Tip of the Week: GoodReads

Tip of the Week: Sign up for GoodReads and discover your next favorite book. 

GoodReads allows the user to create lists of book they have read and books they want to read. It also allows them to create their own custom lists. In my case, I have an additional list titled, Books I own, but haven't read yet. This enables me to keep track of all the books I want to read, while not mixing the books I want to buy and the books I already own. 

GoodReads is a great place to find a book you'll love. One way GoodReads helps you find your next book is by analyzing the list of books you've read and the rating you gave it (based on 1-5 stars) and then it generates a list of books that may interest you. Also, there is an 'Explore' feature that leads you to  'Listopia' to find Best Young Adult Books, Books Set in Wales, Can't Wait Books of 2014, etc. You can also explore by genre, or by the most read books of the week, new releases of the year or month, books that have been reviewed recently by other users, and finally you can explore Books at Random if you're not sure what you'd like to read next. 

Once you find a book (or a plethora of books) you want to read, you can consult the GoodReads community to find out more about the book. GoodReads provides a profile on each book. One of the many helpful features is the cumulative rating. For instance, Ally Carter's Uncommon Criminals (the second book in the Heist Society Series) has 18,566 ratings and the average rating is 4.19 stars. Along with the cumulative rating, you can also read all of the individual reviews of the book by other members of the GoodReads community. The book profile also gives a detailed description of the book and a link to the authors page, where you can read a bio and discover other books written by the same author. 

GoodReads also lets users connect with other readers and join groups based on interests in certain books, topics, genres, etc. 

This is hardly a cumulative list of all the wonderful features GoodReads offers. Check it out and see for yourself!

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What are you reading this week? Tell me in the comments!

Doubt Kills Dreams

Karim Seddiki

We've all been there. The literary industry is a tough business to break into--that is, if your only goal is to publish. There is nothing wrong with wanting to publish your work. I'm right there with you; I would like to publish my manuscript. I've had a one track mind for the past few months. I worked so hard on my manuscript that (under the guise of wanting to publish the first before writing the second) I doubted my ability to write another book. Friends, family, and Figment followers (the online writing community I'm apart of) have told me they love my book, the characters are compelling, the plot is interesting etc. Receiving feedback like that from about a hundred people (both family/friends and unbiased reviewers) should have been enough to set aside my doubts. However, doubt is a powerful motivator.

Doubt causes inaction. Questions like : 'Why did I think I could do this? What makes me the right person to write this novel?' start to swell over you. The thing is: if you doubt yourself too much to try, then you have already failed. You only fail when you stop trying your best. Doubting yourself and your abilities is never going to get you anywhere. Be confident in your abilities. Doubt will keep you from writing and if you don't write you won't improve. Your work might not be ready to be published or even ready for human consumption (outside of review groups), but that isn't failure. That is a sign that you need to believe in yourself and continue writing. Don't give up, have faith that you will improve!

Have you struggled with doubt? Tell me your success (or your fall-on-your-face-failture if you like) stories in the comments!

The Importance of Community

If you tuned in yesterday, you may have seen that my highlight of last week was when my favorite agent requested pages. I haven't heard anything yet, but I thought this would be the perfect time to tell you how I got this far as a writer. As I've mentioned before, I started writing my manuscript a year and a half ago. After six months of writing, I was ready to share my ideas with other writers. The only problem: I didn't know where to start. I spent a couple of weeks researching various writing communities before I stumbled on Figment. "Figment is a community where you can share your writing, connect with other readers, and discover new stories and authors" (Figment, 2013).