“Goodreads is one of the bookiest online places to be.”

“Goodreads is one of the bookiest online places to be. It’s got avid readers, book lovers, and tons of reviews. With over 300 million pageviews and 45 million unique visitors a month, GR also very influential and I recommend you join if you haven’t already.”

I got this in an email today.  Well actually it was linked in an email to an article with the headline, "Goodreads is a great spot for readers."  Of course I was intrigued and read the article.  The author, who is Black, was promoting a giveaway on Goodreads.  Of course this is a reasonable way to promote one's work to a broad audience.

However, I did find great promotion of Goodreads, which is owned by Amazon, striking.  The promotion of Goodreads was even more prominent than the promotion of the giveaway.  The quoted paragraph above started the article.

This struck me because not only is the author giving Goodreads a great endorsement, they are giving away products on the site.  Amazon's Goodreads does not have to lift a finger and they are getting all of this for free! 

This is the environment in which I compete. This author actually happens to be one of the top 100 bestselling authors on AALBC.com. Sadly, I see no mention of that accomplishment anywhere on the author's site--indeed no mention of AALBC.com at all--at least not that I can find in a Google search.  

I do not mention the author by name (you can Google the quote if you are interested), because it is not about this author but about all Black authors.  My coverage of the author, like  thousands of other authors, is qute substantial.  AALBC.com comes up on the first page of a google search on just the author's name.  Of course Goodreads and Amazon out rank me.  The biggest difference is that the author also actively supports the other sites with active engagement.

I'm not suggesting that the author should shun Goodreads in favor of AALBC.com.  What I don't understand is why they have shut AALBC.com out? From time to time, I'll check out an author's site, who I know has benefited from AALBC.com, and check to see if AALBC.com is mentioned. Often AALBC.com goes unmentioned, while Amazon (and social media) are prominently promoted.

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Fortunately, there are a great many other websites that do link to AALBC.com, here are a couple hundred thousand (I removed social media sites from the result set).

As I said before AALBC.com exists because of Black folks and if AALBC.com will thrive it will be because of Black folks too.

@The DW_Perspective, I'd be interested in your perspective.  Of course anyone my feel free to comment as well.