Following an author is very easy. Use our search engine to go to their page, then click the +Follow button under their name, as indicated here:

It will change to this icon after you follow them.

This means that if they have any new books coming out, you will get notified of them in the weekly e-mail, and it will be shown in your personalized calendar as well.

You can see a list of authors you currently follow in My Library under the My Authors tab, and can easily unfollow them by clicking the Unfollow button beside that author.

Yes we do. It is a personalized book calendar, which only shows authors that you actually follow and want to be notified of their books. When logged in, you can see it here.

To the left of each book by default is an empty checkbox. When you click that, it by default marks it as “read”. It also pops up the book manage screen like below:

If all you want to do is mark a book read, you can close this popup. However this also gives you the option to:

– Change the status from “Read” to “Did Not Finish”, “Want To Read”, or “Not Interested”.
– Reset the status of the book to unread by clicking “None”.
– Make any private notes about the book that are only viewable to you.
– Change the date you read the book.
– Give a rating of the book.
– Write a review of the book, which will be shown on the books page.

You can also disable this popup in your settings. What this means is that when you click on a checkbox, a checkmark will appear and the book will be marked as read. Then if you want to do anything else, you can click on the checkmarked checkbox to make the book manage popup appear.

Beside any book, click the checkbox. By default, this marks it as “read”. However it also opens up the Book Manage popup. On this, you can then change the status to “Did Not Finish”, “Want To Read” or “Not Interested”.

Click on the checkmarked checkbox beside the book which looks like this , then click the “None” status and it will reset it to unread.

You can create your own custom tags for any books on your list.

Here are a few examples of how you can use this feature:

Audiobook: Want to make a note of the books you listened to, as opposed to those you read? Use a tag like “Audiobook” or “Listened To”.

Recommended by Frank: Do you have different friends that recommend books to you? Then you can tag those books so you can keep track of your friends recommendations.

Owned: Want to note that you own a book? Tag it as owned. Or you could tag it “Borrowed” if you got it from a friend, or the library.

Physical Copy: Want to categorize books you own by whether they are a physical book or an ebook? Use tags like this to do so.

Bedroom Bookcase: Want to keep track of where books are around your house? Go for it!

The best part of all this is it is entirely up to you. You get to create the tags, and they are exclusive to you.

To tag books currently on your list, click any checkmarked checkbox beside a book, and that will bring you to the Book Manage Screen. Click the “My Tags” tab and start tagging away.

Here’s an example book I have tagged:

On this tab is a list of ALL your tags, and green tags are the tags you have assigned for that book.

So in this particular instance, I’ve indicated that I have the book on Audible , that I really enjoyed the narrator, that I listened to the book, and also that the author is from the UK.

Now what about viewing all your tags? Simply browse on over to My Books where the My Tags section is. You can filter all of your books (Both on My Books and Want To Read) by a tag, and delete tags straight from that page:

The number on a blue background beside the year a book was published is the average rating of a book, as ranked by our users. The number on a green background to the left of a book title is your own personal rating of that book.

We’ve had a few complaints from people in regard to how the calendar works on their mobile device or ipad, when they are looking to mark books read and select the date.

Unfortunately, this is functionality built into all mobile devices however we believe most people aren’t aware of how they work.

You don’t have to scroll through various years just to add that book you read back in 2004.

When you click the dropdown for “Date Read”, at the very top left it lists the current year.

Click that, and you can change the year to whatever you need. That’s a lot faster process then cycling through many years!

To the left of each book title is an icon based on what you have set for that book. Here is an explanation of what each icon means:

You have not set any status on this book.

You have marked that you have read this book.

You have marked this book as “Want To Read”. You can see a list of all books marked as this in your library.

You have marked this book as “Did Not Finish”.

You have marked this book as “Not Interested”, as in you have no interest in reading it.

Only you can see what you have set each book status as. You can change it at anytime by clicking on the icon, and choosing a different status.

You need to export your data from Goodreads first. Please note that you must use their website. The Goodreads mobile app does not support exporting. Here is the process:

1. When logged into Goodreads, click here.
2. Click on “Export Library” at the top.
3. Note: This may take some time depending on the size of your library.
4. When done, it will allow you to download a CSV file. Download that.
5. Go to your settings page and scroll down to Goodreads Import. Click the + sign beside it to expand it.
6. Choose the file on your computer, and then click “Start Import”.

If all goes well, you should receive an e-mail confirming the Goodreads Import has begun, and a second e-mail when it is complete and all books on your list are matched.

We have a video we made in Windows showing the process, using Chrome. This will differ slightly of course if you are using a different device, but the general process is the same.

If you run into any issues, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Unfortunately, at this time we do not support this. However, we do hope to be able to do so in the future, and it is on our to do list. If you are able to export your reading list from any of these websites or apps, and send it to hello@booknotification.com it would be appreciated as we can use that data when we are testing out this format of importing. Then we can personally notify you when that functionality is available.

Because each author not on the site has to be audited by a human, prior to adding. Let me quickly explain the process:

1. Claire imports her list from Goodreads. It has exactly 1,000 books on it.
2. Our system auto-matches as best as it can with the books and authors we have in the system.
3. At this point, 850 books matched perfectly. Claire’s “read” status and book rating are carried over and converted.
4. The other 150 books that were unable to be matched show up on an internal page, where we then have to “audit” the list prior to the import being complete.

This is where things get tricky. Some of the book matches are easy. The Goodreads sheet may have the book “Jack Reacher #1: Killing Floor” on it, while our system has “Killing Floor”. We click a button to tell our system that is a match, and in the future any time that book comes in it will auto match that so we don’t have to do it again.

However there are authors we don’t have, and we have to audit their entire list prior to adding them. Let’s say one of the books on Claire’s list was Cujo by Stephen King, and we didn’t have Stephen King on our site yet(perish the thought!). We have to audit Stephen Kings entire book list. Every book, every edition, every collection, every co-author and so on. Even if Claire only had that one book by Stephen King on her list, we still have to audit his ENTIRE list prior to adding.

So that’s where, unfortunately, the process can take time. Now the good thing about this is it’s future-proofing the site. The more Goodreads imports that come in, the more we work on these and adding authors, the less audits we will have to make in the future. But I just want to make you aware that depending on the size if your Goodreads import file, if you import it in 2023, the time it will take to complete it will range from a day to a couple of months.

On each author list is the “Print Options” button as shown below:

Simply click that, and you will have the option of printing it directly, or saving it as an RTF file, CSV spreadsheet or PDF. Please note at this time, you cannot print a specific series but only a full authors listing. However, you could choose the CSV or RTF option and then edit it.

On each page is a contact form. You can send the authors name there and we will add them as soon as we can. Depending on the size of the author, the turnaround time can take from a few hours to 7 days.

If you search for an author and they aren’t listed, a page will appear notifying you of this. There will also be a contact form, with the name you searched for already automatically filled in so you can simply click “Send”.

Go to your settings page. You can change the display name and change or upload a profile picture there.

You can choose any default bookstore on your settings page. Simply click the drop-down, select one and it will automatically save as your default bookstore.

This will be the first site you see linked beside a book when on desktop, so clicking the “GO” button beside a book will take you to your default bookstores website. If you select ebay as your default bookstore for example, then click “Go” beside It by Stephen King, it will take you to ebays listing of It by Stephen King, and allow you to purchase it.

This feature is even more important on mobile. Due to space limitations, there is no drop-down and instead each book link takes you to your default bookstore. We use geo-targeting and use Amazon as everyone’s default store. So if you are an American vacationing in France, and attempt to purchase a book via our links on your iPhone, it would take you to Amazon France instead of Amazon.com. By setting Amazon.com as your default bookstore, it means no matter where you are in the world, the book links will take you straight there.

Please contact us so we can update your e-mail address.

At the bottom of each authors page, the “Author Discussion” section is there. This is our name for the comments section. In this section, you can discuss whatever you want about an author. You can comment on how much you love them, what your favourite books are etc.