Guide
How the testing team fills in missing book details, and how the monthly prize is decided.
Published 2026-09-03 · Reviewed 2026-10-12
The Tester Hub is one page: what is waiting on you, this build's checks, the monthly race, the book cart, your bugs, badges and the team. The book cart is the Data Desk, where books that are missing information get fixed. Pick a cover there, or open Browse all books for the full queue and its filters.
Take a book
The queue holds three kinds of book: submissions waiting for a moderator, submissions that were parked, and catalogue books with a gap. Newest releases come first, and the six small squares on a row show which fields are still empty, so you can pick a quick win or a full rebuild.
The squares track the six fields the queue is built from; the record itself asks for all eleven. Opening a row takes the book. It is yours for 48 hours and nobody else sees it in the meantime. You may hold five books at once; release one at any time, and an untouched claim frees itself.
Fill it in, then answer each field
There are eleven fields: description, cover, publication date, ISBN, ASIN, series, pages, trigger warnings, shop links, genres and tropes. Publishing type is not one of them: it is each reader's own note on their copy, not part of the catalogue. Every field still waiting for you is a card under Needs you.
- An empty field shows the two or three places that value is usually found, for example Publisher site, Goodreads and Amazon for the description. Each opens a search for the book in a new window. Copy what you find into the box.
- 1 Looks right is offered when the box still holds the value the book came with: you checked it and it is correct, so there is nothing to retype.
- 1 Save takes its place once you have typed or changed the value.
- 3 Not found means you searched and it does not exist online. Some fields word this differently, because "not found" is not always what it means: the series field says Standalone (the book belongs to no series), trigger warnings say None, shop links say None found, and genres and tropes say None apply.
The Research column on the left (a Research button on tablets and phones) opens the six places testers look: Google, Goodreads, Amazon, StoryGraph, Kobo and the publisher site, with a tip for the field you are on.
Not out yet, in the card's ⋯ menu, means the book is not out yet, or the information has not been published.
An answered field moves to Looks fine, with its answer beside it. Click it there to change your answer. On a computer, 1 saves the highlighted card (or opens its first search while it is empty), 3 answers Not found, J and K move between cards, Enter in a box saves it, and ⌘ or Ctrl + Enter submits.
The description must be the publisher's or the retailer's blurb, never your own words. It is also the field that does the most work for you: once you have pasted a real blurb and left the field, the desk reads it and suggests genres, tropes and trigger warnings. Suggested fields are marked "Suggested from the description, please check" and stay unanswered until you pick an answer yourself, so nothing is ever filed in your name that you have not looked at.
Genres and tropes are chosen from our lists rather than typed. If a name is not on the list it is skipped, and the desk tells you how many were skipped after you save. Shop links take Goodreads, Amazon, Kobo and Bookshop.org; one of them is enough to answer Verified. Pages is a whole number.
A filled card keeps a small Search: line, so you can still check a value the book came with. The card's ⋯ menu lists every search: Google, Goodreads, Amazon, StoryGraph, Kobo and a publisher search for the book you are on.
Submit, and what happens next
Submit for approval unlocks once every required field carries an answer. "Not available yet" is an answer; an empty field is not. Catalogue books ask for ten answers rather than eleven, because an ASIN is optional there. A moderator then approves the book, and an approved book is worth one point.
If something needs another look, the book comes back with a note at the top of the record and a Returned pill. Fix what the note asks for and submit again.
After 50 books approved with nothing changed, you become a trusted tester and your work publishes on its own. One returned or rejected book pauses that until the next 50.
The monthly giveaway
From October 2026 the giveaway runs monthly: one point per valid bug and one point per approved book. The Hub card shows your bugs, your books, your points and the top three. Books approved in September already count toward October, so nobody loses points for starting early. The bug hunting contest closes with its last quarter on 30 September.
Owner and moderator accounts may use the Data Desk, but their books earn no points and never appear on the leaderboard.