Reply to post #8 (show post):
You reminded me... I haven't updated mine yet! :)

I have a question - you know that option (under "other options") at the right of the book page popup when we're adding or changing book information, for "private"? What does clicking it do? Does it make a private shelf, or what?

I've never used it, but I'm curious.

I thought it made your reading history and shelving of the book private.

That to make a shelf private you had to edit shelves.

Booklikes let us have private shelves and to denote which of our shelf names are wishlist (meaning indicating planning to buy, which shelves should be used for features tied "want to read but have not bought yet" -- unlike goodreads tying everything to their "to read" shelf whether readers were using that as "TBR pile"/"to read already bought books" or not).

I'm in a. mobile device where I cannot get to edit shelves to verify.

Reply to post #19 (show post):
Yep - it will, as I understand it (I haven't used it myself), make that book a private listing on your shelves (you'd see it, but anyone viewing your shelves would not).

I do not know, though, what would happen if you reviewed a book marked private - if it makes the post private too.

Actually, I do have a book marked private on my shelves - obviously by accident since it's a cozy. When I view the book page my review is listed below under Community Reviews, so while the book is not listed on your shelves, your posts about it would still show up. (Which makes sense, as I know of no way to mark a post private.)

When I add an edition of a book (I'm having to do that a lot recently with my KOBO puchases) and I want to add a specific cover, can I copy it from KOBO or will there be issues with copyright? I think I just read something to that effect in one of the other threads but I wanted to double check as I don't want to get in to trouble.

Reply to post #23 (show post):
Copyright of book covers is a bloody tangle. Technically the covers are created/supplied by the publishers and they retain the copyright of the images BUT... *sigh*

The short answer is... I'm not sure if Kobo is a safe source or not because I'm not sure if BL has any agreements in place with them. Ideally, if you can find the covers on the publisher's site, or a public library site, or NetGalley (it's publisher sourced), that would be ideal.

Reply to post #24 (show post):
OK, thanks. I have never added book covers for just this reason so I end up with the wrong covers on my editions.

Reply to post #23 (show post):
It might also help:

For ebooks including kobo, you might be able to get a screenshot of your personally owned ebook's bookcover via the app (some devices won't screenshot but most tablets will). Ditto for taking a photo of bookcover in your own copy of the ebook if your ereader device is a color one. The bookcover from a reader's own copy ("book in hand") is a valid source of covers.

If the kobo page for the book shows an ISBN number (978...) you can very likely locate the bookcover on the publisher's website (or even on Amazon.com which while not always accurate booklikes is allowed to use -- Amazon will show only their kindle edition's ASIN number on the product page and not display the ebook's ISBN but now allows you to search by it).

If it's kobo proprietary (instead of 978... ISBN number there is a 13-digit number starting with 123...), check for the author's website and publisher services/distributors like smashwords.com to source a cover image.

Is there a way to get the listings to be alphabetized by author last name, author first name, then title? I'm trying to add titles from my Kindle listing and I keep getting duplicates because the books aren't in order on my BL shelf.

Reply to post #27 (show post):
When viewing your shelf, you can switch to table view and sort by author. Is that what you meant?

Reply to post #28 (show post):
I'm not sure. I thought that's how I had it, but maybe not. Let me try that and see what happens. . . . . . .

That's how I have it --- Table view, sorted by author ascending. But it doesn't sort by first name within last name. So I have a bunch of books by authors with the last name "Black," but the first names are all mixed up. The first names aren't in alphabetical order, and they aren't even grouped together.
Laura Black
J. Carson Black
Jackie Black
Cheryl Black
Laura Black
Gina Black
Madeline Black
Holly Black
Jen Black
Dana Black
J. Carson Black
Jen Black
K.A. Black
Holly Black
J. Carson Black
Lindsey Black
Thomas Owen Black
Gerald Black
etc.

I have four titles by Laura Black; three are together, the fourth is several spaces down the list. The J. Carson Black titles are all separated.

This is a massive pain in the ass - and I think it's not a bug so much as it is not completely thought out coding in the backend sort definitions, as it does sort A-Z by last name, but seems to ignore the first name. (Also, if author records aren't formatted correctly - like first and last name in the first name field, or if an author is listed as 'editor'; those all show up above the A's.)

It happens on my shelves too and the only way I've ever found around it is to be in list/table view and search my shelves for author name (first and last). Then it will show me all the Ellery Adams books without sticking random Riley Adams entries into the mix.

It was reported waaay back in the BL early days, but perhaps it needs to be reported again.

Reply to post #29 (show post):
re: J. Carson Black - do you happen to know is Carson her middle name, or part of her last name? I'm wondering if her books would sort better if her name were adjusted in the database. (This is a stab in the dark, btw, but I'd be willing to fiddle to see what happens.)

Reply to post #30 (show post):
Well, at least it's not just my doing something wrong!

And yes, it is a ROYAL pain in the ass.