We recently received this screenshot from a KDP author who noticed it as he was reading the latest KDP newsletter. It’s a message from Patrick Brown:
Now, before we begin to tell you how full of shit he is, we want to show you this HuffPo article that followed a previous article, How to Become a Goodreads Power User (and why you’d want to), we featured in our post, How to Avoid Goodreads Power Abusers (and why you’d want to).
The title of the newer HuffPo article? The Power of Goodreads Giveaways.
Yeah, yeah, we know, major eye roll.
It starts with this:
We’ll stop here so that we don’t send our readers off into apoplectic fits of rage, sickness, etc. 
Now, what do we think of this article? Well, the author of this article couldn’t be more wrong. As we say in our Guidelines for New Authors:
Guideline #2: Stay off of Goodreads. Also stay off of kindle boards, the Amazon fora and Absolute Write. These are all breeding grounds for trolls.
We have all the known trolls listed on our site: on our Badly Behaving Goodreaders page and on our sidebar. We recommend to also be wary of anyone who is friends with these people. Birds of a feather tend to flock together.
Guideline #3: Don’t do giveaways on GR. That attracts trolls. Trolls like free things and they are usually the harshest and many times the most unfair critics. For example, take a look at this screenshot where a troll says: “It was free and I’ve heard bad things. I’m so excited!” This particular troll was trying to get her friends to do a buddy read so they could trash a book they got for free.
To avoid this kind of thing, please listen to one of our blog readers in this comment:
“Don’t do giveaways on GR. That attracts trolls. Trolls like free things and they are usually the harshest and many times the most unfair critics.”
Or in the words of Christ in Matthew 7:6:
“Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.”
A Real Christian is right. Christ says it best.
Now, getting back to the HuffPo article, we have reason to believe that the author of this article is wrong about giveaways being exclusive to print books. The last time we heard, ebook giveaways were allowed, but if GR has changed its policy on giveaways, this is even more incentive to NOT do one. The author of this article recommends to do up to FIFTY books in a giveaway and to do a giveaway for each book. Now, if you add up all the money you will spend shipping out all these print books FOR FREE, you will be in the poor house before the first giveaway is even done, not to mention having a string of one-star reviews from all the trolls you’ve invited in just by doing it.
(Please note, not all free-ebook readers are trolls. Some are not. Some are very good people. Also note that we were informed that dissenting comments on this HuffPo article were removed just as on the previous one.)
Anyhow, what we find very interesting about all of these recent advertisements is that GR seems to be making a good deal of effort and spending a lot of money to try and woo authors to their site.
Gee, wonder why that is.
Now, we want to draw your attention back to Patrick’s KDP message. You see how he says “every second, Goodreads members add four books to their “want to read” shelves”?
Well, what we’d like to know, Patrick, are the statistics for members adding books to their “fuck you for being illiterate” shelves. Or how about their “attention whore author” shelves? Or even their “asshat author” or “pedophile author” shelves? Funny how you fail to mention these stats, huh?
Patrick also boasts about Goodreads’ “20 million” members, but what he fails to tell you is what we said in our post about Kat’s narcissism:
As for their top 1%, here’s the truth about the membership numbers on Trollreads. Although the site boasts millions of members, in all actuality, only a very small percentage of those “millions” are active users of the site. You see, the majority of the members create accounts, then leave and forget about them, never using them again. This isn’t even mentioning all the multiple accounts created by single users (socks).
Kat and her cronies are part of the large group of people on GR known as the GR bullies or the GR trolls who write and like one another’s reviews so that they appear at the top of book pages. They engineer this on purpose and their behavior toward authors (and other reviewers, see Linda Harasses Reviewer) has grown more and more outrageous over the years. As the trolls continue their antics, the small number of actual users on the site dwindles (as even one of our biggest offenders, Wendy Darling, states in this screenshot).
So, whenever you read or hear these misleading “statistics” about GR, usually in some paid-for, promotional article like this or this, don’t believe it. The numbers are so grossly skewed, even the United States Congress would have a hard time cooking them.
So, in general, people aren’t fooled. Contrary to what Patrick says, real savvy KDP authors know very well that the best thing for their career is to STAY AWAY from the Goodreads platform and the trolls who infest the site. They also know to stay away from GR’s corrupt Premium Author Program where GR allows authors to choose their top reviews or even to have reviews removed if they pay a certain amount of money. You see, savvy authors know to avoid GR because they know they will be treated as second-class citizens there. And it’s easy to figure this out. All you have to do is read :
So, to sum up, if you are attacked by a group of thugs on GR, you’re not allowed to speak out. You are only allowed to flag the abuse and/or contact GR management, who may or may not help you. If they do decide to help you, which is rare, they will give these readers’ reviews lower priority and these readers’ accounts WILL NOT be considered for deletion. BUT! If you send a message thanking a reader for their review or thanking them for shelving your book as “to read” or even just for initiating contact with a reader, your account WILL be considered for deletion.
Do you see why we have a problem with GR and the way authors are treated? They are treated as subhumans with no rights.
One of our blog readers made a very insightful comment asking the question:
Why would any author in their right mind want to join a site that threatens them in this manner? To me this is an implied threat to authors that if they defend themselves against personal attacks by trolls, Goodreads won’t stop it. They will allow their abusive members to destroy your reputation, livelihood, and career.
Point well taken. The answer is that NO author in their right mind would want this as those “savvy authors” who are properly educated about Goodreads know that it is the WORST site on which to mingle and promote their books.
Our blog reader goes on to say (about Patrick’s KDP article):
They treat all complaints of vicious personal attacks having nothing to do with a book or review as disgruntled authors whining about poor reviews. If an author complains about the trolls, Goodreads bans the author to solve the problem of the attacks.
But that does not solve the problem for the author. Even after being banned your book will remain and continue being attacked by the trolls. These same trolls wallow in the Amazon forums.
He [Patrick] also fails to mention that many of the books on the website are stolen intellectual property. Many, many authors have left Goodreads in disgust and sent them DMCA take-down orders to get their books removed from that hostile site. They flatly refuse to remove content even against the direct wishes of the copyright holders.
Everything our blog reader says here is 100 percent true. This is really how Goodreads operates, which is why it is probably the most unprofessional site for book promotion. So, don’t get sucked into their very transparent, very paid-for advertisements. Stay away. Stay far away. And let others know to do the same.
If you need to show someone proof of attacks on authors, please point them to our post Thinking of Joining Goodreads? They will be amazed at how many have been attacked just this past year. And still everything that we’ve managed to document here is just the tip of the iceberg. There have been many, many more.
So, now you’re thinking: what can an author do?
Stick with blog tour companies that come highly recommended by us and by your friends. Unlike GR, there are real professionals out there who know how to promote you and your books properly. For example, here is a message we received from an author who does blog tours with a very respectable and professional company. This company has been doing indie blog tours ever since independent publishing started to take off. The message below is from the company owner about the author’s most recent tour:
I want to help you to make this tour a success. I will be tweeting, Stumbling, Digging, Pinning and posting on Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn for every single tour stop along the way, to maximize exposure. I encourage you to do the same. Bloggers love it when authors stop by their blog and comment on their reviews, interviews, etc. So I encourage you to do that. The only caution I will give is to never ever make a negative comment about a negative review of your book! Book bloggers are normally very generous but they just wont tolerate negative comments even if they have merit.
The owner of this particular tour company does warn about commenting negatively on a legit, negative review, which we totally agree with, but did you notice something else? She says that bloggers love when authors stop by and comment on their reviews, interviews, etc. So, authors are actually encouraged to take the initiative to interact with the readers in a friendly, professional way. They won’t get labeled as “spammers” for saying thank you. They are treated with respect and dignity.
You see, these professionals do business with book bloggers who are not only not spooked by authors, but who also don’t harbor a burning hatred for them, who treat them as human beings, and who would never EVER attack (stalk, threaten, libel, etc.) them as we’ve seen happen so many times on GR. In fact, if these bloggers personally attack an author in any way, they are removed from the companies’ recipient lists (not just given a “lower priority”). Let me say that again. Book bloggers who personally attack authors are REMOVED from the companies’ recipient lists and they are never called on again. This is how real professionals operate.
Did you hear that, Patrick Brown? This is how REAL professionals operate.
Got that? So, maybe you should take a lesson in professionalism from these companies. Then you wouldn’t have to spend so much money paying for advertisements to try and woo authors to your cesspit of a site.
Okay so… with all of this said, you now see why we tell our readers to stick with professional blog tour companies and STAY OFF GOODREADS. DO NOT do GR giveaways. Don’t cast your pearls before swine. Don’t give that which is holy to the dogs of GR. Because they have A LOT to learn about real professionalism.
Johnny out.
