Goodreads Librarians Group discussion
note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
Serieses!
>
Tips for working with series
Great tips, Cait. I think I've made every one of those mistakes. :-\Possibly everyone already knows this, but something I noticed recently is that you don't have to keep closing and reopening your "add a book" window. Just do a new search.
Thanks, Cait. I haven't worked on series yet, but I might and I appreciate your tips and this thread.
I've been doing serieses and those are great tips Cait, thanks :-)
Mod
can you give tips on how to differentiate between two series with the same name but different stories altogether?i stumbled on this:
http://www.goodreads.com/series/44122...
and wonder how to differentiate between the series by carrie jones and the series by sean michael. >'<
A new series with the name "Need" can be created, and half of those book deleted from the old and added to the new. (Series don't need to be disambig'd like authors; they're allowed to have duplicate names.)
I think that must be one of the cases where the automatic creation of series mushed them together. As long as you're sure there's no connection (easy enough to verify with googling, I'd think) then it's pretty simple to just separate them by author in this case. You can eliminate all the books by one author, then create a new series for that author. They can continue to have the same name.
thanks!just to avoid confusion, I put the author name in the series description. or would it be better to put it in the series name instead?
The series description is a good place for it. If it were in the series name it would show up next to the title where the author name already is, so that would be redundant.)
Again, this may be really obvious but I just thought of it: If your series titles have a common word, searching on that word and the author's last name will bring up everything and you can just click add a few times and save typing.Oh, and never click on a title during the adding process or you'll lose everything. Guess who found that out the hard way. :-\
You can I delet a series entry; I see only an ADD button.
You can remove books from a series or delete the entire series from the series editing page; you can only create a new series from the book editing page.
Cait wrote: "You can remove books from a series or delete the entire series from the series editing page; you can only create a new series from the book editing page."I don't want to delete the series itself I only want to remove it from the book, cancle the connection between the book and the series if wrong
You need to go to the series page. (By clicking on the series title on the book page.) Then click edit. On the right of the book titles, there will be "remove" buttons. That will remove the book from the series (and the series from the book.)
Thank you for the tips Cait, they have come in handy!Quick question, if a series has a chronological order but the author has a different order. Which one should i use? I'm totally OCD about reading series books in chronological order, but i understand some authors do not feel the same way....so should i make a note about it somewhere and leave it as the author likes or not?
Rossy, if there are multiple possible orders for a series, you can create the series multiple times and order each one differently; you might want to put a clear subtitle on each series, you should definitely write the description of each series indicating that there are multiple available orders and linking to the others, and you'll also need to pick one series to be the books' primary series, the one which shows next to the title (probably this should be the author's suggested order, especially if this is what's listed on the books).Bear in mind that series are going to be visible to everyone on all of the books, so do try to avoid creating extra ones unless there's a strong need for it: if any editions of the books have been published with a certain numbering, there should be a series which lists that numbering, but if the books are not published with those numbers, it's a judgment call on what should be considered a formal numbering system.
Here's an example of a series created twice: The Obernewtyn Chronicles: North American editions (numbered 1-8) and The Obernewtyn Chronicles: Australian editions (numbered 1-6).
Thanks for all the series tips Librarians. Now that we have this lovely series machine on Goodreads is it important for us to label each book in the title (Series, #?) since now that is included in the title, instead of the ghostly gray series part?Another thing I want to know is when a publisher uses a common title to group books in themes but they are not a series of character related books do we consider this a series? The one that has me wondering is the series this book belongs too. (warning - erotica) Toy Box: Nipple Clamps Really they are not related, though the same characters will show up in a few but not all of them.
I try to indicate in the description if a series is only loosely linked or standalones.
Like indicating "related themes" since it is not character related?
Mountie wrote: "The one that has me wondering is the series this book belongs too. (warning - erotica) Toy Box: Nipple Clamps Really they are not related, though the same characters will show up in a few but not all of them. "I put that series together because I thought people might like to see the entire collection in one place. I brought it up on the M/M Romance group, which seemed to be the most appropriate place at the time. Here's the thread. (Private group due to adult content.)
Thanks mlady_rebecca. I will go and check out the discussion as I belong to the M/M Readers group too. Torquere Presses anthologies always poses some interesting dilemma's for us Librarians.
How should I number a series for which there is no chronological order? For example, the Books of History Chronicles by Ted Dekker? It's not really possible to order them chronologically (what with time travel and parallel universes, etc.) so how should I number them? The author refuses to give an overall number system because he feels that there really isn't a right order, but I think we should still include all of the books as a series. Should I just order them arbitrarily?To be clear, the Books of History Chronicles are a group of connected book series, similar to Terry Brooks's Shannara saga. I assume that series within series are fine, since I checked on Terry Brooks and his books are listed in both their original series and the overall series.
I hope that makes at least a little bit of sense. Thanks!
Mod
Series within series are definitely fine! If there isn't a definite numbering for the overarching series, you can leave them unnumbered; as for the order, perhaps publication order? Or if there's another order which makes sense to you as a reader of the books (grouping by series, perhaps), that would also be fine (although you might want to add a note to that effect, so that other librarians know it isn't random). You might want to include in the description of the series that the author doesn't number them -- that sounds like information of interest to readers!
Ok, thanks! I didn't particularly want to use publication order because he sometimes writes a series, writes another, and then goes back and adds a book to the first series, etc. I think I'll group them by series. Thanks again!
This is really good stuff librarians. Thanks!I decided against making another series of the same. I don't think it's really necessary, am just a little OCD and i know others are too. Can i place a library note that will be visible to everyone who reads the blurb? I have seen it on a few books at the end of the blurb, but not sure if only librarians can see it. Or is that a librarian comment?
Some updates and additions:* The bug where adding a new book wipes out numbering done since the last save has been fixed -- you can now add a book, give it a number, and then add another book without losing the previous one's number.
* The bug where combining or separating a book in a series while the series was open for editing would cause the series to fail to save has also been fixed -- you can now open a series for editing, combine or delete the books added to it, and save the series. You'll still want to double-check what happens with separated books, though.
* When you have a series open for editing, clicking on a book title will open the book page in a new tab, so you don't have to worry that mis-clicking will navigate you away from the series page (which loses all of your work). However! In the pop-up search box for "add books", clicking on the titles will open them in the same tab, which will cancel all of your series edits, so be careful when searching.
* The series description can hold the same sorts of HTML that comments can, so it's a good place to link to official series websites, other related series, character pages for series protagonists, and other things of interest. It holds ~4000 characters.
Mountie wrote: "... is it important for us to label each book in the title (Series, #?) since now that is included in the title..." ...Another thing I want to know is when a publisher uses a common title to group books in themes but they are not a series of character related books do we consider this a series?...
My question is about:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16...
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19...
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20...
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51...
I believe the concept was an intro by Issac Asimov, the sci-fi novel and then a related essay by a scientist.
So...
1) Are they a GR series?
2) Do they have three authors, two authors or one?
3) Do we remove the "(The Next Wave, No x)" from all the titles?
To generalize, would it be more correct to add "Intro by Fname M. Lname" to the comments or add her as a separate author? Seems to me that the essayist should be included as an author.
Thanks!
1. Yup.2. As you describe it, it sounds like each book has three authors. (People who write introductions should be listed as a secondary author with the author role of "Introduction".)
3. Not yet, because the series isn't showing in all places in the site. Once the series shows correctly everywhere, then series information can come out of the title.
'k. I'll work on them once I get to the books and get the information.Here's another set:
The Ultimate Dracula
The Ultimate Frankenstein
The Ultimate Werewolf
The Ultimate Witch
The Ultimate Zombie
1) Looks like it MIGHT be a series. Is it?
2) What would you call it? Inside the cover of Witch it says, "Other Ultimate Monster Books from Dell." Would that be good?
3) How would you determine the order?
4) It looks like The Ultimate Werewolf would be the desired format, right?
:-D Thanks again!
1. I'd say so -- it's a little iffier, but I like series. :)2. Ultimate Monster or Ultimate Monster Books, it sounds like.
3. It probably doesn't have a numbering; if there are a lot of them, you might want to put them in alphabetical or publication order.
4. Yeah, that record looks pretty complete!
:D back atcha!
(sigh) I have a pretty serious... series? weakness myself. Even if a first book is pretty bad, I HAVE to get the next to see if it's any better. So when I stumbled on one of these, I had to get the others too. Of course, they're sitting in a bag in my house someplace and may never be found again. (all trade paperbacks, except for one hard cover.) grrr...
Re: The Ultimate Werewolf, I thought "Cover Artists" were not considered proper authors to include?
I need some help with this series: http://www.goodreads.com/series/51714...Only 2 books are listed as a series, but when i look here: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/l/t...
The order and the amount of books in the series is different. In fact book #2 (as stated in GR) had another name Paying Piper. What should i do?
Rossy, I actually set up that series, I think, and I did it based on the author's website -- fantasticfiction is a great resource, but it's not always correct. The author's website calls Nowhere Carolina "the second book in the Southern Discomfort series".
Yes i noticed that, but am wondering where it stands chronologically. I would hate to start the series with book #5, then find out that the main characters in the other books are already together in this one. From the blurb though am not sure if the first book listed in fantasticfiction is even set in the same town.
@Cait, Rivka? Any other experts out there?http://www.goodreads.com/series/52764...
Is there any way to get the cover from the trade edition of Frankenstein instead of the mass market edition? It would make it look SO much better. :-)
Mod
Do you think it's one of those cases where the mass market is more "popular" so that's the cover that shows?
Mod
One more question for the night, if I may. If you have an anthology like these, do you put the contributors in alpha order, or in the order their stories are in the book, or in some order that isn't obvious to me at all?Thanks for checking, Rivka! :-)
I have a question. Is it still necessary to put the series name in parentheses in the title box? I.E. Born Of Fire (The League #2) Or because of the series feature can that be taken out of the book titles?
Mod
rivka wrote: "DON'T start take them out yet, but most of us are not bothering to add them where they are not."I certainly don't add them to all editions anymore, but it is nice to have it on at least one title of the series (unless the series name is also the title of the first book) for searching purposes.
rivka wrote: "DON'T start take them out yet, but most of us are not bothering to add them where they are not."So, they can be taken out at point in the future then?
Mod
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.
Goodreads Librarians Group
Books mentioned in this topic
A Hat Full of Sky (other topics)Wintersmith (other topics)
The Wee Free Men (other topics)
The Black God's War (other topics)
The Ultimate Werewolf (other topics)
More...
* Save often! If you add a lot of books to a series, they aren't saved as part of the series until you hit that save button, so if anything goes wrong then you've lost all of that search engine work.
* Fixed!
Don't bother numbering books while you add them. Adding another book wipes out any numbering you've done since the last time you saved.* Fixed!
Never combine or edit books while the series is open for editing. This is my number one source of the "unexpected error" while working on series -- series hate having their books changed out from under them while they're open!* On the other hand, series are great at handling books being combined or editing once the series is saved. I find that the book search within series turns up a lot of author misspellings; it's easy enough to add those books to the series, save the series (see above!), fix the books, and go back to working on the series.
* Separated books seem to sometimes stay with the series and sometimes not -- perhaps this behavior has changed recently? When separating books, always check whether they're still in the series afterward.
* Always double-check the series order. There's an open bug in the series order that sometimes books will flip places when the series is saved...which means that if you're saving early and often, you have a lot of chances to have books shift around on your careful ordering.
* The automatic series generator which pre-populated the series field when it was introduced was very picky about its formatting. If there are books early in the series with looser formatting and books later with the hard standard (which was one set of parenthesis containing a text string, a comma, a space, the number sign, an integer, and absolutely nothing else), it's worth checking whether the series was autogenerated on those later books; if so, all you have to do is add the earlier books to the existing series rather than creating a new series.
Anyone else have some tricks?