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Policies & Practices
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Author groups allowed in "Author" field?
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Hi Renee, I've recently come across a very simliar "author" listing, and know of another librarian who have come across this phenomenon too. From what I understand, a publisher's name is only allowed in the author field if no individual author name is known. (If this is wrong, I'm happy to be corrected by other librarians.)
But since this seems like recently changed behaviour from authors, and some Librarians are helping out to create these themed collection "author" listings, I'm just as interested to hear from other Librarians and staff's opinion as you are.
I'm wondering if it's not being used as a workaround for the fact that "series" with truly unrelated books aren't allowed to have a series page on GR. But that's just a theory. If these groups weren't listed as an author on Amazon, I'd delete them, but since they are... I'm not sure what to do.
Oh, and for this particular group, the group name isn't listed as the publisher on Amazon--not for the ones I've checked, anyway. The ones I've checked were all published by the authors' individual publishers.
I believe if individual authors are known, collectives should not be added to the book record. Besides, they are not even listed as authors on the covers.It doesn't help that Amazon imports these groups as authors :(
Mod
Agreed.
Renee ❤️My heroes are ordinary wrote: "I'm wondering if it's not being used as a workaround for the fact that "series" with truly unrelated books aren't allowed to have a series page on GR. But that's just a theory."I suspect the same, at least in situations like this when it seems the 'collective name' is added manually rather than imported from Amazon.
Thank you both rivka and lethe for your comments, making the policy clear.
One way to remove the 'collective' name from all titles (it's not the primary author on any of them) would be to send in a request to Goodreads Support to delete the author profile completely.
Thanks so much--I'll start deleting them and hope that Amazon doesn't repopulate the fields. That's another question I was going to ask--when we delete the editor, cover designer, etc., does Amazon add it again?
ETA: Thanks, annob--that's a great idea. Thank you, rivka and lethe!
Mod
Not on the same edition, but possibly on other editions -- and certainly on other works.
rivka wrote: "Renee ❤️My heroes are ordinary wrote: "That's another question I was going to ask--when we delete the editor, cover designer, etc., does Amazon add it again?"Not on the same edition, but possibly..."
That's good. After I deleted what seemed like 100 of them the other day, I started wondering. Thanks!
I have another question about these clubs listed as authors. Per annob's suggestion, I'm sending links to GR support for several of these clubs that are listed as authors. First, I'm going through and making sure the club isn't the primary author and I'm just deleting it on the box sets; however, now I've come across this one. It has the club on the cover, even though the box set is made up of books by various authors:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
So does this mean it's okay for BWWM Club to be listed as the author (it was listed and I deleted it, but then I noticed the cover)?
FYI--they are listed as a co-author on pages and pages of books, which is what I planned to turn in to GR support. Here's the author page just for reference:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Mod
No.
They are actually on my list to clean up (they are the primary author on some books, plus many of the books on their list need other edits as well, so I have been working through them bit by bit when I have time), but I would not at all mind assistance.
rivka wrote: "Renee ❤️My heroes are ordinary wrote: "So does this mean it's okay for BWWM Club to be listed as the author"No.
They are actually on my list to clean up (they are the primary author on some book..."
Okay, I'll keep working on them. I've also been taking the trope out of the title/series and deleting sale info from the blurbs.
One more question. One of the clubs that annob got rid of has now had a series created. Some of them mention in the blurb that they're based on a certain series/world by an author duo that's simply a series of standalones as far as I can find. So actually, the only thing they have in common is that they're based on/inspired by various standalones by this author duo.
I haven't read the original books, so I'm not sure if any of them have shared characters/world, but from reading reviews, it doesn't appear so. I'm pretty sure the series needs to be deleted, but my main question is--should a listopia list be created? This club is becoming huge as more and more authors are added (about 200 authors) and also has a FB group with membership approaching 7K, so I'm wondering how many people are going to keep trying to set up a series for it.
https://www.goodreads.com/series/2744...
I'm not sure why, but there have also been two books added to GR that are attributed to this club as the only author:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
ETA: Sorry if this should go in the Series thread. I was considering it a policy issue, but while checking to see if anyone else is having problems adding books to series (because a couple of books that I added to GR in the last 24 hours aren't showing up in the search yet), I noticed the threads there about "is this a series."
Hi ReneeI'm not a list sort of librarian. When I used to do awards if I had to remove a big "award" that wasn't I would put a thread in the looking for a project thread & give a time period when I was going to delete the award. Sometimes another librarian kindly came forward & did a list, sometimes no one was interested. Either way I deleted the award.
Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂ wrote: "Hi ReneeI'm not a list sort of librarian. When I used to do awards if I had to remove a big "award" that wasn't I would put a thread in the looking for a project thread & give a time period when ..."
Carol--I'm not either really, but the membership in the "club" is so huge that I'm just wondering if it might not be a good idea to catch it before it gets out of hand.
With almost 200 authors in the club, the books are going to start coming fast and furious and I'm just wondering--if those involved are made aware that it's not a series, but there's a listopia list that they can a) add their book to, and b) put a link to in their description, it may save some time and work in the long run. I know a few of the authors in the group, and I could start by asking them to spread the word.
However, I don't want to do anything without clearing it here first. If everyone here feels that they just need to be corrected as we see them and delete the series as we see it created (if if indeed needs to be deleted), I'll do that. Everyone here has dealt with this much more than I have. Up to the last couple of months, I've just seen it happening, read posts to find out how everyone here handled it, and corrected what I could on individual books.
First, I guess I need to made sure the series needs to be deleted. I'm pretty sure it does, but that's kind of a big deal when there are lots of authors involved.
I'm happy to help when I finish my current project & once we have the all clear.The authors won't be able to put links in the description though.
I thought they could put a link to a listopia list on the GR site.And thank you for the offer of help!
Renee ❤️My heroes are ordinary wrote: "I'm not sure why, but there have also been two books added to GR that are attributed to this club as the only author: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...I cleared this profile up a while ago. It had 35+ books on it at first, but the two that remains have the 'collective name' as the only author listed, so I had to let them stay on the profile.
annob wrote: "Renee ❤️My heroes are ordinary wrote: "I'm not sure why, but there have also been two books added to GR that are attributed to this club as the only author: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19..."annob--I noticed you cleaned the others up, and I figured that was why the "author" name had to stay--thanks!
Should the series now be deleted?
Renee ❤️My heroes are ordinary wrote: "I thought they could put a link to a listopia list on the GR site."
I just checked the manual & it does only say links to external sites aren't allowed.
Maybe staff can confirm links to listopias would be ok?
Mod
While a link to a Listopia with a book description is technically within Goodreads policy, I would not be in favor.
I see the series information has been changed from "Cocky Hero Club" to "A Cocky Hero Club Novel". In my opinion the words 'A ... Novel' doesn't belong in the series name any more than it does in the title/subtitle, but I realise this is my opinion rather than something detailed in the Librarian Manual. What are your opinions, should the series name be changed to remove the words 'A' and 'novel'?
IMO, "A ... Novel" can never be a series name, as it denotes a single volume in the series.
That's a good argument, lethe. :)I'll wait a little while to see if anyone else wants to add their voice, if not I'll edit the series info.
Another example: the Little Golden Books. The covers say "a Little Golden Book", but the series is called Little Golden Books: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...(Although I don't think that is an actual series according to GR policy... ;) )
And I don't think the one I'm speaking of is an actual series either.In other "world" series I've seen on GR, I believe all of the original books are related, but as far as I can tell, the 6 books that these new books are based on (or "inspired by") are not connected--the only thing the original books have in common is that they're written by the same writing duo and each have a "cocky hero." So these 200ish authors will each be picking one of six unrelated books to use as inspiration for each of their books.
However, if the series is kept, I'd think the title would be "Cocky Hero."
lethe wrote: "... (Although I don't think that is an actual series according to GR policy... ;) )" Lol, wisely picked example :D
I usually remove 'The ... Series' as well, but I've never actually asked or seen any (recent) discussions about the practice.
Renee ❤️My heroes are ordinary wrote: "... the only thing the original books have in common is that they're written by the same writing duo and each have a "cocky hero.""That does sound like a themed collection to me, not a Goodreads series. But I confess I'm unfamiliar with the 6 books that have inspired the other books.
I'd be happy to hand over the decision of what to call the series (if it should stay) to you, since you know more about it than I do.
annob wrote: "Renee ❤️My heroes are ordinary wrote: "... the only thing the original books have in common is that they're written by the same writing duo and each have a "cocky hero.""That does sound like a th..."
That was just my two cents, I'm fine with whatever, but I also definitely agree that "a" and "novel" shouldn't be there.
With the 'club' thing, I was simply thinking about all the other theme-based clubs that have been popping up and wondering if each of them will use this as a precedent to create their own club series and whether their series will be allowed as well.
The Little Golden Book series is a great example of a series that's been given a exception (and I'm great with that because it makes it easier for readers to find the other like books). Personally, I wish certain common theme (not trope) series were allowed on GR. But no matter what I prefer, my main goal is to follow whatever I'm told is okay by GR standards and if possible, to be prepared to explain why it's been allowed if another romance author is told their series can't be created and they ask me, but why is the Cocky Hero Club series allowed?
I appreciate the discussion on this as it's helping me learn more about the process.
lethe wrote: "Another example: the Little Golden Books. The covers say "a Little Golden Book", but the series is called Little Golden Books: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...(Alt..."
no it's not as far as I know- I asked that in the past and was told it's not a valid series and there is a listopia for them
If only an error message could come up whenever somebody tried to re-add a previously deleted series...
Mod
Both versions would be acceptable under our policies. My personal preference is for the shorter version, unless there is a reason in a specific case to go with the longer.
Renee ❤️My heroes are ordinary wrote: "The Little Golden Book series is a great example of a series that's been given a exception "I don't think that it has been given an exception. It is just that people have re-added it.
Mod
Correct.
lethe wrote: "Renee ❤️My heroes are ordinary wrote: "The Little Golden Book series is a great example of a series that's been given a exception "I don't think that it has been given an exception. It is just th..."
Oh, yes. I should have realized that.
So what should I do about the other series? Anything?
Lately, I've been seeing quite a few of these author collab groups where a bunch of authors write similar books (but not necessarily a series) under the same umbrella, which they give a name and set up as an additional "author" of the book on both Amazon and then GR. Sometimes it's a publishing group but sometimes it's not.
I just wanted to confirm whether or not they're allowed to be listed as an "author" as I see that some librarians are deleting the group name from the author field of the individual books, and then the authors or another librarian are adding them again. Here's an example of one such group:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
In the description field for this particular author page, it reads:
"This is NOT an Author, but a group of writers, writing under one umbrella/collaboration/publisher."
Thank you!