We often forget, however, that we can get positive, powerful, and meaningful book reviews from just about anyone who loves books — including you and me. As the Association of Booksellers for Children reported in late 2010<\/a>, more than half\u00a0of the people it surveyed on book purchasing influences cited “books my friends and family recommended” as a\u00a0major factor in their book buying decisions. The survey noted that just over one-third — 38 percent — of the respondents said they were influenced by book reviews in magazines and newspapers.<\/p>\n The largest source of those non-media reviewers — the people who love reading as much as we do — is Goodreads.com. With more that 7.3 million members, Goodreads.com gives book lovers a chance to create virtual bookshelves (with more than 260 million books!) that others can peruse. Those members not only share what they’re reading with their personal Goodreads networks, they also review and recommend those books, or create lists that announce what they want to read next.<\/p>\n Because I’m one of Joan’s affiliates (I occasionally\u00a0recommend products or programs of hers that I’ve used; I receive a small commission on resulting sales), Joan graciously gave me a complimentary pass to her program,\u00a0“Where to Find Millions of Readers Online to Review, Recommend & Buy Your Books<\/a>.”<\/strong> (This link and others to Joan’s program here\u00a0use my affiliate link. It doesn’t cost you more to use it.)<\/p>\n I was blown away by the amount of helpful and very, very specific\u00a0information Joan covered in 90 minutes. I took good notes so that I could share information here, but this report is no substitute for the webinar and Joan’s handouts, so you might want to consider purchasing the program <\/a>and taking your own notes now that she has made the recording available.<\/p>\n The program covers ways to increase our exposure in four site categories:<\/p>\n Here are some of my favorite revelations from the program, which covered a whopping 35 review sites:<\/p>\n I learned about a lot of sites I had never heard of (but need to explore), but I also learned more about how to use those sites I was aware of already. I strongly recommend you consider this resource <\/a>if you want to generate more online reviews for your book. You’ll get the webinar video file, an audio file, a PDF file of the PowerPoint slides you can refer back to regularly, and a PDF file listing very specific URLs for the 35 sites covered during the program (one thing I like about Joan is that she’s detail oriented, which means that you don’t get the generic home page URL for each of these sites — you get the exact URL you need to start making things happen for your book on these sites).<\/p>\n Have you had success generating reader or media reviews from online sites? Can you offer any tips?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Goodreads.com is a powerhouse for authors<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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The impact this site can have on your book’s success is astounding, so when I got an e-mail from “Publicity Hound” Joan Stewart telling me that she was going to host a webinar that explained how to use Goodreads and many other reader review sites effectively, I knew I had to be on it.<\/p>\nWebinar tips\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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<\/a>When the subject of book reviews comes up, most of us think of traditional book review publications such as The New York Times<\/em> or Publishers Weekly<\/em>, or about online review sites that include ReviewtheBook.com.<\/p>\n