Can a deceased (in 2004) author be a GR Author?

[Carolyn]

I was wondering about this because as I was working on the books for William W. Johnstone, I was moving around between Fantastic Fiction and Wikipedia and found that the man actually passed away in 2004. Similar to other author franchises, the publisher did not announce that he had passed away and did not acknowledge another writer on the new books coming out until 2006. Most of the books written since then have both his name and the other author's name on the books. So, a similar situation to the Nancy Drew series of books, the use of the Tom Clancy name on the Splinter Cell and NetForce series, and the publisher's use of V.C. Andrews name on books written after she passed away.

So, my main question is, can/should the deceased author William W. Johnstone be a GoodReads Author if they are dead? Personally I think this is misleading and they should not have GR Author status. Since the author died before GR was even online, their misrepresentation of themselves as the actual author is entirely a fraud.

Thoughts?

[rivka, Former Moderator]

I don't know what the specifics are of this case, but I think we do have some author profiles that are actually maintained by the agent or publisher.