Creative Reviews discussion

Has anyone used this?

Have any Authors uploaded an eBook to Goodreads using the "add an eBook" link on the Book's entry page? You know, off to the right, like the "browse" for an image button, but lower on the page there's a link for adding an eBook.

I'd like to know if or how it has worked for you. There's gotta be someone here who's used it given all the free giveaways that go on around here!

My understanding is (based on the poll Goodreads Admins sent me as a Goodreads Author asking for my feelings about the subject) that Goodreads was considering (might still be considering) selling books via this function. I'm not. I'm considering using it as yet another outlet for giving away a FREE book.



@Barb, you have a few freebies, right? Have you ever tried this out? Did it create a viable format that readers could use? Was it anything like the "embedded PDF" format that GoogleBooks used? I'm thinking Goodreads used the same technology. Given that Google abandoned it, I'm not sure what that says about it but....

Any experiences anyone's had, good or bad, please share them.

Thanks!

-Friday
@phoenicianbooks

So since no one else seems to have used this, I took the plunge and tried it. Turns out you have to have either a PDF (one that is not from Smashwords; I generated one with my PDF Printer Driver from Adobe Acrobat Professional) or an ePub (from Smashwords is okay) and then they provide readers with an ePub (just like GoogleBooks did) either for download or embedded in the web browser.

What I discovered, however, is a little glitch in the process of viewing the file here on Goodreads. Normally, in an eReader, you view an eBook and see "arrows" on the right and left of the "page" to go forward or back. There aer arrows here but they are not normal. Instead of going forward/back a "page" (or screen of text) clicking the arrow moves to the next/previous CHAPTER, which of course means the entire book is one "page" long unless you have a TOC built and even then, the NCX of an ePub generates a "midpoint" as the "next chapter"

Bottom line, depending on your NCX file (which many Indie Authors don't even know what it is) your "Goodreads eBook" may turn out to be crap to read/navigate.

Otherwise, this works beautifully. They have a checkbox you can tick to ask to see/preview it before making it available to Goodreads and I did this and got a link to preview and another link to click when it was how I liked it. Other than the TOC / NCX issue (which is endemic to the ePub format actually) I think the Goodreads eBook option is lovely. For free books anyway. I don't know if I'd want them selling my books. ((gggrin))

-Friday
@phoenicianbooks

I didn't see your first post earlier or else I would have responded. I uploaded ebooks for all of my books with the intention of selling them, but Goodreads never asked me how much I want to charge, so I don't think the ebook feature is fully functioning yet (at least not the selling part). I believe a page break in the document will convert to a new chapter. Having to reach the $50 threshold before receiving a payment is a bit of a downer.