Books in wrong order in this series

[Tabitha]

This book (Strangers to the Marsh, in Monica Edwards' Romney Marsh series) is listed as number 11 in the series but this is incorrect; it should be number 6, appearing directly before Hidden In A Dream. I tried to change it but don't have the permissions. It's very annoying, as I rely heavily on Goodreads' series information for reading order.

[Emily]

After some research I found that the series as listed on Goodreads is in order of original publication. The republished books have a different order. I will create a new series for that order. The other series will still exist.

***
Does it say the order on the book? Or are you going by the plots? I'm trying to find the correct info.

[Tabitha]

Emily, it says so in the Author's Note in the hardcover edition that I have. Apparently it was published later, but takes place at the point indicated. There's substantial character development over the life of this series, so reading order is really quite important.

[Tabitha]

I'm not talking about the republished ones - those are in higgledy-piggledy order, this is the original series.

[Emily]

Tabitha wrote: "Apparently it was published later, but takes place at the point indicated."

To someone else, how should this be addressed? Should an alternate series be created?

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Series with publication orders which differ from chronological orders often have two different series listings. Examples include Pern, Narnia, and many others.

https://www.goodreads.com/series/5006...
https://www.goodreads.com/series/4933...

Alternatively (especially if the differences are minor), there can be just one series page, with the information about the other order in the series description section.

[Tabitha]

Can it not just be fixed? After all, the author herself has clearly indicated the correct order.

[Emy]

Tabitha wrote: "Can it not just be fixed? After all, the author herself has clearly indicated the correct order."

Those books are in publication order, which is how many want to read series.

If you can list the alternative order, we can set up a second series listing with that order, per Pern and others. It's not a problem for us to have, for example, different series listings with:

Internal chronological order
Publication order
Author's suggested reading order
and so on :)

Just let us know which books in what order, and we can go from there.

Existing series link for other Librarians: https://www.goodreads.com/series/53609

[Tabitha]

Well, the reading order is correct as far as I know, except for this one change, that Strangers to the Marsh goes right before Hidden in a Dream. It's internal chronological order. Will the new series list say that? I'm concerned to avoid falling into this trap with other series - I always thought I could trust the Goodreads series listings.

[Emily]

Tabitha wrote: "I always thought I could trust the Goodreads series listings."
Like in the Narnia example mentioned above, sometimes the series is originally published out of chronological order, for a variety of reasons (the publisher felt it would be better at the time, the author wanted it that way originally, etc).

Series on Goodreads can be defined in either way. That's why we have the ability to create alternate series listings.

I have added the series here:
https://www.goodreads.com/series/2590...

[Tabitha]

Thank you so much! It's too late for me, but hopefully it will prevent others from having their series experience ruined :)