Frequently Asked Questions

Choose Create Account at the top of any page and pick whether you're joining as a customer (to buy books, and sell a few of your own) or a book seller (a bookshop or business). Enter your name, email, phone number, city and a password, type the characters from the picture, and you're in. If a BooksShore sales agent introduced you, enter their User ID in the Sales Agent User ID box; otherwise leave it blank.

Choose Customer if you mainly buy books. Customers can still list their own books for sale. Choose Book seller if you're a bookshop or business selling regularly. Both can buy and sell; the difference is how BooksShore sets you up (for example, monthly sales limits can differ). If you picked the wrong one, contact Help & Support.

Every account has a number, your User ID, shown at the top of your account menu ("Signed in as … · User ID 1234"). Quote it when you contact support. Sales agents share theirs with the people they refer.

To change your password, open your account menu and choose Change Password. Your email address is also your sign-in name, so to change it, ask through Help & Support and our team will update it for you.

Choose Forgot password? on the sign-in page, enter the email you registered with and type the characters from the picture. We email you a link to choose a new password (if email is unavailable, our team sends it). The link only works for a limited time, so use it soon; if it has run out, simply ask again.

My Profile in your account menu holds your name, phone number, gender and age group, and your delivery address. Your gender and age group are only used, without your name, to break down poll results by gender and age; you're asked for them the first time you vote in a poll if they aren't filled in.

Go to Delivery Address in your account menu. It's filled in for you at checkout, and you can still change it for any order.

Your notifications: new orders for your books, updates to your own orders, replies to your support requests, decisions on blog posts you've written and, for sales agents and referred members, delegation news. The number shows how many are new; opening the page they link to marks them as seen.

Open Help & Support, choose New Request and pick a topic (a book order, payment, subscription, your listings, your account, or a problem). You can link it to one of your orders. Our team replies there and you'll see the reply in your notifications.

Yes, when you see Continue with Google or Continue with Facebook on Sign In or Create Account. If that account's email is the one you registered with, you're signed straight in and the two are linked from then on. If you're new, your account is made straight away, with nothing to fill in; add your city, phone and other details whenever you like in My Profile. Members who joined this way can also set a password in Change Password, to sign in with their email and password too. Deleting your data explains how to remove your account or disconnect Google or Facebook.

The Help Buddy button at the bottom of every page answers questions about using BooksShore, such as how to sell a book, cancel an order or start a game. It answers from these help pages and links you to the right place. It can't see your account, orders or payments, so for anything about your own account, ask Help & Support.

Yes. Open Alerts on My Devices in your account menu and choose Turn on alerts here on each phone or computer you use: new orders, order updates, support replies, book alerts, price drops and buddy messages then arrive like messages from an app. To install BooksShore, choose Install the BooksShore app at the bottom of any page (or your browser's Install or Add to Home Screen). On iPhone, add it to your Home Screen first, then turn alerts on from the app.

Everything on BooksShore that matches your words: books, authors and categories, blog posts, Spiritual Reads, verses and quotes, polls, textbook exchange posts, greeting card occasions and the site's own features, such as Play Hub or Reading DNA. Results are grouped, so you can jump to the kind you want. To search only the books, use the Catalog or the search on the home page.

Use the search box at the top of every page, or open the Catalog. The catalog searches titles, authors and publishers, and has a separate box to find a seller by name. You can filter by category and language (tick several of each), new or used, who sells it (BooksShore, members or premium sellers), and show only books on sale, featured books or BooksShore picks. Browse by subject or writer from All Categories and All Authors in the menu.

Yes, with a book alert. When a search finds nothing, or a book is sold out, choose Alert me. When someone lists a book that matches, it appears in your notifications (the bell) and in My Book Alerts, where you can add alerts for titles, authors or subjects and delete them. You can have up to 20 alerts. Alerts need a free account.

New books are unread and in their original condition. Used books have been owned or read before, and the seller grades their condition: Like New, Good, Fair or Worn. The grade is shown on the book's tile and page, with any notes from the seller in the description.

Choose Add to Cart on a book's page, then open your cart and choose Checkout. Choose how to pay for each order, from Cash Payment (on delivery, or when you collect your books with Self Pickup), whichever the seller accepts, and give your delivery address unless you are picking the books up yourself. If your cart has books from different sellers, you'll get one order per seller, because each seller sends their own books.

Sale and clearance prices are applied automatically; the book already shows its discounted price. A bundle is a set of books for a special total price: put one of each of its books in your cart (or use Add Bundle to Cart) and the bundle price is taken off in your cart. See every running offer on the Deals page; each offer has its own page listing its books.

You haven't been charged. If you cancelled or the card was declined, the order is cancelled and its books go back into your cart so you can try again. If an order still shows Awaiting payment, use Pay Now on it in My Orders.

Open My Orders and choose Track Order. An order moves from Placed to In Progress (the seller is preparing it) to Delivered. You'll get a notification each time it changes.

Yes, while it's still Placed: open it in My Orders, choose Cancel and give a reason. Once the seller has started preparing it, contact the seller or Help & Support instead.

Common reasons: it's your own listing; it has just sold out; the seller has reached their monthly sales limit (their books can be ordered again from the 1st of next month); or ordering is paused on the site for a while. The book's page tells you which.

Yes. Sign in and open the book's page to give it 1–5 stars and an optional review; you can change or remove it later. Reviews from people who bought the book on BooksShore show a Verified buyer badge.

Some sellers offer a book as a digital PDF instead of (or as well as) printed copies; the book's page and tile say PDF. There's nothing to deliver: once you've paid, you download the file and can read it on your phone, tablet or computer. A PDF never sells out.

Choose Buy PDF – Add to Cart on the book's page and check out as usual. Each seller's PDF books become an order of their own, separate from any printed books, and are always paid by Online Payment. As soon as the payment goes through, the PDF is in My Library, ready to download.

In My Library, at the top of your account menu. It lists every PDF you've bought, newest first, and the free ones you've downloaded. You can download a book you bought again whenever you like, even if the seller later takes the listing down.

Some PDF books are free, and sellers sometimes run a Free to Download offer that makes a priced PDF free for a few days. Sign in and choose Download on the book's page; there's no checkout. A Free to Download offer only lasts while it runs, so download the book while it's free; afterwards it goes back to its normal price. You'll find running offers on the Deals page.

Yes. On a book's page choose Tell me when the price drops. Open Set my price first if you only want to hear once it costs a certain amount or less. When the price falls, sales included, it shows in your notifications, in My Price Alerts, and on your phone if you've turned on alerts on your devices. You can watch up to 50 books and stop watching any time.

Yes, when its page has a Look inside button under the cover. It opens the first pages of the book in a reader on the page, free and without an account. A preview is never more than a fifth of the book, and some sellers switch it off for their books.

Yes, try Find me a book. Describe what you'd like in your own words, in English, Urdu or Roman Urdu: a mood, a subject, a story, a price ("a short Urdu novel about village life under Rs 800"). You'll get books on sale now that fit, and when AI is on, a line on why each one suits you. Book pages and the home page also suggest books like the ones you've bought, rated or looked at.

In some countries BooksShore members can give books away but not sell them for now. If your account's country is one of them, Sell a Book and Bulk Upload only accept free books (printed or PDF), and any priced listings you already have can't be ordered until you mark them free. Readers can still find and download or collect your free books.

Choose Sell a Book, fill in the title, author, publisher, category, language, whether it's new or used (and its condition), your price (or mark it free) and how many copies you have, and add a cover picture if you can. The ISBN is optional: leave it blank if your book doesn't have one. Add tags (words like o level, past papers, separated by commas) to help people find it; each tag on the book page links to other books with the same tag. Your listing is checked by BooksShore before it goes live; you'll find it in My Listings with its approval status.

Yes. On Sell a Book, choose the digital (PDF) format and upload the file, up to 25 MB. There's no quantity to set, because a PDF never runs out; make the listing Inactive to stop selling it. BooksShore checks the PDF before the listing goes live. Buyers pay online and download it from their library, and My Listings shows how many times it has been downloaded. Only sell PDFs you own the rights to. Once someone has bought it, the listing must stay a PDF and can't be deleted, so its buyers keep their copy.

Yes. On Bulk Upload, download the Excel template, fill in one book per row (the dropdowns show our categories, languages and conditions), and upload it. Up to 500 books and 5 MB per file. If any row has a problem, nothing is listed and you'll see exactly what to fix on which row.

Depending on your account type, you may need an active subscription to add new listings; My Subscription shows whether yours does. For some accounts, listings are also hidden from the shop while the subscription has run out, and come back as soon as you renew. Every new member gets a 30-day free subscription when they register, so you can start listing straight away. Buy or renew a package on My Subscription; renewing early adds the new days after your current period, so you never lose paid days. When a subscription runs out you can't add new listings until you renew.

The reason is shown next to it in My Listings. Choose Edit & Resubmit from its actions menu, fix it and send it again for approval.

Yes. In My Listings, choose Edit Listing from its actions menu to change anything: title, ISBN, description, tags, format and PDF, price, quantity, cover, author, publisher, category or language. The changes go to BooksShore for approval, and the book is hidden from the shop until they're approved. To change only the price or quantity, use Edit Price & Qty instead: that's instant and needs no approval.

In My Listings, open the listing's actions menu and choose Edit Price & Qty. Changes apply straight away and don't need approval. Setting the quantity to 0 marks the listing Sold; adding copies puts it back on sale. You can also switch a listing between Active, Inactive (hidden) and Sold, or several at once with the tick boxes.

Upload a JPG, PNG, GIF or WEBP image up to 50 KB, or give a link to a picture online. Without one, shoppers see an illustrated cover made from the title, tagged Not actual picture, until you add a real photo.

Open Orders for My Books. Mark an order In Progress when you start preparing it and Delivered once the buyer has it (collecting the cash for Cash Payment orders, on delivery or when the buyer picks them up; Online Payment orders are already paid). Online orders still awaiting payment can't be started. Choose which payment options you accept in Payment Options. If you must cancel, give a reason; the buyer is notified and the copies go back into your stock.

BooksShore can set a monthly sales limit: the most books you may sell in a calendar month. My Listings shows how much of it you've used. When you reach it, your listings stay visible but can't be ordered until the 1st of next month (UTC). Contact Help & Support if you need a higher limit.

My Listings shows the reason: your subscription has run out, adding books has been turned off for your account, or new listings are paused on the whole site for a while. Your existing listings and orders keep working in every case.

Yes. On Sell a Book choose Scan barcode next to the ISBN and point your phone's camera at the barcode on the back cover (the one starting 978 or 979), or type the ISBN and choose Fill in from ISBN. The title, author, publisher, language, description and cover are filled in from the book databases for you to check; you just add the price, the number of copies and the condition.

Open the Seller Dashboard from My Listings or your account menu. It shows your sales and earnings by month, how many times your book pages were viewed, your best books, how many readers are watching your prices, what readers are looking for, and tips for listings that aren't getting attention.

A premium membership lets you feature your listings: featured books are shown first in the catalog and on the home page with a ★ Featured badge, and shoppers can filter for premium sellers. Buy a package on My Premium; each gives a number of days and how many books you can feature at a time.

In My Listings, choose Feature Listing from a book's actions menu and pick its dates, or tick several books and use Feature Selected. Dates must fall within your premium membership, and on any day you can't have more books featured than your package allows. Filter My Listings by Featuring to see what's featured now or scheduled.

Yes, from My Promotions: a sale or clearance takes a percentage off chosen books for the dates you set, and a bundle sells a set of your books together for a fixed price or a percentage off, and Free to Download makes chosen PDF books free for the dates you set. Running offers appear on the Deals page and the discount is applied automatically at checkout.

The Blog is where we and our members write about books: reviews, reading lists, author stories, study tips and book news. Posts by our team show BooksShore as the writer; posts by members show the member's name. Anyone can read it, without an account.

Open Blog in the menu at the top of any page to jump to a topic or a writer, or open the blog and search titles, summaries and tags. Every post has a category, and you can also browse by tag, for example classics or exam prep. Featured posts lead the blog page, and the newest posts also appear on the home page.

Yes. Sign in, open the post and give it 1–5 stars with an optional comment (up to 1,000 characters). You leave one rating per post and can change or remove it later; you can't rate your own posts. Comments that break the rules may be removed by our team.

Yes. Choose Write a post from the Blog menu, or open My Blog Posts in your account menu. Give your post a title, a short summary (or leave it blank and we'll use the start of the article), the article itself with headings, links and pictures, a category, tags and an optional cover picture. Save it as a draft to finish later, or send it for approval when it's ready.

Our team reads it before it goes on the blog. Once it's approved, it's published under your name. If it isn't approved, My Blog Posts shows the reason, so you can change it and send it again. You'll get a notification either way. If you edit a post that's already published, it goes back for approval and the changes appear once they're approved.

Paste or upload JPG, PNG, GIF or WEBP pictures into the article, or give a link to one online. A cover picture can be up to 1 MB. Only use pictures you own or have permission to share.

Yes. Open My Blog Posts and choose Delete. The post is removed from the blog with its ratings and comments, and this can't be undone.

Yes. Open any post and choose Night mode at the top; the page switches to light text on a dark background, which is easier on the eyes at night. Choose Light mode to switch back. Your choice is remembered on this device, for the blog and Spiritual Reads. Long pages also have a round back to top button at the bottom right once you scroll down.

Open Play Hub in the menu. Guess It! and Bluff are live games you play together in real time, each from your own phone or computer: perfect for family in different cities. Word Hunt and Quick Quiz on Word Hunt & Quick Quiz are quick solo games for when nobody else is around. All of them are free.

Each round shows an emoji clue and four possible answers; a new hint appears as the timer runs down. Pick the right answer as fast as you can: a right answer scores up to 1,000 points, more the faster you are, plus a bonus for a streak of right answers. There are 11 categories, from Pakistani dramas, Bollywood, cricket and world leaders to animals and riddles for the kids, or a mix of everything.

Sign in, open Play Hub, pick Guess It! or Bluff and choose its settings (for Guess It!, the category, 5, 10 or 15 rounds, and 15, 20 or 30 seconds per question). You get a 6-letter code and a link: send it on WhatsApp, and everyone who opens it joins your room. When everyone's in, the host starts the game. Guess It! takes 2 to 10 players and Bluff 2 to 6.

Open the link they sent, or go to Play Hub and enter the 6-letter code from the host's screen; the same box works for Guess It! and Bluff. You need a free BooksShore account to play: if you're new, sign up from the invite and you'll go straight into the game.

Bluff is the card game also called Cheat or "I doubt it". All 52 cards are dealt out. On your turn, put 1 to 4 cards face down and say they're all of the round's rank, or pass. Anyone can call Bluff! on the last cards played: if they weren't all that rank, the bluffer picks up the whole pile; if they were, the caller does. The first player to get rid of all their cards without being caught wins. Turns are timed, so a game never gets stuck.

Yes. Every game you finish while signed in is saved to your account with your score and wins, and the Games page shows a weekly leaderboard of the top players. Word Hunt and Quick Quiz keep your best scores too.

Once a question's answer is shown, or at the end of the game, use 🚩 Report a wrong question on it. A question that several players report is taken out of the games until our team has checked it.

Solo games of five puzzles each, open to everyone, even without an account. In Word Hunt you find a hidden title or name one letter at a time (the first letter of each word is given, and you have 6 lives). In Quick Quiz you read an emoji clue and pick one of four answers within 20 seconds. When you finish, you can send friends a challenge link to play the same puzzles and try to beat your score.

When it's switched on, an AI service writes fresh questions while you play, so you rarely see the same one twice; the good ones are kept for later games. Everything still works without it, using BooksShore's own collection of questions.

A one-minute, just-for-fun quiz on Reading DNA. Answer a few light questions and you get your reader personality, the kinds of books you'd love and titles from our shelves to try, on a card you can download and share on WhatsApp or Instagram. It's free; signing up saves your result to your account (find it later under My Activity).

Share your Reading DNA card's link. Every friend who takes the quiz from it is matched with you: you both see your match score, the genres you share, your reading styles side by side and a book swap with a pick for each of you. The full match is for members, so your friend reveals the score with a free sign-up. Only the two of you can see your match.

A group for your family, class, book club or office. Start a group, give it a name and share its link. Everyone who takes the quiz from the link joins, and the group page shows your mix of reader types and the group's reading DNA. Members of the group who are signed in also see who's who, the group's harmony score, the two closest readers and the odd one out. A group can have up to 60 readers; whoever made it can delete it, and anyone can leave.

Greetings Studio in the menu opens Card Studio, where you design free greeting cards for Eid, Ramadan, Jummah, birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, a new baby, graduation, Independence Day, get well soon, thank you and more, or just because you miss someone. Pick the occasion and a design, add names, a message (or use one of ours) and a photo if you like, then download it or share it. Designing needs a free account.

Yes. Save your card and you get a link that shows the card when you send it on WhatsApp, and lets the person download it. Your saved cards are on My cards, where you can share or delete them. A photo you add stays on your device; only the finished card is saved, and only if you save it.

Every day Poetry of the Day shows a sher from the masters of Urdu poetry, such as Ghalib, Iqbal and Mir, with its Roman Urdu and English meaning, and a verse from English literature. Share it on WhatsApp, copy its link, or save it as a picture for your status. Earlier days are on the same page. It's open to everyone, without an account.

A place to pass on the textbooks you've finished with and find the ones you need, from students and parents in your city: Textbook Exchange. Post a book you have (free, to swap, or for sale) or one you need. When someone in your city posts a book you need, you're told in your notifications. To get in touch, choose Message on a post: your message goes only to the poster, who is told straight away and replies on the post's page, with no buddy request needed. If you'd both like to chat live, either of you can send a buddy request from there; once it's accepted, chat from the 💬 button. WhatsApp works too if the poster chose to show their number. Your conversations are in My Exchange Posts. Posts stay up for 120 days, or until you mark them done in My Exchange Posts. Anyone can browse; posting and contacting need a free account. Please meet in a public place.

Buddies are members you've agreed to chat with. Send someone a buddy request; once they accept, you can chat with them in Chat or the chat window at the bottom of any page. You see when buddies are online, when they're typing and when they've read your message. Only buddies you've accepted can message you.

Use Find Buddies to search for members by name. Only members who chose Let other members find me by name in Chat Settings appear there; it's off unless you switch it on. If someone can't be found, ask them for their buddy link: anyone who opens it can send them a request. You can make a new link at any time, which stops the old one.

Yes. Remove a buddy to end the buddyship and delete your conversation for both of you, or Block them so they can't send you requests or messages until you unblock them. You can also decline any request; the other person isn't told. To stop chat completely, switch it off in Chat Settings: nobody can send you requests or messages and you don't show as online, and your buddies and conversations are kept for when you switch it back on.

Group chats. Start a room on Chat and share its code, just like a Guess It! game, or invite buddies straight in. You choose who can join: only your buddies, or anyone with the code. As the host you can remove people, change who can join and end the room. Rooms open in the chat window, so you can keep chatting while you play or browse, and they close when the host ends them, after everyone has gone for a while, or after a day.

Open Polls to see the polls open for voting, coming up and closed. Choose an answer, give your gender and age group (used only to break down the results, never with your name) and vote. Each person votes once per poll; some polls are for members only. Depending on the poll, results show straight away, after you vote, or once it closes, and you can filter them by gender and age and download a results card to share.

Yes, when member polls are switched on: choose Create a Poll in your account menu. Write your question and 2 to 8 answers, add a picture if you like, and choose how long voting runs (1, 3, 7, 14 or 30 days), who can vote and when the results show. Our team checks it, usually within a day, before it goes live with your name on it; voting opens when it's approved. If it isn't approved, My Polls shows why, so you can change it and send it again. You can have up to 1 polls waiting or running at once.

A new inspiring quote every day on Quote of the Day and the home page. Sign in to react to it (❤️ Love it, ✨ Inspiring, 🤔 Makes me think, 👏 So true or 😊 Made me smile), tell other readers what it means to you in the comments, or share it on WhatsApp. Earlier days' quotes are there too. Comments that several members report are hidden until our team checks them.

Spiritual Reads shares ayahs of the Quran with their Arabic text, English and Urdu translations, tafsir from well-known scholars (such as Ibn Kathir) and a reflection with lessons for everyday life, plus hadith, duas and short articles. A new Today's Reflection appears on the home page every day. It's free and open to everyone, without an account.

Open a read and use the Both / English / اردو switch at the top; your choice is remembered for the next read. Quran reads also have Listen to the recitation, which plays each ayah recited by Mishary Alafasy. You can search reads in English or Urdu, and share any read with the buttons at the bottom.

The community map shows where BooksShore's readers and members are around the world, with the top countries and what's new on the site. Members are placed by the city on their profile, and readers by where their internet connection is; no address is ever kept. Nobody is shown on their own: a city only gets its own light once 3 or more people are there, and smaller places are counted under their country. Want your city on it? Add it in Delivery Address.

My Morning Shore is a short morning edition picked for you: about five minutes of tips, explainers, insights, "did you know?" facts and new ways to see things, on the interests you choose (careers, around the world, books, education, technology, society, personal growth, entertainment and more). Each card ends with one thing to try today, and some suggest a book that goes with it. The edition also has today's quote and a book for your day. It's free for every member; visitors see a sample of today's cards.

Up to 5 cards that fit in about five minutes, mixed across your interests and kinds of card. You never get a card you've already had. Your edition is put together the first time you open it that day and stays the same until tomorrow (by your own time zone). If nothing new is ready for your interests yet, check back a little later or add more interests.

Open Interests & alerts from the bottom of your edition (or ⚙️ Interests at the top). Tick 1 to 5 interests, change the time of your morning alert or switch it off, and save. The changes apply from your next edition. Your edition is ready from midnight, and your time zone is taken from your device, so it follows your own day.

They teach your Morning Shore what you enjoy. Use the 👍 and 👎 buttons under a card: More like this shows you more cards from that interest, and Less like this fewer. Saving a card counts as liking it too. Your chosen interests always stay in the mix. Tap the same button again to take it back.

Choose 🔖 Save on any card in your edition. Saved cards are kept in My Magazine, where you can filter them by interest and open them whenever you like. Choose Saved again to take a card out.

At the end of your edition, tick the interests you'd like tomorrow and choose Set tomorrow. It changes only tomorrow's edition, so you can have a lighter or a more focused day. Tick Keep this mix from now on to make it your interests for every day.

Reach the end of your edition and it counts as read for the day. Read it on mornings in a row and the 🔥 streak at the top grows; miss a day and it starts again.

Yes. In Interests & alerts, keep Send me a push alert when it's ready ticked and choose the time it should come. It comes to every phone or computer where you've turned on Alerts on My Devices. You get one a day at most, and none once you've already opened your edition.

The BooksShore team, with help from AI that writes fresh cards for each interest every day. Our team checks them and removes any that aren't right. Cards that mention a source link to it, so you can read more.

Waves is where readers share with each other: a thought, a quote from a book, a reading update (how far you are through a book) or a question for other readers. Open Waves in the menu bar to see the waves from your buddies and other members, and write your own at the top. Anyone can read waves shared with everyone; writing, replying and reacting need a free account.

You choose for each wave. See it: Buddies (only your BooksShore Buddies), Members (anyone signed in) or Everyone, even without an account. Replies: No one, Buddies or Members, never wider than who can see it. Only waves for everyone can be shared outside BooksShore.

Yes. When you write it, choose how long it stays: Keep, 7 days or 24 hours. After that nobody else sees it; you can still find it in My Waves.

When your wave is about a book, tick Has spoilers. It stays veiled for readers who haven't marked that book Read on their Reading Shore shelf; they can choose Show anyway if they don't mind.

Choose Pin from BooksShore to attach a book, blog post, Spiritual Read, Poetry or Quote of the Day, poll, Shore Find, your own Reading DNA result or a greeting card you made. It shows as a card in your wave that opens the real page. Many pages also have a 🌊 Share as a wave button that opens Waves with it already pinned. Short thoughts and questions can also have a coloured banner background.

While writing, choose who you're with from your buddies (up to 10). They're told in their notifications, and their names show on the wave. A tagged buddy can take their name off any time.

Under a wave, choose Liked, Reading it too or Save. Reactions are quiet: only the writer sees how many there are. Waves you save are kept in Saved Waves, and waves your buddies tagged you in are under Tagged on the Waves page.

Open My Waves from your account menu or the Waves page. It shows everything you've shared, faded waves too, with their replies and quiet counts. Open a wave to edit its words or delete it with its replies. You're told in your notifications when someone replies.

Up to 30 waves a day and 60 replies an hour, to keep the feed friendly. Waves that break the community rules can be hidden by the BooksShore team.

Yes. On the Waves and Chat pages you can keep the full menu, switch to a compact one-line menu, or hide it and leave only a small menu button. Your choice is remembered for each page.

Shore Finds are hidden gems recommended by BooksShore members: the cafe with the perfect reading corner, food worth the drive, a pen or gadget you can't stop recommending. Each find is a card with why the member loves it, and finds with a map pin show on the map beside the cards. Open Finds in the menu bar to explore. Anyone can look, without an account.

No, the pin is optional. Tick Don't show a map pin to show just the address or city, or if the place isn't in the map search, type its address yourself. Products never have a pin; you can say where to buy them instead.

Yes, both are optional, in the Extras step. Add a banner picture (JPG, PNG, GIF or WEBP, up to 1 MB; wide pictures look best), shown across the top of the card. Add a link to the place's website, its menu, or where to buy the product. Only link to the find itself: links to spam or unrelated shops are removed.

They're a rough guide that works in any country, with no currency: 🟢 Affordable, 🟡 Mid-range or 🟣 Premium. Leave it on Skip if you're not sure.

On Shore Finds, choose 📍 Near me on the map and allow your location: the map moves to where you are. You can also choose a kind (Places, Food, Products) and a type, pick a city, filter by what it's good for, or search, for example karahi or quiet cafe, from the search bar at the top. Choose 🗺️ Map to see the finds on a map, and Directions on a find to open it in your maps app.

Choose ♥ on a card to like it, or 🔖 to save it. Your saved finds are on the Saved tab of My Finds. Click anywhere else on a card to open the find, with its full recommendation, map, link and other finds nearby.

Yes. Choose 🌊 Share as a wave on a find's page, or Pin from BooksShore > Shore Finds while writing a wave. You can also choose 📍 Recommend a Find in the Waves composer, or tick Also share it as a wave when you recommend one: after you share the find, Waves opens with it pinned, ready to send.

My Finds lists every find you've shared. Choose Change to edit it (including the picture and pin), Hide to take it off the site for a while, or Delete to remove it for good. You can share up to 10 new finds a day.

Up to 4 at a time. You can share more: when you're at the limit, a new find is saved hidden. In My Finds, choose 🙈 Hide on a live find and 🟢 Make live on another to choose which ones are on the site; the meter at the top shows how many are live. A hidden find keeps its likes, and comes back just as it was.

The BooksShore team checks every new find, and every change to one, before it goes live, usually within a day. Until then it shows as ⏳ Waiting for approval in My Finds, where only you can see it. You're told in your notifications as soon as it's approved. If you're already at your limit of live finds, it's approved as hidden, ready for you to make live.

The team may send a find back as needs changes, for example for a clearer picture or a link that doesn't go to the place itself: change it in My Finds and it goes back to them. A find that breaks the rules can be removed for good. Either way you're told in your notifications with the reason. If you think it's a mistake, ask Help & Support.

Open a find and scroll to Ratings & feedback. Give it 1 to 5 stars and, if you like, a comment about what you thought. You can rate each find once and change or remove your feedback any time. The average shows on the find and its card. You can't rate your own find, and the team removes feedback that breaks the rules.

Open the find and choose ⚑ Report this find at the bottom. Pick what's wrong (spam, misleading, offensive, the place has closed, or something else), add a note if you like, and send it. The team takes a look; the member isn't told who reported it.

Your own page on BooksShore that shows the world what you love to read, at an address of your own such as booksshore.com/shore/your-name. It has a virtual bookshelf (what you're reading now, your all-time favourites, the books you've read and your wishlist), your own ratings and reviews, a yearly reading goal, your Reading DNA personality, your favourite genres and a favourite quote, and Around BooksShore: blog posts, books, Spiritual Reads, quotes and polls you picked. You choose the design and who can see it. It's free for every member.

In My Reading Shore, on the Bookshelf tab:

• Search the catalogue by title, author or ISBN, choose a shelf (Read, Reading now or Want to read) and select Add.
• For a book that isn't on BooksShore, choose Not in the catalog? Add it by title and type its title and author.
• Books you bought or downloaded on BooksShore are suggested, ready to add in one tap.
• On any book's page, use the Add to my shore bar: Want to read, Reading now or Read.

Reading now shows what you're in the middle of, with the covers facing out. All-time favourites shows the books you've marked as a favourite. Books I've read lines up everything you've finished as book spines, with your stars. Want to read is your wishlist. To move a book, choose Edit next to it and pick another shelf.

In My Reading Shore, choose Edit next to the book. You can change its shelf, give it 1 to 5 stars (or No rating), set the date you finished it, mark it as an all-time favourite and write your review, in English or Urdu. Select Save, or Remove from shelf to take it off. Shelf reviews show on your shore only; to review a book for everyone on its page, use Rate this book there.

In My Reading Shore, type how many books you want to read this year under Reading goal and select Save. Every book you mark as Read this year counts towards it (by the date you finished it), and the progress bar on your shore fills up. Leave the box empty to have no goal.

From the Reading DNA quiz. Take it while signed in and your latest result, with its name, tagline and traits, appears on your shore. Take the quiz again at any time to update it.

Open the Design & privacy tab in My Reading Shore. Pick one of ten themes (Sunrise, Lagoon, Moonlit Bay, Pine Coast, Coral Reef, Sandstone, Lavender Fields, Golden Hour, Glacier or Twilight) and one of seven shelf styles (Oak, White, Walnut, Cherry, Birch, Mint or Ebony). Add your reading motto, a few words About me, a favourite quote and up to 5 favourite genres. Select Save design, then See my shore to look at it.

You choose, in Design & privacy: Everyone, Signed-in members only, or Only me. You can also hide parts of it from visitors: your Reading DNA, reading goal, wishlist, reviews or picks. You always see everything on your own shore. Shores open to everyone appear on Discover Shores and can be found by search engines; the others don't.

A section showing things from around the site: blog posts you enjoyed, books you reviewed on their pages, Spiritual Reads you saved, quotes that spoke to you and polls worth a vote. With Show what I rate and comment on switched on, blog posts you rate or comment on, books you review (with a written review, or 4 stars and up) and quotes you comment on join it by themselves, with your stars and words. Switch it off to show only what you add yourself.

Select 📚 Add to my shore at the end of a blog post, on a Spiritual Read, on a poll or under Quote of the Day. It changes to ✓ On my shore; select it again to take it off. You can see and manage everything on the Picks from BooksShore tab in My Reading Shore, where Take off removes an item (one from your activity stays off) and Show again brings it back.

No, never. Polls only appear on your shore when you add them yourself, and only the poll is shown, not your answer. The Picks tab suggests polls you voted in, in case you'd like to add them.

Open your shore and select Share my shore to copy its link, then paste it in WhatsApp, on social media or anywhere you like. Remember that visitors can only open it if your privacy setting allows them.

Yes, in Design & privacy under Shore address. Choose one that isn't taken (3 to 30 lower-case letters, numbers and hyphens). Links to your old address stop working, so share the new one.

Open Discover Shores. It lists shores open to everyone (and, when you're signed in, those for members), most recently updated first, and you can search by name or motto. Each shore links to the books on it, so you can find your next read.

To hide it, set Who can see my shore to Only me: nobody else can open it, and it leaves Discover Shores. Remove books from your shelf at any time. To have your shore deleted completely, ask Help & Support. If you delete your BooksShore account, your shore and shelf are deleted with it.

Share your User ID or your referral link, both on My Referrals. Customers and book sellers enter your User ID when they register (the link fills it in for them), or BooksShore staff can record you as their referrer.

You earn your commission rate (set by BooksShore) on every subscription package that a member you referred pays for. The rate at the moment of each payment is recorded with it, so later changes only affect future payments. My Referrals shows your referred members, what they paid and your commission for any period.

Sales agent accounts are created by BooksShore. Contact Help & Support if you'd like to join as an agent.

A member you referred can let you manage parts of their account for them: their listings, orders for their books, promotions, and subscription & premium. The member chooses which of these on My Sales Agent and BooksShore approves each request. The member can end it at any time.

Open Delegated Accounts and choose Manage next to the member. A gold bar across the top of every page shows whose account you're in, with links to the parts they allowed and a Back to My Account button. Your own cart, orders and account are never affected.

You can't see or change their password, email or delivery address, or use their own purchases, and you can only open the parts they allowed. Books you add for them always go through approval, and any package you buy for them is paid by you at checkout. A delegation ends automatically if you're no longer their referrer or no longer an active agent.

If your agent helps run your shop (listing your stock, handling orders or keeping your subscription up to date), delegation lets them do it from their own account, without you sharing your password. You choose exactly what they can do and can stop it whenever you like.