Author profile split

[Sarah]

So, originally, in the Pat Lawrence author profile, there were three different people. I got them sorted out. But, the books by Pat Lawrence (2 spaces) still show up on the page for Pat Lawrence (1 space).

Now, if you click on the author link for 2 Space Pat, you get 2 Space Pat's list. Good deal. But if you click on 1 Space Pat, you get those books AND 1 Space Pat's book.

I did this yesterday morning and I was hoping it was just a database refresh thing, but it's still like this.

Note: 1 Space Pat wrote Bedford, Journals from the Time of the Radar Dog, and The Current King of France is Bald.

2 Space Pat wrote Jarred Into Being and An Illegal President: A Novel.

This is the first time I've tried this kind of maintenance, so I don't know what's normal.

(3 Space Pat is a guy who wrote some real estate book in the 90's. He's all sorted. Don't worry about him.)

[Renske]

You have to edit the author name on all editions of a work, not just one.

[Sarah]

Huh. I thought I did, so there must be something I'm missing. Do me a favor and let me fiddle with it with that in mind when I poke at it tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes! That certainly would explain why real estate guy wasn't a problem.

Thanks!

[Philip]

Just to help you out, since you want to see what is going on. Illegal President only has the 2 spaces on 1 of 3 edition and Jarred into being has is on 2 of the 3.

[Jessica]

Hi all,

Just joined and no idea what I'm doing, but I have another Jessica Young's book on my list as an author, and unfortunately the audience is vastly different than mine. Hers has a racy woman on the front and sex slavery in the title. Mine are all picture books/chapter books. I really need it removed and kept off if possible. Help much appreciated. I asked for it to be taken off, and they said they did, but it's still there. Thanks so much!

Jessica Young

[Sarah]

Renske, I got it sorted thanks to your help! Now I know a thing! Hooray!

[Z-squared]

looks like #5 has been taken care of. FYI Jessica, Goodreads uses extra spaces to disambiguate authors with otherwise identical names (for example, this Jessica Young, whose profile is Jessica-three space-Young). The spaces are invisible to users and are only used on the edit page in the author field. The extra spaces are needed to direct books to the appropriate author profile. Because this system is unique to Goodreads, every time a large database imports book records from outside the system (like from Ingram, Amazon, etc.), the author names will all be spelled with a single space, and a librarian will be required to disambiguate book records.

What does this mean for you? You have the default, single-space profile. That means whenever we have a mass database import, all books by any author named Jessica Young will appear on your profile. This is both good and bad for you. On the plus side, any book you've written will appear on your profile without your intervention. On the negative side, other Jessica Youngs will have their books appear on your profile, including any potential future books of a racy nature. Normally authors don't mind because all they have to do is post a request to the Goodreads Librarian group (like you did already) to have books moved off their profile.

However, if you are concerned about objectionable content appearing on your profile in the future, you can request that Goodreads employees change your profile spelling to include extra spaces (e.g., Jessica-five space-Young). That way, no books should appear on your profile without the direct intervention of a librarian. The only downside to that approach is you will have to remember to create book records with the extra spaces and/or check the default, single-space profile every once in awhile to rescue any editions of your books that might have appeared there.

[Jessica]

You are wonderful! I'll stick with this, but I'll know what to do next time... So I just post to this group to have them moved off? If so, then I'll stick with what I've got.

Thanks again!

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Jessica wrote: "So I just post to this group to have them moved off?"

Exactly. (Preferably in a new thread, rather than one linked to another author, though.)

[Jessica]

Great! Thanks so much!