Covers, can they get automatically changed by publisher?

Seems like I read somewhere in an LT comment that there are instances when the source (Amazon?) will change a book cover...

How can I prevent that for a book I've put in My Library?

Or is it even an issue once I put a book in My Library?

If you are using an Amazon cover, and Amazon changes its cover, your cover will change. Amazon covers are not stored on LT servers. The changes can be a different cover, or none if Amazon no longer carries the book.

Rarer, (much rarer) but still possible, if you are using a best guess member cover and a new publisher cover becomes popular, that ccan also change. For example, a novel does not become popular until it has been filmed, and a new cover shows a shot from the film. This is very rare, but I have heard of it happening.

You prevent this by personally choosing a member cover for each book. If you have chosen a member cover, it is as safe as the rest of your personal data. It is also suggested that you set your account to not use Amazon covers. https://www.librarything.com/settings/covers

>2 MarthaJeanne: Thank you, MarthaJeanne.

I'm guessing that if I remove the ISBN from my book that is another way to prevent the cover change from happening? If that is correct and I do that, are there any other ramifications?

>3 DebiCates: Amazon covers are attatched to a code that is not your ISBN field, although it may be ISBN information. Deleting your ISBNs will not prevent Amazon cover changes.

It will mean that you will no longer have best guess member covers.

>4 MarthaJeanne: Sneaky fellows. Thank you for letting me know!

You can see the breakdown where your covers come from at https://www.librarything.com/stats/DebiCates/covers

As for removing ISBN for the sake of covers, I think a better solution is to use Recent Member Uploaded Covers module. I believe it is by default Home > About You, but you can move it your home page. If you have a lot of books with many, many editions (and thus covers), turn on 'my ISBN only' in the module setting and it shouldn't take long to switch most.

This is not sneaky. It's the way it works. Amazon covers are on Amazon servers and the code is what tells it which cover to get. In the early days Amazon covers were connected to your ISBN field, and that got changed if you changed your Amazon cover. Now that was sneaky, but it soon got changed to the current system.

>6 SandraArdnas: Brilliant! That will greatly help me identify what specific books I need to change to a member cover--or upload one myself it none of the existing ones match my actual.

It's going to be a big project since most of my books came from GR. But it matters to me.

When I'm browsing my library, in a split-second I can recognize the cover and the book I read/want to read. Reading a title takes me a bit longer to register in my brain.

>7 MarthaJeanne: It's good to know as you do so much of the history about how things work on LT. Thank you for sharing.

I always make the effort to upload a cover rather than take what Amazon provides. Sometimes I can find a higher resolution one, and weirdly, it's often an Amazon image anyway. Just paste the image URL in the LT dialog window and it's freed.

>10 Bookmarque: I sure appreciate when I go now to fix my covers, seeing the choices of member covers. I'll be adding any missing covers myself here on out, for sure.

You are kind to find higher resolution ones, Kris. I've got so many to do that I take whatever is easiest to find that matches, and if need be, opening one of the Amazon images' URL and copy and pasting that URL in Add Cover. Lazy, I know, but sheesh, just this weekend I got all my page number designations fixed from when I converted from GR last September and it brought over all the pages as "i ii iii" not "1 2 3" page numbers! Almost 2000 of them. I'm so happy I can now sort by page numbers and it not be goofy.

>11 DebiCates: Debi, I'm pretty sure that "opening one of the Amazon images' URL and copy and pasting that URL in Add Cover" will lead to the cover changing if Amazon changes it. I guess it depends on how they're naming those files. A safer way would be to open the picture of the cover in a new tab, save it to your computer in its native format (I often don't even change the name), and then upload that file to LT.

I'm trying to avoid Amazon where ever I can in many settings, so I've taken to searching bookshop.org, biblio.com, hpb.com (Half Price Books), thriftbooks.com, and also eBay for covers that match mine. barnesandnoble.com is also a surprising rich source for current-ish titles.

Note: I realize going through all those sites is quite possibly a lot more than you want to do now, but I put the whole list in case you wanted to pick one to use instead of Amazon and also so the suggestions are there for others.

>12 LeslieWx: Thank you Leslie for sharing. I copy the URL but upload it (Add Image), so then it becomes an image residing on the LT server. But I'm glad you mentioned it, just in case. I've thought it through, and I'm almost certain I'm safe from Amazon's cover changes.

My long term plan is as I finish a book and decide I want to keep it, I'll seek a higher res image. Otherwise, enough for me to recognize the cover is good enough for my purposes.

>2 MarthaJeanne: By the way, MarthaJeanne, I made that setting change. It did have a surprise effect for me, though. I suddenly have a lot of default covers now. I didn't expect that but it's okay because I'll fix them with Add Image as I see them. I'd rather that than Amazon changing the cover I so carefully selected.

Do you know if I use a cover image from Amazon's URL and use that URL in order to Add Image, if it will then be on LT's servers and be immune from Amazon's changes? I'm pretty sure it will, but it would be good to have a confirmation.

>12 LeslieWx: Debi, I'm pretty sure that "opening one of the Amazon images' URL and copy and pasting that URL in Add Cover" will lead to the cover changing if Amazon changes it

Worry not! When you put a URL into the "upload a cover" box, LT makes a copy of the image and stores it on LT servers, just as if you had downloaded it from the other site and then uploaded it to LT.

It's not using the url like a hyperlinked image. :)

>15 keristars: Thanks for confirming that, Keri! I can rest 100% easy now.

So, I'm curious about another thing, and likely you know the answer to that too. If I have the ISBN in my books, and my original source was Amazon, when Amazon changes that data (let's say, page numbers, publisher, or something), will their change have any effect on my book data? I always assumed it would not. Am I correct?

>16 DebiCates: Correct! Once you've pulled the data in, it won't change, even if the source of the data changes it. The Amazon cover can change because it's not pulled into LT, it's just displayed here.

(dunno if this will help, but I just thought of an analogy. pulling data in/creating the LT book copy = snapshot. hyperlinked image = live feed.)

>17 keristars: Woohoo!

And yes, that analogy works.

Thank you Keri.