Goodreads Librarians Group discussion
This topic is about
Joyce
Book & Author Page Issues
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Name change
date
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You can be "Elizabeth Elle Mitchell" which will fit all of your books. For Goodreads, whether you have new ISBN editions or not wouldn't change anything. If a book is under Elle and later under Elizabeth, both names would have to be listed as the authors. This way you would only have to have one "author" listed and readers will be able to look up either name.Contact Support to change it though. We do not have the ability.
https://www.goodreads.com/about/conta...
Sorry about my late reply, I didn't get a notification about your response.Thanks for letting me know.
1. I'll make a new profile first.
2. Can I add Elizabeth Mitchell to all of the books after that?
3. Am I able to do that by myself, or should I ask support to do that?
You can ask Support to change your name to Elizabeth Elle Mitchell.Or, you can also ask for a separate profile to be added to the books that have Elizabeth on them later if you prefer to have two profiles. Then Elizabeth Mitchell would appear only on the books that have her name.
As long as your profile name encompasses both names it is acceptable to have just one.
I did that. Could I get Joyce put back under my account? It's claimed under a different person now.Thanks!
Wait, I did it and it reverted. Not sure what happened. I'll see if Support can take care of everything.
Joyce moved back to your profileIf you edit the author name on your books it will remove the book from your profile.
Your Goodreads profile name must match your book covers, which show "Elle Mitchell". Only Goodreads Support can edit your author page name but in this case it should not be modified as it is already following policy.
Here's a profile for "Elizabeth Mitchell" which you can claim if you like using a separate account: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Both profiles can be added as authors to your books so the books show up in both places.
Shim wrote: "Joyce moved back to your profileIf you edit the author name on your books it will remove the book from your profile.
Your Goodreads profile name must match your book covers, which show "Elle Mit..."
I asked Support to correct your name to remove the slash. Joyce was put under Elizabeth Elle Mitchell. Now both the book and profiles have been changed.
Perhaps it would be easier to just deal with one person or one support representative from here on.
In summary:
You have two choices.
Elizabeth Elle Mitchell
or two profiles, one Elle and one Elizabeth.
Maybe support should sort it for you instead.
"Elizabeth Elle Mitchell" is not an option here as per Goodreads policy as this does not match the covers of any books.
Shim wrote: ""Elizabeth Elle Mitchell" is not an option here as per Goodreads policy as this does not match the covers of any books."It is because it encompasses all of the author names. There are many examples of the former moderator stating this in previous posts over the years so that is why I deemed it acceptable.
This is much like the policy that gives authors the ability to insert a middle initial, for example, to differentiate themselves if they wish, even if that is not on the front of any of their covers. While many of us would not recommend that and would recommend spacing options instead, it is allowed, because the search will find it.
From the manual:
ALSO NOTE: If an author has a common name, they may choose to differentiate their names from other authors in the database in other ways. Acceptable options include:
inserting a middle initial or middle name
lengthening a first initial to a full first name
These minor changes are accepted practice for ease of maintaining accurate book lists on each author profile.
I am going back to publishing under Elizabeth Mitchell, starting with Joyce. I'm wondering if I can add my real name to my current page. Have it be Elizabeth (Elle) Mitchell or something like that? I want people to be able to find me for both, and my series Janes will get split up if we don't do it like that. I can't afford all new ISBNs at the moment, so I was hoping this would suffice until I could do a full switch. Just Another Elizabeth is already my handle, my website, etc. So people are aware that's my real name.
Thanks so much!