Editions being combined that shouldn't be combined

[Anna]

I'm a GR librarian. From time to time I run into the issue of someone combining the works that are actually distinct but with similar titles.

Example Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. At first, he wrote and published a short story, and 7 years later published a full-length novel of the same name, expanding on this plot and characters. So these are definitely different works, more than 5 times apart in length. I divided them more than once, but they get combined again.

Same goes for Freud's On Dreams which is not the same work as The Interpretation of Dreams. And a few other instances of the same thing happening.

What is the best way to go about this?

[Sandra]

Have you been leaving Librarian Notes on the the default editions, telling others NOT to combine them?

Sometimes even that doesn't work *sigh*.

[Emily]

The short story (Flowers for Algernon) was being merged into the novel per the discussion in this thread. I asked for advice from the moderator on the policy for this specific book. The discussion takes place in messages 344-346, 349, and 353. What makes this situation complicated is where the story was published, as it was in a magazine and not by itself, unfortunately.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I would send a message to Support from the Help tab at the bottom of the page for any questions or concerns on librarian edits.

[Anna]

@Emily thanks for sharing this info! If the issue is the fact that the short story wasn't published by itself, then perhaps it shouldn't exist as a separate edition? Keeping it as a distinct edition by itself but combining with real editions of the novel seems confusing.

[Emily]

Yes it shouldn't exist by itself. It takes a very long time for a book with hundreds/thousands of shelvings to merge into another book. Anytime this happens I will "check on it" after a few days. This one is not quite finished.

(It usually only happens when a very popular book has been entered, everyone shelves it, and then the ISBN edition is imported or entered later, thereby creating a duplicate.)

[Anna]

Ok, got it.

What should be done about On Dreams vs The Interpretation of Dreams? In On Dreams Freud refers to The Interpretation of Dreams in almost every chapter, so it's definitely not the same work. And it has been published separately for sure (even now Amazon has both of these works separately). Though it can be said that On Dreams in an "abridged" reworking of The Interpretation of Dreams, depicts the same ideas but more briefly.

I would say these shouldn't be combined. What do you think?

[Emily]

I would agree. In most cases we *do* combine abridged and unabridged works, which is probably why this was combined with the Interpretation of Dreams.
However, in this case, 64 pages versus 630 pages is quite significant, and his referral to the The Interpretation of Dreams throughout On Dreams makes me think it should be separate.
Someone else can weigh in first if they like.

[lethe]

Emily wrote: "I would agree. In most cases we *do* combine abridged and unabridged works, which is probably why this was combined with the Interpretation of Dreams.
However, in this case, 64 pages versus 630 pa..."

Yep, agree they should be separated.

[Emily]

I have separated out most of the editions of On Dreams. I made a librarian note on the default edition not to combine with the Interpretation of Dreams.
I'm sure there are some in other languages that I have missed. I can check back again another day.