GR author labelled with different names

[Susanna]

I'm not sure if this is the right folder to post this but I found a lot of different names listed for the author of The Help. I changed the author for the books listed under the following names and combined the books with the right author.

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...

Because Kathryn Stockett is a GR author, I'm not sure how to delete the "wrong" authors. Help, please?

[Joy]

If I'm not mistaken, I think author profiles like that (with no books) are automatically deleted at a certain point. Maybe when the cache catches up with them?

[Lisa]

Susanna, If all the editions of The Help are now only under Kathryn Stockett's name, the "wrong" names, if there are no books belonging to them, can be changed to Various; that's what I usually do. Or you can change them all to Kathryn Stockett if they have no books belonging to other authors.

I'll try to check these...

[Lisa]

I got the bottom two; someone else got the top three.

[Melody]

No - they aren't automatically deleted. You can delete them by merging them with another author (if they are empty it doesn't matter - but I usually merge them with Not a book). I took care of them.

[Donna]

I found another case of this. I'm a librarian, but I haven't done much with author profiles and I didn't want to risk screwing up something related to a GR author.

Here's the GR Author account:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...

And here are two other accounts that list some of his books:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...

Each of these other accounts include a book or books not listed on his official account, and some of them (especially in the second case) are probably by other folks with the name N. Wilson.

I was thinking about just changing the author name on each book already listed on his profile to match the name on his account, and then merging the duplicates. Would that be the best way to handle this? There are also several instances of duplicate books that no one has shelved at all, should those just be merged with the main listings, or should they be deleted?

[Melody]

I was thinking about just changing the author name on each book already listed on his profile to match the name on his account, and then merging the duplicates. Would that be the best way to handle this?

Yes that is the best way to handle it

There are also several instances of duplicate books that no one has shelved at all, should those just be merged with the main listings, or should they be deleted? "

No - don't delete them - they are actual editions (the ones I looked at were e-books - and each had isbn numbers). They should be treated the same way - name changed and then merged with the correct edition.

[Donna]

Okay, I just fixed the name on and then combined all of the obvious duplications from the author's profile.

[Melody]

The two N.D. Wilsons (one with no space and one with a space) need to be reported here: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

With a note added to each profile saying that there are more than one author with that name: Like this profile: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...

If you don't get to it Donna - I'll check back later and do it. Or anyone else who reads this post can fix it.

[Cynthia]

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...

AND

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...

[rivka, Former Moderator]

That appears to be a deliberate disambiguation of two different authors.

Edit: Yup, Jessica did that, presumably at the author's request.

[Donna]

Melody wrote: "The two N.D. Wilsons (one with no space and one with a space) need to be reported here: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

With a note added to each profile sa..."

I suspect that the two may actually be the same person, but I didn't change the name on the last item listed under the one with the space for a couple of reasons.

First, nothing related to this last item was listed under the other GR account.

And second, it's not really a book. I couldn't find a print version at all, it appears to be something available only as a CD set. One of the other people listed on it is another GR author, and after reading the thread about not marking GR Author items Not A Book, I'm not really sure what to do with it.

I didn't want to spend the time researching whether or not this item was by the same N.D. Wilson if it was something that doesn't belong on GR in the first place, especially because I'm not familiar at all with the author's work. The only reason I found the duplicate entries was because his newest book was suggested for the bookshelf of the group I run, so I decided to look into what I thought would be a quick fix. :)

Here's the link:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/67...

[Cait]

Since the author is a GR author, you could just send them a message and ask if they're the contributor. (I always forget this myself!)

[Donna]

Good idea!

So it doesn't really matter that the listing is for a CD set and not a book?

[rivka, Former Moderator]

If it's really by a GR author, we usually make an exception to the general NAB rules. And this one strikes me as borderline (very close to an audiobook) anyway.