This week’s bombshell announcement that online retail giant Amazon is buying book review site Goodreads has received a mixed reaction from authors. The naysayers claim Amazon is undermining and destroying publishing as we know it and the buyout of the world’s leading site for readers and reviewers is yet another example of the online retailer snuffing out the competition.
When you think about it, the marriage between the two was probably inevitable given Amazon’s undisputed ranking as the king of online sales and Goodreads’ spectacular growth with members registering 23 million reviews already.
For a snapshot of the debate that’s currently raging, visit Goodreads’ discussion pages at http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/413 It makes for interesting reading.
For what it’s worth, here’s my spin on it…
It’s not all gloom and doom. In fact, I predict the advantages will outweigh the disadvantages.
I’m prepared to take Goodreads founder and CEO Otis Chandler at his word when he says –
We plan to continue offering you everything that you love about the site—the ability to track what you read, discover great books, discuss and share them with fellow book lovers, and connect directly with your favorite authors—and your reviews and ratings will remain here on Goodreads. And it’s incredibly important to us that we remain a home for all types of readers, no matter if you read on paper, audio, digitally, from scrolls, or even stone tablets.
Goodreads CEO Otis Chandler
As a Kindle user and reader I especially like his promise:
For all of you Kindle readers, there’s obviously an extra bonus in this announcement. You’ve asked us for a long time to be able to integrate your Kindle and Goodreads experiences. Making that option a reality is one of our top priorities.
Bestselling author Jonathan Gunson sees the positives, too, in an excellent article in BestsellerLabs.com …Gunson says –
Every book you sell on Amazon is now likely to show up in the buyer’s Goodreads account, within easy view of 16 million readers, on an ever increasing scale, automatically. This will substantially increase the visibility of your books.
This also means that both Amazon and Goodreads deserve increasingly focused attention in your own book marketing efforts.
But it’s even more important to remember that your writing should remain the central focus, because it will eventually transcend all of these temporarily disruptive changes.
Jonathan Gunson
It remains to be seen exactly what this will mean, or how visible those links will be. Either way, with the acquisition of Goodreads, the Amazon universe has just expanded significantly, and maybe the light of opportunity for authors with truly good books just grew a little brighter too.
For the full article go to: http://bestsellerlabs.com/
Dear Follower, What do you think of Amazon’s buyout of Goodreads? Good or bad? Leave a comment. We’d love to hear from you.
Happy reading! -Lance
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Morcan Books & Films 
I don’t know. Amazon is completely unfriendly to non-Americans as it is, so it’s about my least favourite online store anyway.
Though I don’t think the world – or Goodreads – is doomed by this buyout, I also don’t like the way Amazon is taking over *everything*. Many people have already closed their GR accounts because of this…
I don’t shop via Goodreads – ever – so I don’t really mind what happens with the buy links, though, surprisingly, I’ve heard a lot of GR users do rely on buy links on the site to purchase books (and many don’t like shopping on Amazon).
I definitely don’t want my Amazon account connected to my GR account. I don’t want them linked *at all*! So if there’s an option for something like that, I’ll never use it.
You make some good points. Thanks.
Lance, I am a bit conspiracy oriented and I think above the pros and cons you mentioned and are also mentioned on the discussion at good reads, is also the implication of amazon bidding for the intellectual properties of millions of users who freely, give away reviews worth their weight in gold. Also in conjunction, Amazon can equally sell this information to movie producers without royalties, or much red-tape etc. I think theres a big a movement going about the internet this past half a decade from Amazon to Facebook to Spotify and Google (For example) who are slowly mining and robbing people of their intellectual creativty that in another time we would have been paid for. Excuse my tangent and I digress, we all agree to the TOS at the end of the day, so I guess they are not stealing anything. But alas, someone is getting way to rich of our collective talents.
All good points. Thanks!
I think it’s a great opportunity for authors to further connect with their readers. Goodreads has a different market than Amazon and alot more to offer for bookworms. I’d rather head over to Goodreads to see what my friends have on their shelves and then go to Amazon or Barnes and Noble for actual book purchase.
Quite agree. Thanks for your input!