ISSUE RESOLVED - Request for Advice About a Re-Packaged Series

[Jana at ThatArtsyReaderGirl.com]

Hi! I'm really hoping I put this in the right place. I did a ton of reading around this group before settling on posting a thread here, so if I put it in the wrong place I'm really sorry.

I am asking for advice on how to combine editions of books in a series.

The series is called The Harrison Duet by Syrie James. It has two books in it called Songbird and Propositions.

Syrie has re-branded this series completely. Both books have new titles and new covers, and the series has a new name as well.

So...
The Harrison Duet is now called Struck By Love.
Songbird is now called Floating On Air.
Propositions is now called Two Week Deal.

Syrie would like for me to:
- Combine Songbird with Floating On Air.
- Combine Propositions with Two Week Deal.
- Ensure everything still shows up correctly in search results.

So here's my problem. I successfully combined Floating On Air and Songbird as requested, but since Goodreads prioritizes either the oldest edition or the edition with the most reviews in search results things didn't show up correctly. Floating On Air disappeared from search results completely, and I have no idea why. Searching for it brought up nothing. The only way I could get to it was to look through the books listed in Syrie's author profile. The Struck By Love series was showing Songbird as the first book and not Floating On Air. I am assuming this is happening because Songbird is set as the default edition. Only the author can change the default edition of a book, so this is something she would need to fix on her end right? I ended up re-separating Floating On Air and Songbird in order to get Floating On Air to show up in search results again and it worked. Everything is back to how it was before I did anything.

Can anyone help me with this? Or is this just not something a Goodreads librarian can do?

Thank you!

[Scott]

I have combined the books as you describe.

The author can find instructions on how to set the default editions in the Help section (search for "set default edition").

[Scott]

Any issues with search or reviews should sort themselves out in a day or two.

[Jana at ThatArtsyReaderGirl.com]

Scott wrote: "I have combined the books as you describe.

The author can find instructions on how to set the default editions in the Help section (search for "set default edition")."

Now the series is not showing up correctly. Floating On Air is now showing up as part of the Harrison Duet, which is not correct. It's supposed to be Struck By Love. This is the exact issue I wrote about above. Is there a way for the author to also set a default series?

[Scott]

You can go into the edit page and move the desired series up to primary on each book. I've done that one, but you have a better idea of what should be where so I leave the rest to you.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

If the series has the same two works, it should be kept and edited. A second series should not be created. The old series gets re-named, but a note about the original series name is left on the series page in the description field.

Each edition will/should have the name of the series it was published under in its title field. (For the old series, this will show up on some pages, but will be "overridden" in the view on each edition's book page. It does show up on the editions page, among other places, though.)

I have taken care of editing/deleting the relevant series pages, but have left adding the series names to the editions' title fields for another librarian. (Some editions already have them, but not all.)

[Jana at ThatArtsyReaderGirl.com]

rivka wrote: "If the series has the same two works, it should be kept and edited. A second series should not be created. The old series gets re-named, but a note about the original series name is left on the ser..."

I will go in and add the series name to each edition's title field now.

Thank you for explaining and helping me learn so I can do this on my own next time. :)

[Jana at ThatArtsyReaderGirl.com]

rivka wrote: "If the series has the same two works, it should be kept and edited. A second series should not be created. The old series gets re-named, but a note about the original series name is left on the ser..."

Oh, one more question for you. Searching for "Floating On Air by Syrie James" and "Two Week Deal by Syrie James" brings up nothing in Goodreads search results now, whereas it did before the editions were combined. Will that work itself out as the site incorporates the changes? It's a little concerning right now, and I'd like to know what to tell the author about it if she asks.

[Emily]

Jana at ThatArtsyReaderGirl.com wrote: "brings up nothing in Goodreads search results now

That is some sort of glitch which may be due to caching. You will need to ask Support about it, as we can't help with issues of site functionality.

[Jana at ThatArtsyReaderGirl.com]

Emily wrote: "Jana at ThatArtsyReaderGirl.com wrote: "brings up nothing in Goodreads search results now

That is some sort of glitch which may be due to caching. You will need to ask Support about it, as we can'..."

Thank you. :) I will contact support now.

[Jana at ThatArtsyReaderGirl.com]

Ok, the author just wrote to me in a panic. She can't set the Primary edition for either of these books to the new ones because on her end, both Floating On Air and Two Week Deal are gone. She thinks I've messed everything up. I'm assuming this is related to the glitch that Emily mentioned above. I contacted Support last night, but I'm not sure I wrote to the right place. Can anyone tell me where to go to write to a support staff member who can help me with this?

[Emily]

Send her this page and she can choose the edition she wants to make default:
https://www.goodreads.com/work/editio...
The link to Support:
https://www.goodreads.com/about/conta...

[Jana at ThatArtsyReaderGirl.com]

Emily wrote: "Send her this page and she can choose the edition she wants to make default:
https://www.goodreads.com/work/editio...
The link to Support:
https://www.goodreads.c..."

Ok, I'll send her that. Thank you.

And that's the link I used to to contact support, so I'm glad I did the right thing. I'm sure they're super busy and understaffed right now, so I'll keep being patient.

This author is launching the re-brand with a big promotional sale in 5 days, and not having her books show up on Goodreads is causing her a lot of stress. I'm wondering if I should just re-separate the editions and try this again some other time. Do you know if that would fix things for now and put her books back into the search results like they had been before Scott combined them?

Thanks for your help.

[Scott]

They should not be separated if they are the same book.

[Jana at ThatArtsyReaderGirl.com]

Scott wrote: "They should not be separated if they are the same book."

I understand that.

We were successfully able to switch the default edition of each book to the new one, which is a huge relief. I believe the author's page is still cached to remember the old title and cover, though. The old covers and titles are showing up as thumbnails on her author page instead of the new ones (down in the Syrie James's books and Series by Syrie James sections). Hopefully that refreshes soon.

I'll keep waiting to hear from Support about getting the books to appear in search results, but at least we've made progress on this and the author is feeling better about the situation.

I appreciate everyone's assistance with this.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Author pages are heavily cached and take 24-48 hours to update after changed to books, series, etc.

[Jana at ThatArtsyReaderGirl.com]

Great! I’m glad to know that that issue will resolve itself in a day or two.

As for the books not showing up when people search for them by title, I will wait to hear back from Goodreads Support. Hopefully that is an easy fix.