Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

Hi.

if a non-English author has not been translated, but the author has claimed the English profile (on GR), should all books still have the English-version of the name as primary author?

It makes sense the answer would be yes, but would prefer to confirm.

Also if that author does translation, should the English-version of the name be added also, so the books appear in the claimed profile? Since the translations are FROM English to the author's language his name would always be printer in the original language, not English. And since as a translator he is always in secondary position it is irrelevant for edition-combining.

Thank you.

Does this help?

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Also, translators, I'd only put in language-of-edition unless they were particularly well known in English for other works.

Hi Emy,

that is somewhat helpful, but my question is what to do when the author's works have not been translated at all but the English profile has been claimed. Do I keep all the books with the English-version of the name and add the Bulgarian as secondary or do we follow the rule?
Here is an example of the author. He translates as well but there is not a single work of his in English on Goodreads.

Claimed profile = first author, in general.

Why? Author preference is assumed in their chosen profile, and thus should be used as first author except where they are known to use two forms for specific types of work (as with Dean Koontz). Also, if we don't put the Goodreads Author version first, then the author cannot manage their works.

Exasperating, but I feel it is the same as for authors not using diacritics on their profiles... :/ Bit of a pain as we'll need to add the cover-version-author as secondary on all works.

Emy wrote: "Claimed profile = first author, in general."

Oh that is what I hoped the answer would be (as it makes more sense), but wanted it confirmed. Thank you.

No problem :)

Sometimes authors are not aware that their name should (preferably) be in the language they publish in. I once asked an author to change the name in his profile to Arabic or Persian script (can't remember which) and he had no problem with that.

lethe wrote: "Sometimes authors are not aware that their name should (preferably) be in the language they publish in. I once asked an author to change the name in his profile to Arabic or Persian script (can't r..."

That might be the case, but I think a lot of the newer authors in Bulgaria like/prefer to use Latin names. Also keeping a latin name prevents issues if and when translated.

In this case the author has done a lot of translation from English and even his profile description is in English. I think that might also be for marketing purposes as this widens his exposure. If you advise I could ask him.

Ellie [The Empress] wrote: "In this case the author has done a lot of translation from English and even his profile description is in English. I think that might also be for marketing purposes as this widens his exposure. If you advise I could ask him."

No need, I think that's a very valid reason.

lethe wrote: "No need, I think that's a very valid reason. ."

Thanks :)

I was just going to ask this for non-claimed authors with non-English profiles. How do we handle that? I see these all the time.

Aaron can you give examples (links) or let us know what language the authors use?

#11 - If they publish with a non-English language variant form or another script, then in line with policy there should be a separate profile in that script / spelling variation.

E.g. Aristotle; Aristóteles; Аристотель; Аристотел

Ideally we'd have a nice big "here's the alternate records" page, but we don't so we make do.