Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

Originally, there were Goodreads listings for the paperback and the Kindle editions of the book Above the Bridge by Deborah Garner. However, the author has gone into the Kindle edition listing and removed all the metadata and cover image and changed the title to Duplicate Listing - Please do not rate. Thank you!.

I would have just reverted the edition back to its original data, but since the author is a Goodreads author, I don't want to tread on her toes. Is there a standard way to proceed for a situation like this?

Revert the edition and drop a note to support. An employee will pull the author aside for a chat.

Tacking on here:

How about a Goodreads author who keeps changing all of the covers to whatever the current cover is - even those marked as alternate-entry covers? I've had that happen to a book on my shelf a couple of times now. First time I created an alternate cover with the image the book had when I bought and shelved it and added a note about it being an alternate-cover entry. I made sure that entry was the one I had on my shelves. The second time, I just changed the cover back on the edition I've shelved and re-added the alternate-cover note which had, at some point, been erased.

Yes, if it was published, it stays.

I'd look in librarian change log to see if there was a valid asin.

Possibly she was wanting to get rid of that asin edition because a new one is coming out with a recised cover (frequently happens) or because she is no longer listing kindle edition on kdp program. Possibly really was a duplicate edition with nothing filled in (change log should tell you).

Unless clearly really was a duplicate, I'd revert and put a librarian note that once published an edition stays in goodreads book data pages regardless of what book product pages on bookseller sites say.

If was a duplicate needs to be correctly merged into the valid edition.

Tntexas wrote: "Tacking on here:

How about a Goodreads author who keeps changing all of the covers to whatever the current cover is - even those marked as alternate-entry covers? I've had that happen to a book on..."

As Cait said for the first issue, please drop support a note.

I would do a snapshot of the page to save it, but then revert the data and drop a note to support, as Cait suggested.
I noticed the author also changed the author name to DGarner, so as to remove it from her profile. Sneaky, that!

Now I'm curious and am peeking at log. I actually cannot tell on the Gardner book if ever was a duplicate or not from the log.

The author does need to know that if was a duplicate edition did get made that she should post here and ask to have it deleted. Never change book to belong to another authhor or mess with isbn/asin info.

Debbie wrote: "Now I'm curious and am peeking at log. I actually cannot tell on the Gardner book if ever was a duplicate or not from the log.

The author does need to know that if was a duplicate edition did get..."

No ASIN, but also not a duplicate edition. The only other edition on GoodReads is a paperback edition. There is no other Kindle edition of this book.

Tntexas wrote: "Tacking on here:...
The second time, I just changed the cover back on the edition I've shelved and re-added the alternate-cover note which had, at some point, been erased..."

Can authors erase librarian notes?

Don't call out anyone publicly on this thread but do pm Rivka or contact support to let them know who was making those edits, particularly edits deleting librarian notes.

Debbie wrote: "Can authors erase librarian notes?

Don't call out anyone publicly on this thread but do pm Rivka or contact support to let them know who was making those edits, particularly edits deleting librarian notes. "

I have no idea how the note disappeared. All I know is that I always put a librarian note on the book when I do an alternate-cover entry, and there was no librarian note there.

Andrea: It doesn't look like the two editions were ever combined, so it's likely the author just saw it as a duplicate on her profile and didn't know any better. I've fixed up the Kindle edition, combined it with the paperback and dropped a note to support in case they thing it warrants a conversation.

Tntexas: I would definitely send a message to support about that one.

Contact customer support. In my opinion PM'ing Rivka or another staff member should be saved for those occasions when an author or librarian needs stopping NOW.

Banjomike wrote: "Contact customer support. In my opinion PM'ing Rivka or another staff member should be saved for those occasions when an author or librarian needs stopping NOW."

Yes.

Y'all are right. I should contact support about the situation since it apparently wasn't a one-time deal. Who knows how many covers he's going to give that book?

Speaking of correcting the book, I've looked at the change log but am having a hard time deciphering it. If I click on the "undo" button for all the image updates, will that eventually bring me back to the original cover? And then from there I could add alternate-cover entries for the other covers? I'm assuming he's used the same ISBN and ASIN numbers and just changed the covers, but I don't know that for certain.

Depending how confusing the log looks I have flagged some things to customer support without trying to fix it first. If it is confusing now it will only be worse after a load of reverting. Flag it as it is and explain the issue.

Vicky wrote: "Andrea: It doesn't look like the two editions were ever combined, so it's likely the author just saw it as a duplicate on her profile and didn't know any better. I've fixed up the Kindle edition, c..."

Thanks so much! That was my plan if I got the OK, but you beat me to it.

Cait wrote: "Revert the edition and drop a note to support. An employee will pull the author aside for a chat."

So I go to do this and realize I'm not quite sure how. Help anyone?

Tntexas wrote: "Cait wrote: "Revert the edition and drop a note to support. An employee will pull the author aside for a chat."

So I go to do this and realize I'm not quite sure how. Help anyone?"

In this case just contact support. Don't revert it. If the behaviour you are flagging is someone repeatedly changing covers then reverting the covers just gives the author another opportunity to ignore the rules. Just contact support using the normal contact page, then something like:

"This author:
[[add link to author page]]

keeps changing the covers on these books and removing librarian notes:
[[add link to first book]]
[[add link to second book]]

as discussed in this thread (from message 3):
www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1181024-...
"

That is the sort of thing I do. If you have contacted the author directly then mention that. If you see any other dubious behavior in the author edit logs then add that as well. Point out that you have NOT reverted the changes.

Ack! How did I manage to never see this discussion? I vaguely remember something about a duplicate page when the eBook of Above the Bridge reverted to me from the publisher (who still has the paperback.) There was a mistake on Amazon - still not corrected - that caused the first page to stay up. I have no idea what happened here in Goodreads. Is there something I need to fix? Please advise. I don't want to have anything listed here incorrectly. Thank you, Debbie (Deborah Garner)

Debbie,

The most important thing to get out of this particular discussion is that you should never remove book data from a listing.

In this case, what appears to have happened is that the Kindle edition of your book got added to the database. It most likely was not combined, thus causing you to think that there were duplicate listings. This was not the case. Librarians restored the Kindle edition's information and then combined it with the paperback edition. Everything is as it should be now.

A couple of places to check out if you have questions are linked below:

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

http://www.goodreads.com/help/list/au...

Additionally, please feel free to ask for help at any time.