Something about this book sucks...

Goodreads announced an update to its review policy over the weekend, the first public change it has made since being sold to Amazon earlier this year. In brief, reviews and comments will be screened for personal attacks on other members, and for non-book-related content in general.

This concerns me mostly because my most popular book review is not actually a review of the book under which it is posted. That's right, I'm a violator. (But it's a positive comment about the author, so I'm guessing no one is reporting it.) In case you find this completely out of bounds, though, Bookriot offers a number of Goodreads alternatives with book pros and cons.

I am the 19%

Feast your eyes (or not) on this terrifying chart from the Codex Group, based on surveys of about 30,000 American readers. The Atlantic uses it to explain who Amazon is hoping to target with its Goodreads purchase: the 43 million Americans who read 12 or more books a year. Yup. Unlike yesterday's Philip Roth post, this is real. 

Social media for authors: Play now, get to work later

Last night I went to a panel called "Getting Published and Beyond in the 21st Century," about the interaction between publishing and social media. This was one of those instances where work life overlaps with blog life -- the panel was offered as part of Social Media Week in New York, and just that morning I had been sitting in on a presentation from one of my day job clients -- and which I find strangely satisfying.

A mix of authors, publicists and literary leading lights populated the panel; the initial draw for me was Emma Straub, author and bookseller, who credited social media with the jump she just made from a small press to Riverhead with her book OTHER PEOPLE WE MARRIED, but that was before they announced that the Goodreads executive on panel would be founder/CEO Otis Chandler. I think everyone on panel gave sound advice though for writers (but not only them) just getting involved in social media. They all seem like common sense, but if you've spent any time on the Internet lately you'll notice there isn't a lot of that to spare out there: 

Find the social media you're "easy and comfortable with using," because those are the ones that will stick. That's from Amanda Pritzker, a publicist at Penguin, but others echoed that the kind of interactions that correlate to one outlet may not make the same impact on another (or, why nobody on Facebook cares about my tweets). Ron Hogan, who used to be the blog mastermind behind Galleycat and is now an independent consultant, stressed connecting all of your outlets to one central page (either a website or a blog) where you can put as much information as you want without putting it in a Facebook-sized box. Straub brought up the case of "Sugar," the anonymous-no-longer advice columnist for The Rumpus who revealed her identity last night and, coincidentally, has a memoir coming out in a month. Maybe an anonymous platform wouldn't work for most people but it sure seems to be going well for her. (It's Cheryl Strayed, by the way, and I hear her memoir is fantastic.)

Build up your social-media network before you need it for promotions. Pritzker again: "If authors don't have a platform they can market to, I can't do that for them." Hogan: "It's okay to sell Tupperware at a Tupperware party, but if it's not a Tupperware party -- don't bring your Tupperware." One of the best audience questions involved an actual hopeful author, with an agent, who wanted suggestions on how to build up his network around the subject of his book (baseball, nonfiction/history) before even getting a deal. Blogger Kristin Gdula even said "There is someone out there on the Internet who will listen to what you have to say," which is brave though possibly exaggerated.

Be genuine and don't freak out too much about saying the right thing. Because it's unavoidable this week, there was a little discussion of how convicted felon (and singer) Chris Brown responded to people on Twitter who were criticizing his role in the Grammys, then tried to delete the evidence -- and how most of us don't need "handlers" to tell us how to behave, on social media or elsewhere. The goal if you're marketing yourself is to give people something to do (Like my Facebook page! Comment here to win a giveaway of my book!) but also to establish a tone that goes with your book and your expertise that you're establishing. Straub: "The message the publisher wants you to be on is your message."

The panel was hosted by Pubslush, a startup where people can post 10 pages of their manuscripts for people to preorder them in print, with all manuscripts getting 1000 preorders automatically going into print. (So, self-publishing and Kickstarter walk into a bar...) Finally, here is a funny and somewhat germane illustration from Pantheon Books on Tumblr:

What it's like to read books on an iPad

The first book I finished in 2012 was Matt Bondurant's THE NIGHT SWIMMER (liked it!) Because I had an e-galley it was also the first book I started and finished on my new-to-me iPad.

I love gadgets but had held off on buying myself an iPad for the usual reasons -- cost, wariness of what the first few generations would be able and unable to do, lack of pressing need for another consumptive media device. I'm also not a huge touchscreen person, as the last person in New York to voluntarily get a Blackberry (and you know what it does really well? It makes phone calls ahem). Playing with it has definitely reignited that sense of fun I had when I got my first mp3 player, and I haven't even gotten addicted to Angry Birds yet -- but, as everyone warned, it is better suited to consuming media than creating, as I struggle through composing an email longer than three sentences.

Kindle books on an iPad can be accessed through the free Amazon app and downloaded manually one-by-one from your existing Kindle library. So far I haven't bought any books through the Kindle app on the iPad or iBooks, just taught myself how to sync the app and the Kindle (a process in itself). Once I did that I was able to ping-pong back and forth between both with the same book, a trick that probably delighted only me, but if both devices are on and connected to wireless internet, one will alert you if you are on a further location with the other and prompt you to jump ahead. It only gets confusing if you remember a paragraph being at a particular location on one page, and then find it in a different place on the other device.

The major advantage I see so far in reading in Kindle for iPad over Kindle itself is the backlit screen, making it unnecessary to turn another light on; the major disadvantage, the attraction that an iPad might have to people on the subway who would not consider a Kindle worth stealing. Being able to flip back and forth while reading to my email or Google Reader is a draw; I don't need the interruption, although it was nice to manage both in one device.

I haven't done a really thorough exploration of the literary or reading-related apps out there, so I'd welcome your suggestions. I will say that the Goodreads app is lovely and so easy to refresh I almost wished that I had more Goodreads friends.

Stuff We Love: Goodreads "New Books by Authors You've Read" Newsletter

If you're not already on Goodreads, either you're missing out on a bundle of social networking fun or you likely don't have a desk job (or both).

I can't remember when they started doing this, but I've been getting a newsletter at the beginning of every month featuring books by authors whose books I've listed before. Okay, so I knew Sarah Vowell had a new book out but not about John Elder Robison's second book, nor Mike Daisey's ROUGH MAGIC. I consider myself pretty well steeped in book news but this just goes to show, some things would still slip through the cracks otherwise. Kudos!

A new, puzzling addition to the Goodreads metadata:

I can understand a certain type of pickiness when it comes to perspective, but I feel they could have been more creative with the examples. I.e.

1st person ("In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.")
2nd person ("You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the morning.")
3rd person ("It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.")

(or)

1st person ("I'll march my band out, I'll beat my drum")
2nd person ("You wait, little girl, on an empty stage")
3rd person ("The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plan")

I could go on...

What Karl Rove's book club is reading

Right now it's Brad Thor's FOREIGN INFLUENCE, a thriller about an ex-Navy SEAL working for a DoD contractor to solve the detonation of a bus of American tourists in Rome. Rove and cofounder Clayton Morris, a Fox News Channel anchor, want you to vote on what they're going to read next in Karl and Clayton's Summer Book Club; they've pledged to read a book a week through August.

You may remember Karl Rove as the guy who revealed to the world that George W. Bush was a big reader. Here's the man himself dancing like a nut and rapping in a weird Muppet voice at the Radio and TV Correspondents Dinner in 2007. Misty watercolor memories...

Goodreads: Death to auto-post!

Reader beware, if you have the Goodreads Facebook application installed and you log on to add a book, Goodreads will now auto-publish it to your Facebook feed. You can get rid of it automatically by uninstalling the Facebook app (as I have just done) or manually, by looking for the box to uncheck in the lower right-hand corner of the "Added to your shelf" bubble.

I just noticed this and what a total nuisance. If this feature had to be offered at all, Goodreads should have made it opt-in, not opt-out as well as let users know they were about to start spamming their Facebook friends with how many books they had out from the library. It's not that I mind that everyone could have known I finally got off the waiting list for THE HELP, I am happy to cheerlead for the site, but would prefer to do it on my own terms.

Goodreads Choice Awards

The YA dystopian sequel CATCHING FIRE won the first annual Goodreads Choice Awards. The third book in former Nickelodeon writer Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games series is due out in August this year, and I hear good things from literary quarters about the first two.

Top fiction and nonfiction honors went to book club favorite Kathryn Stockett's THE HELP and Dave Cullen's COLUMBINE. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES lost in its category by 13 votes to one of Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse novels, but at least one book I voted for won: Stieg Larsson's THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE smacked down Dan Brown to take first in the mystery/thriller category.

If you don't use Goodreads already, it's really fun to play around with either to make pithy comments or longer reviews on what you're reading. A neat feature I never use any more but should is the ability to order your to-read list according to which books you're going to read right away, and which can wait a while. Ideal for the short attention span! If you're on already, let's be friends.

Are those reads really good?

A bit of a Goodreads rant today, but first, a confession! Yesterday morning's post was not really written yesterday morning! In an act of devious timestampery, I used Blogger's new "scheduled" option to reflect a little on WINESBURG, OHIO when I had time to do so, so while I was dashing off to wherever it is I go when I'm not on the Internet, the blog auto-updated. Oh, the magic! I feel the need to protest, however, that usually I write, if not all of each post, then at least the bulk of it on the morning it goes up. Sometimes I'll scrap out a couple paragraphs right before bed if I get a good idea in the shower. (Too much info? OK.)

So I use Goodreads, and I love Goodreads, but I've been noticing a disturbing trend on it that I will call, with apologies to the site, its Myspaceization. By that I don't mean that the site has been taken over by unstoppable music players and blinky things (we all know how I feel about Flash, and I have never been a MySpace user for many reasons), but as Goodreads has gotten more and more popular authors are starting to use the site to connect with readers who may be adding their books.

In terms of book marketing, these social networking sites are a great way to cut out the middleman (or -woman). Jennifer Weiner made her own group where she has been doing a Q&A this month, where readers have been posting questions which she (or her minions) respond to when they can. That's the ultra-involved route; some authors are fine with putting up a profile, maybe a wee bio. and letting the readers add them. One of my first Goodreads friends was author Tao Lin, whose books I have not read yet (sorry, sir!) but who updates at least semi-regularly. Author Scott Douglas added me as a friend when he saw I put his library memoir QUIET, PLEASE! on my want-to-read list. Now I can see that when he comes across a positive review of his book on the site he checks that he likes it. (I find this bizarrely charming.)

A few times, though, I've been added by authors whose works have nothing to do with me or what I like. When I check their pages, they haven't updated except to connect with hundreds of friends, who they're hoping (I would assume) will go to that author's page and add, or even buy, all her or his books, presumably without bothering to find out what they're about. I'm not going to single any authors out because for all I know, this work is being done on their behalf by well-meaning PR teams or personal assistants.

But it tweaks me a little when someone who exclusively writes, say, romance novels about undead football players, will go out of his or her way to say "Hey, read this book!" to someone who cares not for romance nor football players. (Love the undead, though!) To do this is to undermine what I use Goodreads for, as a fount of recommendations and a way that friends who have read the same books as I have can compare notes. I don't need Charles Dickens* updating my page with, "Hey, you know what a great book to read after THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO would be? THE PICKWICK PAPERS! Why? I'm not going to tell you!"

They are the hot girls on MySpace who just want as many friends as possible so they can get their MTV shows. They're not adding anything; they want me for a statistic. And as much as I respect them for trying out new angles to reach readers, I wish I could tell them that what they're doing is just Spam 2.0.

*Charles Dickens does not update his Goodreads page, for he is dead.