The Power of Amazon--Good or Bad--and Social Media Pages on Web Sites

 It wasn't too long ago that I noticed the difference in activity on Goodreads. It was the day that Amazon.com took the reins of that site. My e-mail box was flooded with invitations to be a Goodreads friend.

This, of course, speaks to the power of Amazon. Or influence. Call it what you will. I call it algorithms—though that’s only part of how Amazon affects the publishing industry including their search engine capabilities.

Amazon was a giant to be reckoned with before they took on Goodreads, of course. They started as an online bookseller, created Kindle e-reader, moved into book publishing and contests to give them an advantage in finding great content for their publishing, and now they’re on their way to dominating (if they haven’t already), the social networking of readers, authors, and publishers.

Though a member of Goodreads (and Safari and Library Thing), I admit that I’ve not been active and know little about how to mine their benefits. I can see that has to change. I encourage subscribers to this blog to submit articles (yes, I give ample credits complete with buylinks to their books!) to me to publish in my newsletter (http://howtodoitfrugally.com)  or on this blog (http://SharingwithWriters.blogspot.com) . Or send me tips for your favorite way to utilize Goodreads’ power. We’re all in this together.

In the meantime, I urge you all to include a social network on your Web site page. Few authors have one. It is less important now that we have the little logos to encourage people to click, follow, join, like, etc. But those—really—are the bare bones. The media, agents, publishers and more want to know where to find your social networks and how your relate to them.

If you need to see how to set a social media page lup, find mine at http://howtodoitfrugally.com/social_media.htm and here is my Goodreads URL (sad as the pages now appear!) http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/408377.Carolyn_Howard_Johnson.

In other words, let me help you with some things, but don’t follow my Goodreads example unless you take from it the idea that no one of us can be everywhere doing everything for our books. Sometimes we have to make choices.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor .