Amazon to acquire Goodreads

[Thriftypreneur]

Was creating an Author Central account and saw this:

Hello –

We’re happy to announce that Amazon 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, a love of books, and an appreciation for the authors who write them. We both work every day to help authors like you reach a wider audience and make a better living at your craft, and together with Goodreads we intend to build many new ways to delight authors and readers alike.
We’re excited to help create an even more powerful offering for all of our authors, and we hope you are too. You can read more in the press release here and the blog post from Goodreads here.
Best,

The Author Central Team




I haven't messed around with Goodreads yet. Anyone with more experience have any predictions on what this might mean for writers?

 

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[Gymjunkie]

This is old news, kinda. It means that Amazon should integrate Goodreads and their reviews into Amazon.com more and that should be good sign. Also, might increase the sales of books through GR. On a different note, it's another way Amazon expands it's dominance in publishing and buy a company that could be a competitor.. Anyway, I believe this buy is good news mostly.

 

[Breaking Free]

Yeah, it just means I need to do more with Goodreads, to see if it helps me via Amazon. Man, who knew that authors had to do more than just write?

 

[Thriftypreneur]

Yeah, it just means I need to do more with Goodreads, to see if it helps me via Amazon. Man, who knew that authors had to do more than just write?

I don't know much about Goodreads, but I imagine Amazon will figure out a way to link everything through their API so writers won't have to do much (like maintain two profiles). Goodreads Author Program appears to be a direct competitor to Amazon's Author Central. I imagine they'll just bring it under that roof on the back-end.

 

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[Breaking Free]

I don't know much about Goodreads, but I imagine Amazon will figure out a way to link everything through their API so writers won't have to do much (like maintain two profiles). Goodreads Author Program appears to be a direct competitor to Amazon's Author Central. I imagine they'll just bring it under that roof on the back-end.

I don't think it's a direct competitor. Goodreads basically lets people discuss books and let authors promote their stuff. Though I noticed on my Goodreads book I have options to buy it anywhere... I wonder if Amazon will shut that part down?