Goodreads lists like - "New Releases"

[Stanley]

I am curious...as I wander around, I clicked on "explore" at the top and when the page loaded, I noticed categories like genre...and if I say select Fantasy, it shows "New Releases tagged Fantasy"...is there a way to get my book on that list? My book is a new release, although it's only available on Amazon so far, as my distirbution book printer hasn't finished yet...There was also a genre for dragons and my book is a fantasy novel about dragons, so thought i'd like to get it on that list too....is it possible?

[mlady_rebecca]

It looks like your book hasn't been shelved using any genre categories. Genres on Goodreads are made up of how individual users shelve their books. You're welcome to shelve your own book to suggest what categories your book best fits.

That said, I'm unsure if there is a minimum number of shelvings before a book may appear on the "New Releases" listings. I imagine the most popular books - the most shelved books - are listed first.

[Stanley]

well, I created shelves, "fantasy", "new-releases", and "dragons"....hope that gets me to show up somewhere, we'll see...

[Michal]

Could somebody please explain to me how to shelf my own book to suggest what categories my book fits? I'm a new author and new to Goodreads. The things I've tried haven't worked. Your help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[K.A.]

Michal-Ann, there are several ways to get there, but here's how to do it from right here:

Click on your picture in the upper right-hand corner of this page. Scroll down, looking at the left column, until you see the heading "Bookshelves". Part way through that you should see a tab called "Add Shelf".

Click that and create a shelf with whatever name you want. It's best to use one that other people will also tend to use, such as 'fantasy fiction' or 'romance'. Create as many as you want. Then you should be able to add your book to the shelf (from the 'read' list).

Hope that helps...

[Michal]

Hi K.A.

Thanks for jumping in to help me. I'm almost there. I got as far as creating a couple of shelves, clicked "add book" but when I typed in my book, it was only added to my list of books I wanted to read, but not in the shelf I created (in this case, "new releases") So I'm stuck on the last step.

[K.A.]

OK. So now, go to your actual book & click on it. Underneath it, there will be a "Want to Read" tab with a little green thingy next to it. Hover over the green thingy and you should get a drop-down list of your shelves. Move down and click on the shelves (you can choose multiple) you want to add it to...

[Michal]

Thank you, K.A, that got the job done. Many thanks for your help.

[K.A.]

No problem!

[Lenita]

B.L. wrote: "Why aren't new independent releases automatically added to the 'New Releases' listing?

Why aren't the genres from the metadata included for easy discovery?"

Some independent releases are on the 'New Releases' listing. I guess it depends on how popular the book is.

[S.]

Owwww..this is helpful to know..thanks..

[Debbie's Spurts (D.A.)]

Takes two to shelve your book on a genre related shelf name to put it in the genre/subgenre. From there, almost every display/list (including new releases by genre, exploring genres, and top shelves) will show books in descending order of popularity/shelvings.

Helps to make sure you also shelve some subgenres if your book is in a really popular genre. For example, if you have a "mystery" genre book think if it fits categories like "cozy mystery" "detective" "police procedure"...

Goodreads, as far as shelves named for genre, doesn't seem to care who or how shelves. I suspect there would be a point at which it could be seen as spam or tag drives -- but not if one person (even the author) just shelving in their own book catalog. Goodreads likely to only step in thinking the shelvings were spam/drives if sockpuppet/fake-reader accounts were made to do so or big campaigns got underway calling all minions to flood shelf Xyz with your book. The Listopias are another separate issue from genre. Goodreads says they are cracking down on spam there.

[Alexandra]

D.A. wrote: "The Listopias are another separate issue from genre. Goodreads says they are cracking down on spam there. "

I sure hope so, it's gotten way out of hand.

[Debbie's Spurts (D.A.)]

Auntie J wrote: "I sure hope so, it's gotten way out of hand."

Yes. I wish goodreads would let Listopia creators edit the things at will if they cannot get a handle on it soon. (Seriously, why someone would think spamming their book on completely inappropriate Listopias eludes me -- I guess somewhere there is someone buying a vampire love triangle book because it was put on an automotive repair book Listopia or something?)

It's not spam if you just catalog your books on your own shelves.