Problem while searching in add to series

[Elaine]

Don't know if you are aware, but I've run across this problem quite a few times now. When searching for books that might belong to a series, the results are limited to 10 items. I just did one where there are 12 books in the series, with a couple of multi-book items that would fit the search, but only 10 items showed up in the list. Perhaps the indicator for other pages is missing? (I was not sure where to post this, so move it as needed)
Example:
Series link: https://www.goodreads.com/series/2554...
Search parameters: hearts grove danielle

[Miriam]

At the bottom of the list there should be an option to go to the next page. I searched for Hearts grove and got 4 pages of results.

[Elaine]

I agree, but I'm not getting it. I just get the first page with 10 items, but no option to go to another page. I just tried it again with another search, and had the same result. I can send a screen print to someone, if desired. I have rebooted my computer, and I've tried another one:
Series: https://www.goodreads.com/series/2325...
search parameters: starry hollow witches
I get the first 10 of the 17 books (plus) in the series, and no options to go to other pages. I'm running windows 11 on an HP laptop.

[Mesembryanthemum]

Elaine, it's not you, it's Goodreads.

I get the same results as you do for that second series: 10 books with no option to go to other pages. When I do a general GR search for "starry hollow witches", I get 21 books. So 11 books are missing when you use the "add books to series" search.

Like Miriam, I also searched for “hearts grove” — l also got 4 pages of results (40 books). However, a general GR search returns 155 books. So 115 "hearts grove" books are hidden and cannot be added to a series.

I've noticed this problem with other books -- in fact, every time I work with a series. The series search doesn't find nearly as many books as a general GR search does. For example, if you use the general GR search at the top of each page to search for "Discworld", it returns about 254 results (for me, at least). But when you’re editing a series (any series) and you search for “Discworld”, the “add books to series" search returns 7 pages of 10 books each = 70 books. So 184 books are unavailable in the series search results.

In my experience, the series search always truncates the results. So even if you know exactly which book you need to add, and carefully specify the author and title, the results might hide it from you. Worse, you can't search by ISBN or ASIN (unlike the general GR search), so even if you know that a book record exists, you might not be able to see it in a series search.

I reported this problem to Support, but it was part of another issue (neither the general search nor the "add books to series" search was finding books that I had added several days before). So I'm not sure if Support noted my information about the truncated results from a series search. But I live in hope.

Edit to add: I've sent in a new bug report with these examples. Also, I would think that you could contact Support for help when the series search doesn't show the book that you need to add to a series.

[Elaine]

I have had success finding the book I want to add to the series by using it's ASIN number in the search parameters in the past. Even if it is a book I have just added. In fact that's how I have been adding books to series recently, since the search is not working well. But that is cumbersome. And defeats the purpose of searching for any new books an author might have already published that have not yet been added to the series. Many authors are not familiar with the process of setting up and updating series info.

I've generally been checking on Amazon to see what books are in the series, to figure out if everything has been included. When I begin to read a series of books, I like to make sure the series info is current, so I know what to look for.

Since you have already reported this to support, I suppose I'll just stand down and hope this gets fixed soon (it used to work just fine, thank you). If my weight would help the cause, feel free to ask.

[Mesembryanthemum]

It's good to know that an ASIN works for the series search. Most of the serieses that I'm working with are for pre-ISBN books, so I think I only tried it once, and I probably had a typo. I should remember to test, retest, and test again.

I got a prompt response to my bug from Goodreads Support, which said: "Our developers are aware of the limited search results when editing a series, and I've added your update to the developer ticket." So no more bug reports needed. But thanks for the offer!