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de-emphasize book format by having all versions of the same book be the same item
A
AdriannaJul 14, 2025
The fact that each version of a book is a different item in StoryGraph adds confusion (but maybe I'm not using it correctly!). I think that each book should just be one item in storygraph, and you can select which version you read the same way you can check genres. I saw someone else suggest giving readers the option to have a default version selected, and I think that could be integrated too! But it's really frustrating and unintuitive that different versions of the same book are treated differently. It's also annoying to accidentally select the wrong version all the time when trying to log.
Comments
When I first started the app, we only had one version. We got lots of complaints about editions. So I changed it! I didn't want editions, but it wasn't about what I wanted! Yes, there's work we can do to improve the flow of edition selection, but it's highly unlikely we revert back to not having them.
Nadia Fascinating.... I never realized so many people care about which edition they're reading. Learned something today!
Also wanted to clarify - I think editions should still be available for folks to select! But having them appear to be different books is very confusing
Nadia I think Adrianna is referring to formats and not publishing editions! I agree with her that it would be nice for them to be considered the same book (similar to how different editions/print runs of a book are the same book) if possible (and for there to be something internal for a user to note format).
For example, if in my bookclub I read the paperback version and my friend read the digital version, when I click on my friend's entry/book at the top of the page above the title it says "You've read another edition," and none of my own info (link to review/rating, tags, date I read the book or link to my journal entry) appears until I navigate to the paperback book page. It would be awesome if that was integrated together so it's more readily available regardless of format.
kgc8 Adrianna Yes, one of the original ideas was to have the ability to just select format, but it doesn't work for people who collect different editions and want to read/reread in different formats. So they want to see 'to-read' on audio but 'read' on print, for example. Here's a long-running post of work that discusses this: https://roadmap.thestorygraph.com/requests-ideas/posts/status-in-multiple-editions-not-shown
We've been thinking about the UX of this for years!
Maybe this should be merged into that one.