Wet Moon series authorship

[Shoshanna]

Hey there! Sometimes the author of this series appears as Sophie Campbell. Sometimes it appears with her deadname as the first name (Ross). There are inconsistencies among the volumes and among the editions of the volumes as well. If they could be tidied up so that they could all have the author's current name, that would be so nice!

(I am only mentioning her former first name because this relates to authority record work. I'm a trans woman myself. I'd never deadname anyone for a reason other than authority record work).

[Scott]

It is Goodreads policy to have the name under which the work was originally published as the primary name.

https://help.goodreads.com/s/article/...

[rivka, Former Moderator]

For works (such as the one you linked) that were originally published under the name Ross Campbell, all editions of the work should have that as the first listed author. Editions with Sophie Campbell on the cover should have that as the second listed author (and optionally, it can be listed as the second author on the other editions as well).

Volumes only ever published under Sophie Campbell would have only that name on all editions. (Note to librarians working on this: That appears to be true only for volume 7.)

It looks like this series also needs quite a bit of other cleanup work, so I am moving this thread to the Projects folder.

[Shoshanna]

rivka: I respect you as moderator, but why not simply use the name she uses now?

I think Wet Moon is a confusing situation because, while, yes, volume 7 is easy (only Sophie), the others have been reissued with the new name on the cover. Does it make sense to list just the new name for the ones with only her current true name on the cover?

[lethe]

Shoshanna wrote: "rivka: I respect you as moderator, but why not simply use the name she uses now?

I think Wet Moon is a confusing situation because, while, yes, volume 7 is easy (only Sophie), the others have been..."

It is Goodreads policy to keep the name a work was first published under as primary author on all editions.

[Shoshanna]

I wonder whether this is a policy that should be addressed. What this amounts to is institutional deadnaming of trans authors. Even the Library of Congress Authority Control website now directs with "See: Campbell, Sophie, 1979-" when "campbell ross" is searched for.

Here is the permanent link for the official LOC Authority Control name record:

https://lccn.loc.gov/n2006068668

[Scott]

Ross Campbell's name is on the books so it would be incorrect to remove it from the book data.

[lethe]

Shoshanna wrote: "I wonder whether this is a policy that should be addressed. What this amounts to is institutional deadnaming of trans authors. Even the Library of Congress Authority Control website now directs wit..."

The policy has been addressed, several times. See f.e. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Staff response was that it would be too much work to change.

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

[Shoshanna]

The author's name is Sophie Campbell now. The Library of Congress now points to a new authority record, as I have demonstrated. At the very least, the new editions should have only her name she uses. What a lot of libraries are doing is using the correct name (the Library of Congress authorised name, that is, Sophie) in the 100 field for author main entry in a MARC, but keeping her old name in the 245 field of title entry. This makes sense and ensures that people looking for her under her name that she uses can find her.

[Maddie]

I agree, this is a policy that should be addressed to redirect searches to the author's current name.

[lethe]

Maddie wrote: "I agree, this is a policy that should be addressed to redirect searches to the author's current name."

That would mean a complete overhaul of the system.

Staff are not willing to change the policy, see the threads I posted in comment #8.

[Shoshanna]

OK. I get it. I get it would be a lot of work. I want you all to know that I respect the work y'all do and really appreciate the Goodreads community.

I guess going forward, what can be done to make sure trans authors are findable by their names they now use and live by?

[lethe]

The same as with other authors who used a different name in the past. Since their names are added to the books they publish, they can be found in the system.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

[Shoshanna]

Thank you! As a trans woman, this issue hits home for me. At the same time, I can see how an author who got married or something would also have more than one name listed. I can see the consistency with this policy. It's just frustrating because a deadname can be very upsetting for a trans person. I guess that is just part of the difficulty being trans.

Thank you for looking into this and working to make sure the new name is listed as well! :)

[lethe]

Shoshanna wrote: "Thank you for looking into this and working to make sure the new name is listed as well! :)"

Thank you, but it was already listed like this :)