LiteraryLure

LiteraryLure

Help

Short how-tos, each with a link straight to the page that does it.

Getting started

  1. After you sign up you land on Bring your books in. Pick the way that is easiest. You can use more than one, and your Library shows Finish getting started until your first book is in.
  2. Snap your shelf opens Add books. Take a picture of a shelf. We read the spines and you check them.
  3. Import from Goodreads or StoryGraph brings your books, ratings, shelves and reviews. How do I get my file? shows the two steps for each site. Imported reviews stay private until you post one yourself.
  4. Import my spreadsheet takes any spreadsheet with a title and author column. Download our template to start from ours. A Your review column brings a private review in with its book.
  5. Pick authors you love shows the authors we know, most read first. Tap the ones you read, then Show me their books. Under each book tick Read, Own or Want. I read them all and I own them all tick a whole series. The button reads like Add 27 books with your own number, and Undo takes that step back until you leave the page.
  6. A book added as Own has no edition details yet. Open it and choose Which edition is this to add the format, retailer and signature.

Open Bring your books in

Add books from a shelf photo

  1. Open Add books. On the Photo tab, choose Take or choose a shelf photo.
  2. Pick a photo of a shelf, a stack, a set or a single book, then choose Create drafts. The photo gives the title, the author and the format. You add the signature and which edition it is.
  3. Under Confirm what will be saved, check each book it found. Fix a title or author if it is wrong, and choose Remove this draft on anything that is not a book.
  4. Choose the button at the top, which reads like Add 3 editions of 3 books with your own numbers. Only what you confirmed is saved, and the photo is not kept.

Open Add books

Record several editions of the same book

  1. Open the book in your Library.
  2. Under Editions you own, choose Add another edition. If you own none yet, the button says Add an edition.
  3. Add books opens with the book already chosen. Under Confirm what will be saved, set what makes this edition different. Pick which edition it is from the four tiles, Standard, Special, sold everywhere, Retailer exclusive or Subscription box, then its Retailer or box, Format, Signature and Sprayed or painted edges. Under More details, use Quantity (identical editions) only when you hold the same edition more than once.
  4. Choose Add 1 edition of 1 book. The book page now lists every edition under Editions you own, and each edition keeps its own details.
  5. To record what you paid, press an edition in that list and fill in What you paid, with shipping.
  6. Special, exclusive, tip-in, bookplate, sprayed edges. The words collectors use explains each one and where it lives on an edition.

Open your Library or read The words collectors use

Find books in your Library

  1. Open your Library. Books are in Author A to Z order. To change it, choose Sort beside the search and pick Title A to Z, Series order, Recently added or Recently changed. In List, the Title and Author headings sort the list too. Your choice is saved to your account, so it follows you to another device.
  2. Under What you have, pick Own physical, Pre-ordered, Selling or Not owned. Under Where you are, pick Not read, Reading, Read or Did not finish. Any pair works, so Own physical with Not read shows the books waiting on your shelf. Any in each row shows everything.
  3. Choose More filters for Format, Language, Signature, Edition kind, Retailer or box, Out of print and Worth a price check. Pick as many as you like in each. Language, signature, edition kind, hardcover or paperback, retailer, subscription and out of print must all be true of one edition, so French with Hand signed finds a book only when one of its editions is both.
  4. Each filter that is on shows as a chip under the controls. Press a chip to take it off. Reset filters takes them all off and keeps your sort and your search. Clear search empties the search.
  5. The line of numbers at the top counts your Library. Press one, such as 84 own, not read, to show exactly those books.
  6. In List, and at the top of a book's page, an author's name shows your books by that author, every spelling of the name included. In List, a series name shows that series. On a book's page, the series name in the series section does the same, and Open series opens the series itself.
  7. Open a book, then choose Back to Library. You return to the same search, filters, sort and place in the list.

Open your Library

Log a read, with or without a date

  1. Choose Log a read at the top of any page, or on the book itself.
  2. Under Find the book, use Say it to say it, Search to type a Title, author, or series, or ISBN or barcode to scan it or type the ISBN under Or type the ISBN. Then pick the book from the results.
  3. Under Your reading, set the status to Reading, Read or Did not finish. Add Started and Finished dates if you know them. A year or month alone is fine, and I don't remember leaves a date blank.
  4. Choose Save to your Library. Save and add another logs the next book, and Save and write a review opens Reviews with this book ready.
  5. A reread is a new reading on the same book. Log a read on the book again and choose Log a reread. The earlier readings stay as they are.

Open Log a read

Write and publish a review

  1. Choose Write a review in the Reviews menu at the top, or on the book itself. Under Choose the book, use Pick from your Library, type a title or an author, and pick the book. For a book you have not added, choose Not in your Library? Find it, type the title and author, then choose Find. A review is about the book, whichever edition you read.
  2. If names or relationships are fuzzy, use Optional Book facts and choose Look up Book facts. You can skip it.
  3. Under Start with what you remember, type or dictate What stayed with you, then choose Make my three questions.
  4. Answer three questions in your own words. You can type or dictate.
  5. Under How should it be written?, choose My review prompt and pick a Style, or choose LiteraryLure's guided draft and pick a tone and a length. Then choose Make my draft. My review prompt is turned off until you add your prompt in Settings.
  6. Read and change the draft, then choose Approve and save to your Library. It is private until you share it.
  7. To make it public, open Share, choose the review and choose Post to The Lure. Nothing is posted unless you do this.
  8. To change a post that is already on The Lure, open it in Share, change the pull quote, rating, details or images, and choose Update on The Lure. The address stays the same.
  9. To post somewhere else, open the review in Share and use Post to at the top. Pick the place. You get a title and text sized to what that place asks for, with a counter under each box. Choose Mark as posted once it is up.

Open Reviews

Make an image and link it to a book

  1. Open Images in the Reviews menu and choose Cover square, Collage or Carousel.
  2. Follow the four steps at the top of the page. Pick a book, Pick a look, Check the words, then Keep it.
  3. On Cover square and Carousel, use Pick from your Library and type a title or an author. The cover comes from your Library, so no ISBN is asked for. Use Not in your Library? Use an ISBN only for a book you have not added.
  4. Choose Build the square, Build the collage, or Make the card, which reads Make the 3 cards for a set of three.
  5. On Collage, the books of the review you came from are already listed under Books on this card, with their covers. A series review brings all its books in reading order. Use Add a book from your Library to add one, and Up, Down and Take out to change the list. Use Not in your Library? Use ISBNs. only for a book you have not added. Choosing another layout keeps your books, pictures and words, and Back to the last layout puts the last one back.
  6. In a picture slot on Collage or Carousel, or on Upload, choose Find a picture, type what to look for, pick Illustration or Photo if you want one, and choose Use this picture. The card remembers who made it, and My images shows that under the card.
  7. Choose Keep it. The alt text is already written under the button. Choose Change it to edit it now, or edit it later in My images. With no book in hand, Keep it asks Which book is this image for?
  8. After you keep an image, Post it opens Share for that book with the review and the image ready.
  9. If the card is not linked to a book yet, use Link to book, open the list that starts Choose a book in your Library, and pick the book. The card then shows on that book and is ready to share.
  10. Everything you keep is under My images, with a carousel kept together as one set.

Open Images

Post a picture or your bookcase to The Lure

  1. Post a collage, a carousel or your bookcase to The Lure. Give it a title. It is checked before it goes up, like a review.
  2. For a collage or a carousel, choose Keep it, then Post to The Lure without a review. A collage or carousel you kept earlier has the same choice in My images.
  3. Type a Title. Check What the picture shows for each picture. Untick any of the Books in this picture you want left off, then choose Post to The Lure.
  4. For your bookcase, open the Bookcase and choose Share on The Lure, beside Save a picture of this bookcase. The title starts as My bookcase, and the books facing out are listed. The picture is also kept in My images.
  5. Once it is up, Update on The Lure changes it and keeps the address. Sharing the same bookcase again offers Update on The Lure, not a second post. Remove from The Lure takes it down, and Post again puts it back.
  6. On The Lure, the Pictures and Bookcases tabs show only those posts.

Open My images

Build a series

  1. Open your Library and choose the Series tab.
  2. Under Find a series, type three letters of a series or an author. Each result says how many books it has, whether it is complete, and what you own of it. Pick one to open its page. Below it, the series you own or have read a book of are listed as the page opens, each with one line like Own 6 of 8. Read 4. Missing 2.
  3. A series name on your books that matched nothing in the catalogue is listed under Not matched yet. Choose Find it, pick the right series, and choose Put my books here.
  4. A series page opens as a book. The left page shows where you stand and the books on a shelf, each one a link to that book. The right page shows what you own of each in print, on Kindle and on Audible, the set value, and your review. With no series review it shows your review of the first book you reviewed, or offers Review a book in this series. Everything you could change is below, under Change this series. An author page opens the same way, with a shelf per series and one for standalones, and offers Review a book by this author.
  5. On a series page, a book you do not have offers Add to Library and Want to read. A book not out yet offers Pre-order tracking when the calendar has it. Know a series we are missing? Choose Share it at the foot of the Series page, list its books, and choose Share this series.
  6. To start a series by hand, open an author and choose Build a series. Tick the books that belong, name the series, and choose Save series. A series marked Order not recorded is only a name on your books. Open it and choose Build this series, which starts with your own books ticked.
  7. On a series page, choose Add a book to this series for a book that is out or on its way. Under Is it out yet? choose Out, Not out yet or Not sure, then choose Add this book.
  8. To add a book you own, choose Add one of your books to this series, pick it from your Library, give it a number and choose Add to this series.
  9. Each row in the order list has Edit for the title, number and dates, It's out now for a book that has been released, Move to send it to another series, and Remove to take it off the list. Type a number in the box or use the arrows, then choose Save order.
  10. If you are the site admin, Delete this series at the foot of a series page removes it for every reader, with no undo. The page says what goes before you choose Delete it. Only you see this.

Open Series

Log an order and move it to your shelf when it arrives

  1. Open Orders. Under Add an order, choose Screenshot or photo, Say it, Search, ISBN or barcode, or Type it in.
  2. Add the order. A screenshot of it works, and so does saying it. On Screenshot or photo and Say it, choose Find my books.
  3. Under Confirm the order, check each book, its Price and Expected in your hands, then choose Save this order.
  4. The books wait under On its way. When one arrives, choose I have it, or set its Status to Own. It becomes an edition in your Library, with its cost.

Open Orders

Sell an edition

  1. Open Selling and choose Sell a book, or open an edition in your Library and choose Sell this edition.
  2. Under Find the book, search your Library and pick the edition.
  3. Add photos and anything else worth saying. Under Save and draft the listing, choose Save. The listing is drafted and a price check runs by itself.
  4. If the edition is marked Keeping, a question comes up first. Choose Yes, sell it and save. Nothing is saved until you answer.
  5. Choose Open the listing, check the words, set the Listing price, and choose It is live once you have posted it.
  6. When it sells, choose Record the sale on the listing. Or open Sales, fill in Record a sale, and choose Record the sale.

Open Selling

Your public name and your account email

  1. Your account email is only for signing in. It is never shown to other readers.
  2. Your public name is the Display name in Settings. A review on The Lure appears under it, and you need one to post.
  3. Everything else you keep is private. There are no public shelves or profiles.
  4. Change the Display name in Settings and the name on your posted reviews follows it. A review's web address keeps the name it was first posted under.

Open Settings

Your TBR, and I'm in the mood for

  1. Open your Library and choose TBR. Your TBR is in groups, Series next-ups, Release-day reads, Up next, Owned and unread, and Rereads, and each book says where it came from.
  2. To add a book yourself, choose Add a book to your TBR, type its title and author, and choose Add to TBR.
  3. On a book, What to expect shows its genre, tropes and moods, each with where it came from. Start reading marks it reading and takes it off your TBR. Remove from TBR takes it off, and Undo puts it back.
  4. To choose what to read next, use I'm in the mood for. Choose where to draw from, such as From my TBR or Books I already own, set a Mood, Genre or Trope if you like, and choose Pick me something.

Open your TBR

Import from Goodreads or StoryGraph

  1. From Goodreads, choose My Books, then Import and export, then Export library. From StoryGraph, choose Manage account, then Export StoryGraph library. Each gives you a file ending in .csv.
  2. Open your Library and choose Import from Goodreads or StoryGraph. Under Export file (.csv), choose the file.
  3. The page lists what it found under New to your Library and Matched, with something to add, and any Rows that will not come in with the reason. Tick the books you want, then press the button that says what it will do, such as Add 12 new books and update 3 matched books.
  4. Running the same file again adds nothing twice. Afterwards, Covers and details fills in a missing cover, publisher, page count or year. An edition with an ISBN is filled by itself. A book with no ISBN shows the covers found, and you tap the right one or press Skip. Take the best match for all saves the first cover wherever the match is sure.

Open Import

The Bookcase

  1. Choose Bookcase in the menu at the top. Your books stand on the shelves as spines. Show picks Books I own or Everything in my Library, and View picks Books or Series.
  2. Tap a spine or a cover. Book details opens above the shelves on that edition, with The book on one page and You and this book on the other. Under On your shelf, Face out turns the book to show its cover on the shelf, and Bookcase says which bookcase it stands in. Back to the shelves closes it.
  3. In the Series view, each series stands together in order. Tap a book to open it. Tap the name plate under a series to open the whole series.
  4. Group by sorts the shelves My layout, By author, By retailer, By subscription box or By arrival. In My layout, choose Edit shelves and drag a book where it belongs. On a phone, press and hold first. Choose Done when you finish.
  5. Find and filter searches your shelves. Type a title and every edition found is listed, each with its edition name, its retailer and its bookcase. Choose one and the shelves open on its bookcase with the book marked. Below the search, a lever keeps only the books that answer it. Own, not read is books on your shelf waiting to be read. Read, not owned is books you read with no edition here, so it shows Everything in my Library while it is on. Own and read is both. Everything brings every book back, and the tip beside each lever says what it counts. Pick me something opens I'm in the mood for on your TBR.
  6. Wood finish changes the colour of the case. With more than one bookcase, use Previous, Next or Go to a bookcase. A bookcase holds four shelves, filled at the width of your screen, so a wide screen puts more books in each bookcase than a phone does. Save a picture of this bookcase saves the bookcase on screen to your device, covers and decorations as they stand.
  7. To send a book to another bookcase, open it and choose a bookcase in Bookcase. It moves to the end of that bookcase and you can Undo. If the bookcase is full, the book that no longer fits moves on to the next one, and the note names it. In Edit shelves, Move to does the same for the book you chose. In Select books, tick books and choose Move selected to. Both need Books I own in Show.
  8. Edit shelves in a list shows the editions on the shelves as a table. It opens on This bookcase only. Show every bookcase lists them all, and your choice is remembered in this browser. Change a book's Bookcase or tick Face out and it saves at once, and the shelves below show where it landed. Find narrows the list by title, author or series. Tap a cover in the list to find or upload one for that edition. Close the list when you finish.
  9. To give a book a cover from the Bookcase, open it and choose Find a cover under the edition, or in Edit shelves tap the book and choose Find a cover. Upload my cover, Look up by ISBN, Find by title and author, or Search with other words such as the title in its own language.
  10. In Edit shelves, Add a decoration puts a plant, a vase or another drawing on the shelf. It goes after the book you chose, or at the start of the bookcase on screen. Drag it like a book. Choose it, then Remove decoration, to take it off. Start the next shelf after this book ends a shelf early. When a book comes back from the next bookcase, the note names it.
  11. Totals for counts All bookcases, This bookcase, One shelf or a Selection, with what those editions are worth. For a Selection, choose Select books, then tap the books to count. With a lever or a search on, the heading reads Your whole collection, since the totals still count everything.

Open the Bookcase

Stats and Year in review

  1. Open the Bookcase and choose Stats. The line at the top is this year's readings, with your goal if you set one. With no goal, Set a yearly goal opens Settings.
  2. Choose a year. A reading is each time you finished a book, so a reread counts again, and books read counts each book once. By month, By genre and Format you own them in show the same year. Format you own them in counts the format you own each book in, a physical edition first, then Kindle, then Audible, not the format you read it in.
  3. A reading with no date has no year, so no year counts it. When that happens, Add dates on each book's page opens the books you read.
  4. Choose the button that reads See 2026 in review, with the year you picked. Year in review shows My 2026 in books, and when there is something to show, Favorite quotes, Top genres, Series finished and Editions added. When reads have no finish date, it says how many, and Add the dates opens the books you read.
  5. Under Share it, choose Save as a picture. The picture never includes prices, values, orders or anything from Selling.

Open Stats

Maybes

  1. Open your Library and choose Maybes. A Maybe is a book you have not decided on yet, kept apart from your TBR.
  2. For a cover you saw in a post or a store, choose Choose a screenshot under A cover screenshot. The screenshot is read and not kept.
  3. For a friend's recommendation, an email or a calendar find, pick Where it came from. Under Type or say it, type or dictate what you were told, then choose Find this book. Or fill it in yourself lets you type the book in instead.
  4. Under Check before adding, fix the title or author if either is wrong, then choose Add. Skip leaves that one out.
  5. Under Waiting for a decision, read the description, then choose Add to TBR or Decline. A declined book moves to Reviewed for TBR and declined, so it is not offered again. Look again puts it back under Waiting for a decision.

Open Maybes

Your wishlist

  1. Open Wishlist in the Buying menu at the top. It holds the editions you are hunting, apart from your TBR, which is about reading.
  2. Under Hunt an edition, type the title and author, and the Seller, Edition, Signed and Features you want when they matter. Then choose Add to wishlist. When your wishlist already has books, choose Hunt another edition first.
  3. On the Release calendar, an edition's own page has Hunt this edition, which puts that edition on your wishlist.
  4. Each wish shows Before you buy, with what you already have, and On the release calendar, with its dates.
  5. When you buy it, choose I ordered it. That starts an order in Orders with this edition on it, where you add the price and the release date.
  6. Stop hunting moves a wish to Ordered, owned or no longer hunted. Mark as owned does the same when you already have the edition, and its ghost leaves your Bookcase. Hunt again brings it back, and Delete removes a stopped wish for good. Undo puts a deleted wish back.

Open your wishlist

The Release calendar

  1. Open Release calendar in the Buying menu at the top. All releases shows presales, public sales, deadlines, publication days and shipping windows, in your own time zone.
  2. Type in Search, or narrow it by Author, Series, Seller, Genre, Signature or Stage, then choose Show. The tip beside Stage says what each stage means. Clear filters shows everything again.
  3. On a release, choose I'm interested to put it on My calendar. Then tick Add to TBR at release, and the book waits on your TBR under Release-day reads. To take it off, choose Interested ✓, and Undo puts it back.
  4. Remind me offers a Calendar file to download, or opens Google Calendar. Nothing is saved here.
  5. To add a release that is missing, choose Submit an event. Fill in the Source link, the title, the author and the Date, then choose Check and submit. The source page is read first, and nothing posts if it does not state the event.
  6. Or use Start from a screenshot at the top of that page. Choose, drop or paste a post, a newsletter or an email. One row appears for each stage it names, with every field for you to check. Tick the rows you want and choose Submit these. With no public page found, the rows go on your own calendar only. After a row posts, Add to my calendar and Remind me are right there.
  7. A sale that opens in waves shows every wave in your own time, earliest first. Say where you are under Where you are in Settings, and your wave is marked.

Open the Release calendar

Subscriptions

  1. Open Subscriptions in the Buying menu at the top. A subscription is a monthly plan, such as a box every month, or one special-edition preorder placed with a subscription company.
  2. Choose Add a subscription. Type the Service and Plan, and the Cadence and Typical amount if you know them. Pick its Status, then choose Save subscription.
  3. Status is Waitlisted, Active, Paused or Cancelled. Change it on the card when that changes.
  4. Choose Boxes, books and share sold to open one. Under Boxes, type the New box, its Charged on date, its Fee and the Books in box, then choose Add box.
  5. To put a book in a box, open the book in your Library, open its edition, and pick the box under Subscription box. When What you paid, with shipping is blank, the box's price per book fills it in.
  6. Books received, Kept, Sold and Share sold count the books from its boxes, and the tip beside Share sold says how it is worked out. Show these books in your Library lists them.

Open Subscriptions

Price checks

  1. Open Selling in the menu at the top and choose Price checks. It lists every live listing that has not sold, longest listed first. Our price suggestion, at the top, says how each suggestion is made.
  2. On a listing, type the Views and Likes the marketplace shows, or choose Read a screenshot of them. The screenshot is read for the numbers and not kept. Then choose Save views and likes.
  3. The card then says what we suggest and why, such as one cut, a small drop, or leaving the price as it is. A button such as Cut to $44 changes the price here. Change it on the marketplace too.
  4. A deep cut shows Ask for approval at its new price instead. Once you have thought it over, choose Approve the cut or Decline.
  5. Each listing's own page has a Price check, which looks for what others ask for this same edition. Check again runs it once more. Under These need your eyes, open each site, find this edition, type the price you see, and choose Add.
  6. On a book's Value, the author line says their popularity. Choose See why to read how popularity counts, why this author scores what they do with the sources, and what the method weighs. Hide closes it.

Open Price checks

Anything else can go to the contact page.