I have been quiet since Genki, but I’m far from dead and buried!
…Well, I’m getting buried in work, but I’m still alive down here. I’ll dig myself out at some point.
If you have followed all the drama over at Goodreads, you might have noticed people fleeing to other sites like LibraryThing and BookLikes. Though I was never the biggest user of Goodreads, I decided to give BookLikes a try in the hope of them creating a better platform.
So far I already like it better than Goodreads, mostly because it’s simpler. There’s not thousands of groups and forums with each their own set of rules, but instead each user get their own Tumblr-like page that they can use as they please. It doesn’t seem like there is as much opportunity for creating as dysfunctional a community as the one that formed on Goodreads. I really hope I’m right in that assessment.
Giveaway
To get a better feel of the community, I decided to try out BookLikes’ Giveaway feature. I’ll be giving away 15 ebook copies of Resounding Echo and all you have to do is to join here if you have a BookLikes account. There’s no other terms, even though a review on BookLikes would be deeply appreciated!
Join the Giveaway here or visit my BookLikes page here.
I gave BookLikes a try and gave away three books on it. I was kind of hoping the people would be more grateful, and maybe even leave a review. Nope, nothing. Still, I was happy to give something because a day or so into it I hadn’t even had one person express interest yet. That’s disheartening!
Well, I wasn’t looking for a community just for marketing books, I mainly wanted a place that was about reading. There’s a reason readers are getting so annoyed with self-published authors always pushing books in their faces, so while I might do a giveaway every once in a while, I would rather spent some time there as a reader.
And the thing is, readers don’t owe authors anything. They are not obligated to take interest in our books and I know from myself that I have never posted a review of a book before I started publishing myself. Most people don’t finish a book and think ‘Hey, I better go help out the author with a review right now!’.
It would be nice if it was the case, but I really can’t blame them! It’s something with stones and glass houses 🙂