Retailer links in the description area?

[ᑭᑌᑎƳᗩ [Punya Reviews...]]

I'm sorry if this has been discussed before, I haven't been able to find any thread with this exact discussion but I need clarification.

I know that the description area is solely for blurb/description of a book. But lately, I've come across some books where authors have put the retail links on the description area, sometimes the retail links overshadow the blurb. Is this acceptable?

[Paula]

No, they should be removed

[Juniper]

can i just clarify something, based on a comment in the first post -- is the description area supposed to be used for blurbs too? i have comes across situation where there are *only* blurbs in the description area, which is not much help when someone wants to know what the book is actually about. when i see this, i add in a description, but have been forgetful in asking the policy.

[ᑭᑌᑎƳᗩ [Punya Reviews...]]

Jennifer wrote: "can i just clarify something, based on a comment in the first post -- is the description area supposed to be used for blurbs too? i have comes across situation where there are *only* blurbs in the ..."

I'm not sure what kind of description you're adding, but this might help you understand what goes in the description area of a book. I mainly work with Romance novels, and blurbs are easily found in the author's/publisher's site.

This is from the Librarian Manual:

description

The description field is for entering a summary of the work. The best description to enter is one found on the back cover or on the dust jacket of the book. If the book does not have a summary listed anywhere on the cover or pages, you can copy a description from a different edition or you can write your own. The description can be a couple of sentences or a couple of paragraphs describing the content of the book. It should be a generic summary and should NOT include reviews or personal feelings (i.e. "This is a book about sisters. It was good. You should read it"). The summary should also NOT contain any important spoilers such as mentions of characters deaths, how the book ends, major twists or other information that would spoil the story for those who have not read it.

Descriptions copied from an outside source, such as Wikipedia, should contain a short citation stating where the summary originated from.

[ᑭᑌᑎƳᗩ [Punya Reviews...]]

Paula wrote: "No, they should be removed"

I also thought retail links shouldn't be in the description area. Nowhere in the manual it's mentioned. Thanks. :)

I wanted to know about it so that if I make an edit, I'd like to mention about it in the librarian note. It'd be difficult if the author goes and puts them back again though. :/

[Empress]

Sellers links are not allowed, nor are reviews. There is option for a link to be added to the edition. You can put either link to the publisher or author's web page.

[Juniper]

execllent, thank you. i realize i could have searched the manual myself. :/

oh -- i only ever add the official description from a publisher's web site.

i didn't need clarification on that. just the issue of promotional blurbs. they drive me nuts when i see them in a book's description and in giveaways.

[ᑭᑌᑎƳᗩ [Punya Reviews...]]

Ellie [The Empress] wrote: "Sellers links are not allowed, nor are reviews. There is option for a link to be added to the edition. You can put either link to the publisher or author's web page."

Yah that is what I thought as well. Retail links are not allowed on the book page, the way book information is structured in the librarian manual. Thanks for the feedback, I'll start editing some of these books I've seen with retail links in the description area. :)

[Paula]

Ellie [The Empress] wrote: "Sellers links are not allowed, nor are reviews. There is option for a link to be added to the edition. You can put either link to the publisher or author's web page."

Links to the author page / publisher should only be added if it is a link to a page about the book and provides additional information other than just a buy link. It should not be a link to a general page on the author website

[ᑭᑌᑎƳᗩ [Punya Reviews...]]

Paula wrote: "Ellie [The Empress] wrote: "Sellers links are not allowed, nor are reviews. There is option for a link to be added to the edition. You can put either link to the publisher or author's web page."

L..."

Thanks for clarifying this too. I'm glad for all the feedback. Personally, I've never added retail links on a book page, let alone the description area. But sometimes, I've found that self-published debut authors not having a personal site/blog with more information. In those cases only, I've added the retailer link on the link area (i.e. books from smashwords) but those are very few. In most cases these books were freebies I wanted to add and leave a review.

[Cait]

.þµŋψà. [Punya Reviews...] wrote: "In those cases only, I've added the retailer link on the link area (i.e. books from smashwords) but those are very few."

Retailer links are never correct in that field. However, publisher links can be used if the publisher has created a page with additional content for the book. Smashwords, as a publisher, often provides excerpts of books which would count as additional content, and in that case a Smashwords link for editions which are published by Smashwords would be fine. (It would not be fine for editions from other publishers, if the book has multiple editions with multiple publishers. A publisher's link should only be used for that publisher's editions.)

"In most cases these books were freebies I wanted to add and leave a review."

You can always put a link in your review.

[Jackie - Fire & Ice Book Reviews]

I saw a few as well, I will go and edit them.

[ᑭᑌᑎƳᗩ [Punya Reviews...]]

Cait wrote: ".þµŋψà. [Punya Reviews...] wrote: "In those cases only, I've added the retailer link on the link area (i.e. books from smashwords) but those are very few."

Retailer links are never correct in that..."

I agree, that is why I wanted to discuss this topic. Thanks for your feedback. :) Today I edited out a few books and left librarian messages. I'll have to go back and check later on if the links have been put back or not. I also found one author putting her facebook, twitter etc. for a new penname, also in the description area. I removed those as well.

I generally download freebies from smashwords and I do add the book link in my review in case someone wants to download it. In the link area, as I mentioned, I've added only a few smashwords links just because I couldn't find any personal blog/link for those authors anywhere.

[ᑭᑌᑎƳᗩ [Punya Reviews...]]

As I assumed, after I deleted the retailer links from the description, this following author put them back again. Maybe one of the super-librarians can tell her that the links aren't supposed to be there. Really frustrating!

http://www.goodreads.com/book/edit/17...

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Done.

[ᑭᑌᑎƳᗩ [Punya Reviews...]]

Thanks rivka! I'll check back on the other books I've edited. Any suggestion on what to do if these authors keep putting back the links after deletion, not minding the librarian note?

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Send a message to Support (Contact Us link on the Help page) with links to the logs of the books in question and a description of what Notes have been ignored.

[ᑭᑌᑎƳᗩ [Punya Reviews...]]

Ok. :)