2012 IDPF Digitial Book World presentation by Otis Chandler, CEO and co-founder of Goodreads. Includes case studies of how books are discovered online.

1. How People Discover Books Online

2. What is Goodreads?
Goodreads is the largest site for readers and book
recommendations in the world.
9 million readers
Social Network
Recommendations
Reviews
Shelves
Book Clubs
A Comscore April US top ten social network.

3. Goodreads’ mission is
Discovery
To help people find books they love
and share them with friends.

4. Deep Reading Data
200 million
315 million books shelved,
growing at 17 million a month
150 million
110 million
100 million
64 million
50 million
0
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

5. photo by o5com
6 million books discovered a month (added to to-read)
Every second...

6. photo by o5com
6 million books discovered a month (added to to-read)
Every second... 2 books are discovered
on Goodreads

7. The Long Tail of To-Read Books
16,000
16,000
Top 40 books: 5%
12,000
Added to to-read
14,000
12,000 8,000
Added to to-read
10,000
4,000
8,000
0
10 20 30 40
6,000
391,031 unique titles
4,000
Top 5,000 books: 56% (99.9% not shown)
2,000
0
1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5000

8. In an increasingly digital world,
discovery
is becoming more and more
important.
Serendipitous discovery is key to driving book sales.

9. In an increasingly digital world,
discovery
is becoming more and more
important.
Goodreads is leveraging social discovery to reinvent
the way people find books. We’ll show you discovery
tools.

10. Where people discover books on Goodreads
Giveaways
2%
Other
7%
Mobile Search
6% 19%
Lists
7%
Author & Series
8% Registration
19%
Genre
Browsing
9%
Friend Recommendation
Updates Engine
9% 13%

11. Where people discover books on Goodreads
Giveaways Word of mouth
2%
Other
7%
Mobile Search
6% 19%
Lists
7%
Author & Series
8% Registration
19%
Genre
Browsing
9%
Friend Recommendation
Updates Engine
9% 13%

12. Where people discover books on Goodreads
Giveaways Word of mouth
2%
Other
7%
Mobile Search
6% 19%
Lists
7%
Author & Series
8% Registration
19%
Popular books
Genre
Browsing
9%
Friend Recommendation
Updates Engine
9% 13%

13. Where people discover books on Goodreads
Giveaways Word of mouth
2%
Other
7%
Mobile Search
6% 19%
Lists
7%
Author & Series
8% Registration
19%
Popular books
Genre
Browsing
9%
Friend Recommendation
Updates Engine
9% 13%
Midlist

14. Where people discover books on Goodreads
Giveaways Word of mouth
2%
Other
7%
Mobile Search
6% 19%
Lists
7%
Browsing:
Author & Series
popular & 8% Registration
midlist 19%
Popular books
Genre
Browsing
9%
Friend Recommendation
Updates Engine
9% 13%
Midlist

15. Registration has popular books, search has the long tail
0.2
Books added to to-read
0.15
Search 0.1
0.05
0
100 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
Popularity of book
0.2
Books added to to-read
0.15
Registration 0.1
Flow
0.05
0
100 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
Popularity of book

16. Goodreads Recommendation Engine
• Last year Goodreads acquired Discovereads.
• Netflix level recommendation algorithm.
• 20 billion data points about books.
• Launched in September 2011. Result: 60%
increase in books discovered in months
following launch.

17. A Taste Based Algorithm
If you liked these books, thousands of other readers liked these similar books…

18. Goodreads Recommendations designed to hit
mid-list sweet spot
0.2
Books added to to-read
0.15
Goodreads 0.1
Recommendations
0.05
0
100 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
Popularity of book
0.2
Books added to to-read
0.15
Registration 0.1
Flow
0.05
0
100 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
Popularity of book

19. How it increases discovery of books
400
50% found this book via
350
Goodreads recommendations
300
Users who added the book
250
200 90-100 people added per day
150
Published in 2004
100
10-20 people added per day
50
0
2011-02-19 2011-04-10 2011-05-30 2011-07-19 2011-09-07 2011-10-27 2011-12-16 2012-02-04

20. Lists & Genre Browsing
• Account for combined 16% of discovery.
• Lists are focused on popular & mid-list titles.
• Power users will put your book on the right lists, driving
lots more discovery.
Popularity of Listopia books discovered
0.2
Books added to to-read
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
100 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000
Popularity of book

21. Goodreads Drives Book Discovery on Facebook
• Currently seeing 10 million books shared per month.
• Generating 220 million impressions per month!!!
Monthly Actives
have grown 440%
since January!

22. 50000
Fifty Shades of Grey
The Origins of a
Publishing Phenomenon
40000
30000
20000
10000
0
Jul 2011 Nov 2011 Mar 2012

23. 50000
Fifty Shades of Grey
The Origins of a
Publishing Phenomenon
40000
30000
20000
10000
0
Jul 2011 Nov 2011 Mar 2012

24. 50000
Fifty Shades of Grey
The Origins of a
Publishing Phenomenon
40000
30000
20000
10000
0
Jul 2011 Nov 2011 Mar 2012

25. 50000
Fifty Shades of Grey
40000 The Origins of a
Publishing Phenomenon
30000
20000
“So how did an obscure BDSM novel, which Publisher's
Weekly confirmed began as "Twilight" fan fiction, become a
phenomenon? At least part of the explanation can be found
10000
in the social network for book worms, Goodreads.”
0
Jul 2011 Nov 2011 Mar 2012

26. 50000
Fifty Shades of Grey
40000 The Origins of a
Publishing Phenomenon
30000
20000
10000
0
Jul 2011 Nov 2011 Mar 2012

27. November 3: Fifty Shades
nominated for Goodreads
Choice Award in Romance,
2500+ people add the book
3000
2250
Books Added
More than 4500 members, More than 2400 members,
500+ add the book in one day
1500 500+ add the book in one day,
600 the next
July 3: Romance Readers
October 6: Erotic Enchants
June 20: Publication Reading Challenges starts
starts reading Fifty Shades
reading Fifty Shades
750
0 Arp 2011 July 2011 Oct 2011

28. 20,000 book clubs on Goodreads
4,853 members

29. Tips To Leverage Book Clubs on Goodreads
1. Follow groups in your genre
2. Author chats are popular in many groups
(E.L. James participated in a chat with a group in January)
3. Follow the group rules and don’t spam
4. Befriend the moderator

30. The Mini-Oprahs: Tastemakers of Fantasy & Sci-Fi
200
May 28: Vaginal Fantasy
150 Hangout (3500+ members)
Books Added
begins reading Kushiel’s Dart
100
50
Originally Published: 2003
0 Mar 1 Mar 15 Apr 1 Apr 15 May 1 May 15
200
150
Books Added
May 25: Sword & Laser (9300+
100 members) announces they’ll
read Tigana next
50
Originally Published: 1990 0 Mar 1 Mar 15 Apr 1 Apr 15 May 1 May 15

31. Goodreads Book Launch Package
Build buzz and increase user engagement around a book launch.
• Run giveaways well before the launch to build reviews &
buzz.
• Deep targeted ads: reach readers by author or genre.
• Sponsored Poll: drive engagement and book adds.
• Newsletter or New Releases placement: reach 6.5
million.

32. Anatomy of Book Discovery

33. Anatomy of Book Discovery

34. Anatomy of Book Discovery
450
400
350
People who added book to "to-read"
300
250
200
150
100 26 reviews
Giveaways
50
15 reviews
0
10/17/11 11/6/11 12/1/11 12/16/11 1/8/12 1/31/12 2/14/12 2/27/12 3/12/12 3/26/12 4/9/12 4/23/12

35. Anatomy of Book Discovery
450
400
350
People who added book to "to-read"
300
NPR Fresh Air
Ads + Sponsored Poll
Movers & Shakers
250
Rate Books Page
200
Published
150
Other
100
50
Friends
Search
0
3/1/12 3/8/12 3/15/12 3/22/12 3/29/12 4/5/12 4/12/12 4/19/12 4/26/12

36. Anatomy of a Bestseller
May 21:
Berkley buys Bared, touting
“2,500 reviews” on Goodreads
as a major reason, hits NY
Times Bestseller list
Apr 23:
Became top related book for
Fifty Shades of Grey
100
People who added book to their shelves
80
Mar 12:
Giveaway Began
60
40
to-read
20
reviews
0 Feb Mar Apr May

37. What does “discovery” mean anyway?
Discovery means all the touchpoints in
the mind of the consumer it takes to
get them to decide to purchase and
read a book.

38. Marketing Adage
It takes about 6-12 touchpoints in
the mind of the consumer
to get to a purchase.
The stronger the touchpoint, the fewer you need.

39. photo by anja_johnson
“ Between us and our readership, there’s a brick wall
and we have little hammers, and if we keep hitting
”
the wall eventually we’ll punch through it.
- Marketing Manager at a large publishing house, quoted in Merchants of Culture by John Thompson

40. Discovery happens in lots of ways
- there is no magic bullet
But there are a few things to keep in mind.

41. Maximize touchpoints around launch!
Find your audience: existing fans,
comp fans, etc.
Start the process well before launch.
Use the tools at your disposal to
amplify any traction you get.

42. Otis Y Chandler, CEO
otis@goodreads.com
goodreads.com/otis
twitter.com/otown