how to separate authors?

[Lena]

Hello!

I found and sadly created a problem with the site of the author David O. Morgan and hope someone here can help me fix it.

Till today there were two author sites: David Morgan and David O. Morgan. Both authors had listed books from the historian David O. Morgan. I tried to sort this out and (long story short) I merged them.
The problem now is that - even tho I merged the two - there are tons of Morgan-books sorted under the two (now one) author:
- the historian David O. Morgan
- the biologist David O. Morgan
- the arthistorian David Morgan
- the (police)author David H. S. Morgan
- the (sports)author David Morgan
- even more

I have no idea how to fix this. When I tried to create two authors with the same name goodreads sent an error message 'the author already exist's.

Kind regards
Lena

[Cassandra]

Lena wrote: "Hello!

I found and sadly created a problem with the site of the author David O. Morgan and hope someone here can help me fix it.

Till today there were two author sites: David Morg..."

The librarian manual will help you; authors with the same name are disambiguated using additional spacing between first and last name (or middle initial/name and last name)-

Separating authors with the same name
Occasionally you may come across an author profile that encompasses two or more authors of the same name. In order to separate these authors and their respective books you will need to identify which books belong to which author. Once you have, leave one author alone and for the second, go into the edit page of each of their books and add an additional space between their first and last name.

This will create a new author profile for the second author.

If by chance there is a third author of the same name (which has happened), simply add a third space between the author's first and last name...

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


https://help.goodreads.com/s/topic/0T...

[Emily]

Make sure David H.S. Morgan has no space between H and S.

[Lena]

Thank you! You have been a great help!
I didn't imagine it to be that simple.

[Mat]

The addition of spaces will work, but will not help gr'ers who will not be any wiser. Would adding the birth and death years be allowed ?

For instance, there are a few "John Nichols" but only one would be "John Nichols (1745-1826)". He would not be mixed up with, for instance, the author of The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders' Cure for Royalism.

Is this allowed in gr ?

Thanks for your feedback.

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

Mat wrote: "The addition of spaces will work, but will not help gr'ers who will not be any wiser. Would adding the birth and death years be allowed ?

For instance, there are a few "John Nichols" but only one ..."

No that isn't allowed on GR.Mat.

If you have any suggestions on changing the way GR works you could use the Contact Us link at the top of this group. Librarians are volunteers & we have no influence in matters like this.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Birth and death years can be added to the author's profile page (in the description if more detailed dates are not known), but not to their name.

[Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂]

rivka wrote: "Birth and death years can be added to the author's profile page (in the description if more detailed dates are not known), but not to their name."

Thanks for being clearer than I was, rivka!