Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

B&N has changed the terms for their API and has asked us to stop using it. Therefore, you may notice (among other related changes) that it is no longer possible to switch book data to B&N or refresh from there.

Seriously? That's so lame. They were the best source for ebooks. Would it be possible to switch to Sony to get ebook data by any chance?

Do they have an API for sites to import info? If so, please send information about it via the contact us link (on the help page).

I do know that we are getting quite a lot of book data from the publishers themselves these days, but I have no idea how that breaks down by book type.

I haven't the faintest if they have an API to be honest (although they use ours). How would one find out?

If they are a client site, then I'm guessing their tech guys and our tech guys already talk.

I hope they could make it work. In case they don't have it their website is ebookstore.sony.com.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I meant, they probably already talk, so if it were easy, it would probably already have been done.

Ehh it's Monday. My brain is off by default.

Maybe that's why whenever I put ebook ISBNs in the system it imports the equivalent kindle and I've got to manually create the ebooks. I was wondering :)

This sucks.

I'm sure it does suck for e-books, but B&N brought with it a lot of lame, half-assed data. Stuff like, if an author was "E.B. White" or someone similarly named, it would be imported as "E. White."

It might come back, but we might only get title/author name/isbn/image.

That stinks.

Forgive me, I am new. Is this why when I click on the Get a copy: Barnes & Noble button on my ebook page it says "Sorry, we could not find what you were looking for" on the B&N.com site?

It's a related issue. Those buttons will be getting removed soon.

Oh :(

As you can see, they are no longer functional.

I guess we don't really need those links though, since they all link to sites that sell in the same epub format as Goodreads (and who also take a larger royalty cut). Now a link to Amazon so people with Kindles who prefer .mobi... that would be nice

Kindle editions all already have links to Amazon.

You mean people upload their .mobi editions? And that somehow links to the Amazon.com page?

No, I mean that Kindle editions default to having Amazon as the online store link.

How does an author create a Kindle edition? We can't just upload a .mobi document?

Kindle editions are listed for sale with Amazon.

So we have to get the book on Amazon and then add that edition onto our Goodreads page? For some reason Amazon is taking months to put my book up there.

Any editions listed on Amazon will be automatically imported for listing on GR. But authors can also sell ebooks directly through GR. See here for more information.

Thanks. I already have my ebook for sale on Goodreads as an .epub. Just trying to figure out how to get the .mobi option. Sounds like I need to get Amazon to hurry up and post it on there already.

That is terrible

Is there any possibility of fixing the wonky page numbering of search results from Amazon. Really irritating to constantly go to a page and have the old "sorry" message instead of results.

Meh. First Amazon, now this.

I wonder what's behind it all. What have Amazon and B&N done to their API terms and why. And does it have anything to do with recent or threatened legislation.

The B&N change was 4 months ago.

Whoops, sorry, I'm a not-looking-at-the-timestamp dummy.

Now I can see why. Thanks for let me know.