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Policies & Practices > Having Pseudonyms before the author's real name

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message 1: by Paula (last edited Nov 06, 2014 02:03AM) (new)

Paula (paulaan) | 7014 comments In that case, all editions of the book that where published first under the pseudoym should have Richard Kelly as the primary author, with Richard Laymon as the secondary author. This does not seem to be the case and the books need sorting out.

As for the search on shelves I think it is only set to look for the primary author.

Edit: Tread Softly editions fixed


message 2: by Paula (new)

Paula (paulaan) | 7014 comments I agree with the policy that the name the book was first published under is the primary author, in some cases this is not a pseudonym but a real name and books are later published under a different name.


message 3: by Paula (new)

Paula (paulaan) | 7014 comments As for the Stephen King books, the automated import scripts import under the name published, Librarians need to go in occasionally and clean up the imports to match GR policy.

Looking at The Regulators, the books have a mix / match due to the import process and a number of the editions are set up correctly with Richard Bachman in primary position.


message 4: by Scott (new)

Scott | 8696 comments I just wish the secondary names counted towards our "most read" authors.


message 5: by Scott (new)

Scott | 8696 comments J.A. wrote: "Yeah definitely. Dean Koontz for example has numerous pseudonyms!

It's quite bewildering actually. I just think that it would be a lot easier if all the works by an author were listed under his/h..."


I agree. Or, have the name on each edition be the primary author. It's annoying to have one of my Koontz books keep coming up under "Brian Coffey" when that name is nowhere on the book.


message 6: by rivka, Former Moderator (new)

rivka | 45177 comments Mod
Scott wrote: "Or, have the name on each edition be the primary author."

Having different editions with different primary authors screws things up pretty royally. Things like automatic recalculation of book stats, search indexing, all kinds of things.


message 7: by Sophie (new)

Sophie (notemily) | 469 comments J.A. wrote: "I just think that it would be a lot easier if all the works by an author were listed under his/her name as the primary author."

How would you choose which name, though?


message 8: by Z-squared (new)

Z-squared | 8576 comments Sophie wrote: "J.A. wrote: "I just think that it would be a lot easier if all the works by an author were listed under his/her name as the primary author."

How would you choose which name, though?"


I'm actually in favor of letting Goodreads authors do this themselves, if they so wish. Like setting the default cover. Then in the absence of a claimed profile, just stick to whatever was the original. Just a suggestion.


message 9: by Esme (new)

Esme | 17 comments There is something weird with the first mentioned book by Richard Laymon aka Richard Kelly. I found under Richard Laymon's books Montaña siniestra, the spanish translation of Dark Mountain and added a Richard Kelly into the first author field but this goes to another author Richard Kelly. I added three spaces for a new author profile https://www.goodreads.com/author/show....

And there is already an author profile for the pseudonym of Richard Laymon https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... and it uses only one space but just the most added edition is linked to this profile and all other editions are linked to the film director.

I don't get it.


message 10: by Paula (new)

Paula (paulaan) | 7014 comments DisambiguAtion was needed, merged a couple of profiles so they are now under Richard^^^Kelly


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Montaña siniestra (other topics)

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