Additional go to Amazon links

When you click on a cover image on the Your Books page, you get two links, "Social Info" and "Change Cover". Sometimes you also get a third, "Go to Amazon". This used to appear on only a few books (ones with Amazon covers I think), now they occur on most of my books (with no very obvious pattern behind the exceptions).

Why did this happen, what is the pattern, and is there a way to disable it? The implication that I should go to Amazon and buy books that I already own sort of bugs me.

bump

I think it works as it always has. If there's an amazon cover, it has that link. The reason it may be appearing on books of yours that it didn't used to is either that the book has been added to amazon or that it's been combined with another that's in amazon.

It cannot be disabled, as it is part of their Terms of Use which LT must abide by in order to access amazon data at all.

Although I suppose it could have changed such that it used to appear only if you CHOSE (or had by default) the amazon cover for your book and now it happens even if you use a member uploaded cover but there still exists an amazon cover for it.

From my experiments, the latter is what it's doing now. I can't say for sure that's always been the case. I also can't say which of those two are the level of compliant with amazon's ToS.

Thanks.

I'm pretty sure it used to be possible to get rid of it by changing to a non-Amazon cover. Certainly it used not to appear on some books I'd bought from Amazon.

I've never seen it not happen, other than in cases when that ISBN isn't currently available from Amazon (or, I suppose, Amazon has that ISBN but no cover for it). It's a requirement of the Amazon TOS for using cover images so it is unlikely that it ever worked as you recall.

It's happening right now with A Season in Carcosa, which is available from Amazon and has an Amazon cover, yet doesn't show the link under "Your Books". Both Amazon and my copy have ISBN 1937408000.

Edit: Er, well, that's to say, Amazon has a cover for it. They don't seem to provide it to LT however.

#7 by @AndreasJ> I think the fact that LT isn't seeing the cover means the amazon API isn't serving up the linkage. So LT doesn't think it has to be a slave to the amazon ToS for that one.

I would recommend not doing this. As I would guess would most LTers that are in a position to know.

Not all the cover images that show up on Amazon are actually from Amazon; they accept user images too, especially from older books. I would not be at all surprised to find that the user images are not passed on to LT.

I'm pretty sure #11 is correct; user images are not passed on from Amazon.

It's easy enough to use the image, though. Right click on the image, select "copy image location" and paste that URL into the "or grab one from the web" box on the Change Cover page.

Reviving a very old thread, but I've only noticed this today on books where I am most certainly not using the Amazon cover (I never do ETA except by accident!). They *may* have been allocated Amazon covers when I first imported via Overcat or added them manually. I have since changed them to non-Amazon covers, either by scanning my own cover, slurping one from the web or using a user uploaded cover.

Perhaps it's an over-reaction, but I came here from Goodreads because of the Amazon buy-out there and it's kind of... nasty finding links to Amazon on 90% of my books!

Links to Amazon are just links. You don't have to follow them. There are links in various spots to various stores/sites. Ignore them (like I do) if you're not interested in them.

Well, yes. I know I don't need to follow them, but I would prefer not to have Amazon connected in any way to my catalogue. That is one of the many reasons I choose to never use Amazon covers.

But that's the point, it isn't connected in any way to your catalog.

>15 Vivl: Actually, you are using 49 Amazon covers. You can find them and change them by using the stats/memes link from either your profile or home page and then clicking on book covers under statistics in the left hand menu.

>17 MarthaJeanne: Ta for pointing me in the direction of finding the stray Amazon covers, MarthaJeanne. Most useful!

Those are the books I haven't "edited" yet since my mass import from GoodReads. The books I'm seeing the Amazon link are are ones I added recently, which definitely don't have Amazon covers.

>16 .Monkey.:

Seems we're going to have to agree to disagree on this. I don't want to have links to any specific retail outlet displayed on my catalogue. I have not noticed links to any other outlet within my catalogue and this reflects, to my mind, the particularly aggressive/unpleasant business practices of Amazon which I came to LibraryThing to avoid.

Possibly we are thinking of different nuances of the word "connected". The fact that the link is there, on my catalogue page, on the covers I have specifically chosen/uploaded so that I am not using the Amazon covers is my definition of their being "connected" to my catalogue. They are there, they appear in "connection" with my covers, therefore they are connected.

From what I can tell from the occurance in my own catalog is that it seems to appear when there has been an amazon cover at one time.

When there exists a best guess for an ISBN which is a user uploaded cover, it probably won't have the amazon link.

So, if at any point your book had the amazon cover, the links remains.

I think.

>21 Collectorator: Hi, Collectorator. I'm not sure if I'm missing something, but does that technique require that every book be manually added? I specifically try to avoid ever using Amazon as a source for my books, but importing the data from any source will automatically put an ISBN in the ISBN field. I'd really rather not have to manually add every book to avoid this issue, and I'd rather be able to use the ISBN field for the ISBN, but there you go. It seems if I don't want Amazon links I'll just have to!

>22 Vivl: You can remove the ISBN at any point after you've added the book. Just go to the edit book page and remove and/or move it. Or set up a catalog display that shows the ISBN field and you can probably go through them even more quickly.

>23 PhaedraB: Thanks, PhaedraB. I'm aware of that, but it seems as though the Amazon link appears if the book has *ever* had an Amazon cover associated with it. Deleting the ISBN after the cover has already been associated with the work in my catalogue wouldn't, therefore, do the trick... I imagine. Perhaps I'd better go and experiment!

ETA: Ha! Well, that was a surprise! Yes, the link went away when I deleted the ISBN on one of my books. That's good to know, although as I said I'd really LIKE to be able to put the ISBN in the ISBN field without having the Amazon link appear, but thank you all the same.

Yeah, don't sacrifice data over amazon links. Just not worth it.

When you take it out of the structured ISBN box and put it into the unstructured Publication box, you thwart way LT rolls up books into works and make it harder for other LT users to share book covers for specific ISBNs. Insert cliche about babies and bathwater. While it may "solve" an annoyance at the individual level, it increases the rattiness of LT data as a whole.

I guess I'm just still not clear on why Amazon covers or Amazon links are bad?? I know that Amazon isn't puppies and 'the light', but they're not satan either.

And the covers are just pictures, and the links, unless clicked on, are just pretty blue letters... I ignore all sorts of much more annoying crap on the internet than a link (ugh, like going on Yahoo and getting all those pop up crappy ads flashing and nearly sending me into convulsions on every page... ugh).

I guess I still just don't get the original problem laid out in the original post. I mean, don't things happen like, books don't get automatically combined and stuff when there is no ISBN in the ISBN box?

>28 DanieXJ: I mean, don't things happen like, books don't get automatically combined and stuff when there is no ISBN in the ISBN box?

Books will still be combined based on Title and Author but it won't be as accurate.

>30 Collectorator: While it's great that you only have 111 books with ISBNs you're doing this to and you actively make sure all the combinations and covers are perfect, do you do the same thing for everyone whom you suggest erase ISBNs? If not, it's not really a good idea to tell others to do the same.

> 32 I guess that's what I am sorta still asking. Why are Amazon links so bad that they have to be removed. I'm really not being cheeky, I honestly don't get it where y'all are coming from. I don't get it.

32> And I think it's good to give them ALL the information, i.e. the downsides of this practice.

>36 Collectorator: Yeah, I appreciate you realize your position isn't as defensible. :P

Is it that much different than when I remove the ISBN and other edition-specific info from books where I can't remember the specific edition (read but not owned) or the edition isn't relevant (wishlist)?

>38 Collectorator: Well, as we seemed to have moved on from discussing positions to attacking people, I'll leave you to it.

I don't particularly want to leap into the fray, but since I reopened this can of worms I feel as though I ought to say that I appreciate your advice, Collectorator, as a technical fix for the Amazon links appearing, however I would much prefer to be able to put the ISBN in the ISBN field without the Amazon link appearing.

I know some are bemused by my vehemence on this matter, but I think I've explained it as thoroughly as I can: I don't want links to any retail outlet in my catalogue and feel I should be able to choose not to have them without having to edit all my book data. I will admit that Amazon presses my buttons even more than most: I left GoodReads because of the Amazon takeover so am twitchy at their seemingly muscling in on my catalogue page.

We had lengthy assurances from Tim, on several occasions after the GR to LT exodus began, that Amazon will never be in a position to dictate practices here, and yet putting an ISBN in the ISBN field gives us an Amazon link? Hmm! Perhaps I'm still a little shell-shocked from the rigmorole of transporting my catalogue, relatively small though it may be, across from GR, but those links give me a feeling of some foreboding.

I believe the links are the price that any site pays in order to get covers from Amazon and since a very large percentage of people use Amazon covers he doesn't believe he can afford to lose them.

Yes, you are not allowed to use covers from Amazon without linking back to them. It's a trade-off.

Here is a small difficulty with removing Amazon links: Amazon owns a very small part of LT, as well it happens to require certain things for using any of its data. If your book is combined with someone using Amazon data, you can't lose the link without removing data (the ISBN) or removing the combination (removing the social aspect of the catalog).

So if you're still trying to avoid that elephant... you might be out of luck.

>45 gilroy: From everything Tim has stated, Amazon's minority stake in LT is irrelevant.

#46 Irrelevant, yes, but still valid information to know.

As someone who has been here a few years now, I can say that Amazon and its links have never interfered with my use of LT. I purchase books from Amazon and I don't have a problem with someone knowing that. So far Tim has been great at keeping the site open and free of advertisements without charging us much (or anything in some cases) which is wonderful. I guess the question is: what is the real concern and is it truly a problem? If so, can it be addressed?

ETA: Yes I did read The Circle but I don't find that vibe here with Amazon.

Vivl wants her catalog free of Amazon but still wants to use the ISBN slot.

Then as per the licensing agreement with Amazon she would lose access to all the Amazon covers in her library. While a lot of people here have been quite vocal in desiring that, Tim has never shown a willingness to add an option to allow that.

Just add the hyphens that are there normally (for human viewing). That's enough.

>47 Collectorator: when you click on an Amazon image for more information no ISBN is provided

FWIW, brightcopy's LT Cover Navigation script does this (amongst many other things).

Perhaps brightcopy or someone else can write up a script that would remove the Amazon links from the page.

The problem with Amazon covers is that Amazon can change them whenever they wish. Sometimes you will log on to find that the cover you chose has suddenly changed to a newer edition, or even...and this has happened to me...a completely different book (the ISBN had been reused). I have cleared my collection of the Amazon covers that automatically show up. I have found, however, that if I download an Amazon cover myself, from a Google search for images, it is secure, and listed as a "member uploaded cover." Quick, easy to do, and avoids Amazon connection problems.

>57 MerryMary: This is my issue too, so I do the same as you - replace all my covers by 'member uploaded' ones.

>50 Collectorator: It's ok, I didn't take krazy4katz comment as digging into my psyche (which would be awfully dull!)

>51 jjwilson61:

I'm happy, indeed eager, to have no Amazon covers in my catalogue. Since being pointed in the direction of the stats on how many I have, I've been chipping away at them each day. 99% are ones that were automatically assigned when I imported my catalogue from GR. In retrospect, it would have been quicker in the long run to manually import my relatively small catalogue and get it all in ship-shape order from the start. I started out enthousiastically, editing each book one by one, but ran out of puff a couple of weeks in.

If I can't avoid those pesky Amazon links, one positive from this discussion for me is that it's given me a kick on to get my catalogue in order!

ETA: And a few hours later, thanks to a fortuitious public holiday, I have no Amazon covers left. Hurrah!

>53 Lyndatrue:

Sadly, that's not working for me. I just tried adding a book manually, not putting anything into the ISBN field until after I'd uploaded a non-Amazon cover, at which point the Amazon link had not appeared. Then I went back into my book data and added the ISBN to the field, including hyphens, refreshed my catalogue listing and the Amazon link is there. Oh well!