Last updated 4 August 2026
ShelfAbsorbed keeps a book club running: who is in it, what you are reading, when you are meeting, and what everyone made of it. If something is not working, or you want it to do something it does not, start here.
Write to support@shelfabsorbed.com. It reaches a person rather than a queue. There is no phone line and no live chat, and answers usually take a day or two. Bug reports and feature requests go to the same address.
It saves a round of questions if you mention which club it is about, what you were doing when it went wrong, whether it happens every time, and whether you are on a phone or a computer. None of it is essential.
There is no password. You type your email address, a six-digit code is sent to it, and you type the code back in. Codes expire after 15 minutes, so an old one from a previous attempt will not work.
If the code does not arrive, check the spam folder first, then ask for a new one. If the address on the account is one you can no longer read, write in from wherever you can and say which address the account uses.
You need an invitation from someone already in the club. A host can share it three ways: the six-character code to type in, a link, or a QR code to point a camera at. Clubs are private and there is no directory, so there is no way to find one and ask to be let in.
Hosts: the code sits behind the key in the club header. Rotating it there locks out anyone still holding the old one, and everybody already in the club stays.
Open Settings from the menu and look under Notifications. Each kind has its own switch: the club's news, meeting reminders, somebody joining, mentions and replies, and every message in the chat.
If nothing arrives at all, the switches are usually not the problem. Your phone has its own permission for the app, and if that was declined the settings page says so at the top. Turn it back on in the phone's own settings and the switches take over from there.
Talk about a book is split by how far through it people are, and a thread only opens once you have said you have reached that part. So a thread that looks locked usually means your reading progress has not caught up with it. Update it on the book's page and the thread opens.
This is a courtesy about spoilers rather than a security boundary. It stops the ending appearing over somebody's shoulder; it does not make the chat confidential.
Only the host pays. Everyone else is free, and nobody is asked for a card to join. A club is monthly or annual, and one subscription covers the whole club.
Change or cancel it wherever it was bought, because only the place that took the money can alter it:
Reinstalled the app and the club has gone back to unpaid? Use Restore my subscription in the admin desk so the store can hand it back.
If a subscription lapses, the club is not deleted. It stays readable by its members and frozen against changes, so nobody loses their reading history over a missed payment.
Every message can be reported by the people who can see it, which sends the message and your address to the support address so it can be looked at. Your host can also delete a message or remove a member from the club without waiting for anyone here.
You can delete your account and everything tied to it from inside the app, or by asking from the address on the account. How to delete your account covers the steps and exactly what goes.