Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

The Arkadien series http://www.goodreads.com/series/57745... shows the wrong edition for volume 1. The correct first part would be the german hardcover edition http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/66....

I tried to replace the english edition with the german one, however every time I search for the german book the english one is found and inserted instead.

Also tried to separate the editions temporarily, but found that on the separate page the german hardcover is not listed.

So, something must be completely mixed up with these books and I can't fix it myself. Please help me with this. Thanx!

Nothing wrong there. The first book has more reviews of the English edition then the German edition. That means it is the default edition and will show up first.

Kim wrote: "Nothing wrong there. The first book has more reviews of the English edition then the German edition. That means it is the default edition and will show up first."

Ok, if that is GR's policy. Though I find it strange to mix up the editions instead of showing the original work...

When making a series you can't pick individual editions for it. You can only choose the book as a whole and it will always default to the most popular edition.

I just r(e)visited the librarian guide and read the definition of primary work, which explains it nicely. Just never had such a case before, so it took me by surprise and my feeling was this must be wrong. Thanks for the explanation, and this discussion can be closed.

Yeah, I have to say, as an author I find this frustrating. I changed the cover of the ebook edition of my book Rook: Allie's War, Book One to match that of the ebook that's currently for sale (on the GRs listing, I mean), so that people could find the ebook easier (the one on sale matched the one in GR...seemed logical to me at the time). So everyone put their reviews on this one, and then one of the librarians not only went in and changed the ebook cover back to the old one (which is no longer for sale ANYWHERE), but they also put a note in there that I would be "reported" if I tried to change it to the one that's actually on sale. So an old (no longer available) cover is what shows up when people search for my book. Is there anything I can do about this? Because it's confusing readers, not helping them...

JC

I just found this description. I was adding Japanese books, many of which are in translation in GoodReads. When I tried to do my duty and combine editions by linking the original to the translations, the most popular edition (the English comes up). This doesn't make sense to me as either a reader or cataloger.

J.C., we don't change covers on existing editions; we add alternate cover editions.

J.C. wrote: "Yeah, I have to say, as an author I find this frustrating. I changed the cover of the ebook edition of my book Rook: Allie's War, Book One to match that of the ebook that's currently for sale (on t..."

You're talking about me. I also said in that Librarian's Note that if anyone has an issue with this, then they should come here to this group and discuss it. However, if you truly find the "or you will be reported" line so threatening, then I apologize. I changed that part to "or your change will be reversed" now. Hopefully you will find it non-threatening.

As rivka said, we don't change covers on existing edition. We absolutely do not change covers simply for the fact because it look ugly or doesn't help sales or whatever. The times that we do is when the cover is inaccurate or we found a higher quality image for replacement. Goodreads is a book-cataloging website with an ability to sell ebooks, not a book-selling store that catalog books as a side feature.

That cover I plead people not to change is the accurate cover for that edition with that ASIN. Sorry if it bums you out. Moreover, we Librarians cannot control how normal users add edition or review which edition. What we Librarians do is keeping book records accurate. For that edition, I did just that.

I appreciate you changing the note, but the wording wasn't really the issue. And, as an fyi, my posting the above was a direct result of me coming here to find a place to discuss it. This thread seemed to be the closest thing to that issue. And yes, I did find it frustrating, in terms of the note and everything, which struck me as a bit odd, but hey, I'm new on here, so still learning the ropes, so if my tone above was offensive, I apologize.

So here's my question...that ASIN is not for sale anymore. Anywhere. It hasn't been for something like 10 months. There is not an ebook for sale anywhere with that cover, yet I'm not able to delete it, and it's the "representative" version that pops up when people search for that book. I'm not really clear how that helps Goodreads be an accurate book cataloguing system, when that version is not available for sale. I'm also not clear how that's considered an "existing edition" when it's not for sale. Simply because it existed once, somewhere?

If this is unfixable, then just tell me. I'm fairly new on here like I said, and I get the whole "cover has to match the ASIN" thing, as I'm a stickler for accurate records, too. I even get it that you might want to keep up editions that are no longer for sale, as someone out there bought the previous version at one point, and yadda, yadda.

But what I can tell you is, just about every other vendor and cataloguing system out there is going to have as their top display on any book the version that's actually for sale...not the version from 1965 or whatever.

I guess the part that makes less sense to me is that the version with the most reviews is the version that's up...no matter what. I get that as a default, but the inflexibility of it is strange to me. Why not have an ability to choose the display copy where appropriate? What about older titles that are rereleased by famous authors and the like? It's just kind of a strange system from my perspective, both as a reader and an author, and seems to serve the site admin more than its customers. But again...if it's unfixable, just tell me, and I'll drop it.

You are thinking of GR as being like a bookstore, but it is actually closer to a library in most ways. Would you ask a library why they have a book that has been out of print since 1981 on their shelves?

JC, that ebook with that cover does exist .. it exists on every persons device(s) that ever purchased that book. It may not be available for purchase, but it does exist.

Many GR members want their bookshelves to represent the actual version of the book they own or have read, which often does not represent the one currently sold.

Yeah, I hear you...I figured that was the reason. The problem is, I'd be willing to bet that about 90% of the people who own that book (if not much, much higher) are not familiar with that cover at all, and so probably think it's a completely different book (the whole series was rebranded after those initial test covers...and well, that just happens sometimes in publishing, as I'm sure you know). All of the marketing push and so forth was done on the new brand, so comparatively *very* few copies were sold of the original one.

Again, though, if this is just one of those things, I'll chalk it up and let it go. I've just gotten enough comments from people about it, I thought I'd at least investigate the issue.

Thanks for your response!

And I thought I was clear...I'm not asking that that edition be "pulled," only since they are all combined into a single edition anyway, that the book that's for sale be the one that comes up in a search and as the primary display copy. So not really comparable to your library example, but I get what you mean.

Again - I'll drop it, if it's an inflexible issue. From the note, it sounded like it was up for discussion, but I'm hearing here that it's not really.

The good news is that once more people have the new cover on their shelves than the old one, the new one will become the default cover that shows up in searches and stuff. It's not stuck on the old one forever.

Agreed! That's why I'm not too bothered, honestly. :)

And thanks everyone for your patience!

J.C. wrote: "Again - I'll drop it, if it's an inflexible issue. From the note, it sounded like it was up for discussion, but I'm hearing here that it's not really."

The fact that the most popular edition comes up in searches is a limit (or perhaps design choice) of the current system. There have been suggestions (in the Feedback group) for that edition choice to be more customizable. In general terms, that could mean you want a certain language to always come up, or a preference for a certain format. Or, for Goodreads Authors, that could mean picking the featured edition. I get the impression that suggestion is on the to-do list, but there are no guarantees when a change like that may happen.

Either way, that's something that would require a programming change, not just a policy change.