Scores On The Doors

There are a lot of things about Goodreads that puzzle me, it has to be said, but right now I'm most puzzled by this "want to read" and "added to shelf" thing.

Near the foot of my profile page is a list of people who "want to read" my book that has for some reason not been updated since May 20th. I have queried this twice with Goodreads, and twice I was ignored. I accidentally crossed paths with a Mexican "Librarian" on here a week or so ago, and I asked her about it. She told me I needed to ask Goodreads. Been there, done that. Ho hum.

According to my "author dashboard", which spits a lot of inexplicable stats out at me, 54 people want to read my book, but only the first 19 of them are showing on my profile page for others to see. What's more, I have 86 "added to shelf" and NONE of those are showing on my profile page at all. I assumed they weren't supposed to until I saw them showing on other authors' profiles. This is really not on, is it?

I don't want to come over like an egomaniac chewing sour grapes here, but I have been working very hard at trying to raise awareness of my book for EIGHT MONTHS now in the hopes that people across the English-speaking world might start buying it in large numbers at some point, and I need all the help I can get from sites like this. Book Two in my Killing Time Legacy Series is coming out next year and I want people to be excited about that. Interest generates interest. If people can see other people adding my book they might add it too, am I right?

I can't say I completely understand the point of having shelves devoted to books you want to avoid when there are ONE MILLION new books published EVERY YEAR and you can't possibly read them all, but it looks to me like people do that on here quite a lot. I just hope my book hasn't been put on too many shelves like that. That 27 person gap between the "want to read" figure and the "added to shelf" figure has to be accounted for somehow, though, eh?

Pull your socks up, Goodreads! We need a level playing field here.
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Published on June 28, 2021 03:39 Tags: added-to-shelf, author-dashboard, librarians, system-glitches, want-to-read
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