Author bio - different languages

[Charco]

Hi, may be a newbie question, for which I apologise, however I have done some searching on posts and cannot find an answer to this.

How can a bio in a different language be added to the author profile? So if a book has been translated, and the edition has been combined with the original language edition, but the link to the author profile is the same and seems like there can only be one version of the bio, etc?

[Emy]

If the script / spelling is different, then the "cover version" name is added as Second Author on the record. This links to the bio, but doesn't show on the book page.

For the same spelling and alphabet, then you can add the bio in a second language (e.g. Author's native language + English).

[Charco]

Thanks for the quick response Emy! It is the same spelling/alphabet (Spanish and English), so the second one applies. But where do you add the bio in the other language? Do you mean that you just add it in to the Bio box, underneath the native language, so both are there?

[Emy]

There's no specific policy about this, but if I do this, I usually add the bio in one language, the leave a blank line, then add ~~~ on the line below, another blank line, and the second bio.

If I am adding two languages, I'd advise keeping them both quite short (1-3 paragraphs) otherwise the second will rarely be visible and thus it's a bit pointless adding it...

[Charco]

Thanks again Emy. Apologies for the delay in responding! Seems strange that you have to pick a 'main' language, when so many books are translated, but I will follow your advice!

[Sandra]

Main language would be the author's native language.

[Charco]

That seems logical, however a quick check of some major names that are translated (eg. Haruki Murukami, Stieg Larsson) shows their bios in English, and only in English. So that doesn't seem to be the case?

[Emy]

Main language is often English, especially as e.g. Haruki Murukami's Japanese profile would carry the Japanese bio. It would be very inappropriate to add the Japanese bio to a non-Japanese character profile.

村上 春樹
vs
Haruki Murakami

[Charco]

Oh I see - he has two different profiles (the Second Author you were referring to earlier) to cater for he different character set, with a link between them. But for others, where the language shares the same character set, this still doesn't clarify whether the main language should be English or should be author's native language? Yours and Sandra's views are different - is it just up to the individual to decide how to handle these scenarios?

[Sandra]

I was thinking of the same character set. If the author mostly publishes in English, then English would be main language. But a Spanish or French author would publish in their own language then be translated to English, but would most likely keep the same author name, so other language then English language in that case.

Emy has had much more experience in these cases so whatever she thinks is fine with me :)

[Charco]

OK - I will leave you both alone now! Thank you very much for your assistance.