Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

Hello, I'm wondering if any of the following is allowed in the book description for a book that hasn't been published yet:

1) ALL CAPS text.
2) Text in hexadecimal characters [unicode] example (adding forward slashes so it doesn't trigger it). This in description field: /641;&/#x1d66/7;/d65e;&/#x1d65/a;/d663;&/#x1d6/59;/1d668;/ /669;&/#x1d6/64;/ /x1d661;//664;&/#x1d66/b;/d65a;&/#x1d6/67;&/#x1d/668;
translates to 𝙁𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨 . Other unicode text/characters such as ◐, △, ℳ, ℱ, Ⅎ, →, ⓹, ⓺, etc.
3) Emojis.
4) Things like TBA, release date upcoming, release date to be announced, blurb to be released, official blurb coming soon, cover to be revealed, etc.
5) Tropes list.
6) Updates/reveals about the book. Example: Author posted on social media number of pages and the like.
7) Things like "the cover is a placeholder."

The only things on your list I would add to the description would be 4 & 5.

I wouldn't put any of those.

Tami, I love questions like yours because it's a great opportunity to dive deep into the Manual, and also learn more about past staff advise.

For 1), the closest mention I can find in the Manual exists on the out-of-print policy within the context of the description field, where it states "No all-caps, italics, or bold, please".
(source: https://help.goodreads.com/s/article/...)

For me that indicates ALL CAPS descriptions should be avoided although not explictly forbidden. I would probably not add an entire description in all caps, but would add descriptions where the internal heading is in all caps, similar to the use of bold emphasis.

As for 3), I personally don't think emojis belong in the description field, not even as ornaments. But as far I'm aware there's no rule against them. The only ones I regularly remove are the ones that pose as "five review stars", as reviews are explicitly not allowed within the description.

Going to be interesting to see what others think. Especially the difference between what we would actively add vs. actively remove.

annob makes good points.

I seldom make changes to already here descriptions except removing prohibited reviews or when there's obvious error such as partial descriptions where description breaks off mid word.

Adding description is different. For not yet published book the only things I might put in description that are not in usual description would be planned release information such as planned release date(s) and formats.

Descriptions in general, I try for how descriptions look on printed books as opposed to descriptions in advertisements so limited caps, italics, bold.

Sorry for the late reply. I'm only just seeing this. Thank you everyone for your replies and thoughts on this. What I take from this is that none of the items on the list is explicitly forbidden. I was mostly annoyed at seeing emojis and such unicode text in book descriptions. I haven't seen an actual librarian doing this, but publicists and publishers with librarian status. They might be acting in lieu of authors I suppose. I guess it's not forbidden so nothing to do *sigh*

I wouldn't add any of it, except something that actually describes the book, for example "This book is about X" if known, and maybe planned release date, although I only did that once. Sometimes authors push back dates a lot so it didn't make much sense to me to keep edit that every time. In general, I prefer to add nothing unless official book descriptions have been released.