Goodreads Librarians Group discussion
Serieses!
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Problems with searching series
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Try this searchhttp://www.google.com/cse?cx=00296008...
or this
https://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8...
Goodreads search is not wonderful.
That's a clever way of getting the books to show up, but I believe most readers will use the regular GR search window to find the books. Even as the author, I can't find my own books which is kind of depressing.The only reason why a couple of the books show up right now is because I added, then removed "Rogue Hunter" from the title and it's been cached. But they should disappear shortly. As you can tell, I'm really confused by this.
Banjomike wrote: "or this
https://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8...
Goodreads search is not wonderful.
"
I see. You used quotation marks to narrow down the search. I hadn't thought of that. But why doesn't the series show up? If I type in "Anita Blake", that shows up with no problem. "Star Wars" too. But I'm the only author with a series that officially has the words "Rogue Hunter" in the listing and it still doesn't show up. Weird.
ETA: Thanks for passing on the tip about using quotation marks to narrow down searches. That's a good one. I just wish I could get my series to show up.
Most Goodreads searches do produce the results you want but often they are mixed in with many items you don't want. Sometimes this is down to titles not being unique (there are 27 books with Dark Space in the title). Sometimes a word is picked up because it is part of the name of a translator or editor of an edition. You have a series called Rogue Hunter, so do other authors and this also causes odd inclusions.
Kevis wrote: "I'm the only author with a series that officially has the words "Rogue Hunter" in the listing and it still doesn't show up. "Another Rogue Hunter series
https://www.goodreads.com/series/4560...
Rogue HunterS series
https://www.goodreads.com/series/9303...
Banjomike wrote: "Most Goodreads searches do produce the results you want but often they are mixed in with many items you don't want. Sometimes this is down to titles not being unique (there are 27 books with Dark ..."That makes sense. I guess what I can take away from your explanation is that I'll have to go back to "cheating" again and add the series title in the title. It's the only thing that seemed to work before.
Banjomike wrote: "Kevis wrote: "I'm the only author with a series that officially has the words "Rogue Hunter" in the listing and it still doesn't show up. "Another Rogue Hunter series
https://www.goodreads.com/se..."
Yeah. That definitely highlights the problem. But one would think that my books would get thrown in the mix, if for no other reason than to create more confusion.
Thanks for the heads up. I'm still not happy. Not by a long shot, but at least I know a way to get around this madness. A big thumbs up for your help, Banjomike.
Kevis wrote: "Yeah. That definitely highlights the problem. One would thing though that my books would get thrown in the mix. "They do. With this search I see your books at 10,12,13,16,17,19...
https://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8...+
The search is 'sort of' sorted by popularity (reviews, ratings, shelvings, other stuff) so the Argeneau book with 9000+ ratings is top, then others with smaller numbers all the way down to books with zero ratings with a few ups and downs en-route.
Banjomike wrote: "Kevis wrote: "Yeah. That definitely highlights the problem. One would thing though that my books would get thrown in the mix. "They do. With this search I see your books at 10,12,13,16,17,19...
..."
The reason they're showing up now is because I just added the series title to the "originally published as" title field. Inquest and Dark Space didn't show up in the search until I did so a couple of minutes ago. Armada and Untitled will disappear in another hour or so because I removed the series from the title. I've been playing with the metadata for my books over the past few days, that's how I know what will happen.
The thing is as long as the series title ends up in the "title" field or the "originally published as" title field it will show up. But if I remove "Rogue Hunter" from those fields, even though the books are all listed under the series as "Rogue Hunter", they won't show up. That's the problem I'm having. It's kind of lame because most other series don't have this problem.
As predicted, Untitled (Book#7) just disappeared from the search listing. Armada will be next. And then Inquest and Dark Space will disappear again, because I removed the series title from the originally published field. Like I said, this is really lame.
Inquest is back at 11. I tweaked the title entry as you can see on the series pagehttps://www.goodreads.com/series/5034...
Edit: it will also show on your author page as #1 in the series.
Banjomike wrote: "Inquest is back at 11. I tweaked the title entry as you can see on the series pagehttps://www.goodreads.com/series/5034...
Edit: it will also show on your author page as #1 in the ser..."
Yeah. I actually noticed the change while browsing the search screen and assumed you were trying something. It looks like that's the only solution to the problem right now. The word "Rogue Hunter" has to be added somewhere in the metadata besides the series field to make it show up in the "Rogue Hunter" keyword search. Your method or mine seems to be the only option left to getting my books to show up properly. I think I'll just stop complaining and add the keywords. It's not the ideal way I wanted it to work. But if that's what's required, then that's what I'll do.
Thanks again for all of your help. I learned a few things tonight and that makes the trouble worthwhile.
Yes, unfortunately this is still a limitation on the series feature, which is considered incomplete -- this is why adding the series name to the title field is optional but often done. If you put the series in the title of at least one edition of each book and put it in parentheses at the end of the title (for example: "Inquest (Rogue Hunter #1)") then as you have found the book will be indexed for search under "rogue" and "hunter". If you use this formatting, the book page will still show the link to the series next to the title without visibly duplicating the text.
Cait wrote: "If you put the series in the title of at least one edition of each book and put it in parentheses at the end of the title (for example: "Inquest (Rogue Hunter #1)") then as you have found the book will be indexed for search under "rogue" and "hunter". If you use this formatting, the book page will still show the link to the series next to the title without visibly duplicating the text. "I did that in #14 with the results you describe but Kevis has removed the series from the title and is using the 'original title' field to add 'Rogue Hunter' to the search. I think his edit is valid (I've checked the earliest covers for the title on them) but it does miss out on the other advantages that editing the title (while still keeping the title valid) such as also showing on his author page as ## in the xxx series.
I want to thank you ladies for following up on my problem. I have a really bad habit of overloading people with information when I explain things (a problem I can usually root out of my books with some good editing ;)), which is why I didn't mention it before. But the real reason why I started to remove the series name from the book titles, aside from the search issues, is because I have a new line of Rogue Hunter books coming out this year that isn't part of the numbered series. I can't figure out how to avoid confusing readers that the two lines are separate without featuring the new books with the title "Rogue Hunter: X" and leaving the numbered series as "Book X". Hence, the reason I dropped the title "Rogue Hunter: Inquest" and simply called it "Inquest". This is the same format for titles that I see other series use.The only other way I can think to get around the confusion is to do what the Star Wars novels have done with the "Novelizations" series listing to distinguish between the movie books and the other books and call my numbered series "Primary story line". The other alternative is to do what has been done with the Anita Blake series to separate the Graphic Novels from the main books.
Ultimately, I do know that this is not my personal website and I can't do whatever I want. Hence, I am still trying to sort it all out and figure out how to properly list my books on Goodreads without running afoul of the rules.
For certain, your help is welcomed and very much appreciated.
Are these new Rogue Hunter books an entirely different series or a bunch of standalones or part of the original universe with different people/planets?
They're all part of the same series, universe, and continuity. However, since some of the new books will be written by authors other than myself, I am treating them in the same fashion that Star Wars does its expanded universe line where other authors get to play in George Lucas' backyard. The existing Rogue Hunter books are the ones that focus on the main storyline, while the new books are mostly standalone.Most readers want a finite storyline which is what the existing books offer up. A porper beginning, middle, and end. The newer books allow for more exploration of the main character and universe, but are not central to the overall plot.
I hope that helps to explain it a little better. But if it helps, here's one of the new books that's not part of the numbered series. Right now it's listed under the comprehensive series listing "Rogue Hunter: Universe", because that's the only thing I could think of for now to separate the lines.
Rogue Hunter: Armada
'A porper beginning' has a nice ring to it.The best Star Wars series to emulate might be this one:
https://www.goodreads.com/series/5786...
(click on 'more')
Also, a numbered series can have non-numbered books in it. Like this one:
https://www.goodreads.com/series/4707...
the last book doesn't have a number because it is an omnibus edition
I really did goof there with "porper", didn't I? I like the sound of it too, as its quite indicative of my problem in more ways than one.Great examples. I actually created my Universe line after I saw the one for Star Wars. I even started dividing the series up just like Star Wars into primary and other lines.
I like the idea you mention about mixing numbered with unnumbered books. In fact, I am completely fascinated by that idea. There's a good chance I may decide to go that route. I just wonder how effective it will be if there are too many unnumbered books. Either way, it's something I'm going to consider.
For now, I think what I'll do is leave everything alone right now until the new books are actually published and come back to this group to ask for help when the books are available. You helped me solve my biggest problem last night by helping me to get my books to show up in a Goodreads search. As long as readers can find my books when they hop on this site, I'm not doing too shabby.
Kevis wrote: "I like the idea you mention about mixing numbered with unnumbered books. In fact, I am completely fascinated by that idea. There's a good chance I may decide to go that route. I just wonder how effective it will be if there are too many unnumbered books. Either way, it's something I'm going to consider....
As long as readers can find my books when they hop on this site, I'm not doing too shabby. "
Books can be in more than one series so you could have a Universe series, a 'Rogue Hunters Not by Kevis' series, and as many other series as you feel the need for.
As long as readers know your name they should have no problems finding any of your books from your author page which also includes links to the various series. I assume your many websites and publisher pages have links to your Goodreads author page (hint, hint)?
Sure do. ;)Here: http://kevishendrickson.weebly.com/in...
and here:
http://kevishendrickson.weebly.com/gi...
And thanks again for your help, Banjomike. I wasn't sure anyone would show up to give me some pointers and you came through. I really appreciate it.
Here is the link to my series:
https://www.goodreads.com/series/5034...
You'll notice that none of the books mentioned in the series will show up under Rogue Hunter either. They won't unless I add "Rogue Hunter" to the title of each book, which technically isn't the title.
Can someone please tell me why my books aren't showing up in series searches and how I can get it to show up?