How Do I Edit My Book Metadata/Tags.

[Patrick]

I can't seem to gain access to "Through Button Eyes: A Collection of Short Fiction" metadata... it just says: "No metadata answers yet". I'd like to enter some metadata so the book can be listed/found in various genres (there are 13 of them, not including "Short Stories" or "Short Fiction" or "Collection of Short Stories" or "Collection of Short Fiction" or "Anthology"). Thanks.

[Arenda]

Genres are crowdsourced on GR, through the shelves that users add a book to.

[Patrick]

Thank you Arenda, good to know. Being a newbie author on Goodreads, please tolerate my naivety... your response begs me to ask. So, if there is no metadata, I'm surmizing the book is not on anyone's shelf yet as having been read, correct? Does that crowdsourced algorithm include "want to reads"? I recall seeing authors commenting on "editing" metadata, isn't that at odds with a crowdsourced algorithm? Oh, would you by chance know if ratings (like say Amazon) are pulled over or incorporated into Goodreads?

[Melanti]

The Metadata tab on the book edit page is an old function and doesn't do anything. Just ignore that section.

When people mention "metadata" in this group, they're usually referring to the book data in general - not the stuff in that defunct tab. They're usually talking about the publisher, number of pages, etc. Occasionally, things like characters or settings. Not crowd sourced genres.

Books end up in different genres because people create bookshelves like "fiction" or "mystery" or "sci-fi" that can be correlated back to specific genres.

So if people add the book to their shelves - either "read" or "want to read" etc, plus a shelve that ties back to a particular genre, that book will show up in that particular genre.

Ratings from other sites like Amazon are not pulled onto Goodreads, thankfully.

[Patrick]

Thank you Melanti for the update. Sorry, another newbie author question... our book "Through Button Eyes: A Collection of Short Fiction" is a multi-author, multi-genre compilation of short stories that fits everywhere, yet nowhere in the primary Goodreads list of genres (I did find short stories in the "more" sub-genre list). With that said, and everyone putting it on their shelves under their interpretation of a specific genre, will it eventually have ALL those genres listed, OR will the algorithm automatically after too many varied genre listings default to say “General Fiction”? I’d hate to have readers upset or the book rebuked by readers/groups for being “listed” in their eyes as an incorrect genre (that from the information noted above, indicates I have no control over).

[Melanti]

it will list the genres/shelves in order of the number of most commonly shelved to least. It won't combine into general fiction unless people shelve it as such.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Patrick, you are welcome to shelve the book on an appropriately named shelf, as are the other authors who may be GR members/authors. This may help others shelve your book or be interested due to the genre.