Conflicting profiles name of Turkish Author 'Elif Safak/ Shafak'

[P.]

Elif Safak currently has 2 profiles. One is filed under 'Elif Shafak' and I only became aware of this after I updated the 'Elif Safak' one.

What do we do with profiles of an author who has different spellings to their names? Safak (needs a little cedille under the S) is the official Turkish spelling, therefore anyone doing a search within goodreads directory in Turkey would spell her name without the 'H'.

The one with the 'H' is for books published outside Turkey. There are editions of books with both spellings. Is there a way to combine profiles the way we combine book editions?

NOTE: GR Librarian Catherine Morgan left a note that she filed it as 'Shafak' in the WorldCat. I'm also new here and still learning the ropes (and I have read the manual, but it's not clear as to what we should do with a problem like this).

[rivka, Former Librarian Moderator]

Current preference would be that the primary author for these books would be as is listed in the Library of Congress (which is most likely the same as WorldCat, but I have not checked), and for any books published in Turkish and/or with the other spelling on the cover, to list that (complete with the cedille) as the secondary author.

That way all editions can be combined, but people searching for the Turkish spelling can find it.

[Cait]

If there were an author profile with "Elif Şafak" as the name, I might feel differently, but it looks like the only options coming in through booksellers are "Elif Shafak" and "Elif Safak", so we might as well choose the more useful of those transliterations. "Shafak" already has a number of fans and a lot of books shelved, which strongly implies that that's the better-known spelling. (And "Sh" is the standard transliteration for "Ş", isn't it?)

[rivka, Former Librarian Moderator]

Cait makes good points.

[P.]

Thanks for responding. Yes, those are good points. So the best thing to do would be to add 'Safak' as a secondary author. How do I do that?

Plus I just looked and both 'Shafak' and 'Safak' are listed in the Library of Congress, with 'Shafak' having entries of her novels.

The manual states I should edit the profile to be discarded first, then change the name to the one it should be.

[P.]

I have also noticed the same problem with 'Halide Edip Adivar/ HAlide EDip Adivar'. Two profiles... both spelled incorrectly. When choosing which profile to keep and which to merge, do you pay attention to the number of reviews, or the number of books the profiles have assigned to them?

[rivka, Former Librarian Moderator]

Merging will combine all of the above, so if they're both wrong, it doesn't matter. Merge, and then edit to the correct spelling.

[P.]

Thanks! Will do.