Amazon Buying Goodreads

[Beth Groundwater]

What do you think this means for the future? Here's the official press release:
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsA...

[Eric Christopherson]

They've done this before, buying up all or part of Librarything and Shelfari and left those sites alone essentially. So my guess is not much will happen on the surface. They wanted the customer data IMO and to remove a potential book-selling competitor. The Amazon algorithms will get better, surely.

[I. J. Parker]

I really don't care about Good Reads, but I think Eric is right.

[Beth Groundwater]

This article in The Atlantic is spot-on about why Goodreads is so important to authors and readers! Here's an interesting quote, backed up by research: " So Amazon has just bought the ecosystem where many of America's most influential readers choose their books. "

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/the-simple-reas...

[I. J. Parker]

As long as the site is primarily known for flame wars and no one does anything about it, it's not a place any author would want to go.

[Beth Groundwater]

I beg to differ I. J.,

I've been on Goodreads for many years as an author, and I have yet to see a "flame war" in the reviews I've read about books that I've researched there. I don't think Goodreads is "primarily known for flame wars." Instead, readers know it as a place to share book recommendations and research books that they've heard about. Many readers have discovered my books on Goodreads and have become fans of mine there.

[I. J. Parker]

Well, it worked for you.  I ran into immediate difficulties when I tried to mention a new release of mine.  But since I don't engage in exchanges with people, my information comes from other authors who, admittedly, promote themselves strongly.

I also don't appreciate the dubious low reviews I get there. In any case, I have no reason to love or support GoodReads.

Good Reads attracts the same readers as DorothyL and KindleBoards. Both are very unpleasant sites because readers run roughshod over writers who respond with apologies and self-abasement in hopes of appeasing them. The whole experience is negative.  I don't need to sell books that badly or that way.