Indie Writer Tip - Never Spam on GR

Monday's Indie Writer Tip - How to Stay off of Goodreads Shitlists
 

Never ever spam your book. Hell yeah, you want people to know your gem exists. Hell no, you don't shove it down readers' throats. Your spamming is the same as junk mail. No one wants it. Even if a few people go out and buy the book based on the spam, you’ll end up on a ton of DO NOT READ lists on GRs. It simply isn’t worth angering your potential customer pool.

 

Indie writers work so much harder than traditionally published writers. We have no one to market our books. The desire for instant success can drive even the coolest writers to go bananas. Occasionally a writer makes a mistake by spamming and hopes people will give them another chance. The problem is the next indie writer won’t be so obnoxious. The next indie writer will use Goodreads the way it’s meant to be used. The next indie writer will take your customers away and you’ll never get them back.

 

If you’ve already spammed readers (a few writers were added to the shitlists over the weekend), it’s likely too late to regain your goodwill. If you are just starting out or planning to publish one day, avoid making yourself look like a douche by spamming. It might seem like a small inconvenience for GR users to delete the spam, but it’s the principle of the thing. Goodreads is a place for readers, not writers. If you treat it like your personal marketing site, readers will turn their backs on you.

When it comes to success...be patient, be smart, and be cool.