Goodreads Librarians Group discussion
[Closed] Added Books/Editions
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Glich when using my librarian status?
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Emilio wrote: "Hello Guys, I'm new to Goodreads, trying to fill all the data for my book: Series, Characters, etc... I suppose to have the Librarian status and Author Dashboard shows on my profile. I'm able to ge..."Authors have limited librarian privileges over their own books. Series is not part of those limited privileges.
I have created the series for you.
Hello MissyDevoursDelishReads, Thanks for joining me here, at least I don't feel so alone now :) Let's hope some brave veteran from goodreads would come to help us with some clues about what's going on! I tried to look for a "contact us" email address (so not to bother everybody with a post but couldn't find it: and here I'm...)Well, enough for crying and complaining, let's see who picks the challenge (probably is not that big an issue). See you around!
Emilio
Emilio, Missy - If you want to contact GR staff directly you can do so by going to the light grey coloured links at the bottom right of every page and click the last one in the list 'help'. This will take you to the page that you'll see if you click the link below.http://www.goodreads.com/help
On the right side of the page there is a list of links and the fifth one down is 'contact us'. They usually take a day or two to answer your question. Good luck with becoming a librarian.
Hey Amanda, Thanks a lot for your prompt reply! Now, I assure you I read every piece of help I could (and the Librarian Manual) and didn't see anything about those limited privileges... (Neither understands the reason behind that but guess there is one). The thing is: could you point me to some link or document where I can learn more without bothering everybody else? I will so much appreciate that. Thanks!PS, I have a ton of info I want to add: characters, info about the Series, setting, etc… do I really need to be asking gentle people like you to add those? Why? Not that I don´t like to talk to people but rather like to discuss a book that be asking for something I can do myself.
Sarah wrote: "Emilio, Missy - If you want to contact GR staff directly you can do so by going to the light grey coloured links at the bottom right of every page and click the last one in the list 'help'. This w..."Sounds good! Thanks Sarah
Emilio wrote: "Hey Amanda, Thanks a lot for your prompt reply! Now, I assure you I read every piece of help I could (and the Librarian Manual) and didn't see anything about those limited privileges... (Neither un..."Emillio, we love doing the edits so you aren't inconveniencing anyone by posting.
You might possibly find out more information about what authors can do, in the Author Feedback Group.
In addition, when editing your books these are some of the rules to be usedhttp://www.goodreads.com/librarian_ma...
Not all are yet written up but asking here is always a good thing
@Emilio, some of the "rules" evolved just out of common problems/issues. I'm not an oldtimer but the way it was explained to me—Series and bookcovers in particular were and are still an issue. With members shelving their specific edition with the bookcover they owned suddenly having it changed when an ebook author decided to update (needs a new edition, not changng existing copies; mostly just authors trying to treat goodreads as if they had product pages here versus a book cataloging database); with a 12 book series having the "whatever series" created when book 1 was added, then a second "whatever series" of exact same name for book 2, a third exact same title seres with book 3 ... not everyone was updating the series and instead just kept putting an already created series in a book's "add series" field.I'm sure there are tons of other examples. There's a flipside with stuff only an author can do. Regular goodreads librarians cannot edit your author profile once claimed, we cannot decide which edition of your book is primary/default/featured (meaning which edition or bookcover thumbnail shows on author page, series page, in searches...)...
A little confusing until you get used to.
@Debbie n @Paula, Thanks for the feedback. I understand the need for rules, makes a lot of sense and I'll get used to them sooner or later but life would have been so much easier with some little improvements on the Error Message you get when trying this stuff...
Well, anyway, I'll look around and get involve, I'm sure there are some interesting conversations happening.
Thanks a lot of taking the time to post your notes.
Regards,
Emilio
Emilio wrote: "...but life would have been so much easier with some little improvements on the Error Message you get when trying this stuff..."You cannot get much more accurate than a message that says "only Goodreads librarians can do this".
Banjomike wrote: "Emilio wrote: "...but life would have been so much easier with some little improvements on the Error Message you get when trying this stuff..."You cannot get much more accurate than a message tha..."
Well, Banjomike, I´ll disagree. You can go with an error message as "Your librarian status don´t allow you to do this" or "Authors cannot modify this book feature", etc... The current error message makes you think the issue is you don´t have the librarin status and, based on the explanation above, that´s not the issue... By other way, it may also work the message "Your permissions will only allow the editing of the metadata" (that´s the one I got when trying to edit any other book, other than mine)... Anyway, I´m just trying to put together all the info I got and see if there was something I could have done to get it right the first time but cannot see it. I did read the Librarian Manual, looked at the Author Feedback Group, etc... and did not find an answer so clear and direct as the one Debbie put here but I know I´m new and might be missing something that´s plain clear. Would you take a minute to point me to a link or document where the issue is explained or mentioned before hand? Again, I did not see it on the Librarian Manual neither in the Author Guidelines (read all that before posting here)...
Emilio wrote: "Well, Banjomike, I´ll disagree. You can go with an error message as "Your librarian status don´t allow you to do this" or "Authors cannot modify this book feature", etc... The current error message makes you think the issue is you don´t have the librarin status and, based on the explanation above, that´s not the issue... By other way, it may also work the message "Your permissions will only allow the editing of the metadata" (that´s the one I got when trying to edit any other book, other than mine)... Anyway, I´m just trying to put together all the info I got and see if there was something I could have done to get it right the first time but cannot see it. I did read the Librarian Manual, looked at the Author Feedback Group, etc... and did not find an answer so clear and direct as the one Debbie put here but I know I´m new and might be missing something that´s plain clear. Would you take a minute to point me to a link or document where the issue is explained or mentioned before hand? Again, I did not see it on the Librarian Manual neither in the Author Guidelines (read all that before posting here)... "A message like "Your librarian status don´t allow you to do this" is pointless since the error is caused by (I'm NOT being personal here) NOT being a librarian in the first place.
The current error message makes you think the issue is you don´t have the librarian status. Correct, that IS the issue. As far as I know, you have Goodreads Author status.
"Your permissions will only allow the editing of the metadata", again pointless since the error messages are there to indicate that what you are trying to do is not possible not to suggest that you can do other things instead. That could lead to the sort of smarmy and insulting messages we get on other sites.
This is the Series reference in the Librarians manual:
http://www.goodreads.com/librarian_ma...
it doesn't specifically say that you need to be a librarian but then it IS in the Librarian manual.
There are many restrictions on Goodreads. Ordinary members, authors, librarians, super librarians, staff can all do different things. When we can't do something we ask in the appropriate place and someone will fix it.
ok, Banjomike, got it and think also the last paragraph in your reply is very simple and good explanation.
By the way, I did submit a request for Librarian Status before my request for Author status... That drove me to believe I had been giving both... Anyway, that's it.
Is it possible to have both roles (Author and Librarian) or are they mutual exclusive?
Finally, thanks for taking the additional time to explain the whole thing. I also think my English might be part of the issue since I'm really a Spanish speaker author and sometimes it compounds over not knowing the site.
Regards,
Emilio
Emilio wrote: "ok, Banjomike, got it and think also the last paragraph in your reply is very simple and good explanation.By the way, I did submit a request for Librarian Status before my request for Author status... That drove me to believe I had been giving both... Anyway, that's it.
Is is possible to have both roles (Author and Librarian) or are they mutual exclusive?
Finally, thanks for taking the additional time to explain the whole thing. I also think my English might be part of the issue since I'm really a Spanish speaker author and sometimes it compounds over not knowing the site.
Regards,
Emilio
"
Firstly there is nothing wrong with your English.
The best way to find out if you can be a librarian is to contact Customer Support. Only they can say yes, and only they know how they decide.
Finally, always ask questions. You can read these forums from one end to the other and you won't find many (possibly none at all) cases of someone being told-off for wasting librarians time.
Thanks in advance for the hand,
Regards,
Emilio
PS, if somebody want to try, here is the link to my book: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17... the series name is Jalander Series