Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

Hi, I was editing this authors books and I realised that they wrote under two names, C.P. Fitzgerald and Charles Patrick Fitzgerald.
My understanding of GR policy is to use the name reflected on the book. Though if they use different names than we should put the one used in the book as primary and the other as secondary so that the books is reflect on both author pages.
Is this the right way to resolve this issue?

The primary (first) author must be the name it was first published under, on all editions. On later editions, if a different name is on the cover, it must be added too, but in second position. You can also add it to earlier ones, authors sometimes ask for that, but it isn't required. Then thrre are slightly different rules for autjors with different names in different languages, but that doesn't apply here.

The main thing though is all editions have the same primary author name.

So in this case, keep the primary edition as C.P. Fitzgerald and put the secondary as Charles Patrick Fitzgerald?

Not sure which book you mean, but if it has C.P. Fitzgerald on the cover of the earliest edition, then yes, do that.

Krazykiwi wrote: "Not sure which book you mean, but if it has C.P. Fitzgerald on the cover of the earliest edition, then yes, do that."

Thanks for your help :)

Oh... well I just tried to do that and it didn't work... I guess GR has some sort of internal program in place where we can't add the names of the author with similar names in the author field....

Oh right.

There's a workaround for that: Add a bogus name second, then once it's on all the editions it needs to be, merge it into the target. "TEMPTEMP" is popular, I like to use "FIXMYNAME" or something. As long as it's unique for the brief time it's in use, and obviously not a real name, it'll do.

Awesome! Thank you!

Krazykiwi wrote: "The primary (first) author must be the name it was first published under, on all editions."

There is an exception that may apply here: if the author goes from a shorter version of their name to a more complete one, and the latter completely includes the former, we can list all editions only under the latter.

rivka wrote: "Krazykiwi wrote: "The primary (first) author must be the name it was first published under, on all editions."

There is an exception that may apply here: if the author goes from a shorter version o..."

So in this instance, I can merge the author profile of C.P. Fitzgerald and Charles Patrick Fitzgerald?

Which came first?

rivka wrote: "Which came first?"
I actually think that C.P. Fitzgerald is the name he writes his book under, however someone placed all his books under his full name, Charles Patrick Fitzgerald.

Do any have Charles Patrick Fitzgerald on the cover?

Judging from the books that do have cover, there are no books that have his full name on their cover.

Then all the books should have C.P. Fitzgerald as the author. Charles Patrick Fitzgerald can be added as info in the bio section, but doesn't belong as an author.

Okay thanks rivka!