Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

Hello

Could someone please explain or point me to the manual explaining why special editions can no longer be added as an edition to an existing book? When asked i've been told its against policy but i'm looking to understand why. I've also contacted goodreads directly but was told to ask here.

Why are special editions from book boxes (subscription book and special editions books outside of subscription) like fairyloot, bookish box etc be added anymore and does this also go for barnes and noble, waterstones etc special editions?

I understand fan made editions/covers not being allowed but why no longer allow books that have been published by or with consent from the publisher/author be allowed?

I understand librarians have no say in this but i really hope goodreads will reverse this, even bring back the edit for all option since i've been using goodreads to keep track of all my books and it would be frustrating if I can no longer fully due that.

Thanks for any and all help provided

I would guess it is because loot boxes require a subscription.

I see no reason why editions available from general bookstores would not be allowed.

The subscription part is relevant. GR also does not allow books that require newsletter signup, or login to a web site. However, if anyone can go into a book store and pick it up, it's okay.

Scott wrote: "I would guess it is because loot boxes require a subscription.

I see no reason why editions available from general bookstores would not be allowed."

Even so, its still a legit edition with approval of the publisher?
In regards of the book i was asking to be added, it was not part of a subscription. its just as limited to get, just as exclusive as an b&n edition for example, so why would one be allowed and the other not, is what i'm wondering.

There have also been other special editions added after the edit for all option got removed. So also wondering why those edition where oke to be added but the one I requested wasn't.

It's really hard to say without knowing specifically what the books are.

I don't have any insight as to why they made the decision regarding subscription items. It would probably be best to contact support:

https://www.goodreads.com/about/conta...

I have, gotten the response to ask here. But i've emailed back so maybe they can tell me more :)

recent other exlusive editions have been added, from companies like bookish box and illumicrate.

And not all of these editions require a subscription, i have no subscription and still was able to buy exclusive limited editions when on sale.

thanks for your help btw, I appreciate it.

Commenting as I’m curious

As I too have Asda edition books for cancer research. Which do to effect some of the page counts.

At end of day they have an ISBN number so no reason why you can’t monitor the book :)

Bringing this topic back up, I wanted to confirm some things:

- Any Special Editions of a book sold by a Subscription Box but that are available to the general public (ie someone who doesn't have a subscription) can be added to GR.

- If at any point a "Box exclusive" edition is available to the general public to purchase, they can be added to GR.

Therefore, I wanted to bring a few points to your attention, regarding several specific subscription boxes:

- Fae Crate and Bookish Box ( both US based) sell subscription boxes but they always have that month's box available to the general public for purchase as a "Single Purchase" box (to confirm this, I bought FC's September box from their site without ever having subscribed their box in the past and I know the same can be done with BB).

- Illumicrate and Fairyloot (both UK based) don't have boxes available to the public on the month of release. However, Fairyloot does their "Trove Sale" every year, where they put every single edition they released in the previous year as part of their boxes available to the general public (case in point, "Her Majesty's Royal Coven" by Juno Dawson, was a 2022 Subscription-only edition, but it was made available to the general public in the 2023 Trove sale - and can still now be bought - https://fairyloot.com/fairy-trove/boo...). Illumicrate does something similar, but instead, every few months, they put full boxes\book only boxes from previous months for sale for the general public to purchase.

- Illumicrate also has a presence in the YALC convention every year, where they sell several of their "subscription only" edition to the public. I can personally confirm this, as I have purchased a few of their books long before I was a subscriber.

-------------

With that in mind, I now had several questions I would appreciate confirmation:

1 - Subscription-only editions from companies that make their monthly boxes immediately available to the public (like Bookish Box and Fae Crate) along with their subscribers can be immediately added to GR as soon as they have been released, since the public will receive the books at the same time as the subscribers.

2 - Subscription-only editions from companies that do yearly or quarterly or so sales of their exclusive editions to the public (Illumicrate and Fairyloot) can have their editions added to GR once those sales happen.

Alternatively, can the edition be added be added to GR once they are released to subscribers only, as it is a matter of time until the general public has access to them?

Alternatively (again), can the editions be added to GR only when the sale is announced?

3 - If one of these "Subscription-only, but now open to public" editions sells out, they can still be added to GR (for example, the Fairyloot Edition of Babel by R. Kuang was made available to the public, but sold out in the meantime, and is no longer accessible\purchaseable in the shop).

4 - If I want to add a previously subscription-only edition to GR, it would be a good idea to leave a Librarian note in the lines of "This was a Subscription box edition that was made available to the public in the sale of 202X" or "This is a subscription box edition but could be bought by the general audience at the same time" to prevent other librarians from deleting the edition based on the call of "books not available to the public should not be in GR".

-------

A couple of notes regarding "Having to join sites to buy the book" - as far as I can tell, Fairyloot and Illumicrate both make you create an account to manage your orders - not so much to give access to the books. You can't buy things from them as guests, but I suspect it's related to the shop software they use - which was very likely custom made, not to force you to join their site.

By comparison Bookish Box and Fae Crate both use the same third party shop software which does allow people to do purchases as Guests.

Lady wrote: "Alternatively (again), can the editions be added to GR only when the sale is announced?"

I'd do this, just to be on the safe side.