Goodreads Librarians Group discussion
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Separating and combining books that were accidentally combined or duplicated.
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Catherine
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Dec 02, 2020 05:19PM
I need help separating May Leave Stars and May Leave Stars: The Writer's Cut from The California Limited. AND I'd like the duplicate of Ground Sweet as Sugar deleted. My intention was to combine all formats of each of my titles: The California Limited. Girl in Bath. May Leave Stars. May Leave Stars: The Writer's Cut. Ground Sweet as Sugar. I hope someone can help me as soon as possible. Thank you. Catherine C. Heywood
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For legibility, would you mind editing your post (or re-posting, whatever work best) with links to the book entries on Goodreads?
Separated: https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...Next time it would really help if you provided some links.
The Writer's Cut is considered the same book, just a different edition.
Use the Edition field for that.
Actually, the Writer's Cut has very different content, it's significantly longer, has a different ISBN, and a very different target audience. I do different marketing for that book and need a separate entry. I would also like the two entries for Ground Sweet as Sugar to be combined into one. They are merely a duplicate. When done, I should have five entries under my name: The California Limited, Girl in Bath, May Leave Stars, May Leave Stars: The Writer's Cut, and Ground Sweet as Sugar. Thank you so, so much!
Here are the different ISBNs for:May Leave Stars: 978-1-951699-05-5
May Leave Stars: The Writer's Cut: 978-1-951699-04-8
The way the listing is now is creating more confusion. You have May Leave Stars: The Writer's Cut cover paired with the simple May Leave Stars title.
I need one entry that reads May Leave Stars and has the May Leave Stars cover (ISBN above) and blurb, which is distinct from May Leave Stars: The Writer's Cut with THAT cover and THAT blurb. Each blurb has distinct notes on content. That you've combined them into one entry is incredibly confusing. I hope this can be fixed soon.
For it to be considered a different book it needs to have a majority content different. I don't see how it changes the majority of the book's content in 40ish extra pages. Maybe Super-librarians will disagree with me, but for now, I'm leaving it as one book.
Each edition has a separate entry, they are just not visible in the search unless you search by ISBN or ASIN. And it's clearly visible in the Editions section, which one is Writer's Cut edition: https://www.goodreads.com/work/editio....
Goodreads is a cataloging website, not a retail store, so I don't see how marketing has anything to do with it.
Someone else combined "Ground Sweet as Sugar".
Also next time please post in Book Issues: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group... group folder, since your request is not related to the series.
I have gone out of my way to make the distinction in these two books as clear as possible. But now Goodreads has deliberately muddied the waters. If you are in the business of helping readers find books, I don't understand why you wouldn't make two distinct entries for these books with separate covers, separate content, distinct blurb notes, and very different target audience. Because when a person does a search for May Leave Stars: The Writer's Cut, what comes up is simply May Leave Stars. They may not realize there are two different books with VERY different content unless they happen to notice the difference in the covers or are seeking out the blurb note at the bottom of each blurb, which tells them. So if they do a search for May Leave Stars and BOTH of these entries shows up, THAT helps them know THERE ARE TWO and maybe I'd better seek out the right one. Keeping these books separate so people can find the right one is VERY important to me. And if you won't help me fix this, I would like to speak with someone who can. Finally, if I put this topic in the wrong place, I do apologize. Goodreads does not make it easy for authors to take responsibility over our content. I look forward to seeing these two distinct entries. Thank you.
People can search by ISBN, in which case there is no confusion. They can also see a list of all editions of any work just under that book's description.That is how Goodreads works.
We can, however, move the note about the editions at the top of the book's description, formatting it in a way it would grab readers' attention. But those editions need to stay combined.
As the author, you also have the ability to change which edition of the book is the default, i.e. the one which will show on your author profile, in non-ISBN-specific searches, etc.
Here are the instructions: How to set the default edition.
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I would like to connect with someone about this policy that deliberately confuses readers and frustrates authors, that expects people to search for books via ISBNs, which I have NEVER known anyone to do. To set a "default edition" implies that one is the PRIMARY work when, in THIS case, that is not the case. And perhaps that's the case with 99% of them, but that isn't the case here. When they were separate, with distinct search results and distinct stars and reviews, this was made much clearer. Now only one title comes up and the stars and reviews all mashed together don't explain that May Leave Stars is a benign, fade-to-black romantic historical fiction that has been well-received while May Leave Stars: The Writer's Cut is an explicit BDSM story that people either love or hate. It's not that a mere 40 pages separate them. It's what's IN those 40 pages that separate them. I would like to connect with someone who can get them separated, and I frankly can't believe, nine hours on, we're still debating something that creates more confusion for readers and more frustration for this author.
For issues concerning site functionality, you would need to contact Staff. Since Rivka is Staff and moderates the Librarian Group, you have received the definitive response you are seeking. Goodreads is a book cataloguing site, and readers understand that as they use its features.
Then I need to speak with Rivka's boss. Thank you.
Catherine wrote: "Then I need to speak with Rivka's boss. Thank you."Rivka is head of Librarians and the expert concerning cataloguing policy, but you could always try the contact form: https://www.goodreads.com/about/conta...
Catherine wrote: "I would like to connect with someone about this policy that deliberately confuses readers and frustrates authors"I think it is more confusing for readers if a book that is supposed to be very different from another book is published with the same title and cover.
A Director's Cut of a film is still related to the version that was originally released, it isn't seen as a separate, new work either.
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