Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

Sorry to have so many questions but I hate to mess things up and seem to hit some odd issues.

This started with Virginia Rich, The Cooking School Murders. I found that series info was missing and in this case the series didn't exist. I tried to do research and track down others and create consistent series (Eugenia Potter).

I am finding that not only do I need to correct the title on each book in the series but also on different editions. Is this correct? It is an awful lot of work, IMO. Is there a short cut that I'm missing?

Is it correct and accepted policy to make it a numbered series so the order is easy to figure out for people? I am not sure I did all that right.

Thanks again!
(if I should be asking another way, please tell me. I have tried to read the manuals and the tips)

Rebecca, you don't need to change the series information in the title field at all; if it's in parentheses, it will be hidden when a proper series is created for the book. (To create a proper series, you can follow the instructions laid out here, which will be added to the librarians' manual eventually.)

So I don't need to add the (Series Name, #) if it isn't there? I thought I did.

But I do need to remove erroneous things like ": Series Name", etc.?

Thanks for the link. That helps some, but the on-page help clearly says to ADD the series name and # to the title. So that ought to be changed if the new policy is not to add it.

We're still in an in-between state, because the new series objects are available now but not in place everywhere that they need to be yet (search results, author pages, etc). The compromise for the moment is to leave series information in the title if it's already there but not to go to the trouble of adding or correcting it.

Okay. So in the future I can just wipe out the erroneously formatted parts that won't be recognized by the automatic system?

Correct.

But is it correct that I might need to do that on MULTIPLE EDITIONS?

That is what is driving me crazy. Not only were there 5 books in the series that were wrong, but multiple editions of most books that were wrong.

I am not sure I got all of them. It was hard to keep track of which I fixed and which I hadn't.

Yes. Although I should have mentioned, it's not really necessary. On most pages, the new series info will override what appears, and anything in parentheses will just be ignored.

Yes, but many of these were ones NOT in parentheses originally. They were quite a mess. Many written as if subtitles with : then a bunch of text.

But glad to know I didn't miss a shortcut.

Ugh. Sounds like fun.

But yeah, no real shortcuts on this.

Sorry it's such a pain, Rebecca. Anything I can help with?

I've got a bunch of those to fix too. Thankfully it looks like it's only a three book series...

I hope this is the right thread.
I have been working a little on one of my favourite authors, the Spanish novelist Francisco Gonzàlez Ledesma.
I noticed that a number of his books have been placed under a series called "Méndez" after one of his most known characters, Barcelona's police inspector Méndez.
In my opinion, these books do not constitute a "series", since their stories are not intertwined or told in a consequential line, so that you must read n. 1 before n.2 or you will not be able to follow the story.
May anyone clarify me this issue? Thanks!

Rosenkavalier, if they feature the same character it would help other readers to know there are other books out there with that character.

You don't need to number the books in the series.

Sandra, thanks. The books are already numbered (most likely by the publishing date, I did not check).

I would cancel the numbers, then, but I don't know how to do it. It seems that I can only remove the series info, not amend it.

If you click the series name then edit, you should be able to disable the numbering. Personally I would leave it. Many readers prefer to read books in the order in which they were published, even if no certain order is really necessary. You mgith want to note in the series description that they are books about that character and that the order is merely by publication date.

Thanks for the offer of help. I think I at least got the main editions fixed in that series. I may have missed some of the less common ones, but I don't know that it is worth the effort to check--there are probably plenty of more urgent things to do.

Of course a few books later in my additions, I found a series of 25 books that hadn't had a series created yet, but fortunately those were labeled in parentheses, so I didn't have to mess with them beyond adding and sorting.

Thanks everyone for the support!

I can't find out how to fix this problem:

The series information for this book is correct when you look at the title:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/66...
However, if you look at the title of the tab in your browser it says the series is "Everlating." If you check out the series list that book is also listed there as "Everlating" but book 2 isn't:
http://www.goodreads.com/series/53785...
If I click on edit, it only has Everlasting as the series name and I can't find any place to change it. Clicking on the title with the series just takes me back to the page above. I even checked the other editions to see if someone actually put the series in the book title itself but all looked fine.
How can I fix this series title?

The problem was that the "everlating" was actually part of the title on the book page, not taken from the series page. I corrected it by editing the book page.

Ah, it was in one edition, not the others. I somehow missed that. The series title shouldn't be written in the title field since it's automatically added by the field at the bottom of the page marking it as being part of the series, right? I went ahead and made that change. Thanks for clearing it up for me. I was so confused. I thought I'd lost my mind!

Kelly wrote: "Ah, it was in one edition, not the others. I somehow missed that. The series title shouldn't be written in the title field since it's automatically added by the field at the bottom of the page mark..."

Please don't remove series information from the titles. The series information does not show everywhere yet and is not searchable.

OK, I put it back in.

Deborah wrote: "Please don't remove series information from the titles. The series information does not show everywhere yet and is not searchable."

Is this still true? For instance, the following has 2 series names in the title as well as in the official series name field.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14...

I would like to correct the entries if it's allowed.

Yes, it is still true. It looks like it's a single series with multiple names? Then whichever is the official one should be there, and the other only in the description on the main series page.

I would like to change a series title for the books "Der Duft des Blutes" and "Feuer der Rache" by Rike Speemann, but I can't edit the series title, only add a new one. Title should be only "Peter von Borgo, #1/2", Help please!?

Elke wrote: "I would like to change a series title for the books "Der Duft des Blutes" and "Feuer der Rache" by Rike Speemann, but I can't edit the series title, only add a new one. Title should be only "Peter ..."

You can edit a series name on the series's page.

http://www.goodreads.com/series/58673... <- note the "edit" link under "2 works, 2 primary works"

Thernymous wrote: "Elke wrote: "I would like to change a series title for the books "Der Duft des Blutes" and "Feuer der Rache" by Rike Speemann, but I can't edit the series title, only add a new one. Title should be..."

That's exactly what I was looking for. Thanx!

http://www.goodreads.com/series/42208...

Could someone drag and drop the books in the correct order since I am doing this off of my phone that is not possible for me to do. Ignore the info in paranthese the correct numbering is under the book in bold next to the gray book info. The stuff in the parentheses is left over from the previous incorrect numbering. Thanks!

Danielle wrote: "http://www.goodreads.com/series/42208...

Could someone drag and drop the books in the correct order since I am doing this off of my phone that is not possible for me to do. Ignore the info..."

done

Yay! Thanks!

No problem.