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Updating Book's Excerpt
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In the Knowing Yourself example I linked to, it's the entire book, which I wrote back in 2011. The book has had a lot of changes and fixes since I loaded that PDF up. Typo fixes. Storyline changes. If people are posting reviews based on that old version it's going to keep harming me. I thought I had updated that years ago but clearly I didn't or it didn't take. There needs to be some way for authors to manage that situation.In general it's an immense shame that authors can no longer load up a sample of their work - that is a valuable tool for readers to be able to examine actual words from the book to know if they're interested in it or not. Not everybody uses Amazon.
The broken link should be fixed one way or the other.
Lisa, we're sorry that you're disappointed by the removal of the EPUB/PDF sample option on Goodreads. We're unable to replace your current files on the site, but we can remove these for you on request.As mentioned in the link above, although we have no immediate plans to remove EPUB/PDF files entirely, we recommend exploring other features, such as giveaways, Ask the Author, and connecting your blog, to promote your books on the site.
I have over 300 books in your system, and have written a book on how to use Goodreads, so I'm fairly familiar with the many ways in which Goodreads is lovely for authors :). I've done all of the mentioned things and more and enjoy the myriad of ways in which Goodreads helps authors.I have 33 free books I offer to readers and your sample option was a great way to provide those. Many users don't want to use Amazon for a wide range of reasons. Simply saying they should use Amazon instead isn't an option. I am a bit worried, with Amazon now controlling Goodreads, that this sort of thing is going to keep happening. We are sacrificing the needs of the reader for the desire of Amazon to own the book industry.
We can already see how the review star rating levels have changed - how more people are using an Amazon-like system rather than the original Goodreads system.
And Amazon gets its own big BUY button while other companies are relegated to a drop down.
There is currently no way for people with excerpts to know how to manage them. There's the broken link which goes nowhere and then nothing else. I tried asking in the librarians' forum and they had no idea - they said to try here. So authors are left floundering to figure out how to take care of their own content, which isn't great.
In any case, please remove all 10 of my samples. It will be easier to manage going forward that way. But please do give serious thought to bringing back an Amazon-free option for this. We shouldn't continue down the path of being wholly consumed by them.
Lisa wrote: "I have over 300 books in your system, and have written a book on how to use Goodreads, so I'm fairly familiar with the many ways in which Goodreads is lovely for authors :). I've done all of the me..."I apologize if this sidetracks the thread, but Lisa, this is a thoughtful, powerful statement, and I wanted to thank you publicly for sharing it. I don't use Amazon for books in any way (note: I run a publishing company) for this exact reason, the fear of Amazon monopolizing the industry, but I've never seen it expressed so eloquently as you've written it here.
Therefore: Thank you.
Lisa wrote: "I have over 300 books in your system, and have written a book on how to use Goodreads, so I'm fairly familiar with the many ways in which Goodreads is lovely for authors :). I've done all of the me..."Hi Lisa-- I’m sorry for the delay in responding. While it isn’t possible for authors to remove or edit EPUB or PDF files they currently have uploaded, we’re working with engineers on a solution to this. Once this is in place, we’ll take care of removing your samples from Goodreads. We hope to make progress on this in the next couple of weeks - I apologize this isn’t something I can take care of for you right away.
I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the features that Goodreads offers to authors, and I’m sorry you’re disappointed that we’re no longer allowing new PDF or EPUB files. We do have a Preview option that all Goodreads members can take advantage of that allows them to view excerpts of books. While this is powered by Amazon, you don’t need to have an Amazon account in order to view Previews. I hope this helps, and thank you for your feedback.
Emily -I appreciate your response.
If the preview is powered by Amazon it means the author must have the book in Amazon for it to work. That excludes all authors who choose for a variety of reasons not to work with Amazon. That's a pretty strong bias for a site which claims to be all about providing readers with all options in an open manner. It again showcases the continued march Goodreads is on toward providing an Amazon-themed experience.
A key point of the Goodreads-based sample was that it was open to ALL authors who used ALL systems.
Similarly, many readers dislike Amazon strongly for a variety of reasons and actively do not wish to have Amazon app or Amazon cookies interacting with their home system. Now they are forced to interact with Amazon-sourced content because of the Goodreads interface. Again, I find that to be troubling.
Lisa
Lisa wrote: "Emily -I appreciate your response.
If the preview is powered by Amazon it means the author must have the book in Amazon for it to work. That excludes all authors who choose for a variety of reas..."
+1
Lisa, I’m happy to confirm that your EPUB/PDF files have been removed from Goodreads and your author profile as you requested. You can find information about the status of EPUB/PDF files of books on Goodreads in this thread.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
I've got probably 10 different books with excerpts so this is something I'll need to do for several of them.
And on this page -
https://www.goodreads.com/ebooks
There's a link in the top right to "My Ebooks" which is broken.