Merging editions with different primary author names?

[Michele]

The book "Shadow Born (Shadows of Salem #1)" is listed here, with primary author Jasmine Walt and secondary author Rebecca Hamilton, as shown on the cover (there are 10 editions):

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

It is also listed here, with primary author Rebecca Hamilton and secondary author Heather Marie Adkins, as shown on the cover (there are 2 editions):

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

All of these are clearly the same book. But the only way I know to merge editions is to go to the author's "Combine" page, and since these have different primary authors they don't show up together on a "Combine" page. So what's the best way to accomplish this? Should I change the primary author on the first one to Hamilton, so that they all show up on her "Combine" page, combine them, and then switch the names back?

[Miriam]

The books do need to have the same primary author. When a book is published under a different name, the original name needs to be added as primary for all editions (even if the original name is not on the cover of the new editions).

In this case, since Jasmine Walt was the original primary author, she needs to be listed on all the editions as primary.

There are serious issues in the database when combined books do not have the same primary author.

Librarian Manual: https://help.goodreads.com/s/article/...
Scroll down to the section: Author pseudonyms/pen names (you want the second paragraph)

[Michele]

Thanks for the link! I read through it and am still a bit puzzled as to the right thing to do. It says, "When a book has multiple authors they should be listed according to the order they show on the cover, if possible" and it also says "When editing or adding information for a book written by an author with multiple names, enter the author's name as it appears on the front cover as the primary author."

Adding Jasmine Walt as the primary author to that second version of the book seems like it would break both those rules, wouldn't it?

[Miriam]

This the section that applies to your issue (and overrides the only names on the cover section):

a book may be originally published under a pen name, but then later reissued under the author's original name. When this happens, the author listed for any and all editions should be the author name the book was originally published under - so the reissued edition would need its primary author name changed to the originally published pen name, with the additional name added as secondary for all editions with it on the cover.

Since Jasmine Walt was the original name the book was published under, it needs to be primary for all of the editions.

[Michele]

Ah, ok, I see. Thank you for the clarification :)