Can I put my own books on my Bookshelves?

[Victoria]

Hi, I saw a post somewhere about putting one's own books on your Bookshelf, but I'm confused about it. You have to rate a book, and I would feel weird about giving my books stars, as I'm too close to them to rate them and it wouldn't really be fair.
Suggestions?

[Emma]

You don't have to rate a book to have it on your book shelf.Just add it as 'read'. I do this so I can find out if someone has added/read my books by clicking the compare books function in their reviews section.
I never rate or post reviews about my own books, that can be a minefield.

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

You actually 100% should shelve your own book. Not just as "read" but also things like what genres/subgenres and things related to your book's content.

Your book only gets assigned a genre on goodreads once two people shelve it on a genre-related shelf name (book's author can be one of the two). When readers are exploring by genre, new releases by genre, exploring shelves, getting auto-generated recommendations by their favorite genres, etc. — you might want your book showing in those displays.

In addition to categorizing books as read, to read, etc. -- the shelves here on goodreads are what tags and keywords are to other sites.

ETA: you not only don't have to rate your book to shelve it but you don't have to rate it to review it.

Some authors do and some don't review their own book--that's up to you. But, some authors also find it useful to use their review space as sort of an "author's note" about the book.

Blog posts and updates from your author page don't show on the book page itself (except in discussion topics if goodreads own "add book/author" link used) so some authors repeat some of the book-specific tidbits and behind-the-scenes stuff in their more visible review space.

All of that is your choice and readers and authors will have different opinions on that -- but, I do think shelving your book to put it in a genre is a good idea.

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

If you do shelve to put it in a genre, it can normally take 10 minutes to 72 hours for goodreads cache to update all areas of goodreads so not likely going to show up immediately.

[John]

Books: The Greatest Gift from Sicily, The Life and times of Donna Brigida. Teaching and Touring in China. Recipe for a Happy Life, Short Stories to make you laugh, cry or think.

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

John wrote: "Books: The Greatest Gift from Sicily, The Life and times of Donna Brigida. Teaching and Touring in China. Recipe for a Happy Life, Short Stories to make you laugh, cry or think."

Are you asking for help shelving those books or getting them into the goodreads database? or for help claiming your author profile (if so and your author name is "John C. Zappa" I think maybe you click https://www.goodreads.com/author/conf... )