# Amazon to Acquire Goodreads/GoodReads Joins Amazon! {{BOOM!}} (MERGED)



## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

Just got this press release:

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1801563&highlight=

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar. 28, 2013-- Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Goodreads, a leading site for readers and book recommendations that helps people find and share books they love.

"Amazon and Goodreads share a passion for reinventing reading," said Russ Grandinetti, Amazon Vice President, Kindle Content. "Goodreads has helped change how we discover and discuss books and, with Kindle, Amazon has helped expand reading around the world. In addition, both Amazon and Goodreads have helped thousands of authors reach a wider audience and make a better living at their craft. Together we intend to build many new ways to delight readers and authors alike."

"Books - and the stories and ideas captured inside them - are part of our social fabric," said Otis Chandler, Goodreads CEO and co-founder. "People love to talk about ideas and share their passion for the stories they read. I'm incredibly excited about the opportunity to partner with Amazon and Kindle. We're now going to be able to move faster in bringing the Goodreads experience to millions of readers around the world. We're looking forward to inspiring greater literary discussion and helping more readers find great books, whether they read in print or digitally."


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## Kay Bratt (Dec 28, 2011)

http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/413-exciting-news-about-goodreads-we-re-joining-the-amazon-family?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=editorial&utm_campaign=gatsby&auto_login_attempted=true

Excerpt from article:
Today I'm really happy to announce a new milestone for Goodreads: We are joining the Amazon family. We truly could not think of a more perfect partner for Goodreads as we both share a love of books and an appreciation for the authors who write them. We also both love to invent products and services that touch millions of people.

I'm excited about this for three reasons:

1. With the reach and resources of Amazon, Goodreads can introduce more readers to our vibrant community of book lovers and create an even better experience for our members.
2. Our members have been asking us to bring the Goodreads experience to an e-reader for a long time. Now we're looking forward to bringing Goodreads to the most popular e-reader in the world, Kindle, and further reinventing what reading can be.
3. Amazon supports us continuing to grow our vision as an independent entity, under the Goodreads brand and with our unique culture.

It's important to be clear that Goodreads and the awesome team behind it are not going away. Goodreads will continue to be the wonderful community that we all cherish. 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.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

*mind blown*

So this is what Hugh was hinting at in his other thread?


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## lynnfromthesouth (Jun 21, 2012)

Boom?


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## Diane Patterson (Jun 17, 2012)

Wow.   I don't even know what this means for authors, readers, etc. and I'm like, Wow, consolidation FTW.


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## Kay Bratt (Dec 28, 2011)

Kay is the new WhistleBlower.

{{Takes a bow and exits}}


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## teashopgirl (Dec 8, 2011)

Ooh, this is exciting. I wonder if the missing book covers will reappear...


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

It could be quite big. Poor Kobo will have to look for a new way to import reviews, I fear.


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## Kay Bratt (Dec 28, 2011)

Oh, darn.

Monique beat me to it. _Betsy....we need a merge!_


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

I'm not sure I like this idea. I wonder if it means Goodreads will now import reviews from Amazon or Amazon from Goodreads? I hope not, since I prefer them seperate.


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## lynnfromthesouth (Jun 21, 2012)

I follow Goodreads' blog, and after Hugh's post, it popped up on my feed reader . The wonders of technology....


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## MonkeyScribe (Jan 27, 2011)




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## Kay Bratt (Dec 28, 2011)

I just (one minute ago) got a note from my personal Amazon team that said, 'we want you to be the first to know'....

Um...epic fail.


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## erikhanberg (Jul 15, 2011)

BOOM is right. That's huge.

Maybe they can fix Goodread's terrible navigation, though.


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## ToniD (May 3, 2011)

Wow indeed. My head is about to explode.

Is this good? Not good? What does this mean for US?! (to be KBoard-centric about it)

ETA: ah, Michael and the doctor explained it.


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## Glen Krisch (Dec 21, 2010)

I would love to know how this impacts authors with a big footprint at GR.


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## David Wisehart (Mar 2, 2010)

I think the Goodreads reviews will be kept separate from the Amazon reviews, rather than imported.

But I wouldn't be surprised to find all the book links going to Amazon versions, rather than to other sites.

David


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## S.L. Baum (Jul 21, 2010)

ACK - I'd rather the reviews be kept separate as well.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

I just hope Amazon improves the navigation on Goodreads. I have never been able to find my way around there.


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## Edward W. Robertson (May 18, 2010)

Well this is certainly a thing that has happened.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Hi, 

I've merged two similar threads...sorry for any confusion.

Betsy


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## Lynn McNamee (Jan 8, 2009)

Whoops! 

Didn't realize there was already a thread.

Mods, please delete.


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

I can't see how any good can come of this.

Amazon just took the most popular independent book review and discussion site essentially off the board. And, as someone just pointed out, a vector through which people could upload ebooks as well.

It's a masterstroke by Amazon, but I don't see how it will be good for anyone BUT Amazon.


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## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

So I wonder if they are ditching Shelfari?


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## 48209 (Jul 4, 2011)

Authors, 

Kiss your ability to rank and review books on GR good-bye.


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## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

I would like the reviews to stay separate, too.  Wow.  See ya, Shelfari!


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## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

Hmm. I suppose this moves KB up 1 notch in the "largest independent e-book forum" space.


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## vrabinec (May 19, 2011)

So, will an author be in violation of the TOC if he goes to goodreads and gets in on one of the discussion groups' critique of another author's work? Isn't that leaving a review of a fellow author's work?


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## Stephen M Holak (May 15, 2012)

LynnBlackmar said:


> Boom?


Don't know, but my F5 key is worn out.


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## Kay Bratt (Dec 28, 2011)

It's so ironic that after four years of being published, I _just_ started to get involved and try to figure out GoodReads. Must have been my Amazontuition.


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## EC Sheedy (Feb 24, 2011)

MichaelWallace said:


>


Brilliant!


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## Hugh Howey (Feb 11, 2012)

S.L. Baum said:


> ACK - I'd rather the reviews be kept separate as well.


Me too! I always thought of Goodreads reviews as having a higher standard than Amazon reviews (because the reviewer's average is visible to users, which tends to make them harsher reviewers). I'd like to see them kept separate.

My first thoughts (as someone else pointed out): Kobo review integration, and how long before they monetize links at GR to go straight to Kindle versions (or do they just add a one-click button?!)


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## S.A. Mulraney (May 20, 2011)

Interesting. Not sure what it means, good or bad, but it certainly is interesting!


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

I suspect the GR data base is quite valuable. In Amazon's hands it could be even more valuable.


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## Harriet Schultz (Jan 3, 2012)

The reporter in me wants to know how much the Goodreads founders made on this sale.


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## EC Sheedy (Feb 24, 2011)

Would love to hear what the Goodreads avid reader/reviewers think about this. I'm thinkin' not all will be pleased.


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## ElisaBlaisdell (Jun 3, 2012)

vrabinec said:


> So, will an author be in violation of the TOC if he goes to goodreads and gets in on one of the discussion groups' critique of another author's work? Isn't that leaving a review of a fellow author's work?


I suppose it'll depend on how closely integrated Amazon and GR are. And, I haven't gotten into GR yet, but I had the impression that authors were supposed to know their place and keep their mouth shut, there, too.

Has anyone yet brainstormed ways that this might be an advantage to indie authors? I figure there must be some.

And, if they link the reviews, they'd need to calibrate the review scale.


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## fallswriter (Sep 11, 2012)

Question - now that Amazon is acquiring GoodReads and is considering buying the Barnes & Noble brick-and-mortar stores, does this make a monopoly? At this point, if there is no competition, can they pretty much do what they want with the products? What might that mean for the authors?


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## Jonathan C. Gillespie (Aug 9, 2012)

Seriously, what if I just post with every emoticon available?

I liked Goodreads in its own space. Farmed out to Amazon...what am I supposed to do now? I link to my blog from reviews I've posted on Goodreads. I maintain a largely-separate pool of connections on Goodreads.

Now it's going to be homogenized and kitbashed into Amazon's ecosystem. I'm afraid


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

Harriet Schultz said:


> The reporter in me wants to know how much the Goodreads founders made on this sale.


There should be an 8K report on the transaction. Those are filed with the SEC and are public information. If so, it will appear on Edgar.
http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml


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## KOwrites (May 23, 2011)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> I just hope Amazon improves the navigation on Goodreads. I have never been able to find my way around there.


Personally? I hope they keep a hands-off attitude. The GR site is fine. It's truly a wonderful site for readers to seek and find and as an author to get a look into the trends of what works; what doesn't; what gets read etc... I worry because Shelfari is a place I avoid as much as I can as both a reader and a writer because it doesn't work on any level whatsoever.


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## 48306 (Jul 6, 2011)

I would really like the reviews to remain separate. I think even peeps at GR review the same book differently on GR then on Amazon.


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## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

I think the Amazon acquisition of Shelfari will be a good indicator of how Amazon might integrate GR into its fold. Keeping it mostly at arms length seems advisable... but I'm sure there will be changes.


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

I agree -- I'd like the reviews to be kept separate as well. I have no idea what the merger means for writers though.


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## 56139 (Jan 21, 2012)

Email I just got:

Hello J.A.,

Today is a very big day for all of us at Goodreads. As you may have seen on our blog, we are joining the Amazon family.

We greatly appreciate all you do as a Goodreads Librarian so we wanted to reach out to you individually since you play an important role in our community.

You’ll be glad to know that this announcement is great news for our catalog. Amazon metadata will be returning to the site, and we will have an even more comprehensive record of self-published books, as well as more complete records of international books. We will continue to link to a variety of sites on our book pages, of course, including OCLC WorldCat for library data. All of your reviews and ratings will remain on Goodreads.

By joining the Amazon family, the Goodreads team will be able to invest more in the things that our members care about. We’ll also be working together on inventing new services for readers and authors. As part of this, we’ll be increasing the size of our team over time, and will be able to add lots of great new features that members and librarians will be excited about!

I can’t make this clear enough – we plan to continue growing Goodreads and investing in making it a great community for librarians, and everyone else.

We said in our blog post that our team gets out of bed every day motivated by the belief that the right book in the right hands can change the world. Now Goodreads can help make that happen in an even bigger and more meaningful way as part of the Amazon family.

Here’s to the next chapter!

Otis, Elizabeth, and the Goodreads Team


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## Zelah Meyer (Jun 15, 2011)

Caitie Quinn said:


> Authors,
> 
> Kiss your ability to rank and review books on GR good-bye.


I'm a little concerned about this too. I can see the potential in such a merger - but I can also see the potential to lose some of the things I enjoy about using the site as a reader.


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## 56139 (Jan 21, 2012)

I think this is awesome!  

FWIW - the email I just got from GR:

Hello J.A.,

Today is a very big day for all of us at Goodreads. As you may have seen on our blog, we are joining the Amazon family.

We greatly appreciate all you do as a Goodreads Librarian so we wanted to reach out to you individually since you play an important role in our community.

You’ll be glad to know that this announcement is great news for our catalog. Amazon metadata will be returning to the site, and we will have an even more comprehensive record of self-published books, as well as more complete records of international books. We will continue to link to a variety of sites on our book pages, of course, including OCLC WorldCat for library data. All of your reviews and ratings will remain on Goodreads.

By joining the Amazon family, the Goodreads team will be able to invest more in the things that our members care about. We’ll also be working together on inventing new services for readers and authors. As part of this, we’ll be increasing the size of our team over time, and will be able to add lots of great new features that members and librarians will be excited about!

I can’t make this clear enough – we plan to continue growing Goodreads and investing in making it a great community for librarians, and everyone else.

We said in our blog post that our team gets out of bed every day motivated by the belief that the right book in the right hands can change the world. Now Goodreads can help make that happen in an even bigger and more meaningful way as part of the Amazon family.

Here’s to the next chapter!

Otis, Elizabeth, and the Goodreads Team


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## Eric C (Aug 3, 2009)

Hugh Howey said:


> Me too! I always thought of Goodreads reviews as having a higher standard than Amazon reviews (because the reviewer's average is visible to users, which tends to make them harsher reviewers). I'd like to see them kept separate.


I can think of two other reasons why GR reviews have a higher standard: (1) You don't have to justify your rating with text, as you must at Amazon, you can just assign stars; and (2) even though both systems use a five-star rating, GR's guidelines for ratings are labeled differently so that, for example, a 3-star = "like" whereas a 3-star at Amazon = "okay" are something like that. It's a tad confusing if a lot of synergy is envisioned, IMO, but not if they keep the two entities more or less separate.

ETA: I don't think we'll see a whole lot of integration. I think Amazon just wants GR's customer data.


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## Amyshojai (May 3, 2010)

Just got this--interesting, because I'm NOT a librarian, other than being a GoodReads author able to "library" my own books:

Hello Amy,

Today is a very big day for all of us at Goodreads. As you may have seen on our blog, we are joining the Amazon family...."

Oh, I see someone else just posted this, too. They must be sending it out to all the author members on the site.


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## Anne Frasier (Oct 22, 2009)

am i misremembering? wasn't it a year or two ago that goodreads kicked off all info and images sourced from amazon?


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## Dee Ernst (Jan 10, 2011)

Didn't GoodReads have it's own 'Reviewers Behaving Badly' scandal last year?  To mix them up with the famed Sock-Puppets of Amazon can not be a good thing.


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## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

This does seem in line with Amazon's market-dominance strategy. A look at some of their past acquisitions:

2005: BookSurge, a print on demand company
2005: Mobipocket.com, an eBook software company.
2005: CreateSpace.com
2008: Audible.com
2008: AbeBooks
2008: Shelfari, plus 40% of LibraryThing
2008: BookFinder.com
2011: The Book Depository
2013: GoodReads

There is a theory that some of Amazon's acquisitions rationale is related to associate revenue. If they're already paying major associate fees to a site, the cost to acquire becomes more attractive. It was probably a factor in why they bought dpreview.com, the web's largest digital photography site. 

And I bet it factored in some way into the GR acquisition.


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## Susan Kaye Quinn (Aug 8, 2011)

EC Sheedy said:


> Would love to hear what the Goodreads avid reader/reviewers think about this. I'm thinkin' not all will be pleased.


http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/413-exciting-news-about-goodreads-we-re-joining-the-amazon-family?page=2

A lot of GR users seem less than pleased (mostly because they're not fans of Amazon).


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

Oh dear. As a reader, goodreads is one of my favorite sites for anything books. Besides KB, its my most visited site. I feel safe there so to speak as a reader. I don't feel safe reviewing on Amazon for example. There is no nasty downvote button on goodreads, I can delete if needed comments under my reviews and I can shelf my books any way I want. And star rate without any text. Its a reader paradise. 
If they change any of these things, I don't think I would review anymore. 

So I am hoping it will stay the same, be a site for readers primarily. Otherwise its sad day  

eta: and its not that I hate Amazon, I love amazon. But goodreads has been a site for all readers. Amazon does have a stake in kindle and I don't want paperbook readers and readers with other devices to feel left out and leave the site if a lot of kindle links and such are put up. It would hurt the site a lot. Many many people on there do not have or want a kindle. Many international members that don't even have access to kindles. They just want to talk about books no matter what the format. I don't want to lose their voice.


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## dalya (Jul 26, 2011)

Edward W. Robertson said:


> Well this is certainly a thing that has happened.


It happened, it did. Might not really change anything at all for the average mushroom.


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

Dear Amazon,

Please don't send my Goodreads reviews to my book pages on Amazon. That would hurt and make me sad.

Sincerely,

David


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## MartinLake (May 9, 2011)

I'm a big fan of Amazon and of Goodreads. I just hope that Goodreads is able to remain independent and open.


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## caleemlee (Aug 5, 2011)

I was just about to task the intern to go through and make sure all of our books were represented on Goodreads.  Looks like that task can wait until we see how this all shakes out!


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## Paul Clayton (Sep 12, 2009)

David Wisehart said:


> I think the Goodreads reviews will be kept separate from the Amazon reviews, rather than imported.
> 
> But I wouldn't be surprised to find all the book links going to Amazon versions, rather than to other sites.
> 
> David


Yeah, wasn't there some bad blood there? I remember they (GR) put Amazon's link under 'Online Stores' although now Amazon is at the top of that list of 'online stores.' But it's a click away from B&N's link. The person responsible for putting Amazon in their place not long ago has to be sweating a little, that is if they work at GRs.

Anyway, like everyone else, now I'm wondering, what the hell impact will this have on me as a writer/indie publisher?

And, will they buy Smashwords next?


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## Paul Clayton (Sep 12, 2009)

One thing I wonder about.  Will the Goodread reviews be exported to our book pages at Amazon?


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## Lisa Scott (Apr 4, 2011)

Any time I need to keep my ego in check, I just pop over to Goodreads.  I do hope they keep those reviews separate.


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## Victoria Champion (Jun 6, 2012)

I am stunned. I found out by getting the letter they sent out to Goodreads Librarians.

I have my ebooks uploaded to Goodreads, with samples, and I have my reviews linked to Kobo.

I am betting that Amazon will make the ebooks buyable directly from Goodreads (reviving that program Goodreads used to have), and that they will block the Kobo review link.

As for Shelfari, I have kept my book metadata updated there, so that it can sync with the Kindle extras, but X-ray never got enabled despite that. What I think is that Shelfari will become a depository for metadata and lose the social functions, or they will build that metadata x-ray function into Goodreads and drop Shelfari all together.

As for reviews - the star ratings are a concern as they mean different things at Goodreads and Amazon, as someone in the thread pointed out earlier. I don't have any stars at Amazon yet some at Goodreads. I don't have any reviews on Amazon at all, yet have one on Goodreads, so would like to have those synced.


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## Vivi_Anna (Feb 12, 2011)

You know we joke and kid and cajole about Amazon's 'world take-over' when in reality its not all that far gone a possibility.

It's the small steps that are taken. One thing at a time.  Buy one thing, make it great, become experts at it, then move onto the next thing.  Make people happy, while buying out the competition one company at a time.  It's a juggernaut to be sure, and it's kind of frightening what the end result with be say in 10 years.


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## MeiLinMiranda (Feb 17, 2011)

I don't worry about Amazon Empire too much. There is always someone hungrier. At some point, Amazon will turn into Microsoft and someone will eat their lunch.


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## Edward W. Robertson (May 18, 2010)

Paul Clayton said:


> One thing I wonder about. Will the Goodread reviews be exported to our book pages at Amazon?


You know, I doubt it. Amazon's built their review system to mean specific things to their customers. GR reviews are so much different that trying to integrate the two would risk messing up Amazon customers' understanding of what reviews mean. I don't think Amazon would risk wrecking their own system without a heck of a good reason. So I'd bet the two sets of reviews remain pretty separate.


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## OliviaF (Feb 3, 2013)

Wow. I only just opened my email about this and there are already three pages in this thread! And apparently I am a Goodreads Librarian though I was never informed of this after applying. At least, that's how the email addressed me...

Anyway, hmmm. I'm not sure what I think about this. I would definitely prefer the two stay separate as there are things I like and dislike about both of them. My fear is that combining them will counteract the good and the bad.

Though I guess only time will tell...


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## dalya (Jul 26, 2011)

Edward W. Robertson said:


> You know, I doubt it. Amazon's built their review system to mean specific things to their customers. GR reviews are so much different that trying to integrate the two would risk messing up Amazon customers' understanding of what reviews mean. I don't think Amazon would risk wrecking their own system without a heck of a good reason. So I'd bet the two sets of reviews remain pretty separate.


Even if they do merge the reviews or import them, we shouldn't be too worried, because it would happen to everyone, across the board.


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## Alan Petersen (May 20, 2011)

Forbes take is interesting:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2013/03/28/amazon-buys-goodreads-take-that-bookish/

From the article that I found very interesting...



> The sale price hasn't been disclosed but seems likely to have been in the low eight digits





> Obviously, Amazon would rather not send potential book buyers to its competitors. But with a new anti-trust lawsuit accusing it (and the six biggest publishers) of wielding too much control over the e-book market, this isn't the time to be seen as acting like a monopoly.


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## OliviaF (Feb 3, 2013)

Dalya said:


> Even if they do merge the reviews or import them, we shouldn't be too worried, because it would happen to everyone, across the board.





Edward W. Robertson said:


> You know, I doubt it. Amazon's built their review system to mean specific things to their customers. GR reviews are so much different that trying to integrate the two would risk messing up Amazon customers' understanding of what reviews mean. I don't think Amazon would risk wrecking their own system without a heck of a good reason. So I'd bet the two sets of reviews remain pretty separate.


Very true about Amazon's review system.

These are both very good points. But I guess we'll just have to wait and see...


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## Edward W. Robertson (May 18, 2010)

Dalya said:


> Even if they do merge the reviews or import them, we shouldn't be too worried, because it would happen to everyone, across the board.


If we're going down, we're all going down together!


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## katherinef (Dec 13, 2012)

Great.    I hope they don't touch anything, but knowing Amazon, they'll going to ruin it.


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## David Alastair Hayden (Mar 19, 2011)

David 'Half-Orc' Dalglish said:


> Dear Amazon,
> 
> Please don't send my Goodreads reviews to my book pages on Amazon. That would hurt and make me sad.
> 
> ...


Dear Amazon,

This David disagrees.

This would be a big help for me. I have more reviews at Goodreads with nearly identical averages.


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## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

Edward W. Robertson said:


> If we're going down, we're all going down together!


So true. So very true.


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## Kent Kelly (Feb 12, 2011)

Hmm, not sure what to think about this.  Previously, my identity at Amazon was that of a writer and my identity at Goodreads was that of a reader, but I wiped out my 300+ GR database of reviewed books last year when GR was being amateurish about things.  People review my books on both sites and I get valuable input, recommendations and contacts from both perspectives.  If it’s all mashed together I don’t see how it’s going to work.  I actually feel comfortable getting 1-star drive-bys from Goodreads, because those are often people who are just telling GR to recommend books more in their genre preference.  And I have some nice reviews on both sites I want to retain.  Also I’m not sure where I’ll go now to chat about books, since I don’t like to be both writer and reader on the same “territory” anywhere on the net.


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## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

David Alastair Hayden said:


> Dear Amazon,
> 
> This David disagrees.
> 
> This would be a big help for me. I have more reviews at Goodreads with nearly identical averages.


You don't know what you're asking. My ratings looked much like yours do right now when I had less than a 100 reviews on each book. The more you have there, the harsher they get. It's sorta a trend.


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## T.P. Grish (Oct 21, 2012)

I have no idea which way this will go, good or bad, but I'm uneasy about the sites being merged in any way as in with reviews and the like.


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## jimkukral (Oct 31, 2011)

This is what you do when you have the big stack at the poker table. Bully everyone into submission. They're a few more big moves away from anti-trust violations. See how far they can push it. Far I bet.

C'mon Google books/play! We need you more than ever now. Do something! Compete!


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## Nicole Ciacchella (May 21, 2012)

I was surprised by this news, and I'm not sure how to feel about it. I've been using Goodreads avidly for years now, long before I started publishing, and I value the site's independence. It's the first source I go to when I'm wavering about whether or not to read a book.

However, I'm also not convinced that Amazon's acquiring it will lead to the downfall of the site. It could mean that, but I'm waiting until I see what Amazon does. There are some things I'd like to see on GR, such as the ability to give away ebooks rather than having to have print copies. This has obvious value for me as an author, but as a reader I'd also prefer electronic ARCs to paper ARCs.

I wouldn't be thrilled if they decided to integrate the ratings. GR and Amazon are two very separate animals when it comes to reviews. But there are also some heavy GR users who copy paste their GR reviews to their Amazon accounts and vice versa so, in some respects, integration wouldn't change things all that much. One thing I would hate with a passion, though, would be if they made downvoting buttons available on GR, because it irks me how much power that gives people to game the review system on Amazon.

One of the first things I did wonder about was how this would affect Kobo's integration of GR reviews onto its site.


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## cekilgore (Oct 31, 2012)

GoodReads community is up in arms (mostly) and are worried about the changes. 

My twitter feed is going mad with apprehensive feedback

even my facebook is going a bit mental right now.

I think people are still reeling from the whole idea of Amazon buying up another smaller, successful area of the book market. 
The main difference is that Goodreads has always been about the conversation of books, where Amazon is all about the consumption of books. My hope is that this doesn't change, that Amazon takes a hard look at the GoodReads rating system and adopts it, and that GoodReads offers Amazon integration features like optional review-sharing and progress tracking.


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## SEAN H. ROBERTSON (Mar 14, 2011)

Harvey said:


> Hmm. I suppose this moves KB up 1 notch in the "largest independent e-book forum" space.


Yes sir. Two words to all of this: What's next?


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## Vince Dickinson (Mar 5, 2013)

I understand people being apprehensive about mergers, and about ginormous firms buying others. I'm never happy about it. But it's done.

Seems to me, and I hope this isn't naive, that Amazon makes money when we make money. So it seems they would be interested in finding ways for us to be more successful, not less.

Otherwise, we'd find or create someplace else to sell our creations.


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## MegSilver (Feb 26, 2012)




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## Christopher Bunn (Oct 26, 2010)

cekilgore said:


> GThe main difference is that Goodreads has always been about the conversation of books, where Amazon is all about the consumption of books.


Yep. Good point. I'm pretty unenthused about Amazon buying them. Obviously, the internal Amazon conversation prior to purchase was all about how this might benefit Amazon. Amazon=selling/making money. Nothing at all wrong with that, but that's not Goodread's reason of being. If the two entities don't jibe, one of 'em has to change and it won't be the guy signing the checks. Goodreads now has to exist to benefit Amazon and Amazon only.

Goodreads reviews, while definitely not perfect, are much more honest than Amazon reviews. If they somehow get acculturated into Amazon's milk-toast review borg, that would be a loss.

Though, hmm... if Goodreads gets assimilated by the borg, perhaps it's time for a new Goodreads to spring up?


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

> "This is what you do when you have the big stack at the poker table. Bully everyone into submission. They're a few more big moves away from anti-trust violations. See how far they can push it. Far I bet."


Bully? How do we know that? Were the owners of GR fighting this? I suspect they are dancing for joy. I agree there are things Amazon can do that would result in anti-trust. But what does GR have to do with anti-trust? What do they sell?


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## A.A (Mar 30, 2012)

I read the news on Goodreads early this morning and thought .... meh .....
I liked Goodreads being independent.


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## Saul Tanpepper (Feb 16, 2012)

Should have seen this coming. Did not see this coming.


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## David Thayer (Sep 7, 2012)

As indies I think we should be glad that Amazon made this move rather than Random House or Pearson adding Goodreads to the Bookish model where self publishers need not apply.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Caddy said:


> So I wonder if they are ditching Shelfari?


Exactly my thought.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

I was going to spend some time on Shelfari this weekend because I like the way some of that shows up on the book pages. 
I think I'll hold off now.


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## JGray (Mar 7, 2012)

DDark said:


> Goodreads has IMO been responsible for making some Indies. They are huge in promoting books (readers, not Goodreads itself).


I credit GR's reviewers for the success of my DISARM series on Barnes & Noble. A lot of their top reviewers aren't even from the US.

If GR becomes a "Kindle Only" site, then I suspect people with Nooks/Kobos/etc. will be unjoining by the droves.


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

David Thayer said:


> As indies I think we should be glad that Amazon made this move rather than Random House or Pearson adding Goodreads to the Bookish model where self publishers need not apply.


I'm not well acquainted with GR from a consumer's perspective. Could it have been used as a platform by another company to launch an online bookstore?


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## Marti talbott (Apr 19, 2011)

Personally, I have 68 reviews and 350 ratings on GoodReads. I'd love it if they showed up on Amazon, even the bad ones. Getting reviews on Amazon has been like pulling teeth. I haven't' figured out how to get Kobo connected to the GoodReads reviews, so I guess now I won't bother. I do wish Amazon would allow ratings now that the likes and tags are gone. I like the freedom readers have when they can rate a book without having to write a review.

I did hear Kobo is planning a message board soon. Don't remember where I saw that.


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## Victoria Champion (Jun 6, 2012)

Quiss said:


> I was going to spend some time on Shelfari this weekend because I like the way some of that shows up on the book pages.
> I think I'll hold off now.


I hope they don't delete all the metadata I entered for my books at Shelfari (which show on my Amazon product page). I think they will port it to Goodreads if they close Shelfari.


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## Victoria Champion (Jun 6, 2012)

I've been reading the comments at Goodread's Facebook. A great many readers are saying that Amazon crushes indie authors? Huh? Where does such a misperception come from?


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## Guest (Mar 28, 2013)

I'm not sure what to make of this.

On one hand, Amazon bought Shelfari and then has pretty much left it alone. The reviews don't automatically post to Amazon (though you can access the book data if you want to on the kindle) and for the most part it has been business as usual. If Goodreads is able to continue to be Goodreads, then all will be right with the world.

But I'm still slightly miffed at how Amazon handled the Mobipocket site. They bought Mobipocket and then shut it down, forcing thousands of small presses into KDP and cutting off a source of ebooks to hundreds of smaller sites that didn't have the infrastructure to manually add books one at a time. Lots of those smaller sellers folded because they couldn't get a system in place quickly enough to recover from being cut off from their entire inventory. 

I'd like to think that Harvey's idea that this is an accounting motivated purchase (paying out so much in affiliate fees that they just as well own the company) is the reason.


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## James Bruno (Mar 15, 2011)

I, for one, have deep, deep reservations about this. I love Amazon. Unlike many, however, I detest Goodreads. Amazon at least tries to police its reviews system. GR, on the other hand, is like the Wild West. Anything goes. I find too many GR reviewers to be hyper-snarky and caustic. We authors will need to watch this acquisition very closely.


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## Guest (Mar 28, 2013)

Victoria Champion said:


> I've been reading the comments at Goodread's Facebook. A great many readers are saying that Amazon crushes indie authors? Huh? Where does such a misperception come from?


It may be more accurate to say Amazon crushes indie authors that do not play by their rules. Goodreads is indie friendly because it connects you with books on Smashwords, BN, and dozens of other sites (including print books with no ebook format...believe it or not there are still lots of those.) The concern is that this is another step toward forcing indies into Amazon exclusive deals.


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## Wansit (Sep 27, 2012)

One of the first things that are changing - Goodreads is going to add Kindle Cloud Reader right on the book page so readers can check out an excerpt.

http://paidcontent.org/2013/03/28/first-do-no-harm-my-interview-with-amazon-and-goodreads-on-the-future-of-goodreads/


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## Guest (Mar 28, 2013)

James Bruno said:


> I, for one, have deep, deep reservations about this. I love Amazon. Unlike many, however, I detest Goodreads. Amazon at least tries to police its reviews system. GR, on the other hand, is like the Wild West. Anything goes. I find too many GR reviewers to be hyper-snarky and caustic. We authors will need to watch this acquisition very closely.


That's because Goodreads is a READER SITE. Readers talking to other readers. They feel free to be honest.


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## B. Justin Shier (Apr 1, 2011)

Terrence OBrien said:


> I'm not well acquainted with GR from a consumer's perspective. Could it have been used as a platform by another company to launch an online bookstore?


Bingo.

IOW: "Retain your ability to act, and deny your enemy the ability to act. This is the sole principle of weddings." -Martha Stewart

B.


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

cekilgore said:


> GoodReads community is up in arms (mostly) and are worried about the changes.


I've seen pretty much the same, especially from indie authors.

I'm thinking, though, that this might not be a bad thing at all for indie authors. Most indie author ebook sales obviously come from Amazon. Anything that results in a better, higher-profile integration of GR and Amazon - even just a clear Amazon buy button at the bottom of any GR book page - could help those sales.


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## jackz4000 (May 15, 2011)

One would almost think this was a hostile takeover on Amazon's part. The GR owners appear to be thrilled with the deal and they seem to really care about their site. This is just business transaction. Of course big pubs are whining, yet if B&N had done the deal they would be applauding.


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## Wansit (Sep 27, 2012)

DDark said:


> I'm still waiting for the news on established Indies being able to set up pre-ordering.


But what constitutes an established indie? A minimum sales quota? (Agent/Lawyer) representation? It would be an interesting debate.


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## Robert Bidinotto (Mar 3, 2011)

I may have missed a mention of it here, but Hugh has just weighed in, and I agree with every single word of what he writes...even the naughty ones:

[URL=http://www.hughhowey]http://www.hughhowey.com/amazon-and-goodreads/#more-3509[/url]


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## James Bruno (Mar 15, 2011)

To assert GR is a readers' site and Amazon is not does not compute.


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## Victoria Champion (Jun 6, 2012)

I'm just flabbergasted at the misconceptions that Goodreads users seem to have, if the comments are anything to go by over at their blog and facebook -- about how indie publishing works, especially.

Another point: Goodreads is a free site. What that means and has always meant on the internet is that the _user_ is the product, and that the user's info is data mined for later sale to the highest bidder. This is how Facebook, Google, etc... work. The naivety and outrage of Goodreads users that their content is now owned by Amazon is something that should not still be happening in 2013. They never owned that content in the first place. Anytime one inserts data into a free site, they are giving that site permission to analyze and sell the generated statistics and user preferences to advertisers. There should be a public education PSA or something to educate the users of the internet about how it works. Also, again, the site is free to use. Really, why do they feel they can complain about it?

Also, I'm not trying to be condescending, I am actually baffled that people still don't understand these fundamentals.


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## Robert Bidinotto (Mar 3, 2011)

+1 Victoria.


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## Guest (Mar 28, 2013)

James Bruno said:


> To assert GR is a readers' site and Amazon is not does not compute.


Amazon is a retail outlet. I don't visit Amazon to "hang out". I visit Amazon to buy things.I go to Goodreads to connect with Readers, and Readers go to Goodreads to connect with other readers to discuss books.


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## kCopeseeley (Mar 15, 2011)

Wansit said:


> One of the first things that are changing - Goodreads is going to add Kindle Cloud Reader right on the book page so readers can check out an excerpt.
> 
> http://paidcontent.org/2013/03/28/first-do-no-harm-my-interview-with-amazon-and-goodreads-on-the-future-of-goodreads/


Glad someone posted this, I was just going to. It answers your question, Hugh. Supposedly the Kobo review feed will not be going away.


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## BrianKittrell (Jan 8, 2011)

Terrence OBrien said:


> I'm not well acquainted with GR from a consumer's perspective. Could it have been used as a platform by another company to launch an online bookstore?


Technically, they sold books already, but I don't know the figures on how many used them or how many readers actually bought from there.

I think the purchase of GoodReads has several implications:
- More direct marketing to readers.
- More control of readers' go-to places.
- Control of the existing review base. Kobo, for one, links to GR reviews as a part of their review system. Now, they may have to develop (or improve) their own system.

Those are the most obvious ones that have a higher likelihood of happening. The rest is speculation. Such as,
- Extending Amazon review importance into a different venue. i.e., Amazon reviews are shown first, GR reviews second.
- Possibly phasing out the GR review system. Possibly importing GR reviews directly onto Amazon and eliminating the GR side of it as an independent source.
- Eliminating the Amazon community forums in favor of integrating them into the GR site, perhaps? Letting readers go wild in a less restrictive space? Moving to a less-moderation model?
- Getting rid of a few anti-Amazon voices or, by mode of purchasing the GR site, the anti-Amazon crowd will move on to other pastures?

Too early to call, I think. And they could keep everything the same.


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## H. S. St. Ours (Mar 24, 2012)

Dara England said:


> I'm not sure I like this idea. I wonder if it means Goodreads will now import reviews from Amazon or Amazon from Goodreads? I hope not, since I prefer them seperate.


This. And I wonder if they'll retain the same club feeling. I like my Apocalypse Whenever group. (Thanks, Gertie!)


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## Nessa Quill (Jul 16, 2011)

Just signed on and saw this. Well, shazzam!


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## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

I make most of my sales from Amazon and spend most of my time on Goodreads as far as forums, etc. go, so seems like a great move for me.


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## Janet Michelson (Jun 20, 2012)

Is this what it was like to witness the shift from telegraph to telephone? Horses to cars? Gaslight to electricity? (No, I was NOT alive when those things happened! I'm not THAT old!) 

I get goosebumpy thinking about all the amazing changes in publishing these past few years. And we get to be a a part of it.


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## Hugh Howey (Feb 11, 2012)

scottmarlowe said:


> I make most of my sales from Amazon and spend most of my time on Goodreads as far as forums, etc. go, so seems like a great move for me.


That was my reaction as well.


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## sbaum4853 (May 3, 2010)

This was all about getting Goodreads out of play. If Apple or Google were serious about competing with Amazon, they would have outbid them on this one.


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## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

The 3rd comment made on the Goodreads' blog announcement:

http://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/413-exciting-news-about-goodreads-we-re-joining-the-amazon-family?utm_source=MadMimi&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Goodreads+Joins+the+Amazon+Family&utm_campaign=20130328_m115598300_Librarian+Email+Re%3A+Amazon&utm_term=our+blog

"for me, I would like to be able to post one review and have it go to both sites"

And,

"I'm excited to not feel pressured to review and/or rate books on both sites separately. I'm assuming those will be integrated?"

"Oh, I second Jacquie. That would be fablous to have the reviews linked!"


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## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> That's because Goodreads is a READER SITE. Readers talking to other readers. They feel free to be honest.


If they want it to be a reader site they should stop asking their reader-members to send sycophantic letters to authors to join GR. In fact, maybe they should just ban writers altogether.


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## David Alastair Hayden (Mar 19, 2011)

Deanna Chase said:


> You don't know what you're asking. My ratings looked much like yours do right now when I had less than a 100 reviews on each book. The more you have there, the harsher they get. It's sorta a trend.


Interesting. My averages on Goodreads have been trending upward, so my hope was that that would continue.


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## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

Victoria Champion said:


> I'm just flabbergasted at the misconceptions that Goodreads users seem to have, if the comments are anything to go by over at their blog and facebook -- about how indie publishing works, especially.
> 
> Another point: Goodreads is a free site. What that means and has always meant on the internet is that the _user_ is the product, and that the user's info is data mined for later sale to the highest bidder. This is how Facebook, Google, etc... work. The naivety and outrage of Goodreads users that their content is now owned by Amazon is something that should not still be happening in 2013. They never owned that content in the first place. Anytime one inserts data into a free site, they are giving that site permission to analyze and sell the generated statistics and user preferences to advertisers. There should be a public education PSA or something to educate the users of the internet about how it works. Also, again, the site is free to use. Really, why do they feel they can complain about it?
> 
> Also, I'm not trying to be condescending, I am actually baffled that people still don't understand these fundamentals.


I stopped some time ago putting original content on those sites. Just links to original content on my own website, which I control.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

I absolutely do NOT want my goodreads reviews to show on Amazon. No way, no how. If I wanted to have them on Amazon, I would have posted them there in the first place. They are not going to do that. At least not without a opt out. 
Otherwise I would have to delete all my reviews. I am not going to be part of the down vote mob and get belittled. That is why I am on goodreads, to hang with other readers. Its a reader friendly site. As long as it stays like that its good. Readers first.


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## Paul Clayton (Sep 12, 2009)

vrabinec said:


> So, will an author be in violation of the TOC if he goes to goodreads and gets in on one of the discussion groups' critique of another author's work? Isn't that leaving a review of a fellow author's work?


OMG. Yeah, that would be another avenue for psychos and their merry bands. Wow, never thought of that.


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## Victoria J (Jul 5, 2011)

I preferred Shelfari. I wonder what will happen now.


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

I like that this is happening.

I never cared much for Shelfari. Bringing Goodreads into the Amazon fold is an immediate upgrade.

I know Goodreads is criticized by some as less visual, more old-school, etc., but it just works. I like it. Hopefully they don't get a complete Shelfari-inspired makeover and are allowed to be the great writers-n-readers site they already are.


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## Kathy Clark Author (Dec 18, 2012)

As Harvey summarized the Amazon chronology with such conciseness following today's announcement is just another step in the natural consolidation of the market.  Every successful business goes through this phase so it is not really a surprise and certainly not the last that will occur.  BN will not likely survive as the brick and mortar continues to soak up money needed for expansion, innovation and acquisition and readers will will slowly fade away because they are no longer relevant compared to the lternatives.  There will be more to the extent what they do adds value to either readers and / or authors.  I say combine reviews and make it easier for readers to assess a book and author.


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

CraigInTwinCities said:


> I like that this is happening.
> 
> I never cared much for Shelfari. Bringing Goodreads into the Amazon fold is an immediate upgrade.
> 
> I know Goodreads is criticized by some as less visual, more old-school, etc., but it just works. I like it. Hopefully they don't get a complete Shelfari-inspired makeover and are allowed to be the great writers-n-readers site they already are.


And that's precisely why Goodreads works better than Shelfari. Readers by defiintion are not visual, but "textual" a.k.a. verbally inclined.

The fewer visual gizmos there are, the less distraction for a verbal person. Goodreads in its visually clean old-school simplicity is immersive for me, while Shelfari just makes me want to leave in a hurry...


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## jvin248 (Jan 31, 2012)

.
Inevitable this would happen .. the market power to make authors has been happening the last year at GR (think of all those NA titles). 
-"half" the top ten to twenty books on Amazon got there from GR pushes. 
-Sixteen million readers, avid voracious readers, are a huge group to sell to
-Risk to Amazon is if GR decided to say "hey indie authors, why don't you set up exclusive shop over here and we'll sell your books" (think NA genre performance). 
.
GR has had the largest key to new author discoverability - all based on the user interaction/networks. The key mechanism to watch is how readers will push book sales now. Will they abandon GR for some other site? Do the readers value their "assets" of reviews so much they don't want to leave? Obviously the top "hundreds" of reviewers won't want to abandon the site but the long tail of the others could move very easily. Most likely Amazon will run GR quite separately with only minor visible changes like a "buy now" button or two. For a while.
.
.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

jvin248 said:


> .
> -"half" the top ten to twenty books on Amazon got there from GR pushes.


And that happened because readers were left alone. There was no "selling" to us. We felt safe talking to each other about these books, recommending these books. That is how we found them. Word of mouth at its best. Between readers.

For now I am hoping they leave the site just as it is. A site for readers to yak about books. 
If I want to be sold to, I go to Amazon to look around.


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## Avis Black (Jun 12, 2012)

I'll have to see how it all plays out, but so far, I'm not too keen on the idea.  I use Goodreads as a reader, not as an author, and I have several hundred reviews there that I've posted over the last five years, plus a few thousand star ratings.  Since Amazon worries a lot about the ethics of authors reviewing--which I can understand--I'm going to have to delete everything I've done, plus my account, if Amazon changes their review policy to bring it in line with what they have on their own site.  That's goodbye to a lot of work on my part.  Maybe someone else will set up a review site that's independent of Amazon.  If so, I'd join them.  As other people have mentioned, there is something about the way Amazon is set up that discourages reviewing on their site.


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## MeiLinMiranda (Feb 17, 2011)

I wouldn't mind my GR reviews going to Amazon. My main book has 30 Amazon reviews and 140 GR reviews with similar averages; its sequel has 11 Amazon reviews and 48 GR reviews with similar averages. And several other of my books with no reviews at Amazon have a handful at GR.

Otherwise, I'm a little conflicted. Not sure how I feel about it.


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## Guest (Mar 29, 2013)

Avis Black said:


> I'll have to see how it all plays out, but so far, I'm not too keen on the idea. I use Goodreads as a reader, not as an author, and I have several hundred reviews there that I've posted over the last five years, plus a few thousand star ratings. Since Amazon worries a lot about the ethics of authors reviewing--which I can understand--I'm going to have to delete everything I've done, plus my account, if Amazon changes their review policy to bring it in line with what they have on their own site. That's goodbye to a lot of work on my part. Maybe someone else will set up a review site that's independent of Amazon. If so, I'd join them. As other people have mentioned, there is something about the way Amazon is set up that discourages reviewing on their site.


To be fair, Amazon has not tried to institute such a policy on Shelfari and they have owned it for some time (and Shelfari is integrated with Amazon to a degree). And I would guess Amazon realize they would play hell trying to police that. It's like it would be one thing for Barnes and Noble saying "Look, you can't walk up and down the aisles recommending your own book or trying to dissuade people from buying the competition." It would be another for Barnes and Noble to say "We just bought the coffee shop down the street. You are no longer allowed to recommend your own book or dissuade people from buying other books in that building."


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## Adam Poe (Apr 2, 2012)

That was not expected! I hope they don't merge all goodreads reviews/ratings onto Amazon, though! Reviewers sometimes seem much harsher on there.


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## Ben Mathew (Jan 27, 2013)

MeiLinMiranda said:


> I don't worry about Amazon Empire too much. There is always someone hungrier. At some point, Amazon will turn into Microsoft and someone will eat their lunch.


My take as well.


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## D.L. Shutter (Jul 9, 2011)

Hmm, waiting to see long it will take Turow to issue his press release that this will destroy literary culture, implode the book industry and harm readers beyond comprehension.

Stopwatch ready, and...mark!


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## TiffanyTurner (Jun 8, 2009)

vrabinec said:


> So, will an author be in violation of the TOC if he goes to goodreads and gets in on one of the discussion groups' critique of another author's work? Isn't that leaving a review of a fellow author's work?


  I think this was my biggest concern when I read the news. I remember the review battles between Amazon and Goodreads a few years ago. It got me doing more reviews on my blog, and less on both. That whole owning your own content thing goes a long way when you write for your own blog. Plus, having been a Goodreads member for 3 years with over 145 ratings and reviews, I felt my opinion was valued. Sometimes, you just want to talk about a good book that you've read, and not be singled out as an author.

I kind of moved away from Amazon reviewing since there was some kind of invasion of the body snatchers thing going on over there. You know, where if a body snatcher sees a real human, there is the inevitable..."AHHHH", right? I was starting to feel over at Amazon, fingers pointing with that snatcher look..."A-U-T-H-OR". And when they moved all of the authors to their "Author Corner", I felt I wasn't really valued as a reader or consumer there.

At least at Goodreads I could say a real opinion and be valued. Depending how things pan out, the KB board might be our only bastion of hope to be able to voice our writer opinions freely. At least I still feel comfortable with you all. 

Plus, I do Goodreads giveaways for books, and I'm running an ad right now for my new book that just released. I'm waiting for the ebook to go through. Hopefully, very soon of course, and right now it's on Kobo. I'm not sure how this new set up is going to affect me as an Indie Author. Makes me a bit wary.

*Sigh* There might be some good out of this. There has been a "Premium Authors Program" button for some time that hasn't changed. It has been reading "under development" for awhile. Maybe that will start to roll out soon.


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## SEAN H. ROBERTSON (Mar 14, 2011)

MeiLinMiranda said:


> I wouldn't mind my GR reviews going to Amazon. My main book has 30 Amazon reviews and 140 GR reviews with similar averages; its sequel has 11 Amazon reviews and 48 GR reviews with similar averages. And several other of my books with no reviews at Amazon have a handful at GR.
> 
> Otherwise, I'm a little conflicted. Not sure how I feel about it.


Your same situation is akin to my vampire series on GR...many more ratings & reviews than on Amazon. Still scratching my head on this one.


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## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

Otis Chandler (in his blog post on Goodreads):

_"We are joining the Amazon family. We truly could not think of a more perfect partner for Goodreads as we both share a love of books and an appreciation for the authors who write them."_


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

TiffanyTurner said:


> I kind of moved away from Amazon reviewing since there was some kind of invasion of the body snatchers thing going on over there. You know, where if a body snatcher sees a real human, there is the inevitable..."AHHHH", right? I was starting to feel over at Amazon, fingers pointing with that snatcher look..."A-U-T-H-OR". And when they moved all of the authors to their "Author Corner", I felt I wasn't really valued as a reader or consumer there.


Same here. I stopped reviewing at Amazon around that time. I don't review anything any more for "fear" of the finger pointing jerks who think I can't be unbiased when I read a good book and want to tell people how great it is. I stopped reviewing less good books even before that because of the same thing. As if reading a mystery and thinking it lack-luster had any connection to my own work as a sci-fi author. Get real!


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## Lisa Grace (Jul 3, 2011)

Sounds like this might be a viable way to get rich...

Acccording to DBW, Goodreads was in the process of openning its own bookstore, as  you know awhile ago they started selling books  and actually took Amazon coding off book pages when Amazon made it a problem for them. ( I had to go in and have librarians go in and relaod all my covers since I had them linked through Amazon).

Greg at ENT, Michael at Kindle Books and Tips, Bookbub people, open bookstores! 

Amazon's philosophy: If you can't drive the competition out of business, buy them.


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## amishromanceauthor (Sep 27, 2012)

If there hasn't been enough lively debate on this topic here, reddit has a pretty extensive thread on the buyout as well:
http://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/1b75y3/amazon_acquires_bookbased_social_network_goodreads/


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I've merged another thead in the Writers' Café with this thread.  Sorry for any confusion.

Betsy


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## Michael_J_Sullivan (Aug 3, 2011)

DDark said:


> I hope they stop the ability to rate a book before it's released. That's a peeve of mine to see a book with 4000 5-star reviews that won't be released for another 5 months, simply because of exuberant fans.


I agree with you - except it would be nice for beta readers or those who get advanced reading copies to be able to post.


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## DJ Edwardson (Mar 15, 2013)

I don't know what's going to happen at goodreads either, but I found this article had a good overview of some of the concerns that are being bandied about as well as some potential silver linings for authors.

http://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/2013/03/29/why-amazons-purchase-of-goodreads-is-a-good-thing/

In particular, I think one of the positives he is hoping for would be a very good thing:



> Amazon's recommendation algorithms will be vastly improved with all the data that Goodreads has been collecting. Anything that makes Amazon a more trusted source for book recommendations levels the playing field for self-publishers - the vast majority of whom make 90% (or more) of their sales at Amazon, despite the Kindle only having around 60% of the market.


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

There are lots of options for Amazon. One of them is to leave the thing alone and pull off the data for Amazon's use. Nobody else gets it. In that case, GR becomes a data mine.

Does B&N give affiliate fees? Does GR get them?


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## Amera (May 22, 2011)

As a matter of principles I don't like mergers because they are often worse for the customers, but I'll wait and see what direction Amazon decides to take it. It's always possible that I/we will benefit from it personally via the mechanisms others have mentioned.


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

Those companies often face the prospect of merging, being acquired, or failing.


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## Desmond X. Torres (Mar 16, 2013)

Back in February, I mentioned to my Partner KD McLean, that it would not surprise me in the least if Amazon bought out Goodreads. The NY Times had done an article about them, and the point of it was that GR aids readers in discovering books. 

When I grew up in NYC, and as a young guy, I looooved a bookstore in lower Manhatten. I don’t even know if it’s still there. It was The Strand Bookstore. They had over 1M titles in stock between new and used. All the staff were avid and knowledgeable readers, and loved discussing books. There was no latte bar, no comfy chairs, no do-dads and gee gaws by the register as impulse items. If a book interested you, you stood in front of the stack and perused it. It was book and reader focused, unlike the large B&N store a few blocks away with the large displays of hardcover best sellers as you walked in, and all that other stuff.

Both The Strand and B&N were retailers, yes. But it seems to me that they approached the same goal from two different perspectives. B&N, and this was back in the 70’s, was a homogenized corporate experience built around getting a customer to buy something. The Strand was more ad hoc- and was centered on books as the experience in and of itself. I can’t say that any better; but if you have a large used bookstore in your area, I think you know what I mean. 

I think that this merger (Absorption? Assmimilation? Buy Out?) has the potential of being a very good thing. I believe that GR’s focus on readers as readers, not customers is an important voice to have at the table when Amazon is planning strategy. I hope they’re listened to.

I can’t help but think of the history of the automotive industry. If my understanding’s correct, General Motors came about as a result of consolidation in the car industry. Buick, Chevrolet, Pontiac, Cadillac and so on were separate companies at one point. Ditto for Chrysler/Plymouth/Dodge and Ford/Lincoln/Mercury right? 

This consolidation is a natural progress in business I think. It has risks, sure. But if they don’t get it right, I think Smashwords will be more than happy to take advantage of any shortcomings.  Honda and Volkswagon sure did.


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## PaulLev (Nov 2, 2012)

Harvey said:


> This does seem in line with Amazon's market-dominance strategy. A look at some of their past acquisitions:
> 
> 2005: BookSurge, a print on demand company
> 2005: Mobipocket.com, an eBook software company.
> ...


And add to that Amazon's acquiring IMDB back in 1998 - which is an instructive case, given that IMDB is enormously respected and has no overt connection to Amazon, i.e., Amazon has apparently let IMDB develop on its own.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Amazon apparently also owns Zappos.com, a company shoe-lovers all know, though they may not be aware that it's an Amazon company.

We'll all have to wait and see what happens with GoodReads.

Betsy


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## D/W (Dec 29, 2010)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Amazon apparently also owns Zappos.com, a company shoe-lovers all know, though they may not be aware that it's an Amazon company.


Amazon.com acquired Quidsi, Inc., in 2010 too. Quidsi operates Diapers.com, Soap.com, BeautyBar.com, Wag.com, Yoyo.com, Casa.com, Vine.com, AfterSchool.com, and Bookworm.com.


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## Desmond X. Torres (Mar 16, 2013)

*Is there anything they DON'T OWN?? *


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

KBoards.


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## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

Desmond X. Torres said:


> *Is there anything they DON'T OWN?? *


http://quilting.com/

Not yet, anyway.


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## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

I'm late to the party - but I thought I'd post a link to my latest blog entry - AMAZON AND GOODREADS SITTING IN A TREE...

http://stevevernonstoryteller.wordpress.com/2013/03/30/amazon-and-goodreads-sitting-in-a-tree/


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## SEAN H. ROBERTSON (Mar 14, 2011)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> KBoards.


That's right. I wonder if Harvey has a price in the back of his brilliant mind.


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## Guest (Mar 30, 2013)

SEAN H. ROBERTSON said:


> That's right. I wonder if Harvey has a price in the back of his brilliant mind.


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## Chris A. Jackson (Jun 14, 2011)

Wow. We're hoping that Amazon lets Goodreads retain its independence. We just bought real eISBNs and put our books up on Kobo, loving the link to our Goodreads reviews. Now...who knows if those view might disappear from Kobo and end up on Amazon.


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

Chris A. Jackson said:


> Wow. We're hoping that Amazon lets Goodreads retain its independence. We just bought real eISBNs and put our books up on Kobo, loving the link to our Goodreads reviews. Now...who knows if those view might disappear from Kobo and end up on Amazon


One factor is the contract GR has with Kobo. That survives the acquisition.


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## Victoria Champion (Jun 6, 2012)

Terrence OBrien said:


> One factor is the contract GR has with Kobo. That survives the acquisition.


How do you know that? Did you read it somewhere?


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

Victoria Champion said:


> How do you know that? Did you read it somewhere?


I know contracts survive because it's basic business law. The acquiring company takes on all assets, liabilities, and contractual obligations of the acquired company. This is an acquisition, not a sale of assets or bankruptcy.

I don't know Kobo and GR have a contract, but I suspect the people smart enough to build Rakuten and GR are smart enough to define their agreement with a contract. However, I don't know the terms of that contract.


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

DDark said:


> I hope they stop the ability to rate a book before it's released. That's a peeve of mine to see a book with 4000 5-star reviews that won't be released for another 5 months, simply because of exuberant fans.


That's just access to Advance Reading Copies (ARCs).

Anyone who provides uncorrected galley proofs or reader copies to reviewers will get advance reviews for their forthcoming book.

It's perfectly normal, and part of what generates buzz.


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## jdfield (Oct 4, 2011)

Does this mean that there's now a vacancy for a massive, independent, readers forum? I'm going to go and start. "Better Reads" now...


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Indie Goodreads ads are in a more strategic location on book pages now, in the "news feed" of the book page, so to speak, instead of off to the right. My ad clicks have tripled. GJ Amazon!


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