Goodreads Removed My Favorite Genres from Their Choice Awards and I’m Bitter

Say goodbye to the Poetry, Graphic Novels & Comics, and Middle-grade & Children’s categories

I don’t always vote in the Goodreads Choice Awards. I usually haven’t read enough of that year’s releases. Instead, I scour the nominees, looking for titles to add to my ever-growing, overly optimistic Want To Read list.

But this year, three of my favorite categories were simply . . . gone. There was no Poetry, no Middle-Grade & Children’s, and no Graphic Novels & Comics category.

These were not the only changes. Goodreads has also added a Romantasy category. Even as someone who doesn’t read much romance, I see the logic behind this addition. Romance and romantic fantasy have a wide and active readership, especially on “BookTok” (i.e., the book community on TikTok). The Goodreads Choice Awards reflect this with categories for Romance, Fantasy, Young Adult Fantasy, and now, Romantasy. Given how hard romance writers have struggled to have their books taken seriously, I’m not going to begrudge them their moment in the sun.

But I do wonder why this has to come at the expense of other genres.

When I contacted Goodreads, I was told that “Our goal is to have the Goodreads Choice Awards reflect the books that are most popular with our members, and we have made adjustments to our categories over time.”

That last point is certainly true. In 2020, the Choice Awards had categories for Science & Technology (these books now compete with general Nonfiction), Food & Cookbooks (also competing in Nonfiction now — though there’s only one book about food in 2023’s opening round of nominees, and there are no cookbooks), and Picture Books.

In 2021 and 2022, picture books fell under the Middle-Grade and Children’s category. But now, picture books — and children’s books and middle-grade books — either have to compete with adult fiction and nonfiction (and I didn’t see any among the nominees) or simply vanish from the Choice Awards.

I realize Goodreads is mostly used by adults. And adults are more likely to read adult books. (Or in some cases, YA.) But my Goodreads feed has enough parents and educators in it that children’s literature feels like a thriving genre. So I’m surprised to see it cut.

I can’t quite say that same thing about Poetry. I know my bitterness over the loss of this category, as both a reader and a writer of poetry, is personal. There aren’t many people rating or reviewing poetry volumes on Goodreads. Which made the handful of nominees all the more precious to me. And yes, the winner of the category was almost always Poetry Book the Largest Number of People Have Heard Of. Goodreads Choice Awards are more about popularity than anything else. But it was still fun to dive into the nominees.

And now there is no place left for poetry volumes — or poetry readers — in the Choice Awards. I feel like Goodreads just told me that the books I love don’t matter. It needed extra space for the popular kids, and so, instead of adding a new table to the digital lunchroom, Goodreads stole mine.

But the category I’m the most shocked to see missing is Graphic Novels & Comics. If I ever need a list of graphic novels on a certain topic or from a particular era, I know some dedicated soul on Goodreads has already curated it for me. If I ever want to get into a fight, there are ten thousand Batman comic book reviews for me to disagree with. So I question whether the decision to cull this category really reflects “the books that are most popular with our members.”

As Heidi MacDonald noted, Heartstopper, Vol. 4 by Alice Oseman, which won 2022’s Graphic Novels & Comics Choice Award, received more votes than many of the winners in other categories that Goodreads decided to keep.

Book sales have been struggling lately, but graphic novels sales have been steadily increasing (jumping to a shocking 62% increase in 2021 and a more modest 4.6% increase in 2022, according to Publishers Weekly). And I don’t see this changing anytime soon. So why the snub, Goodreads? Is this just part of your parent company’s disinterest in supporting comics (e.g., the lack of support for the Comixology app)? Is it because comics and graphic novels can cost more to produce, so you (and Amazon) think it is more cost effective to push readers toward books with a higher profit margin? Is it because you are hoping to attract more of the BookTok crowd by promoting the genres many of the BookTok communities love?

I have no idea. But this raises other, more personal, questions: Does it matter? Why not rely on other ways to find books in genres I love? Why not use one of the other book recommendation sites?

I do gather book recommendations from many, many sources, but most of my reading friends are on Goodreads. If I wasn’t, I’d miss their reviews and funny comments. And Goodreads still has a lot sway in the world of books. In 2022, Goodreads had more than 140 million users. In contrast, StoryGraph, hit one million users in that same year. Whether I like it or not, I have to acknowledge the power of Goodreads and its yearly Choice Awards. Even if I used another site, as a writer and an editor, I’d still need my Goodreads account to keep up with the world of readers.

But if I’m going to keep being an active user — if I’m going to bother opening 2024’s Goodreads Choice Awards emails — I need some things from Goodreads. I need to feel like I’m here to find the books I want to read. Not just the books Amazon wants me to read. I need the site to make space for readers of every genre. Even those sitting at the weird kids’ table.

I want my favorite categories back. (And while we’re making wishes, Goodreads, if you’re listening, I’d really love to see a category for books from small presses and self-published authors.)

The Goodreads employee who messaged me promised to pass my feedback on to “the appropriate team.” I’ve worked in marketing. That’s corporate speak for either “This was not my decision, but if I have to hear about it, the decision-makers do too” or “The ‘appropriate department’ is my trashcan.” It’s hard to tell.

I can only hope that if enough other readers contact Goodreads, we might see some changes to next year’s nomination options.