[answered] Adding Book to Goodreads

[Lex 368]

Why does processing times for requests to add a new book to goodreads vary so? Some are done within hours, some days, some weeks and some even months? I saw two requests from October that were done today, and another that was listed and done today? Are they not processed in the order as received or are Librarians picking and choosing what books they want to add? Thanks

[Scott]

Lex 368 wrote: "Are they not processed in the order as received

They are not.

or are Librarians picking and choosing what books they want to add?"

In a sense.

Librarians are a diverse lot. We have different schedules, different interests, and different amounts of free time. Some specifically track down older requests while others work on the ones at the top (the newest).

If it's been a while, you may bump your request if you feel it has been overlooked.

[☕ Lachgas ♿]

Librarians are volunteers doing this as their hobby and we live all over the world, so in very different time zones so at some time more are active and on others less.
And yes we can pick, because we're just volunteers.
I don't add fan fiction for example - I don't read it and don't care about it. And I don't add every foreign script because some I just can't visually compare if for example a duplicate exists - if the request does provide me the info on that I might be doing it, otherwise I just skip it rather than messing up.

And I don't do page counts, isn't fun for me and often too much back and forth for me with too much waiting for replies.

My approach on adding new books is currently going through all my "unread threads" (might change at some point) since I was last very active (in july) - these are still 1.5k pages (page counts and cover stuff already clicked away) and I am currently in october (where a lot of are already done or imported but of course still in my "unread" list, but some have been missed due to the high volume of new postings) - others are starting from the top and some others might pick a specific date.

Some others work on page counts or awards or do only cover corrections/additions.
As we are volunteers and it's just a hobby everyone can do what he likes to do at that moment.

We do use the same forum interface as regular users so there is no "receiving"

[Lex 368]

Thanks for the replies. Seems like a flawed system especially for independent authors trying to get their book seen. Why do some have to wait 3+ months while others only take 1-2 days? I’m sure it’s frustrating for many.

How is Goodreads not somehow linked to Amazon or the ISBN database to make it easier? What happens if a book is continually overlooked no matter how many times it’s bumped? Is there anything an author can do other than beg to be listed?

Thanks

[Scott]

Goodreads is, in fact, linked to Amazon and imports records regularly. But authors do not want to wait and ask here instead. As it turns out many requests that were unattended were eventually fulfilled by the importer.

As for your first question that has already been answered, twice.

[☕ Lachgas ♿]

Complaints or frustration about the procedure have to be directed at the persons employed by GR so use the contact form for that.
Nothing librarians have anything to do with.

GR is connected to Amazon, there are even more imports than in the past - but not all books are listed there and the new import bots still needs time to import everything. (they are still just computer programs and can't do everything within a second)
And quite some authors or readers are impatient and want it to add way before the bot runs.
(GR authors could also enter their own books themselves but quite some don't for whatever reason)