by guest writer, Emilee Newman Bowles

I have a new favorite social networking site: Goodreads.com, where friends share what books they’re reading and write reviews for books they’ve read. Since I trust the opinion of a few choice friends over even a New York Times book review, I was happy to find a site where my friends and I could share our reading experiences. The site includes lists of the top books that people are actually reading, the books with the highest ratings, and the books with the lowest ratings.

Goodreads is also a great place for authors to network and share their work with readers on a personal level. For one thing, anyone clicking onto the site is almost guaranteed to be an avid reader, and many of them are looking for something new to read.

The Goodreads Author Program is free and is easy to use. Just sign up for a Goodreads account, search for your book, click on your name, and click on the “Is This You?” link to set up your author page. A few of the things you can do with the Goodreads Author Program are:

• create an author bio
• make a list of your published books
• spread the word about your books to friends and fans on your network
• publicize upcoming events such as book signings and readings
• participate in online Q&A sessions with readers
• share excerpts of upcoming publications
• share your favorite books with readers
• set up free giveaways for new titles

Anyone whose published book is available on an online bookseller’s site can be a part of the Author program. If you’re not published yet, you can still add your writing to your personal profile for others to see and comment on. Publishers like writers who have a web presence.

Goodreads.com is an easy, free way to create an author profile or a value-added feature to link to an existing site.