Goodreads Librarians Group discussion
Policies & Practices
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How to write the title of a 2-in-1 book?
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Option 1 is the one I always use. Can't remember if there is an official policy. Liz wrote: "When there is a set title for the "bundle" (like this, this or this), which is the way to go? (I like the last one the best, clear and more info for searches) "
In this case I'd also go with your third option.
One book I did when I was a newbie GR librarian was this one:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
It was added by a bot as 'Shirley, The Professor' and changed by another bot to 'Shirley: The Professor'.
I changed it to Shirley & The Professor (option 3) because we base the title on the cover, which said 'Shirley and The Professor'. I thought '&' was less confusing than 'and'.
On the title page, however, it says
Shirley
The Professor
so perhaps it is better to change it to 'Shirley / The Professor', which is how I usually add 2-in-1 books. BTW, I also use '/' in original titles to denote books that weren't published together originally (see this same example).
I use the first example as well (including the space to either side of the slash to differentiate it from a single title that actually has a slash in it.)On rare occasion, if the collective book title has "and" in it, I would keep that.
As for bundles, I don't have strong feelings about format as long as the above " / " rule is included for the individual titles.
I prefer ^-^, but ^/^ is also fine for me^ = space
I usually go with the " / " especially since I have seen books with the "-" in the title, and ":" is a subtitle designator.
I prefer ^/^ . ^&^ is ok I guess. ^-^ is to often used on covers as a subtitle separator, so I find it as ambiguous as a colon (it's not quite as bad though, : I'd change if I saw it as a title separator, the dash I'd maybe change too but only if I was already editing the book to fix something else.)
Very occasionally the cover art actually uses & or and, and I'd keep those where that's the case, but as Scott says, it's not very common.
(And the harlequin horrors sometimes have Book 1: Book 1 book 2 book 3 which is just painfully weird and annoying. Ugh.)
Mod
Thanks everyone !!!Note: I'll go modify the books I used as example for option 2,5,6 and second "titled bundle"
Note : I just realized that in the example above about option 5 on Amazon* they're not using Title1 / Title2 but Title1 \ Title2 ...
Forward slash, never back slash. I don't know why. It just looks wrong :P
Mod
I agree entirely.
I'm quite new here, so I haven't done any jobs with books like this. But if I should, I would probably follow the same rules as I use in the library (in Norway) where I work:Title1 ; Title2
Would that be wrong? If so, I wouldn't, of course. But I really wish there were clear and simple rules here, for every possible problem ...
Ellen wrote: "I'm quite new here, so I haven't done any jobs with books like this. But if I should, I would probably follow the same rules as I use in the library (in Norway) where I work:Title1 ; Title2"
I think ; is a good separator to use. It would be a nice way to distinguish between omnibus editions and books originally not published together (see the last sentence in my msg #3), but on GR there is no space before interpunction in titles (except in French), so it would be:
Title1; Title2
Title: Subtitle
Thank you lethe! No space then, but ; is OK. Good to know!
Ellen wrote: "Thank you lethe! No space then, but ; is OK. Good to know!"I'm just a librarian, I don't make the rules here :) But as this is how libraries do it, I think it would be a good idea to do it this way on GR too.
lethe wrote: "Ellen wrote: "Thank you lethe! No space then, but ; is OK. Good to know!"I'm just a librarian, I don't make the rules here :) But as this is how libraries do it, I think it would be a good idea t..."
Only problem I see with it is most people use the "/" and the other is I have been seeing titles on GR that on the book cover have used ";" as the separator between title and subtitle, which could confuse people to have book titles separated the same way.
I looked but couldn't find this information in the Librarian manual or the forum...
When faced with a 2-in-1 book that does not have a set title for the "bundle"**, how should the title be formatted?
1. Title1 / Title2 (example here and here)
this is the way I've seen most and it makes sense to me since "/" isn't used much in titles (that I can think of).
2. Title1 : Title2 (example here and here)
I've seen this a number of times, in some cases in edition combined by mistake with book Title1. To me ":" makes Title2 look like a kind of subtitle of book Title1 (I'm hoping this isn't the right way to do it)
3. Title1 & Title2 (example here and here)
I haven't seen it as much... but I'm thinking "&" can easily be part of one book title and maybe it could cause confusion?
4. Title1 - Title2 (no example right now)
5. Title1 (example here*)
To me this makes no sense since a search on Title2 would not find the book and it would easily be combined by mistake with book Title1
6. Other??? (one example here, in this case, the book was combined by mistake with editions containing only book Title1)
I'm sorry if this information is somewhere, but I'd appreciate your help.
*for this book, Amazon shows Title1 and Title2, but doesn't write the title the same way for the 2 editions on sale, it uses Title1 / Title2 and Title1 : Title2.
**the answer to the question above will impact this one, but not answer it: When there is a set title for the "bundle" (like this, this or this), which is the way to go? (I like the last one the best, clear and more info for searches)