LibraryThing for Publishers

Blog post: http://www.librarything.com/blogs/librarything/2010/08/librarything-for-publishe...

I'm a little afraid that some members won't appreciate this. There are only five publishers (eight imprints) in the first release. That could seem lame, and not worth it. Believe me, keeping the number down for the initial launch was important. Each additional publisher was another series of phone calls. The goal is to release a video today, explaining how other publishers can get in on the act, and get dozens or hundreds in the near future.

If it works, it works. If it doesn't, we tried. We hope members will support us. Basically, if you know a publisher, tell them to do it!

LibraryThing for Publishers should end up a pretty cool feature of the site, a vital bridge to book data (from the source, not restrictive resellers)—and it spurred us to develop the shelf interface.

For now, we want to keep the incentive as high as possible--to require publishers to upload their titles, rather than making pages from the (fragmentary) publisher data from Amazon and libraries. But, rest assured, we plan to mine that data soon enough.

The Osprey page is like a buffet of books and I'm about to gorge myself.

Wow, I'm really liking this! I hope more publishers get involved.

A question though: on the publisher page for Angry Robot, down under "Most Popular Titles", the cover for "Amortal" is listed twice. Once with a link to the LT work page, and again without. It's more obvious if you got to title view instead of shelf view. What's causing that?

I didn't notice it with Orbit Books, but they have many more titles than Angry Robot.

(http://www.librarything.com/publisher/643/Angry-Robot)

 
Another question: no linebreaks on the description for Shire Publications? I clicked "more" and it's a wall of text, and there's another "more" at the end. (http://www.librarything.com/publisher/642/Shire-Publications/)

But I love the options for sorting the shelf/cover/title views, and I like how on Orbit Books, there's a special shelf for previous ER titles (though I'm not sure why there isn't one for Osprey, though they're listed as having 2 books in the earlyreviewers catalogue).

This looks like a really fun way to explore books, just like fleela said. :)

This is marvelous! I don't know about others, but I certainly appreciate it. I hope the feature takes off and more publishers participate.

A few questions/comments:
1) Are the shelves based on "editions" as opposed to works? Matter shows up twice on the Orbit page's most popular titles section.
2) I would love a way to actually see what the books are "In your books." Sure, I have three books from Orbit, but what are they?
3)How are the featured titles selected?

ETA: I am receiving the following error when I click on the number after a user name--Fatal error: Call to undefined function get_publisherbasicsAA() in /var/www/html/inc_catalog_breadcrumb.php on line 123

Yes, so the shelves aren't based on works and they aren't based on "editions" (in the LibraryThing sense). They're based on ISBNs (editions in the rest-of-world sense).

It was a hard choice. I'm still wondering if we chose right. Clearly we need to link to these editions, but having them both on the shelf? Well, as I said, it was a hard choice, and open to debate.

How are the featured titles selected?

Publisher decides.

I would love a way to actually see what the books are "In your books." Sure, I have three books from Orbit, but what are they?

Yes, I know. We have it. Someone ate the link. We're finding it again.

There's a second "More" link after clicking on the first "More" link under the Description on Shire and Angry Robot. The second "More" links do nothing.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/bloodypen200/allcollections&publisher=64...

Fatal error: Call to undefined function get_publisherbasicsAA() in /var/www/html/inc_catalog_breadcrumb.php on line 123

When clicking on the number next to a member name in the "Top members for publisher" section (ie bloodypen200 (1) at bottom of http://www.librarything.com/publisher/643/Angry-Robot

Pretty neat. I do agree it'd be nice to see which books are mine. For example, I've catalogued 2 books by Zondervan, and this tells me I have one. Which one? I'm not scrolling through 2,000 titles 20 at a time to find out! And speaking of which, any way of expanding the lists to include more than 20 books?

Looks great to me. I hope the publishers participate.

This could be a great place for the publishers to showcase "coming soon."

Some members are showing up as having books, but don't show those books in the members page. ie bloodypen200 and elchickanito on Angry Robot's members page

First impressions: cool and a neat way to expand LT.

Second impression: I would REALLY like to have the option to choose the order of the boxes on the right hand side to fit my preferences. I don't particularly like that on
http://www.librarything.com/work/6674
the seven editions have pushed the ratings and covers view down so far. Rather than suggest publishers should be shoved down, I'd rather suggest you leave them higher by default but let us configure how we want it to look.

Following up on my post at #8: Zondervan's page says I have 1 book (or, as it states, "1 titles") but a quick search of my library reveals 2 books published by Zondervan, and in fact, the work page for each book shows a link to Zondervan's publisher page!

I love this! I'm glad it's possible to favorite a publisher.

I think this is going to be much nicer for users than you were expecting, since we can check these pages and see the recent releases, which is a pony that LT can't really breed on it's own, but can provide a very nice stable for.

Nice job, Tim.

Very interesting!

But what does "Facet by related tags" mean?

Was coming to ask were the list of our favorite'd publishers shows up, but I see it now on my profile. No hiding my history nerdocity now.

Could we please be able to change the shelves to list on publisher pages. I might be interested in the books - but only if I can read the titles.

16 >

There's a bar at the top of each section that you can choose list from, and it changes the section.

It would be cool to be able to set a personal default, though.

edited to get it right (duh)

The more I explore these pages, the more I hope that the publishers I'm currently following get on board. And "coming soon"! That would be splendid.

Thank you. But how was anyone supposed to know that when the bar isn't visible?

Yes. I would be very happy to set a default not to see shelves anywhere.

Oddly enough, I really don't like the cover view on the tag pages (or most anywhere else on LT), but I do here on the publisher pages. Go figure.

I can see the bar on mine. Now I wonder if I did something that made it show up. Let me experiment and get back to you.

Okay, it looks like it shows up if you put your mouse pointer anywhere on the section. I'm using FF 3.6.8.

Martha, we save your selection so once you choose "titles" it should stick. -Mike

20> Oddly enough, I really don't like the cover view on the tag pages, but I do here on the publisher pages.

Agreed. It really helps "sell" the page in this context, giving the whole thing a kind of homepage-away-from-homepage vibe. Very professional-looking, IMHO.

Interesting. I now get "shelf view" and "your books" options for my Orbit books, but not for Zondervan's. Also, it says I have 10 books by Orbit, and then shows me 11. (And as mentioned, Zondervan says I have 1 when I have 2.)

Cool. I love it. Hope more join. Really want to see the coming soon books !

I can see that your shelf/cover view works well here.

I have already got Orbit Books as an interesting library, so I see their actions in my connections.

Will new publishers be able to have a publisher page, but no member account ? What I am trying to get at is if I favorite a publisher will I see the books they add through my connections list, just based on favoriting ? If not, can you make that happen ?

You can't Get there from here ?

So how do you get to the publisher page without typing it in the URL or going to the blog ? Seems like you are trying to push it and hide it at the same time.

I think they need their own tab. It won't grow if people/publishers can't find it, or don't think it has enough visibility to be worth their while. Wait for it to 'pop' may doom it.

I agree about the editions list on the right side of the work pages. I want to see the ratings grid and the covers and then other editions. In fact the other editions box looks ugly when there are multiple links.

Maybe add small covers like the connections on your home page with the covers. Also maybe put a more link so it hides them unless you click.

Will we be able to see a full list of a publishers books on LibraryThing?

So how do you get to the publisher page without typing it in the URL or going to the blog ? Seems like you are trying to push it and hide it at the same time.

Thanks. Good point. Obviously, it's on every relevant work page, but it doesn't have another home yet. Where do you think it should be?

There's a second "More" link after clicking on the first "More" link under the Description on Shire and Angry Robot. The second "More" links do nothing.

Fixed. Thanks.

Fatal error: Call to undefined function get_publisherbasicsAA() in /var/www/html/inc_catalog_breadcrumb.php on line 123

I think Mike fixed it. It can't find it anyway.

Will new publishers be able to have a publisher page, but no member account ? What I am trying to get at is if I favorite a publisher will I see the books they add through my connections list, just based on favoriting ? If not, can you make that happen ?

I'm still figuring this out, frankly. Publishers use their "accounts" in different ways.

I don't think that favoriting a publisher is going to dump their new titles in your connections, though. That could get really out of hand. I'm thinking, eventually, we'll have a page that shows new books from your favorites, and featured books from all.

Will we be able to see a full list of a publishers books on LibraryThing?

You can see all their current titles--which they generally define as everything they have in print, or anyway in stock. I want to extend it into the out-of-print past, but carefully and not immediately.

Bugs with showing not enough books you have

I'm working on it. I have to run some stuff first.

Both upcoming and out-of-print would be way cool. Thanks, Tim, this is neat!

And it is an extra cherry-on-top that Osprey is one of your starter set. (Fleela, I'm right behind you!)

28> Obviously, it's on every relevant work page, but it doesn't have another home yet. Where do you think it should be?

I'd think this is a feature you'd want front-and-center, so ideally it should get its own tab, maybe right next to "Local". If that adds too much clutter, perhaps Local and Publishers could be combined somehow?

So how do you get to the publisher page without typing it in the URL or going to the blog ? Seems like you are trying to push it and hide it at the same time.

Thanks. Good point. Obviously, it's on every relevant work page, but it doesn't have another home yet. Where do you think it should be?

But being on a work page doesn't help you find a publisher, if you don't know they are there. You have to stumble on a book in order to check out the publisher.

Also, I don't think book lets see the publisher, its more the reverse. Let me see the publisher and check out their books.

I think they should have their own tab at the top. And possibly their own module on the home page ?

Will new publishers be able to have a publisher page, but no member account ? What I am trying to get at is if I favorite a publisher will I see the books they add through my connections list, just based on favoriting ? If not, can you make that happen ?


I'm still figuring this out, frankly. Publishers use their "accounts" in different ways.

I don't think that favoriting a publisher is going to dump their new titles in your connections, though. That could get really out of hand. I'm thinking, eventually, we'll have a page that shows new books from your favorites, and featured books from all.

I don't want to drown in books, but I do want to see new books that might interest me. Perhaps add the publishers to Tag Watch, so that if they tag their new books as they add them, it will pick them up (based on matching their tag and the LTers list of watch/avoid tags) ?

I would like a publisher's page added to connections, so that any I have favorited will show their books. Again winnowing by tags would be good.

I am only interested in what they want to feature, if it isn't stuffed down my throat.

I think of Borders and B&N sites as being obnoxious and more interested in their agenda, than in helping me to find what I want. Their moving bands of products slow the site down when loading, and clutter things up.

Amazon by contrast has products everywhere, but doesn't prevent me from getting to what I want, quickly.

This is an awesome feature! I will be particularly interested to see how many niche publishers sign on. I also think that this could satisfy the desires for certain types of lists sometimes requested (incorrectly listed as series, such as Penguin Classics).

Minor bug report: Since Osprey was one of those niche publishers and included, I checked out one of their books I own (work 136515) and found that in addition to the Osprey edition there were three editions by Spalding Press and one by Tims Press listed. Tim REALLY likes his ancient history. :)

This feature has excellent potential, so I hope that it will be fleshed out (supporting above requests at least) and well supported. Then publishers will become eager to join.

Also, I vote that "Publishers" gets its own tab and optional home page module.

This is cool! Thanks, Tim!

When I click on the **link** in the top right hand box

"Angry Robot participates in **LibraryThing for Publishers**. LibraryThing publishers showcase their new titles and interact with the LibraryThing community."

It takes me to the Early Reviewers page.

edited to add: I see that it's a placeholder page, sorry.

I like it. Small - not exactly bug, but oddity - there are no checkmarks on the In Your Books shelf books. So I was puzzled about two books that looked only vaguely familiar on Orbit's page, till I scrolled down to Early Reviewers shelf and saw them there with purple (wishlist) checkmarks. There is useful data in the colors, though every book on In Your Books will have a checkmark...

Yes, fun, hope more join. Especially for new releases.

>So how do you get to the publisher page without typing it in the URL or going to the blog ? Seems like you are trying to push it and hide it at the same time.

I suggest on the More tab. I generally like tabs, but this isn't in the same category with the current tabs to me.

Statistics/Memes would be a logical place for collecting the you have X books by publisher y in one place.

From elsewhere

Orbit is an interesting example.

The Orbit website says that "Although we share a name, a website, and are both part of the Hachette Livre group of companies, Orbit UK, Orbit US and Orbit Australia are separate entities with their own lists of authors, so it doesn’t automatically follow that an author published by Orbit in one country is also published by Orbit in the other."

Looking at the Orbit-Books publisher page it is unclear whether that is Orbit UK, Orbit US or Orbit Australia - or all three. The LT member orbitbooks is Orbit US.

For those that are interested Orbit UK came first by some years.

Bugs:

1) duplicates for many titles in the Orbit list
2) It says "Your books include 0 title by Orbit Books".
-- a) should be titles
-- b) When I switch to titles and page through the list I get plenty of green ticks. Is it trying to tell me I have 0 Orbit US editions? If so it should be more explicit.
3) For Angry Robot some titles don't link to a LT work (even where it exists)
4) It says "Your books include 0 title by Angry Robot". This isn't true I have 3 of the listed Angry Robot books (although one is one of those without a link to a LT work).

I guess a lot could be solved by the publisher page being Orbit Books US.

in addition to the Osprey edition there were three editions by Spalding Press and one by Tims Press listed

Fixed. Sorry.

Also, I vote that "Publishers" gets its own tab and optional home page module.

I'm going to hold off on the tab, but a home page module is planned.

I see that it's a placeholder page, sorry.

I've re-linked them to the blog post, for now.

I suggest on the More tab. I generally like tabs, but this isn't in the same category with the current tabs to me.

Yes. Good idea. We'll put it there for now.

Statistics/Memes would be a logical place for collecting the you have X books by publisher y in one place.

Yes. I'd planned such a page, but with only a few publishers...

41> Statistics/Memes would be a logical place for collecting the you have X books by publisher y in one place.

Yes. I'd planned such a page, but with only a few publishers...


Maybe
You have X books by Y publisher
You have X books by Z publisher
You have X books not yet assigned to a publisher... (or something like that - by publishers not yet on LT?)

The last line would be the majority of most people's books, at this point, but as time goes by...and it would be a great way to see what new publishers have gotten onto LT for Publishers!

This is a deeply nice and useful extension to LT. I can't wait for some big mainstream publishers to come on board! Also, it should be a big help with series ..and with forthcoming books (currently Amazon has a lot of announced books but they don't get onto LT until published).

I also vote for both a Publishers' and an Authors' tab or home page. I think these would both be useful.

currently Amazon has a lot of announced books but they don't get onto LT until published

Like A Dance with Dragons? :)

>1 timspalding:: I'm a little afraid that some members won't appreciate this.

Don't be afraid :) . I'm one of the members who will probably have to wait for ages (maybe forever) to have a native publisher on LT but nevertheless, I think this is an immensely useful AND fun feature!

Looking forward to a publisher-page link in More-tab (or some other logical place), statistics-info on my "own" pages and more and more publishers to join!

I like how I haven't heard of most of this first batch of publishers but have books by them anyway.

Also short a Zondervan book. I own three but it only shows two on their page.

41> I suggest on the More tab. I generally like tabs, but this isn't in the same category with the current tabs to me.

Yes. Good idea. We'll put it there for now.

"More" is where good features go to hide.

I like it! My one nitpick (at present) is that when I click on a book, I expect to go to the LT work page for that book - I'm on LT, after all! I want to check out the description, the reviews, the rating, etc etc, to see if I want to wishlist it.

I understand linking out - it's a draw for publishers and gets traffic to their page. But is there any way we can make it easy to jump to the LT work page from the publisher page as well?

#48

If you show them as titles you get both links.

I suspect the More tab is not where most people would look for publishers.

If you aren't really committed, how can you entice other publishers to join ? Come to our site and add your stuff, but you no one can really find it ?

If you are committed then they deserve their own tab, or an easy way for them and us to find them, without a scavenger hunt.

I know you are afraid of backlash from LTERs, but that is about spam, and the publishers so far have been pretty good about not doing that.

48> When I click on a book on the shelf in a tag search, it goes directly to the works page. When I click on a book on a publisher shelf, it pops up a link box that has some LibraryThing and Publisher links for books that exist in LT and just Publisher for those that don't.

But sometimes it doesn't appear to work. Take the Angry Robot link:
http://www.librarything.com/publisher/643/Angry-Robot

Try clicking on the first book, Moxyland. You only get a publisher link. And if you click on that, you get a Page not Found error from Angry Robot's site:
http://angryrobotbooks.com/?s=9780857660046

First off, playing with Angry Robot's site shows they don't much like searches with all the numbers strung together:
http://angryrobotbooks.com/?s=978+0+87566+004+6
http://angryrobotbooks.com/?s=9780875660046

So NONE of the book's "Publisher" links on the entire first row work. Some give you Page not Found, others take you to pages that aren't the book's page. I assume the other rows have the same problem.

Of course, even if you space out 9780857660046, it doesn't find it.

And then there's the problem of it not linking to the LT book. Moxyland is most definitely in LT. I wonder if it's a multiple-ISBN problem. If you look at the editions, it doesn't have 9780857660046. But if I manually added the book to my catalog using 9780857660046, it hooked up to the right work and still never shows 9780857660046 on the editions page. I think it's ignoring the ISBN-13 and just using the ISBN-10 for this publisher linkup.

Oddness: yesterday when I looked at the page for Shire, in the members section I was top of the list, with 65 books (I guess it's only counting books currently in print? I have over 100). Today, the list seems to be starting with members holding only one book from them. It says 80 members, and when I click the "more" link, everybody has only one book, and I'm not on the list. Not so useful, and I expect there are many other members who are not on the list - I can't be the only one who has more than one Shire album.

It REALLY needs to show the title somehow when you mouseover/click on the books on a publisher's shelves. After actually using it a bit (instead of just looking at how purty it is and not really doing anything with it), that becomes rather frustrating. You get this tiny thumbnail of a book cover, but it's not like being in a bookstore because you can't read the title. So you have to click, then click again to get someplace where you can see the title. And like I said up there on the AngryRobot ones, the publisher link is broken so you can't even see the title easily once you get there.

I know it's really in the beta stage now, so I'll try not to rant to much. But this is something that is making the entire effort wasted. Might as well just switch the view to titles and be done with it.

Looking at the most popular books on the Shire page, I am finding that they are not shown in order of popularity. The first six books have the following numbers of LT members:
44, 40, 52, 52, 38, 31.

Are they actually listing them in order of popularity from the publisher's point of view (i.e., top sellers), rather than from the number of copies in LT?

> 43

(currently Amazon has a lot of announced books but they don't get onto LT until published).

They don't get onto LT until someone catalogues them.

If someone puts a book on her wishlist before it's published, it will appear on LT. If the book is published, and no LT member catalogues it, it won't get onto LT even after publication.

A feature I would like to see added is the ability to search by publisher. This is currently not available as a choice either in the drop-down menu on the Your Books page or on the site Search tab. I was trying to figure out how many Shire books I actually had, and it was messy, since searching on All Fields in Your Books got me all sorts of books with "shire" in the title or the author's name, as well as the Publisher.

BTW, what fields does the Most Fields option search? This info is not included in the wiki page.

I went to the Orbit page and there are some issues.

It says I have 23 titles, but the Top Member listings are all 1 book only. If I click on the more link it only lists accounts with 1 book, and they all seem to start with A

In fact all the listings are for 1 book:

Your Friends,
Interesting Libraries
Your Top 50 Similar Libraries

The disappearing grey bar has now moved to cover the first heading: Featured Titles - when it appears.

The grey bar needs a permanent, non disappearing place where it doesn't overlap other type. Now at work on Safari OSX - worked yesterday.

Also if I ask it to show me my books, there are no checks, but there are checks in other presentations: Current, Popular, Featured.

And I really don't like that it shows me my books 5 at a time in order to preserve the publishers listings. It also says I have 23 at the top but the count on the grey bar says 24

In their listing of Current Titles , first row, 3rd book is just a blank white space with grey edging - no cover ?

http://www.librarything.com/publisher/316/Orbit-Books/#

Wouldn't the cover come in with the book? If I mouse over it - it says Managing Death (Death Works). If I click on it, it comes up with a publisher link (LT Work Page could also be offered ?). When I go to the publisher site
http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/books_9780316077989.htm

it says Sorry Page Not Found.

That may be a publisher issue and not LT, but there needs to be a way for us to report problems to the publisher for them to fix. If the LT publisher site becomes full of holes then it will be less than useful.

>56 staffordcastle:

According to the wiki, "most fields" searches title, author, tags, ISBN, date, lcc, publication, dewey, source, comments, other authors, private comment.

Way to put out an absorbing new feature on a day when I had planned to get so much done around the house! I like this a lot, and agree, it should not be hidden.

53> It REALLY needs to show the title somehow when you mouseover/click on the books on a publisher's shelves.

I get the book's title on mouseover using FF (and someone above complained that we should get author as well as title on mouseover, so I'm not the only one).

If publishers are going to put in the effort to contribute to this, I think they deserve to have the pages visible and accessible. This should have its own tab next to Local, rather than hidden away in More.

How about a LibraryThing For... tab. You could put this feature, LibraryThing for Libraries (a description of what it is, since it doesn't do anything if you're not a library), and LibraryThing Authors (rename it LibraryThing for Authors?). Maybe you could find a way to squeeze LibraryThing Local in there too.

62 > I like that idea

>62 jjwilson61:: a VERY good idea!!

Very cool. Nice idea.

What are you going to do about 'self-publishing' organisations? Will they get a foot in the door?

Bad link in the blog for Taylor Trade Publishing.

Bug:
I have a private Connection group which is showing, but the members being shown are those for my private watch list.

All member counts

Should be fixed. Let me know if yours is not.

I like it! My one nitpick (at present) is that when I click on a book, I expect to go to the LT work page for that book - I'm on LT, after all! I want to check out the description, the reviews, the rating, etc etc, to see if I want to wishlist it.

If you're using the covers mode it should show you two links--one to the publisher and one to LT, unless there isn't an LT page yet. If in titles mode, both links are there, and named. Where are you getting this?

If you show them as titles you get both links.

Where are you getting just one?

>66 timspalding: All member counts

Should be fixed. Let me know if yours is not.

Thanks for looking at it, Tim. I'm back at the top, but now *everybody* is listed twice!

40> I fixed the plurality on "titles" when there are 0. -Mike

#66

It looks like there are duplicates in the Angry Robot list. Amortals appears twice - one with just a publisher link. Obviously when I just view as a shelf I didn't notice and clicked on one with just a publisher link.

69> There's still a problem when there's 1 title

"Your books include 1 titles by Orbit Books"

69, 71> There's also an issue with plural correctness on the Early Reviewers for Taylor Trade Publishing

Taylor Trade Publishing has 1 books up for requesting now.
Taylor Trade Publishing has 1 books from past Early Reviewer batches.

It looks like there are duplicates in the Angry Robot list

Well, it lists each ISBN separately. The latter hasn't been linked to an LT work. Meh.

"Your books include 1 titles by Orbit Books"

Mike, can you fix?

#40, #51

Angry Robot - hmm I see.

They use a different ISBN for their US editions from their UK editions. So they are trying to put the same title in twice (once with the UK ISBN and once with the US). Further investigation shows that for stuff that they haven't added books published earlier this year in the UK (which may be recently, or yet to be, published in the US). Hence my total reading 0, even though I have some books published by Angry Robot and where the title is on the list (and green ticks in Titles mode).

I think that for wider use where there might be a hardcover edition, special slip-case edition and C format paperback all out at the same time (and a A format paperback out six months later) there ought to be a way of tying all those editions into one record on the publisher page. Which sounds like further development to me.

As a user I feel this could be real cool. It would certainly prompt me to buy even more books than I already do.

Would it be possible for a home page module where I could choose publishers I wish to watch? The module would then show all new books added by those publishers - in much the same manner as the "Recently Added By" module.

#74
Listing the US and Uk editions separately will be particularly important if the work has two different titles in the two countries, otherwise the UK title would almost inevitably be swamped by the US one, which would hardly please the UK publishers.

>66 timspalding:
I like it! My one nitpick (at present) is that when I click on a book, I expect to go to the LT work page for that book - I'm on LT, after all! I want to check out the description, the reviews, the rating, etc etc, to see if I want to wishlist it.

If you're using the covers mode it should show you two links--one to the publisher and one to LT, unless there isn't an LT page yet. If in titles mode, both links are there, and named. Where are you getting this?

Unless I'm missing something, I only get one link as well on the publisher page as in this screenshot. The cover is the link to the publisher's web site. I don't see any labeled LT link. All links - LT Title, LT Author, and Publisher Title are there in titles view. This is in XP/FF3.

Have you clicked on one of the covers? What happens for me when I do is that a small box pops up with choices for LibraryThing or Publisher. I'm using F 3.6.8 F on XP too.

ETA: I see what the problem might be. When I hover over the cover the status bar shows me a link to the publisher, but clicking on the cover gets me the pop-up box with the choices.

Getting it to work well with UK/US (and Aus) versions is a bit tricky.

Take Angry Robot - both US and UK (and eBook) editions have the same title and cover (and share a page on the Angry Robot website). They have different ISBNs. From a user POV seeing three identical covers on the Angry Robot shelf which go to the same LT page and the same publisher page doesn't work very well. They could be aggregated into one image / title on the publisher page (even if entered separately) for display to the user.

It could be worse. They could have the same name and cover and go to different publisher pages with different information for each country. That would seriously piss people off if they kept getting the US version when they wanted the UK version (or vice-versa).

If the titles are different then they can remain as separate items on the shelf as they are easily distinguishable.

Another idea would be to be able to choose to just view the UK books (or the US ones). How this would be modeled in the data I'm not sure as Angry Robot is just a single imprint.

>77 jjwilson61:
Ah, that's it. I saw the status bar reference the publisher page. I did also middle click the cover which just opened the publisher page in a new tab. If I left click I get the choice of LT or publisher which I can then middle click.

Thanks.

>79 lucien:

Good. Good. The other way that happens is if our script breaks.

Basically, the "link" is to the publisher. This is to give them as much Google Juice as possible. But the link is interrupted by the script, to allow you to choose. (This sort of thing is fairly common, although usually the site does it to AVOID giving links to other sites.)

Tim>

Did you read my post #51? The entire Angry Robot publisher page is useless for me. Just thought it odd that there was no comment.

60> Yeah, looks like I get the title on mouseover, eventually.

#81

Not just you - everyone - although I wouldn't say useless just seriously impaired.

I don't think that there is much that can be done in the short term. Angry Robot doesn't have a site that conforms to what LT wants to put out as a URL.

82> Which would seem a bit odd, given that they 1/5th of the publishers chosen for rollout of the new feature...

And it's not just the publisher links, but also the LibraryThing links that are not working properly (i.e. not linking up to LT titles due to LT's ISBN issues).

ETA: Oh, I guess I shouldn't say 1/5th, since it's one of the three Osprey ones. I guess more like 1/7th.

ETAA: I also found the ISBN LT linking problem on Zondervan's page, though to a lesser degree than Angry Robot.

Facet by related tags = Filter by a selected tag (as that tag has been applied to books logged in LT)??

I really like this feature -- it would be nice if the filtering were really by "tags" (plural), however. When large publishers sign on, members might want to gradually refine their applied filters using multiple tag selections (the Titles tagged label could then become a list of breadcrumbs...)

>81 brightcopy:

I'll dig up an algorithm we have for adding in spaces to ISBNs. It's hard, I tell you.

Angry Robot joined because it's an imprint of Osprey—which is weird/cool. They are moving to a new system. I had THOUGHT they figured it out, but alas no. Anyway, I'll dig up that space-adding algorithm.

>Angry Robot doesn't have a site that conforms to what LT wants to put out as a URL.

We're looking to add support for publisher ONIX files. But they don't always have URLs in them. Boooooogus, but don't quote me.

> not linking up to LT titles due to LT's ISBN issues

Not really an issue. That book must not have been in there 2 weeks ago. I'll regenerate it tonight.

Some changes:

1) Upcoming titles now appear in their own section called... wait for it... Upcoming titles

2) Pluralization on the publisher page *really* fixed. Should have been easy but I didn't test my previous fix thoroughly enough, sorry.

-Mike

Tim/Mike>

Here's an idea - auto-add upcoming titles to LT. You could add them to the LT member associated with the publisher page. Might be a good way to get the data in the initial record correct from the source instead of from the crapshoot of Amazon. Good or bad idea?

I notice that some of these publisher member accounts have books in them. They also always seem to have Amazon as the data source for their records. Ick.

Oh, and one last thing. In the blog post for this feature, you messed up the link on Taylor. You have two links to the work instead of one to the publisher page and one to the work.

Still gives me no option to see what my "1 title by Taylor Trade Publishing" is.

While LT series usually are not publisher series, some still qualify, especially the zillion series published by Osprey. Would it be possible to create a mechanism to link series to the publisher pages?

89> Perhaps it could work something like the Related series/Related book awards/etc. boxes that are auto-calculated based on the series members. Still, I can't see it worth spending too much time coding, considering all the other things that time could be spent on.

Tim, please note my bug report in message 65.

Belatedly, I figured out what the issue is re: publisher vs. LT links - I routinely open links in new tabs by middle clicking. It's pretty much the only way I browse the web. And if you middle click, it skips that box stage and goes directly to the publisher's page in a new tab.

Any way to change this? Or if not-- well. My very strong preference would be to go to the LT work page. I'm on Library Thing! Don't make me leave!

Mike: Can you look at Noisy's bug in 65?

Any way to change this? Or if not-- well. My very strong preference would be to go to the LT work page. I'm on Library Thing! Don't make me leave!

Sorry. I think it's set. We're trying to help publishers. It's part of the deal for us to have the primary link go to them.

I like the publisher pages.

I don't like the placement of the publisher information on the work pages; I now have to scroll down to see the ratings graph even on a regular monitor. Please let us rearrange the items in the right-hand bar, since I know you're never going to agree that ratings deserve any prominence.

I love this - what I'm missing on the publisher page, though, is a nifty little search box that would let me search within their catalogue listings (I want to be able to see, for example, any books Osprey have relating to 'Napoleon' etc. etc.). Is there a way to do this that I'm missing?

>95 klarusu:

Isn't that what the 'Facet by related tags' on the right gives you?

>94 _Zoe_:

I propose we move it to the middle, and flip it 90° left. This would allow the right to be more "here's more"-ish.

> what I'm missing on the publisher page, though, is a nifty little search box

Nice good idea. I'll look at it. (And yes, the tags help there, but not entirely.)

97> Please oh please give serious thought to letting us re-order it ourselves. One size does NOT fit all. I know it's harder to code than a static page. But sometimes you have to bite the bullet.

So are you just ignoring the problem with the grey bar popping up over the text on the screen?

And I don't care if we get to move them ourselves or not (they probably wouldn't stick anyway), I just want to see the star ratings and the other covers before getting a listing of other books on the right side of the work pages.

And 'Facet by Related Tags' ? Please change it to something that actually makes sense in English.

Is there a way to report to the publisher that they have a bad or missing page on their site when you follow a link ?

So are you just ignoring the problem with the grey bar popping up over the text on the screen?

No, my plan is to change the text to a graphic, that's tighter.

And 'Facet by Related Tags' ? Please change it to something that actually makes sense in English.

Suggestions?

100: A graphic would prevent text size changing. Why not just have a menu or something?

Search Tags for This Publisher
(P.S. Clearly everyone should know about Search Facets instead)

"Filter by Related Tags"

(I have no problem with the term "facet" -- just its use as a verb)

Interestingly, the Zondervan book that it doesn't indicate that I own also doesn't appear on their Current Titles list. But it's still on their website.

More of an issue, I noticed when going through that title list, the sorting doesn't disregard articles. Titles that begin "A ..." are grouped together near the front. (Near rather than at because there are also titles that begin with a number.) I assume a similar issue with 'The...' but because you can only see so few titles at a time, I wasn't going to do that much clicking through to prove it.

What's the Zondervan book?

Correct on the sorting. I'll look into it.

>104 timspalding: http://www.librarything.com/work/17068

Generous Orthodoxy by McLaren in case I linked badly again.

>Do you mean move and rotate the ratings box? I don't really understand the point of rotating it, but I'd be happy with the move.

Now if only the Book Information section could stay permanently collapsed....

And 'Facet by Related Tags' ? Please change it to something that actually makes sense in English.

Suggestions?

Display by Related Tags
Differentiate by Related Tags

And what about the links to bad pages on the publisher's site ?

Something's still really screwy with the "In Your Books" section of the publisher's page. Step-by-step:

1. When I look at Orbit's page, it says: "Your books include 10 titles by Orbit Books ( shelf | your books )".

2. When I click "shelf", it shows me 8 books, and the shelf menu says "Showing 1-8 of 11 ( next )". Um...11? It says I have 10.

3. When I click "next", it shows 2 books and says "Showing 9-11 of 11 ( prev )". Ooookay.

4. When I click "prev", it shows the previous 8 and now says "Showing 1-11 of 11 ( prev )"!

5. So I click "prev" again: the shelf disappears entirely, and the menu now says "Showing -2-0 of 11 ( next )"! Clicking "next" takes me back to Step 2 as above.

-----

Also, if I only have 1 book from a publisher, it gives me no option to see the books.

Looks like most of my issues from the previous msg have been corrected. Thanks!

The only bugs left are Steps 4-5 from above, where hitting "prev" from the second shelf gives "Showing 1-10 of 10 (prev)" when it should be 1-8, and there shouldn't be a "prev" option. Hitting "prev" again does the disappearing shelf trick with "Showing -2-0 of 10 (next)".

Like the feature in general.

Coming into this late, and haven't read through the 100+ messages yet, so apologies if these points/questions have been raised.

How are the publishers being attributed to books? The Penguin Australia page says I have 55 of their books. I'm pretty sure I have none, unless they're counting any Penguin books.

On the work page, wouldn't it make more sense to list the publisher only if one's own edition is from that publisher? If you guys get lots of publishers, then popular books (War and Peace) are going to have a lot of publisher logos...

How are the publishers being attributed to books? The Penguin Australia page says I have 55 of their books. I'm pretty sure I have none, unless they're counting any Penguin books.

I believe their counting any book distributed by Penguin Australia as being by that publisher, so since PA distributes many Penguin books they are counted as being published by them.

Check back in this thread to see the discussion around this point.

110> You're going to need to read yet another thread:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/96810

;)

As far as I can suss from Tim's responses there, attribution is done via a simple ISBN lookup based on the ISBN list the publisher sent to LT. And with Penguin, they decided to list ALL their ISBNs as Penguin Australia for some reason, because only that website works or something. When you click on the link to the book on the publisher's website, you'll see it say something like:

Imprint: Penguin (General Uk)
Publisher: Penguin UK

As I said in

http://www.librarything.com/topic/96810#2144660
http://www.librarything.com/topic/96810#2144723

I'm not really a fan of this aspect.