When I add a book to my library, why does LT show a blank book cover instead of the existing covers?

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When I add a book to my library, why does LT show a blank book cover instead of the existing covers?

1Tenome
Dec 22, 2022, 10:32 pm

I added this book via ISBN. It has a cover, and said cover shows up when I search for it. When I check "Your Books," though, it shows the blank cover. Why? Is there a setting somewhere to just default to Amazon/member covers?
https://www.librarything.com/work/5514234

2lilithcat
Dec 22, 2022, 10:45 pm

On this page: https://www.librarything.com/settings/covers you can choose to show Amazon and/or member-contributed covers.

3Tenome
Dec 22, 2022, 11:55 pm

>2 lilithcat: I have those options enabled already, but it still shows me blank covers when I check Your Books.

4MarthaJeanne
Edited: Dec 23, 2022, 3:27 am

There aren't enough people using the covers for the computer to have assigned them as the preferred covers for an ISBN.

You can change the cover for your book.

5MaccHistorian
Sep 20, 10:41 am

>4 MarthaJeanne: "You can change the cover for your book" - but how? The only way I can find to change the cover is to upload my own photo, which surely means that there will never be enough people using the cover image LT finds to have it assigned as the preferred cover. Am I missing something here? Thanks to anyone who can help with this.

6MarthaJeanne
Sep 20, 11:12 am

>5 MaccHistorian: On the left of the work page is a link to Change Cover.

7Foretopman
Sep 20, 11:34 am

>6 MarthaJeanne: Also, if you have covers set as a column in the "Your books" view of your catalog, you can click on the cover image and get a link to Change Cover.

8MaccHistorian
Sep 20, 6:41 pm

Yes I knew how to change the cover, what I meant was how do I change it to the one that is already available somewhere on the system? Anyway I think I've worked out a clunky way of doing it - search for the book on Amazon, right-click on the photo and copy the link, then paste the link into the "grab photo from url" field.

9lilithcat
Sep 20, 6:50 pm

>8 MaccHistorian:

Don't do that. If Amazon changes the cover on their website, yours will change, too,

Instead, if the photo is already on LT, copy that link and paste it into the "grab one from the web" field. Or, if it's a member-uploaded cover, just click on the "choose this cover" link.

102wonderY
Sep 20, 7:24 pm

Actually, once you use the Amazon image as >8 MaccHistorian: describes, it does become a member uploaded cover and is stable. That’s generally how I manage if there is not a member uploaded cover already.

11lilithcat
Sep 20, 7:38 pm

>10 2wonderY:

I know that's true if you copy the link from the Amazon cover here on LT; I don't know if copying it directly from the Amazon site has the same result.

In any case, if the photo is on LT, as >8 MaccHistorian: describes, there's no reason to go off-site!

12SandraArdnas
Sep 21, 12:58 am

>8 MaccHistorian: There's also a module Recent Member Uploaded Covers, I believe by default located in Home>About You, but you can move it to your home page. It enables you to apply covers hosted on LT with a single click. It has a setting 'my ISBN only' if you get too many covers not for your particular edition, which is the case with classics with countless editions and translations, but if you don't have those just use it as is.

13PawsforThought
Sep 21, 1:11 am

>11 lilithcat: It absolutely has the same result, I’ve been doing it for years and Amazon has switched the covers several times since this but my covers are stable. The images are uploaded to LT when you paste the link).