THE Group for Authors! discussion

Because Goodreads is a cataloging site for readers NOT authors. Your post seems to convey that you don't fully understand this site and it's purpose. There are also very good reasons why authors don't have full control over their books, as some have abused librarian privileges to alter their listings in a way that affects member use of the site.

B.L. wrote: "When is Goodreads going to let authors have control of their own books instead of leaving them in the hands of people lacking both interest and competence? Most of the listing problems can be solve..."

Hi B.L.! Looks like you’ve already claimed your Goodreads Author Profile, so you already have the ability to edit some of the info on your books that others don’t have. That being said, Goodreads is a community of readers and we allow readers to shelve books however helps them. Some people are really meticulous about this and others not so much, however, we cannot dictate how they choose to organize their shelves.

As an author, this is actually useful data to have since it helps authors understand how their work is reaching readers.

Are there some particular things that came up that I can help you with?

B.L. wrote: "1. You can't seem to properly add books but won't let us do it.

Any member with a validated email address can add a book using this page. I'm happy to help if you ran into any issues doing so.

2. You keep versions no longer available, even when they were never sold to begin with.

We have a strict policy against removing published works from the site because we want to be a complete database of all published works, and we want readers to be able to shelve the exact editions they've read in the past. However, if you have an issue with a specific book, I encourage you to email support (at) goodreads (dot) com and we can look into it for you.

3. You let people essentially 'review' books they haven't read...

As it’s not possible for us to accurately verify whether any person has read any book they’ve rated or reviewed, it would be impossible to enforce such a policy. However, we take our review guidelines seriously. If you are concerned that someone is breaking our rules, I encourage you to reach out to our support team.

4. My work can't reach readers if I need a bunch of reads before they turn up in searches.

To improve the discoverability of your books, I recommend visiting our Authors & Advertisers Blog, which has great tips on how to market your books both on and off Goodreads.

As we are not likely to make any major changes to our policies at this time, I’ll be closing this thread. Please feel free to reach out to us directly if you have additional feedback or concerns with your Author Profile.