As an indie writer, I’m also looking for ways to increase visibility. Many of my favorite authors have an “enhanced” Amazon author page which features details of their books, books series, etc. and is pulling the information straight from Shelfari. It makes your author page look that more enticing. Of course today though, I just found this out (excerpt from Lisa Angelettie’s writing blog)…
I just got off the phone with a very nice representative over at Amazon’s Author Central. I wanted some help incorporating Shelfari into my Author Central profile like I’ve seen on many author’s Amazon pages. I did a little Google research on how to do it but found that the instructions were outdated or just play wrong.
When I called, even the associate wasn’t sure what happened to Shelfari. She had to run and check with someone else. Sure enough, Shelfari has been eliminated as an option for adding to your Amazon author page. When I asked if it was for a certain segment of books (ex. nonfiction vs. fiction), she said “No. All books.” Her words were she thinks that allowing the option “was more trouble than it was worth.”
I’ve heard that some authors abused Shelfari. I’m not sure how. Probably only promoting their own books and not actually sharing and recommending books written by other authors. Which is really the point. Shelfari was suppose to be a book sharing and social site like Goodreads; but alas Goodreads does it so much better.
So now that Amazon owns Goodreads, I wonder how they will incorporate it (or some of it’s features) into the Amazon book marketplace? It will be interesting to see how it unfolds and hopefully will be of some benefit to us indie authors.
Oh well:) It was a good idea while it lasted.