THE Group for Authors! discussion

Hi :) As a reader, I love 'readers also enjoyed' section, I constantly find many useful suggestions there. As a writer, I would like my book to be listed there as well, but I don't know how to do it. How many ratings should my book have so other readers who choose similar books would see it? I already have some reviews and some ratings, but the place where 'readers also enjoyed' should be is empty. Maybe someone knows how to change that?

An interesting question - I'm also intrigued as to how this works.

Are you talking about this feature for Amazon, or just in general?

Would also like to know. On Amazon my novel currently shows as "readers who bought this also bought" ... The Highway Code! (And nothing else except Amazon Gift Voucher - in case the recipient didn't like my book?!) Do the Arcane Amazon Algorithms somehow know my husband used to be a driving instructor?

Yeah, so Amazon has a recommendation engine where it attempts to show readers the books they are most likely to purchase. It is customized to each reader and based on the buyers browsing and purchase history.

If you're interested in reading further how Amazon works, feel free to grab the ebook "Let's Get Visible" I just finished reading it myself

Thanks for your answers! I'm actually talking about Goodreads. There is 'Readers Also Enjoyed' section right above the listed genres. I can see suggestions with different books, but there is nothing like that for my own book. I guess it's not surprising since it's pretty new, but I'd like to know just how the system works. For example, do I need to have 20 ratings so my book would be visible? Or 50 ratings? Or a few readers just have to recommend my book? I didn't find the answer anywhere.

Alison wrote: "Would also like to know. On Amazon my novel currently shows as "readers who bought this also bought" ... The Highway Code! (And nothing else except Amazon Gift Voucher - in case the recipient didn'..."

LOL! Perhaps your plot swerved, went too fast, did not indicate its direction to the reader or "failed to make reasonable progress"?

:-) None of those IMHO, though it feels like reviews and sales are temporarily parked on a double yellow line...

K.S. wrote: "Thanks for your answers! I'm actually talking about Goodreads. There is 'Readers Also Enjoyed' section right above the listed genres. I can see suggestions with different books, but there is nothin..."
I hadn't noticed that, thanks! Can we change/specify genres as well? Mine is listed under Fiction, wow. It's similarly uninspiringly classified on Amazon (and apparently we can't do anything about that, my publisher says - it's up to Amazon and they were given all the right key words) so it would be nice to be able to add a genre or two here on Goodreads.

Genres on GR are crowd sourced from users book shelf names, so add your book to your own shelves with the names you want

Paula wrote: "Genres on GR are crowd sourced from users book shelf names, so add your book to your own shelves with the names you want"

Thanks!

Alison, yes, like Paula said, the names of book shelves determine the genre. But the thing is, it didn't seem to influence 'Readers also enjoyed' section. My book is listed as 'romance' but I still see no suggestions for books similar to mine in there. I can't figure out how to change that.

The "Readers Also Enjoyed" section is powered by our recommendations engine. It looks at all of the books shelved on Goodreads by all Goodreads members to make intelligent recommendations. It does not directly look at attributes like "genre," and since it's an algorithmic engine, there's no way to guarantee your book will appear in it or on which pages your book might appear. Unfortunately, we don't disclose how many ratings are required for the engine to start recommending your book.

Patrick, thank you so much for the explanation! I guess I just have to wait and get more readers :)

Paula wrote: "Genres on GR are crowd sourced from users book shelf names, so add your book to your own shelves with the names you want"

Do you mean we would add our own book to our To Read shelf or Read shelf or something else I'm not thinking of?

No, not Read or To Read shelves.

Add custom shelf names like "Romance" "Horror" "Cookbook" or whatever makes sense for your book's genre. Once two members (one of two can be the author) shelve on a shelf name that feeds into same genre, the book is in that genre on goodreads.

It may help you to look at other really popular books in your genre to see what genres and top shelves those books are on and shelve them the same.

It's not just useful for the book page itself--also useful for things like exploring by genre, new releases by genre, etc.

As to the OP and not in any way as a contradiction to what Patrick said --

Another staff member once explained the difference between the book recommendations goodreads shows you and the "also enjoyed" on the book page. They said that the book recommendations algorithm was used by both but that the book recommendations your see are based on how you have shelved and rated many books; the "also enjoyed" was based on just that particular book.

(Neither feature should be confused with "similar books" or "similar authors.")

Angela wrote: "If you're interested in reading further how Amazon works, feel free to grab the ebook "Let's Get Visible" I just finished reading it myself"

Thanks, Angela. Sounds intriguing...and useful.