Goodreads Librarians Group discussion
Book & Author Page Issues
>
Same name, different author!
Working on this, but I may come back later with some questions! :)
No problem, Vicky - happy to help! I also run Clive's official website which has bibliography pages, if that's any help...
Just an addition. All of the books listed on Goodreads for author A.J. Campbell aren't by him, either. The one in particular is an anthology, "Going Home." Don't know who the other A.J. Campbell is, but I'm the A.J. Campbell here on Goodreads... and I had nothing to do with contributing to that title.
A.J. wrote: "Just an addition. All of the books listed on Goodreads for author A.J. Campbell aren't by him, either. The one in particular is an anthology, "Going Home." Don't know who the other A.J. Campbell is..."A.J., are all the fishing books by the other A.J.?
Sarah wrote: "No problem, Vicky - happy to help! I also run Clive's official website which has bibliography pages, if that's any help..."I think I got all the books that aren't his moved out, but could you check?
I'm working on cleaning up some of the Hellraiser volumes now. It looks like someone had combined the original volumes form the 90s with the new miniseries from Boom. Argh! lol
That's fantastic, Vicky, thank you! There's just a couple left that caught my eye...The Days of the Commune by Brecht,
Creative Action Methods In Groupwork
by Andy Hickson
and
New Theatre Quarterly 73: Volume 19, Part 1
by Simon Trussler.
The Hellraiser comic books are so difficult, but it looks a lot clearer now!
Thanks again for all your help,
Sarah
HiI have been trying to send a question/request on the contact page but it won't accept my question.
I am Julie Thomas, author of 'The Keeper of Secrets' soon to be released by HarperCollins as a trade paperback. June 1st
The pre-order page has two books listed as mine that are not mine and does not have any links to my other ebooks
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16...
I need the correct info on that page and I need this book added to my list of books on my correct author page - so people visiting both pages can click through
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
Many many many thanks
A rather desperate
\Julie Thomas
Hi Julie,"The Keeper of Secrets" is altered as is listed in your books already. Please, check if the information is all correct were:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16...
Also, there is a ebook edition, which I don't know if it is to be released as well. You can see it here:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16...
Please, tell if it's all as you will!
Hi everyone,Need a disambiguation on author "Elizabeth Campbell".
The following books are by the Australian poet Elizabeth Campbell:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25...
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14...
Her publisher's website is here: http://www.johnleonardpress.com
The others are by another (or more?) Elizabeth Campbell.
Many thanks.
Hi PhylippaThanks for doing that. In an ideal world I would like the "The SEcret Keeper" ebook (with violin cover)removed as it is not available anymore and "The Keeper of Secrets" replaces it, but I understand that is not possible.
Yes, it will be available as an ebook edition as well, which will be released at the same time, so that can be added to my list on my page as a link.
Many thanks
Julie
OOOPS! I made a mistake, and I don't even know whether I'm posting this in the right place! I have an author account, and I wanted to add a book for which I used a pseudonym. The book is PLAYING FOR KEEPS, and the "author" Jack Kendall. Unfortunately, before I could add my own name as an author (Marilyn Oser), the book went to the author page of--you guessed it--Jack Kendall! How can I get this book moved to my own author page?
Re #10 - looking into this as the various Elizabeth Campbells are all a little messy :)And done, I think!
Re #19 - Instructions on how to separate authors with the same name can be found in this section of the Librarian Manual:http://www.goodreads.com/help/show/20...
The Guild of Erotic Artists, volume 1, ed. Carol Milligan, lists a "Nancy Farmer" as an author; however, it incorrectly links to Nancy Farmer, the U.S. children's author. Can anyone help to disconnect the artist's name from the children's author's? I tried to follow the instructions in the Librarian Manual but simply received error messages.
Name authority is an ongoing headache for all librarians. If you check into the Library of Congress catalog or name authority files, you should be able to find the correct form for just about anyone who has published works. The British Library, ditto
Janet, we don't always use the LC version however - if the LC version differs from the covers, we stick to that, usually.
Mod
While LC usually uses the first form of an author's name that is encountered to establish the authorized form, they never use the cover, but the title page. It isn't unusual for an author's name to often vary on book covers--the spine may not even match the front, and there can be additional variants for different editions of the same title--hence the need for authorized name versions. OverDrive, in particular, makes me crazy when trying to find books by a given author. It is common for the books to index under several variants, and just try a series search--some books have a series statement, some don't, and those that do may have 2 or 3 different forms.
These books, which I wrote, are associated with the author John Garvey, an orthodox priest, and I know he doesn't want to be associated with them:Tinselfish, Book 1
Tinselfish, Book 2
Life Doesn't Always
My current author name is John Evan Garvey and my two recent books are associated with me. Could the three books listed here be associated with me as well?
@Janet - file Rivka's reply under local rules.
Sandra wrote: "Fixed Nancy ;)"Thanks very much, Sandra.
Hi,I goofed. :(
I was trying to add my upcoming novel, Haedyn's Choice (set to release May 15th) to my author profile but it attached to a different account.
Here is the book page: Haedyn's Choice
Here is my author page: Jennifer L. Oliver
I'm not sure why it went to the other author account, but if you could please make it list under my page, I'd really appreciate it!
Thanks so much for all y'all do!
Jennifer
Mod
rivka wrote: "Got 33. Jennifer, for future reference, you are Jennifer L.-2space-Oliver. When manually adding your books, be sure to add an extra space between your middle initial and last name. That's how the s..."Okay, gotcha. Thanks for your help! :)
I also have two books by a different Edith Maxwell on my Author page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/... Just Dial a Number and Game of Truth are not by me.
Thanks.
Edith wrote: "I also have two books by a different Edith Maxwell on my Author page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/... Just Dial a Number and Game of Truth are not by me.
Thanks."
The page you have linked to doesn't look like your author page. This is yours.
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
Tine to Live, A Tine to Die moved.
I see. Thank you for removing TINE from her page!
Hi.Unfortunately I have a common name, Andy Smith.
I just tried to add an ebook to my author profile,
"Arimathea's Box", and it came up as another Andy Smith.
Any way you can put it back in my author profile? Thanks.
Andy wrote: "Hi.Unfortunately I have a common name, Andy Smith.
I just tried to add an ebook to my author profile,
"Arimathea's Box", and it came up as another Andy Smith.
Any way you can put it back in my aut..."
Done. You are "Andy^^^^^^Smith" with SIX spaces!
Thanks. That was quick.
So now I'm Andy "Six Space" Smith... can I use that as my author name? LOL
Now I understand why removing all the excess spaces turns me into someone else.
Just a suggestion, wouldn't it be easier to give authors a unique username, as well as their own name, as done in Facebook?
Thanks
Unique usernames. The most obvious problem with that idea would be the difficulty of teaching all the Goodreads members to use names that will never appear on a book cover. I cannot see a way for a library site to avoid using published names.
Just using an email as primary and unique identifier would be the easy route, as per Facebook/Amazon.Amazon managed it for their ebooks... I have my amazon login and they allow me to create an author page and put my name (or a pen name) on books)
Smashwords... Wattpad... Authonomy... Bibliosomethingorother... there's no mix-up on these sites.
Since you seem to react quite quickly (nice surprise, well done!) its not really a problem, although it does highlight a glitch.
A human has to interfere, and your time would be better spent doing things more important than sorting out errors resulting from less-than-optimal programming.
You must remember two things, though:One, most authors are not goodreads authors.
And two, librarians are all volunteers. None of us (except for rivka, but she's staff) are admins, and so we don't have access to any such info. Nor would I want it! I have enough problems just helping my grandmother.
The system may not be perfect (*cough* aka feature *cough*) but its still one of the better ones.
and three, most books are added either by ordinary members, which includes us librarians, or by the automatic bots (which have their own problems). How would THEY know about your username/email etc. Goodreads Authors are a relatively small proportion of the authors and books on Goodreads. Using the name on the book cover works most of the time.
Fair enough... I had no idea how the cogs turn inside Goodreads. I just figured that anything that frees up the "bods" (as opposed to "bots" LOL) to solve difficult stuff would be a good thing. Believe me, I appreciate your help in this matter. It was resolved immediately and correctly. Using software would probably have taken hours of filling in forms and trying to guess those squiggly letters and numbers I always get wrong. Sometimes its good to have humans solve the problems.
Definite flaw in the system though...
And I do wonder if Jeff runs Amazon and his subsidiaries hoping to get it right just "most of the time" ;-)
And 2, as an amateur computer programmer, another question that strikes me... at what point does "most" become "not quite enough"? Who decides that? ;-)
On another subject, since you seem to be pretty good and keen at what you do, I noticed another "flaw" in the system... I have noted it in another thread, but nobody responded.
It has to do with apostrophes in the title.
Some books with apostrophes in the title (such as Ender's Game) return results whether you use the apostrophe or not. Others (such as Boucher's World) draw a blank if you leave the apostrophe out.
Now THATS weird...
Is it something to do with the way the author/bot classifies the book? Can you give the book two titles, one with one without, the apostrophe?
Thanks for all your help. I had no idea Goodreads had volunteers, so Id just like to say I appreciate the work you put in. Its a nice site.
Re Ender - it's because there are so many editions, that if one sneaks in without the ', it can easily go uncorrected for a while. Basically, the search engine is picking up the "wrong" entry on one edition...
Re "Enders", it isn't an error. The German edition is called "Enders Spiel (Ender's Saga #1) " and the Norwegian edition is "Enders spill" so using "Enders" will work on that book.
Its not a question of editions or right or wrong, its a question of a book being found or not found because of an apostrophe in the title (and perhaps other characters, but I haven't checked). My point is that many people don't use the apostrophe when using a search engine because they know that the engine will find what they're looking for whether they use it or not.
Ender's Game was just an example. Goodreads finds the book with AND without the apostrophe, as it should, and as happens in Google and Amazon searches.
Now, take a book like Boucher's World, or my own, The Devil's Bloodline: if a searcher DOESNT use the apostrophe, Goodreads DOESNT find the books. Amazon and Google DO find the books. Therefore, Goodreads search engine isnt as powerful/flexible/good.
Since Goodreads exists to help readers find books, surely it should find a title with an apostrophe in it even if the searcher omits the apostrophe?
Clearly Amazon and Google both think this way, because on both sites searching for "Bouchers World" and "Boucher's World" finds the book titled Boucher's World.
IMO the Goodreads search engine should be modified to take this into account and a) make it operate along the same lines as other popular engines b) facilitate searches for users that omit the apostrophe.
As it stands, not using an apostrophe on Goodreads gives the impression that certain books aren't listed.
As I said, Goodreads finds "Ender's" and "Enders" because there are editions with both of those spellings (and a few others as well). If the search engine finds one matching title it will return the full set of editions. Your "Devil's Bloodline" and "Boucher's World" only exist on Goodreads with the single spelling so will only be found if the query is spelled correctly.The Goodreads search engine does need improving. No argument there.
So, as things stand, in order for our books to appear to those who type the title without the apostrophe, is there anything we can do? Create a new edition or something like that?
Goodreads Librarians Group
Books mentioned in this topic
Creep: A Collection of Poetry and Flash Fiction (other topics)Love Hurts: A Speculative Fiction Anthology (other topics)
Bubbles Unbound (other topics)
Bubbles Unbound (other topics)
New Theatre Quarterly 7: Volume 2, Part 3 (other topics)
Authors mentioned in this topic
Paul Martin (other topics)Clive Barker (other topics)
Happy to help with any specific queries as I run the archive of the novelist Clive Barker (1952 - ).
Thanks! :)