Books On Track discussion

Hey everyone,


I could use some help with some basic data entry that would free up some time that I can use to add new data to the website and process more of your requests.

I will be listing here links to Google Sheets that you can help me fill in with the missing data according to the notes on the header rows.

✦ https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Books without covers ~ A spreadsheet with a list of books that are missing their covers.

✦ https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Authors without genres ~ A sheet with dropdown columns to select genres the authors mainly write in.

✦ https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Untitled Books ~ A spreadsheet with untitled books that are missing most of their data.

✦ https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Books without genres ~ A sheet with dropdown columns to select genres each book belongs in.

✦ https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Authors without bio ~ A sheet with a list of authors that have no biography on the database.

✦ https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Authors without website ~ A sheet with a list of authors that are missing their official website.

✦ https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Possibly wrong book authors ~ A list of books on the database with more than one authors that need to be checked - are they anthologies with multiple authors or are some of the authors attributed to them wrong?



Any help welcome, even if it's only the link to one cover, or one genre selected for an author or a correction of a publication date.

Feel free to ask any questions the notes on the spreadsheets do not cover.

Thank you in advance!

Thenia

Thenia, did half a dozen or so in Missing Covers & the 1st one in Untitled.

Of the other untitled books I checked the books haven't been written yet.

Sandra wrote: "Thenia, did half a dozen or so in Missing Covers & the 1st one in Untitled.

Of the other untitled books I checked the books haven't been written yet."

Thank you Sandra!

Hi Thenia, I thought I'd do some cover links but need some guidance. How would you like the books with no covers to be marked so that you don't have multiple people checking books only to find that the information isn't there.

I started at the bottom of the list in case someone was working from the top and found that the first 3 didn't have covers and not even a release dated listed. So went up a bit and found that The Last Great Tortoise Race (Nursery Crime, #3)
by Jasper Fforde has been without a pub date, cover etc for at least 6 years.

Hi Thenia,

I did go in and update some of the genres that I knew for certain. Mostly cozy mysteries. If I get a few minutes I will take another check and see what else I can help with.

Hope this Helps,
Janice

I've been adding genres to authors pulling the information mostly from genres listed on Fantastic Fiction. I'm not sure how Google Sheets updates so have been going out and saving every 10-15 authors. If it auto-updates let me know and I will save time and get more done.

Llynnya wrote: "I've been adding genres to authors pulling the information mostly from genres listed on Fantastic Fiction. I'm not sure how Google Sheets updates so have been going out and saving every 10-15 autho..."

Thanks for the help! Google Sheets updates automatically, it will tell. you at the top the last time it saved.

Great :) Thanks!

"Authors without genres" is complete.

Llynnya wrote: "Hi Thenia, I thought I'd do some cover links but need some guidance. How would you like the books with no covers to be marked so that you don't have multiple people checking books only to find that..."

Never mind. I opened up the spreadsheet again and looked closer and found the columns for 'no change', 'last checked' and notes. So will be doing some adding this evening.

Janice wrote: "Hi Thenia,

I did go in and update some of the genres that I knew for certain. Mostly cozy mysteries. If I get a few minutes I will take another check and see what else I can help with.

Hope this ..."

Llynnya wrote: ""Authors without genres" is complete."



That's great guys, thanks!

I've updated the database with the author genres you provided and added a few more authors on the spreadsheet to be processed and will be adding new ones periodically.

---------------------------------------------------


Llynnya wrote: "Llynnya wrote: "Never mind. I opened up the spreadsheet again and looked closer and found the columns for 'no change', 'last checked' and notes. So will be doing some adding this evening."

Sorry I didn't see your message sooner Llynnya!

Glad the status check columns made sense. Please feel free to make suggestions for improvements to the sheet if there's something that's not working as it should or could be done better/would make the task easier.

For books like the one by Jasper Fforde you mentioned that have been dropped for whatever reason, please leave a note on the relevant column and I will remove them from the database.


I really appreciate the help everyone. Keep up the good work!

Thenia I'm confused... I looked at the 'Authors Without Genres' list and most if not all are ones I did from the spreadsheet yesterday. I thought that it auto-saved. Did I do something wrong on them?

edit to add:
Ok, they are done :) I exited and re-entered to make sure the information didn't get lost.

Llynnya wrote: "Thenia I'm confused... I looked at the 'Authors Without Genres' list and most if not all are ones I did from the spreadsheet yesterday. I thought that it auto-saved. Did I do something wrong on the..."

Not sure what went wrong there Llynnya. Thanks for filling them again!

No problem :) I was just a little confused and wanted to make sure what I was doing in the other two spreadsheets.

Thenia or Kelly -

Hi :) While going through the list of books with no covers to grab any newly released ones I have found a series that I don't know how to deal with. Dark Ink Tattoo series by Cassie Alexander.

The spread sheet wanted the cover for the 4th book, while looking I found it but it had a name 'Blood by Moonlight' instead of what was on spreadsheet 'Dark Ink Tattoo Episode 4'. In researching I found that this is a serial and there are 15 episodes (so far maybe more coming?) and 1-6 I found individually with covers. The 15 look to be in the the process of being grouped together in 5 books with unique names and covers (4 now 1 in the future).

I have no idea how you want to handle this but you have what I know. The following is the link to the authors books so you have a visual.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...

Just an FYI the 'Authors without bio' is set to view only in all fields.

Llynnya wrote: "Thenia or Kelly -

Hi :) While going through the list of books with no covers to grab any newly released ones I have found a series that I don't know how to deal with. Dark Ink Tattoo series by Ca..."

I thought I'd replied to this message ages ago but forgot to press Post - sorry Llynnya!

I've updated the series with the grouped versions of the books. Thanks for flagging this.

Llynnya wrote: "Just an FYI the 'Authors without bio' is set to view only in all fields."

This should be working now.

Hey everyone,

I updated and simplified the existing and added new spreadsheets that require some simple checks and data entry.

You can find the links on the first post of this thread.

Any help appreciated!

Thenia -
Just an FYI the 'Possibly wrong book authors' spreadsheet is set to view only in all fields

Llynnya wrote: "Thenia -
Just an FYI the 'Possibly wrong book authors' spreadsheet is set to view only in all fields"

Thanks for the heads up Llynnya. I've updated the permissions so you should be able to edit now.

Hi Thenia

Could you add a column in the 'Possible Wrong Authors' spread sheet?

I think it needs a 'multi-author series' clickable for series like -- https://www.goodreads.com/series/4054...

I can click 'wrong author' on all the books Mike Lupica didn't write in the series and you can take him off behind the scenes however that works, but won't the books he wrote not show up in the listings of the series when I am on Reed Farrel Coleman's and his fellow author's pages for example?

Or is Mike Lupica not considered a 'wrong author' in this example.

Hahaha I went through the whole sheet a few days after you posted it but this has been niggling at my brain as I am working through other sheets.

Llynnya

Hey Llynnya,

The wrong authors will only be removed from the books they didn't write. The series will still appear on their page if they've written at least one book in the series, and the series will continue to show all books on the author's page regardless of the author.

In your example, both Reed Farrell Coleman and Mike Lupica will show the series completely. Just the book pages where Lupica wasn't involved won't include his name anymore.

Thank you for helping me with the sheets!

Thenia

Just a quick note: I am currently in the hospital so filling requests and almost everything that has to do with the site will be delayed.

Hopefully I'll be out and back to work soon!

Get well soon Thenia!

Thenia, take care of you!

Thenia, take care of yourself first! Sending positive energy!

Quick update:

After spending most of June in the hospital I am finally out and
slowly recovering!

Thank you all for your support and positive energy!

Thenia wrote: "Hey everyone,


I could use some help with some basic data entry that would free up some time that I can use to add new data to the website and process more of your requests.

I will be listing her..."

Hi Thenia,

On the list for the bookcovers, if we find the cover on another site, how do you want us to update the info?

AliciaJ wrote: "Hi Thenia,

On the list for the bookcovers, if we find the cover on another site, how do you want us to update the info?"

In most sites when you right click on an image you get the option to "Copy image address" or a similarly worded option that gives you the link to the image's location. That url is what I need for the "cover" column.