Authors with similar names, etc

[Sophie]

A couple of things:

1. It really bugs me that there's no "similar names" button for Goodreads authors, since we can't get to the edit info page. Can this be added somewhere? Only visible to Librarians, maybe?

2. Trying to figure out which books belong to Dean Koontz and which belong to Dean R. Koontz is a pain. Am I correct in thinking that all editions of a book should be under the author whose name was on the earliest edition? And if so, is it necessary to add the other author's name as a secondary author?

For example, The haunted earth and The Haunted Earth are the same book. Should this be under Dean R. Koontz with a secondary author of Dean Koontz? Or just under Dean R. Koontz since that's what's on the cover?

Also, I found a bunch of NABs under Dean R. Koontz:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

In all of these cases, it looks like the primary edition has been NAB'd, but many of the other editions are still under DRK. Do each of them have to be changed manually or is there a way to NAB all the editions at once?

[Paula]

Re 2
The primary author is the name it was first published under, the secondary author on appropriate editions the name it was later published under only for those editions it is not necessary to add the secondary author to all editions.

Re 1 that is a GR Feedback group issue but it would be nice

[Debbie's Spurts (D.A.)]

There are a bunch of threads about Koontz and his assorted pseudonyms if you want to search the topics here. His profiles are pretty much an ongoing librarian editing process.

Sometimes you can luck out on seeing "similar names" once an author profile is claimed by search returning one of the similar named profiles that's not yet claimed, editing that one, then clicking "similar named" which will show all of them including the goodreads author profiles. That's, in my opinion, the wrong way and I agree with you that even though unable to edit a goodreads author profile librarians should still be able to access "similar names."

If you need to see similar names to make sure you are putting the correctly disambiguated author name on a book, sometimes you can luck out and that author has written other books. Edit one if those and just copy the author field directly over which captures the correct disambiguation/spaces for you.