Digging for Gold on Goodreads—Guest Post by Stina Lindenblatt

I'm relatively new to Goodreads, and I'm still getting my bearings there. I've thought of it as a way to see which books I'd like to read, but hadn't thought of the reviews as a way to improve twists in my own fiction.

Today Stina Lindenblatt, author of the NA novel Tell Me When, is here to share how authors can learn from Goodreads reviews. It's all yours, Stina!

Digging For Gold On Goodreads

When my debut novel went live and reviews started popping up on Goodreads, I refused to read them. I was terrified that everyone would hate the book. I eventually found the courage to peek at them and found a gold mine of information.

I’m not talking about great reviews saying that I’m the next J.K. Rowling (which there were none, though that would have been fantastic). The reviews I’m talking about are the ones that dissected the tropes I used in my story. These reviewers took the time to analyze what I did right with the tropes and explained why they loved my twist on them. Some reviewers had actually requested the book off NetGalley because they disliked the trope. This just meant they were super critical and were waiting to be surprised.

It dawned on me that reading the reviews for both my book and others in my genre can benefit my writing. When you study reviews like these, you learn what it is about certain tropes that irritates readers, what tropes they feel are overdone, and what books deal with them in a different way that make them fresh. When you apply this knowledge to your own stories, it helps you avoid the “I’ve read this same story a million times” reviews. This will also help you gain agent and editor attention. Like readers, these individuals are craving fresh stories. They’re craving your fresh story.

Have you used Goodreads to help you improve your stories?

Amber Scott should be enjoying life as a college freshman. She should be pursuing her dream of becoming a veterinarian. She should be working hard to make sense of her precalculus math class.

She shouldn’t be waking up her college roommate with screaming nightmares. She shouldn’t be flashing back, reliving the three weeks of hell she barely survived last year. And she definitely shouldn’t be spending time with sexy player Marcus Reid.

But engineering student Marcus is the only one keeping Amber from failing her math course, so she grudgingly lets him into her life. She never expects the king of hookups will share his painful past. Or that she’ll tell him her secrets in return, opening up and trusting him in a way she thought she’d never be able to again.

When their fragile future together is threatened by a stalker Amber thought was locked away for good, Marcus is determined to protect her—and Amber is determined to protect Marcus…even if that means pushing him away.

Thanks, Stina! I think I'll do a little mining over at Goodreads.

What about you all? Do you mine Goodreads reviews for fresh ideas? Any tips you can share?

Stina Lindenblatt writes New Adult contemporary romances and currently lives in Calgary with her husband and three kids. When she isn’t writing, lost in a romance novel, or checking out romantic photos, Stina loves to spend her free time behind the camera lens. She can be found on her website, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

Available:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

KOBO

How to Create an Author Page on Facebook

I'm technically challenged. When CD players first came out, I waited before I bought one. And waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, one of my good friends bought me two CDs for my birthday, which forced me to buy a player. I'm slow like that.

Fast forward several years. I have a personal Facebook page, but was intimidated about creating an author page. What I needed was Author Pages for Dummies. But I took the plunge and lived to tell about it.

If you'd like to connect and chat on Facebook, check out my new author page here!

If you haven't created an author page yet, I'll share what I learned. And if you already have an author page, feel free to correct me or chime in with your own tips for making a better page.

Author Pages for Dummies, Step #1--Sign Up

If you have a personal page, sign out. Then log on to Facebook.com. At the bottom of the screen, beneath the green "sign up" bar, you'll see "create a page for celebrity, brand or business."

It gives you the following options:

• Local Business or Place
• Company, Organization or Institution
• Brand or Product
• Artist, Band or Public Figure
• Entertainment
• Cause or Community

I chose Artist, Band or Public Figure. Once you click on that tab, you'll need to "choose a category." I chose "writer." 

Then you'll choose a name. I chose "Author Julie Musil" to differentiate from my personal account name. 

Agree to the terms, then click "get started." Type in all the password stuff, then click on "sign up now."

Congratulations, you have a page!

Author Pages for Dummies, Step #2--Customize

• Add your author photo. I used my Twitter photo, which is a couple years old, but it's recognizable. (I really need to learn how to air brush) Anyhoo...
• Add a banner. Some talented people, like Stina Lindenblatt, create their own banners. Like I said, I'm techie challenged, so for now I used a stock photo from MorgueFile. Lots of great images to choose from, and they're free of charge and free of hassle. 
• Upload content. I didn't want to invite people to an empty page, so I uploaded recent blog posts and accompanying images. Trial and error here, too--I learned to uncheck thumbnail if I didn't like the way it looked. I also learned to be sure my personal page was signed off, or it looked like my personal page posted to the author page. Ironically, creating an author page also encouraged me to learn more about Pinterest. I'm still new to this, but one of my fave authors, Jody Hedlund, regularly pins great stuff on her author page.

Author Pages for Dummies, Step #3--Spread the Word

I didn't want anyone to feel pressured about liking my author page. On my personal page, I let my friends and family know I'd created a page, and added the link. Many people ask how things are going with my writing life, and this way they can see on a regular basis.

Next I sent out a couple of tweets with the link.

I also added a Facebook badge to the sidebar on my blog. Facebook offers them here. I don't love what I have up now, so I'll play with it a little until I'm satisfied.

So that's the down and dirty on creating an author page on Facebook. If you've already done this, are there any additional tips you can add? Do you ever connect with authors on Facebook?