What is a book? And how to remove a fake book?

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Can I have another Arabic speaker confirm that this is not actually the ebook it appears to be, please?

[rivka, Former Moderator]

I'm sorry, but having an ebook hosted somewhere IS sufficient to have it be considered a book. Many ebooks are self-published (so no publisher) and lack an ISBN.

It's not vandalism, and it's not a violation of GR policy. It stays.

[Otis]

Our policy officially is:

Goodreads is designed for people with published books, or who are in the process of publishing a book. It's best if your work is on a bookseller's site like Amazon, but we will accept any author who has published a book. This includes authors from other countries as well as authors who are self-published (such as through Ebooks or services like Lulu).

The traditional definition of a book is if someone thought enough of it to publish it. However that has changed with the internet, as now anyone can publish anything. Our stance is not be a filter of what is good or bad (which is what a traditional publisher does), but rather give people an indication of what is good or bad based on what other people thought. So if someone says "this pdf is a book and I want people to see it" then I think we allow it. It's definitely a judgment call though, as clearly not all pdf's are intended to be books.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

That last issue is a known problem with a forthcoming solution.

As for the fact that we have a number of authors whose only books are ebooks, so what? They tend to have a few fans, and why shouldn't their books be listed here? If the authors overstep their bounds, they'll be warned (and if they continue, tossed out) the same as anyone else. And in my experience, they're actually not the problematic ones.

[Debbie]

I've often been tempted to upload something to Lulu so I too can be a GoodReads author.

Too often.

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