Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

Is this "add-on" re: donation to charity permitted?

Message from the author: If only one woman walks away from a violent relationship after reading Choices-The Darker Years my work will be done.

A percentage of the sale of this novel with be donated to Women's Aid and Fortalice. Survivors not victims!

(See http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16...)

Still relatively new, didn't want to edit w/o checking first. Thank you in advance.

I think that's borderline but ok.

rivka wrote: "I think that's borderline but ok."

Thank you, Rivka! Didn't know how to handle a "Message from author" text, so good to know in future.

How about this one at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12...- nothing wrong with wording exactly but says is quoting from a Barnes and Noble review and even includes reviewer's name.

Reviews do not belong in the blurb.

Replaced it with worldcat blurb. Oddly for this edition ingram changed format, publisher, etc (I did not alter, just the book description—just seemed odd because I did not think the data feeds overwrote any existing data).

They do if it came from other feeds, rather than from users.

rivka wrote: "I think that's borderline but ok."

Hypothetical situation: what happens if it's donation to a hate group? Is it still acceptable? Is there a line here?

Experiment BL626 wrote: "Hypothetical situation: what happens if it's donation to a hate group? Is it still acceptable? Is there a line here?"

If it was something like that then I would flag it to customer support.

What about when it's donation to a religious or political group that supports causes that are not exactly... peaceful, to put it kindly, which half of readers may support but the other half doesn't.

I know it seems to be a good cause, but I feel solicitations (and this feels like a solicitation for the charity) of any kind are best kept in the book itself (in the acknowledgements or afterward for example) rather than in the book blurb on gr.

I agree with Melanie. On the book itself, it is directed to the reader. On GR it is directed to the searcher, who may not be someone who will appreciate the cause.

I think the reader is the correct audiance.

I agree with Melanie - if the author wants to indicate donations to charities then it should be in the author profile, the actual book or their blog not the book description.

Edit: To me its a subliminal advertising

Anything that could be considered "hate" or offensive can and should be flagged. Staff can decide. Personally, if it's a cause I object to, I do want to know that by purchasing the book I am supporting that cause—so unless the wording about the donation contains hate/offensive/objectionable speech, I think the donation/proceeds comment needs to stay in the description.

On the original post, I do think staff should step in and ask author to specify what percentage of sales are donated before allowing the description. Admittedly, partly because this is a self-published book that could come just be author promotional attempt or could be legit donation.

In some countries there are some laws about criminals profiting from their stories or authors profiting from a minor's stories that require the proceeds from book sales be assigned to a trust or a charity. That wording would need to stay in description.

I would think any time-sensitive charity/donations, as in only valid during a certain time period, should not be in the description either as authors do not always remove in timely fashion. Time sensitive charitable donations I would consider promotional. (While promotions/ads/coupons/offers are never allowed, some of the ones that have snuck thru the system temporarily are often out of date with the promotion already over but author not removing thinking it could still draw readers).

Generally for traditionally published print books donating to charities, that's shown clearly on the book cover (in some cases, for example "pink" cookbooks donating to breast cancer research, a completely distinct cover). And it's briefly noted in book description on print copies in a way I would not think needed to be flagged or removed.

Debbie wrote: "Anything that could be considered "hate" or offensive can and should be flagged. Staff can decide. Personally, if it's a cause I object to, I do want to know that by purchasing the book I am supp..."

OK...that makes sense to me.

Are photo and/or cover credits, with links, permitted?
(seems more promo to me)

Photo credits: Jack Blake - "Seattle Nightlines." Richard H. Beckmann, Green Lizard Photography - "Self Portrait" www.greenlizardphotography.com.

Cover design: Susanna at www.photogravity.de

See end of blurb for http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12...

Thanks in advance.

Credits are fine; links are not.

rivka wrote: "Credits are fine; links are not."

That's what I thought. Thanks and good weekend!

This book http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13... has info about a promotion ("Women's Fiction - Please note that this book has not yet been released. The cover will be revealed on MARCH 8th." / "If 1000 people add the book to their shelf from March 1-March 14th, we will release a 3-chapter excerpt here and Tracey Garvis Graves will answer questions on March 15th here here") in the description space. It's also mentioned on the sidebar ad currently running, so I don't think it really belongs on the description?

I don't either (can't imagine any time sensitive material belonging). Author can post to her goodreads update status and even create an event or group if they wish—but not the book synopsis.

I am seeing more and more of this type of thing added by the author when inputting their book to the database.

I would agree that since the information is in the ad the author has running it's not necessary for the description.

In fact, I don't think any time-sensitive information should be entered into the book data. Too much chance of it being forgotten and left there after the date.

Removed.