Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

Dear Jaclyn,
I have a request regarding an addition to the Librarians manual. It's about book covers. Nowadays, thanks to the sprayed edge trend, you see a lot of books that have a 3D image of the book.
It would be nice if there could be an addition to the manuals regarding this, as the policy is currently completely unclear. If there is also a flat version of exactly the same cover, is this preferable? So are we allowed to change it? Or are 3D covers okay and should be left as they are?

If the flat covers are preferable, does this generally apply or only if the author has not explicitly requested otherwise? So it should be changed to flat cover, unless a Goodreads author explicitly uploads the 3D version?

It would be nice if we could clarify Goodreads' position on this.

Hi Miss Pageturner

Yes, 3D covers are permitted - we were previously unclear on this and I'll update the Librarian Manual this week to clarify. 😊

Dear Jaclyn, thats good to know, thank you for the quick response =)

Hello again! Quick update that I added a short sentence to this Librarian Manual article:

https://help.goodreads.com/s/article/...

"Images of book covers may be added in 2D or 3D."

Do will still prefer 2D when available?

That's a good question. Even if 3D is allowed, are librarians allowed to change the cover (exactly the same, of course) to 2D if it is also available from the publisher?

We always have before.

Scott wrote: "We always have before."

Before the manual was changed, but what should we do now the manual states that both are acceptable?
Personally I don't want 3D images on my bookshelves, it will mess with the 'grid'.

I thought 3D images were always acceptable, if that was all we could get.

That was the case, but the new wording seems to give them the same status as 2D images.

Then I would consider the 2D image to be a better quality image, and replace it on that ground.

Hahaha

I agree with you both, but the request is that staff make this explicit to avoid future arguments.

The sprayed edges of the pages can only be seen in a 3D view. I would think those would be an exception to the 2D rule, as sometimes people go by the cover image rather than the ISBN when shelfing a book.

Personally, I think the following approach would be good:

2D covers are preferable wherever available except a) sprayed edge editions with their very own ISBN and b) if explicitly requested by authors.

For books that only have a sprayed edges in the first edition, the 2D cover would be better, because it would then really be correct for all books with this ISBN, whereas the 3D cover only shows a single print run.

The books I've seen over the past few months have been special edition, usually short-run, with a different ISBN from the standard edition.

I don't agree with adding the special 3D cover only if the author explicitly requests it. Why would we add that burden?

I prefer the way it was before, 2D covers as standard with only 3D used when nothing better is available.
If a book with same front cover is issued with different rear covers we don't display them so why worry about sprayed edges? If the ISBN is different users who wish to differentiate can do so.

I agree with Martin; I don't understand why sprayed or decorative edges enter into it at all. If the edition has its own ISBN that is what justifies a separate record, and a flat cover should still be preferred.