Wrong edition coming up as primary in search results

[Michele]

When I search GR for "childsong barbara woods" (like so), the 1993 German edition (this one) comes up as the main (only) result. I can get to other editions via the "other editions" link from that page.

This is incorrect. A search on this title/author should bring up the original 1981 American edition as the primary result.

Any idea how to fix this?

[Z-squared]

the way the site is programmed, the default edition is either

a) whatever edition has been shelved by the most users
or
b) whatever edition the primary author sets it to

since Barbara Wood is not a GR author, she cannot set the default edition to the original (or any other) edition. it just so happens that more users have shelved the German edition than any other. no fix required. it's a feature, not a bug.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Michele wrote: "A search on this title/author should bring up the original 1981 American edition as the primary result."

That is a matter of opinion. And as Z-squared says, it's not the way things work on Goodreads. For the vast majority of works, the primary edition is the one that has been shelved by the most users. Not the first edition, not the most recent edition -- just the most shelved edition.

If the author is a member of the Goodreads Author Program, they can override that and select the edition they prefer to be the default.

[Michele]

Well that's just weird. It ought to be the one with the earliest publication date, don't you think? Since that's the "authoritative" edition?