Goodreads Mobile Proxies for Author Teams

Goodreads is where readers track, rate and talk about books, and where authors and publishers meet them through author profiles, blogs, Q and A sessions and giveaways. Much of that work is done by a publicist, an assistant or a small press marketing team rather than the author alone. Shared access from scattered locations leads to sign-in trouble, and the team also needs to see pages the way US readers see them. A ProxySocial line is a dedicated US carrier address for exactly that. Goodreads is strict about review manipulation, and so are we, so that comes first.

The review rules are not negotiable

Goodreads guidelines prohibit authors and people acting for them from creating accounts to review their own books, trading reviews, or attacking other authors' ratings. Readers watch for it too, and review campaigns that come to light can follow a book for years. A pool of addresses changes nothing about that and we will not help anyone try. The official author profile, the publisher account and the author's blog are legitimate tools; the reviews must come from readers who chose to write them.

Keeping the author's team away from reviewing entirely is the simplest policy. It also makes any future question about your account easy to answer. The same goes for advance reader copies: send them to real readers and let them decide whether and what to write, and never ask them to post from accounts your team created or controls.

Giveaways, availability and the US reader's view

Goodreads giveaways let publishers and authors offer copies to readers, and the entry page shows which countries are eligible. A team running a US giveaway should confirm that a US visitor sees the entry button and the right edition before it is announced. Load the giveaway logged out on the line, then sign in to a test reader account you own and check again, so you know the path works for a real reader.

The same check helps with edition pages. Goodreads combines many editions of a book, and US readers sometimes land on an import or an old paperback instead of the new release. Viewing the book page from a US carrier connection shows you which edition, cover and buy links appear by default, so you can request corrections through the right channels before launch week. Check the author page too: the photo, the bio and the list of titles are what a curious reader sees after finishing a chapter sample, and an outdated bio or a missing new release is an easy thing to fix once someone actually looks.

Who holds the author account

An author profile is attached to the author's personal account. When a publicist posts a blog update or replies to reader questions for the author, that account sees sign-ins from the publicist's office, the author's home and wherever the book tour happens to be. Put that shared access on one line in the author's home metro, held sticky, inside one browser profile the team shares. The account keeps a consistent US carrier history, and verification codes stop interrupting a signing event.

A small press can keep its publisher account and its authors' shared access on one line if they openly work together. A freelance publicist representing authors from different publishers should give each author a separate line.

Setup choices

Choose the metro where the author or press is based: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, North Carolina or Boston. Boston is 4G only, and Boston AT&T addresses geolocate to New York, so pick Verizon there if a Boston location matters. Goodreads is a light site; a 4G line at $5 a day, $30 a week or $70 a month is ample, and the 15 GB per day included on every plan is far more than author work needs. A week plan fits a launch campaign; a monthly line suits an author who posts steadily all year.

Keep the line sticky whenever someone is signed in. Rotation is only for logged-out page checks, and each rotation takes an address from the carrier's regional pool, so seeing a familiar address again later is normal.

Setting up a Goodreads proxy on ProxySocial

1. Order a 4G line in the author's or publisher's home metro.
2. Create a browser profile for the shared author or publisher account and set the line as its proxy.
3. Confirm the exit IP shows the expected carrier and city.
4. Sign in once, clear any verification, and hold the line sticky.
5. Check book, edition and giveaway pages logged out from a second profile.
6. Keep everyone on the team away from rating or reviewing the author's books.

Goodreads proxy questions