Goodreads Librarians Group discussion
Book & Author Page Issues
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Robert Arthur, creator of The Three Investigators series
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Thanks so much, Scott. I have a question maybe you can answer about the new Hollow Tree Press editions of my father's ten novels. I'd like to be sure the covers for the new editions are used for the books on Goodreads - they're contemporary and really attractive - and also that the new editions are listed on the book pages, and that interested readers are linked to live books, not used ones from several decades back. How do I go about doing those three things? I posted a request about this once - about ten days ago - but I didn't really get an answer I knew how to act on. The 60th anniversary editions of my father’s book are gathered together on a series page: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DGBZ22TN
Only the author can set the default edition. Otherwise it will just be the most popular edition.
I have now been told that I can set up an author page for my father, and then claim his books from there. The instructions on Goodreads Author Program page are to find my father's most popular book, click on the click on the author name, then scroll to the bottom of the author profile page. It says I should click "Is this you?" and say yes to complete and submit the application. But I can find no such button at the bottom of the page. This is very frustrating. I hope someone can help me get this done.
Librarians cannot set the default edition, nor bestow on anyone the ability to do so. The most popular edition is literally the one most Goodreads users have shelved. Perhaps it would help if you stopped seeing GR as a store or marketplace, and more of a reference for readers to catalogue their reading history. While some readers aren't picky, the vast majority of users want to shelve the edition they actually read or have.
I shall refrain from sharing my thoughts on "contemporary" book cover art trends.
I don't know who told you you could claim the author profile but that is incorrect. Publishers are not permitted to manage author pages, and I am also fairly certain that a descendant cannot claim the profile.
If the new editions are indeed as popular as you believe they will be, they will eventually supercede the older editions on the profile.
Please note that as Robert Arthur's daughter, I own the U.S. copyrights to my father's ten novels (and the character rights which derive from them) and also the U.S. trademarks for "The Three Investigators" and their "???" mark.I am therefore not merely the publisher of the new editions, but the ipso facto author of the books themselves. As the ipso facto author, I am requesting that the new and current editions of my father’s novels be chosen as the editions that are used for the cover art and book description on the book pages for my father's ten books. I would either like a librarian to explain how to find the "Is this you?" button on the "Robert Arthur" page I just created for this purpose, or to make the change to my father's book pages at my request.
As it happens, I am also one of two additional writers in the Hollow Tree Press editions of my father's books: my husband Steven Bauer and I wrote detailed end notes to all ten of the books. Since we have both been writers all our adult lives, we also both have our own author pages on Goodreads.
As for your comment about popularity, with a set of books that was very popular worldwide from 1964 on, the aggregated number of sales for these other editions will, of course, initially be greater, but that doesn't truly makes them "more popular" , it merely expresses total sales over a very long time.
I think it is more than arguable that the new editions of my father's books would quickly become the most popular editions if anyone on Goodreads knew they existed. Goodreads readers have been waiting to see the series back in print for almost twenty years now!
Librarians are volunteers, so when Scott said we can't mandate a default edition it means exactly that.Only a GR author OR Support (staff) can do so. Also as to making you the author, again only Support can do so.
Contact support link:
https://www.goodreads.com/about/conta...
Since you are getting so hung up on the semantics of "popular", instead substitute "most-shelved" or "most-read." We use them interchangeably.
Thank you Sandra, for your suggestion. I will certainly follow your advice. But just to be clear about the history here, (vis a vis the issue of what Scott suggests is sometimes called "most-shelved" or "most-read,”) my father’s books went out of print across the English speaking world in 1999—when Random House discontinued their publication—and in 2002, all rights in my father’s books and characters reverted to me. I decided against finding a new English-language publisher for the books at that time.Since Goodreads was founded in 2006, and my father’s books went out of print seven years before its founding, for almost the entire history of the company every single English-speaking reader who has written a review of, or left a rating for, one of my father’s Three Investigators books was commenting about a book which had already been in his or her possession for some time.
Indeed, not a single review or rating of my father’s Three Investigators books during the period of time between 2006 and June 10, 2024 can possibly have been made because of a recent purchase by a Goodreads reader of a new book. Yet those ten books have been reviewed almost 2,000 times and have received 39,000 ratings based solely on those older editions.
To the extent that other readers responded positively to the ratings and reviews of books they had not yet read themselves, they were forced to seek out scarce and, most of the time, worn and fragile old paperbacks, sold in the used books sections of ABE or Amazon. These readers repeatedly commented on how much they wished someone would put out a new edition, so that they could share the books with their children or grandchildren. They lamented the fact that there were no e-books of the series available.
Having finally put my father’s ten books back in print, and made them available in e-book form, I now want to make sure that the ready availability of new paperback books as well as e-books is reflected in the way the books are listed on Goodreads. My ownership of their copyrights means that, under American law, I am legally recognized as their author for purposes of managing their publication and representation.
Since that is true, I was glad to have confirmed that Goodreads DOES allow an author to choose the default edition for their book, but I am a bit baffled by its rule that if the author does not choose such an edition, the default will always be the edition that is “most shelved”, especially because, in this case at least, the Goodreads mathematical analysis must have been largely based on Amazon’s algorithms tracking historical sales of used books on Amazon and ABE.
Yet the new editions are the ones readers can actually buy now, expecting that the paperback edition will have fresh, clean paper and a sturdy spine, and that the e-book will be the first English-language digital edition in their Kindle libraries. The new books are also far and away the least expensive editions of the books available.
As the author and rights holder, I want the Hollow Tree Press editions to be the default to reflect their current relevance, but I would think that as a reader-supported company, Goodreads itself would want to offer their readers the chance to buy enduringly popular books at a reasonable price.
On a related note, Goodreads’ integration with Amazon in general, and Kindle in particular, offers some context here. Since Amazon’s 2013 acquisition of Goodreads, Goodreads has been tied to Kindle’s ecosystem, where authors can manage their works through tools like Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).
The Hollow Tree Press editions were published via KDP, and Amazon’s own data—available through their Author Central portal—shows real-time sales and reader engagement, which often outweighs decades-old sales figures in terms of current interest.
Moreover, my understanding is that Amazon’s acquisition of Goodreads was intended to integrate Goodreads with Amazon’s e-book offerings, particularly through Kindle Direct Publishing, to support authors and improve access to digital editions.
I understand that in 2023, Amazon updated Kindle’s software to streamline Goodreads integration, focusing on tracking reading progress and linking KDP titles directly to Goodreads shelves.
This was meant to help authors and readers prioritize active, available editions—like mine—over out-of-print ones. That integration seems to have worked only in part so far. As of now, if someone looks up The Secret of Terror Castle, they will be taken to a book page which shows a 1990s Random House cover with a brief description lacking any context.
However, if they click on “Shop The Series” they will be taken to the Classic Three Investigators series page on Amazon - a page created and controlled by Hollow Tree Press.
It seems to me a better practice would be to have the book page display the cover and description that match what readers see when they click “Shop The Series.” I’d think the point of the overall integration was to reflect what’s happening in the market today—especially since Amazon handles over 50% of U.S. book sales and Kindle dominates e-books.
Given that the new editions include Kindle e-books, I assumed the recent Amazon updating of Kindle’s software would simplify updating the listings on Goodreads. Now that I’ve clarified my legal status as the author, I am grateful to Sandra for directing me to a different department for help with this process, but I thought that before I left this conversation, I should clarify the points above.
Thank you for your help and attention.
To clarify for future reference, this group is not a department within Goodreads. Librarians are volunteers who edit the book records in the database. We have no control over or input into Goodreads website functionality or policies. I'd just copy and paste what you wrote and send it to Goodreads directly if you want them to see the stats and history. I bet they will set the default editions as the new ones but it may need to be a separate request from what you wrote above for clarity.
Are the books available through any stores in India, either physical or online?
I'm Elizabeth Arthur from Hollow Tree Press. My father Robert Arthur, created the classic Three Investigators series, writing ten novels published by Random House, starting with The Three Investigators in the Secret of Terror Castle (1964). After my father's death in 1969, Random House had writers-for-hire create an additional thirty-three novels in the series but let the series lapse in 2001.
Unfortunately, the current Goodreads bio is inaccurate. It begins with the confusing information that my father is (supposedly) "frequently confused" with a film producer, then states that my father's name was "Robert Jay Arthur, Jr." My father's name was not Robert Jay Arthur, Jr. My father had no middle name - he was Robert Arthur, Jr. - and no one has confused him with any other writer for many years now.
The current bio also omits his 1930s short story work for pulp magazines; summarizes his world-famous Three Investigators novels with the sentence "he wrote a number of mystery books, mostly for children"; puts the cart before the horse by saying that "he also worked on the anthology television series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," and entirely misses the 2024 reissue of his ten Three Investigators novels.
Please update the bio to:
"Robert Arthur (1909-1969) was a versatile mystery writer born November 10, 1909, on Corregidor Island, where his father served as a U.S. Army officer. He is best known as the creator of The Three Investigators, a mystery book series for young people, but he began his career writing for the pulps, and later worked in both radio and television. He studied at William and Mary College for two years before earning a B.A. in English and an M.A. in Journalism from the University of Michigan. In 1931, he moved to New York City, where he wrote mysteries, fantasies, and horror stories for magazines like Weird Tales, Amazing Stories, Detective Fiction Weekly, and Black Mask throughout the 1930s.
Later, with David Kogan, he co-created and produced The Mysterious Traveler radio show (1944-1952), earning a 1953 Edgar Award. He and Kogan also won an Edgar, in 1950, for Murder By Experts. In 1959, Arthur relocated to Hollywood, scripting for The Twilight Zone and serving as story editor and writer for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, while ghost-editing numerous "Alfred Hitchcock" anthologies for adults and children.
In 1963, Arthur settled in Cape May, New Jersey, where he created The Three Investigators series with The Secret of Terror Castle (1964). He wrote ten novels in the series before his death in Philadelphia on May 2, 1969. The 43-title series, continued after his death by writers-for-hire working for Random House, was published in over twenty-five languages and thirty countries. (Originally branded as "Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators", Random House dropped the Hitchcock name from the series after Hitchcock's death.)
In June of 2024, Hollow Tree Press reissued Robert Arthur's original ten novels as a sixtieth anniversary edition. Those editions have end notes written by his daughter and son-in-law, Elizabeth Arthur and Steven Bauer, and Hollow Tree Press is also publishing a twenty-six book New Three Investigators series written by Arthur and Bauer."
Thank you for helping to honor my father's legacy by correcting his bio.
Elizabeth Arthur
Hollow Tree Press