As Goodreads is made for readers to exchange thoughts on books, it’s the perfect social media platform to promote your book. Indeed, with more than 20 million users, many go to Goodreads to decide what will be the next book they read. Why not come up with ways to convince those readers that your book is the one they should choose?

Of course, Goodreads won’t allow you to make outright pitches and pseudo-advertisements for your book, as that diminishes the discussion aspect of the site. That doesn’t mean you can’t leverage Goodreads to pitch your book, however; you just have to be more clever about it.

First, recognize that not all 20 million-plus of those readers will be interested in your book. So you have to identify those readers interested in books similar to yours (TIP #1). If you write westerns, for example, there’s no point in connecting with readers of romance. Start by ranking those similar books that you’ve read and sending them a friend request.

Next, make sure all of your books are listed at Goodreads (TIP #2). You might be surprised to find that they already are! You may need to add a cover. In addition, get some reviews posted for your books, just as you would for your Amazon.com site.

Make sure you have a Goodreads Author page with all of your books listed there as well as a feed from your blog (TIP #3). When you send a friend request or when someone stumbles across your book and finds it interesting, they’ll likely click your name – which sends them to your author page – to find out more. Your page then is an opportunity to convince them to buy your book!

The Listopia section also is a good place to add your books (TIP #4). Find the appropriate categories and have fellow authors add away. Be sure that you add books by those authors to their lists as well.

When you do publish your book, immediately add it to Goodreads. You can follow it up with a note sent to each of your friends about its release (TIP #5). In addition, consider have a promotion in which you give away a couple of copies of the book (TIP #6). This helps bring people learn about your book and brings Goodreads users to your page where they can be introduced to you and your other titles. You also can lead a Q&A discussion group about your book (TIP #7). This is particularly useful when you have a large number of friends and fans.