Writer Wednesday: Configuring Goodread's Review Widget #websitebuilding #tips #authorlife

I planned to start my "Writer Wednesday" series in January, but I've had a bunch of people ask me how to do this, so I thought I'd publish this post early.

Here's how to configure the Goodreads Widget to only show your good reviews (with pictures!!!).

Now before anyone gets mad at me or argues I'm "hiding the truth" from readers or being misleading... No! A writer's website is one of their best marketing tools. No brand is going to post or advertise their poor reviews. I'm not pretending I don't have any. Of course I do. Everyone does. I had a reviewer give me a three star review because she didn't like my British spellings (note: Canada uses a combination of British and American spellings, and not only am I Canadian, this book was set in Canada). I've had another reviewer give me two stars because she didn't like my explanation regarding foghorn usage during storms (I was trying to show, not tell, how the character was a coast girl and could make inferences when hearing a foghorn. This obviously fell short for this reviewer). And I've had low reviews because some readers just didn't like my book.

At the end of the day, there's no way to please every reader, and if anyone wants to read my low star reviews, you just have to go to Goodreads or Amazon. I'm not hiding them, I'm choosing not to use them in my marketing efforts on my website.

Phew.

Glad that's over.

Now, onto the nitty gritty.

How to configure the Goodreads Widget to show your great reviews:

Step 1. Login to GR

Step 2. Go to Author Dashboard

Step 3. Select "Add the Author Widget." (It's on the right hand side under Author Widgets and above Followers)

Step 4. Select "Configure and add widget"

Step 5. In the box beside "minimum star rating (default 1)", write the minimum star reviews you want (for example, 3, 4 or 5), and that's the lowest star review the widget will show.

Step 6. Make any other adjustments you want/require for the widget (you can make it wider/slimmer, longer/shorter, change background colour, etc)

Step 7. Select "Submit"

Step 8. GR will reconfigure the HTML. Copy all the gobbly goop in the little box and paste into the HTML field in your website. (If you're unsure of how to do this, I'll be blogging on how to add the Amazon Book Preview in January, which will include how to copy and paste HTML into your web host. I'll cover Blogger, Weebly and Wordpress)

And you're done!

If you want to see the GR widget in action, visit any of my book pages, like this one http://www.jcmckenzie.ca/beast-of-all-a-carus-novel-book-5.html

Did that help? Please share it with your author friends. 

Have any questions? Contact me or leave a comment below.

Happy writing!