Hey everyone! It’s Clara Kensie, back with a new Question of the Week! Pretty much the only thing writers love as much as writing is talking about writing. So each week here at Adventures in YA Publishing, I post a question for you to answer. The questions cover all topics important to writers: craft, career, writers’ life, reading and books. Together we’ll become better writers by sharing tips and discussing our habits and practices.
Social networking sites that focus on books are tremendously popular with readers. They allow us to rate, review, and organize our books, discover new books, and connect with thousands of other bibliophiles. There are several social networking sites for book-lovers: Goodreads, Shelfari, Library Thing, and Rifflebooks come to mind (I’m sure there are more— if you know of any others, please give them a shoutout in the comments). It’s easy to participate as a reader in sites like these, but does being an author (or aspiring author) change the way you participate?
My answer: I’ve belonged to Goodreads for a couple of years, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at my page! I don’t utilize it as much as I could, or should. I mostly use it to keep track of my want-to-read list. One of my goals is to become more active on Goodreads. I don’t have an author page (yet!), and I’m still trying to figure out the best way to use it as an author – how to connect with readers once my book comes out.
YOUR TURN: Lots of questions for you to answer today! To which book-centric social sites do you belong? What’s the best way authors can utilize these sites? Does being an author change the way you participate? Do you use your membership as a way to promote your own books or your “brand,” or do you use sites like Goodreads strictly as a reader?
P.S: I want more Goodreads friends! If you belong to Goodreads, send me a friend request!
