to die quietly” — /love/ it. XD
🙂