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Questions (from Librarians only) > New Kindle & Audible change clarification

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Cyndi Marie ☆★Audiobook Addict★☆ (bookaddict1975) | 1527 comments I just wanna make sure that I am understanding this correctly and am following the rules.

When I read the librarian manual and the announcement in this group about this change, my understanding was that we can change the cover on a Kindle or Audible edition only to match what Amazon has rather than creating an alternate cover edition like we have in the past. Is that wrong?

Recently, I had an author that reached out to me and wanted to change the cover on a kindle edition and she was going to do a ACE but it was not an option in the drop-down so she asked me how to change the cover. I figured this was because we could just change the cover to match Amazon, but the cover said that it was set by an employee so you had to contact Support. So I contacted Support and explain to them that the cover had changed for the kindle edition and ask them if they could change it to match Amazon, and I got the reply that it is against policy to change covers on any published edition and that we needed to create an new edition with the new cover.
This response confused me because that’s not how I understood the new rule. Also a new edition would not put the right cover with the correct AISN because it would still be on the original edition. So I replied back and asked for clarification and explained that I was looking at the information in the librarian group announcement and librarian manual which said that we should change the cover just for Kindle and Audible only to match Amazon, so I’m not sure why I needed to create a new edition that would essentially be an empty edition because there would be no AISN on this edition because the AISN was still on the original book. I just asked them to explain to me what this new rule meant if we weren’t allowed to change the cover now and I got a response from a different employee telling me “ because the system will automatically update the covers now. If it's been more than 72h of the cover update on Amazon and the system has not made the correction, you'll need to reach out to us for the cover update”.

Now I’m even more confused.
What does this mean if we can’t change covers?

"In addition, it is now acceptable to update an existing Goodreads cover image for Kindle and Audible editions to match the cover in use in the Amazon.com store for that specific ISBN or ASIN."

Sorry if I am misunderstanding, I just need to know for sure what I am and am not allowed to go with new covers on Kindle edition so I don’t lose my librarian status for doing it wrong.

Thanks for helping :)


message 2: by Scott (last edited Apr 09, 2025 04:44PM) (new)

Scott | 9270 comments 😄 Somebody up there didn't get the memo.

Yes, we can change the covers for Kindle and Audible without creating a new edition.


Cyndi Marie ☆★Audiobook Addict★☆ (bookaddict1975) | 1527 comments Scott wrote: "😄 Somebody up there didn't get the memo.

Yes, we can change the covers for Kindle and Audible without creating a new edition."


2 different Somebody’s 🤣 thanks for clarifying!

I’m always very careful because I’ve had my librarian status removed before for an accident so I just wanna make sure I’m not misunderstanding something especially when goodreads employees are telling me something different.


message 4: by Olga (new)

Olga Silvertongue (olgasilvertongue) | 6723 comments Contact them for the third time :) With links to the news and the Librarian Manual :)
If the change is blocked by the staff, you have no other choice.

I got the same answer, but only the first time.
Inhale, exhale, relax... :)


message 5: by Scott (new)

Scott | 9270 comments Did the rule change on April 1...?


message 6: by Cyndi Marie ☆★Audiobook Addict★☆ (last edited Apr 09, 2025 05:19PM) (new)

Cyndi Marie ☆★Audiobook Addict★☆ (bookaddict1975) | 1527 comments Olga wrote: "Contact them for the third time :) With links to the news and the Librarian Manual :)
If the change is blocked by the staff, you have no other choice.

I got the same answer, but only the first tim..."


I provided links to both the announcement in this group and the change in the library manual when I sent my original message. I wanted to make sure they knew what I was referring to and could explain what I was missing.


Cyndi Marie ☆★Audiobook Addict★☆ (bookaddict1975) | 1527 comments Scott wrote: "Did the rule change on April 1...?"

That would be a very terrible April fools joke. 🤣


message 8: by Olga (new)

Olga Silvertongue (olgasilvertongue) | 6723 comments I checked. On April 3. Not a joke.


Cyndi Marie ☆★Audiobook Addict★☆ (bookaddict1975) | 1527 comments Ok I feel justified in my confusion because a third employee replied to my email with this.

Amazon is in the process of automatically updating all the cover images pertaining to Kindle and Audible editions. The option to create an ACE is no longer applicable/available for these specific formats. Instead, if there is another relevant cover for these formats, Librarians and Goodreads staff will be able to create a new edition with that particular cover. This means that the ASINs would not be moved to the new edition; however, you can make a Librarian edit note stating that it's another edition of an existing listing.

As an exception. Goodreads staff are able to overwrite Kindle and Audible cover images which haven't been updated by Amazon as yet, in for the Goodreads listing to mirror the Amazon listing


message 10: by Scott (new)

Scott | 9270 comments So basically we are going backwards. That is what we had to do before they semi-automated the ACE process.


message 11: by Olga (new)

Olga Silvertongue (olgasilvertongue) | 6723 comments I don't quite understand this answer...

Amazon is in the process of automatically updating all the cover images ok, so what? We just wait until that moment and do nothing in the present?

if there is another relevant cover for these formats the only source for Kindle is amazon and if amazon has updated the cover it has to be updated on GR (see the new rules) so what does this phrase mean?

ASINs would not be moved to the new edition so I can add ebook version with a new cover from amazon, but in a few days the old cover will be replaced with the same one, and we'll get two duplicates...

As an exception. Goodreads staff are able to overwrite Kindle and Audible cover images which haven't been updated by Amazon as yet, in for the Goodreads listing to mirror the Amazon listing um... why didn't they do it? isn't that what the request is about?


message 12: by Scott (new)

Scott | 9270 comments 🤡


Cyndi Marie ☆★Audiobook Addict★☆ (bookaddict1975) | 1527 comments Olga wrote: "I don't quite understand this answer...

I don’t understand it either. It seems like Support is telling us one thing and the librarian manual and this group is telling us something else that’s why I’m looking for clarification because I wanna make sure I’m doing the right thing but I can’t really figure out what the right thing is :(



message 14: by Olga (new)

Olga Silvertongue (olgasilvertongue) | 6723 comments This is so absurd. Maybe all the employees were really replaced by AI? Seriously though, this is a matter of poor communication. We need to give them time to resolve these issues.

As Goodreads sometimes says, it's time to read a book.


message 15: by Scott (new)

Scott | 9270 comments Olga wrote: "This is so absurd. Maybe all the employees were really replaced by AI?"

I've been suspecting that for a while.


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