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Stuart Land
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books combined unintentionally
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Stuart
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Oct 02, 2013 03:10AM
Hi. Somehow, I unintentionally combined three of my books into one, so now all the reviews and covers are under one book, Original Blood. Is it possible to put the books back individually? What I had intended to do was combine all the editions of an individual book together, not combine separate books.
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yes, do you have the link ot the book you combined the three into? And which books they are? I'll try my best and let me know if I need to fix anything or if I did anything wrong.
I went through all your books and fixed all the little things, adding all editions to serieses and stuff. If there's anything I missed just let me know!Renee
Stuart, with reference to the librarian note you left on this book:http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17...
Hi. I have to say that this system is totally non-intuitive, unnecessary, and frustrating. All I wanted to do was change my cover to the newest one on Amazon, and combine the editions of each book together, not combine separate books into one edition. That is just crazy. Now three of my books are under one book. What good does it do to have every change I make to a book listed separately. I don't sell books on Goodreads. Could someone please fix these things or give me the power to edit my own listings. Thank you. Regards, Stuart
First point, changing covers is not allowed. We create a new, alternate cover editions. As you noticed, the new edition is a standalone book which needs to be combined with the existing editions. Combining allows reviews and such to be visible from every edition of a book, however many there are.
If you make many changes to your books then you will end up with a lot of different editions on Goodreads. Our policy is to have every variant of a book available for members to choose from.
Normally combining books does not cause problems but if you think that the combine procedure messed up then you could post in the "Bugs" folder.
Renee, you are wonderful! Thanks so much. You actually undid my mess. I do have a couple more problems, hopefully minor. I would like to change the Starship Pegasus Series to the Endless Sky Series. The other problem concerns the first edition of Back from the Dead, published by Publish America. They have not been my publisher since before I joined Goodreads. They have no claim to my book. I requested Goodreads take that book off when I joined as it only confuses people. I have the right not to have that book listed. No one has bought that book since I've been on Goodreads, nor can they. Thanks for taking care of that. My best to you. Stuart
Stuart wrote: "Renee, you are wonderful! Thanks so much. You actually undid my mess. I do have a couple more problems, hopefully minor. I would like to change the Starship Pegasus Series to the Endless Sky Series. The other problem concerns the first edition of Back from the Dead, published by Publish America. They have not been my publisher since before I joined Goodreads. They have no claim to my book. I requested Goodreads take that book off when I joined as it only confuses people. I have the right not to have that book listed. No one has bought that book since I've been on Goodreads, nor can they. Thanks for taking care of that. My best to you. Stuart "The PublishAmerica edition did exist so it stays on Goodreads. If you have legal or other reasons to need it removing then your option is to contact Customer Support.
The series name is listed on the cover of the books so that should probably stay as well.
Thank you, Banjomike, for your reply. It's been a while since I left that note. I was very frustrated at the time, so sorry about that. What I think you are saying is that only the reviews get compiled, not the editions. As for your readers (actually, my readers) having access to all my books...how does that work? They only have access to the books currently being sold, not to the earlier editions. Since I'm not selling my books on Goodreads, what good does it do anyone to list all the earlier editions? As for there being a bug, truthfully, I don't know if there is one, or I made a mistake. It's because the directions are so unclear that I said it was non-intuitive. It seems odd to me that you allow me to inadvertently combine separate books together into one book, but don't allow me to do a simple cover change. This idea is not well thought out. It probably causes a lot of unnecessary work for you librarians...unless I'm the only one this has happened to. Thanks for your help.Banjomike wrote: "Stuart, with reference to the librarian note you left on this book:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17...
Hi. I have to say that this system is totally non-intuitive, unnecess..."
Stuart wrote: "Thank you, Banjomike, for your reply. It's been a while since I left that note. I was very frustrated at the time, so sorry about that. What I think you are saying is that only the reviews get comp..."Stuart,
I have many older books no longer sold. I use the site as much as a catalog as anything else, so if I have an older version of something I purchased years ago, then yes, I want the ability to have that particular edition show up. What I think you mean is that they can no longer purchase older editions (which in the case of physical books is not actually true), but that doesn't meant that they don't already have those earlier editions.
That includes covers. If I have a particular cover on my book - even an ebook - that's the cover I want to show. Logistically, when a cover is changed on an existing edition, that cover is changed on the bookshelves of everyone who shelved that edition. Trust me when I say that makes a lot of people very unhappy.
Reviews stay attached to the specific edition that the member adds the review to (the specific edition thay have on their shelf). Many people will add (or try to add) the exact edition they own to their Goodreads shelf. They will match cover, ISBN, publisher etc so that their personal Goodreads database is as close as possible to their bookshelf at home or to the contents of their ereader. So if you change a cover from a red one to a blue one then to a green one (and we do have authors who change covers VERY frequently) then we will keep a record of every one of them so that someone who has the blue one can put it on their shelf. Bottom line, if it has ever existed we want it.
Cover changes are a sore point for many authors. A lot of them only want the current cover to be visible anywhere in the world and especially on Goodreads. That isn't what we want and isn't allowed. If you have a new cover for a book then you can create an alternate cover edition and make that one the default edition which appears in searches & lists & series etc. But we keep the old covers. Inadvertently combining of books is very rare. You must have a natural gift.
Actually, I do have a natural gift. Thanks for noticing. I would like to add that you have given the most comprehensive and intelligent answer to this problem than anyone I've encountered. This should be on the first page in the Goodreads tutorial. I'm not joking. It would solve a lot of problems. It makes sense. What many people are missing is that when we authors are told flat out that the rules say we can't do do something and that's that, we tend to get upset. We are not children. Your answer was very clear and you should get a gold star. I will tell my team of lawyers to cease and desist in their rampage against Goodreads.
