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Book & Author Page Issues > Can a dog be an author too?

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message 1: by Gökhan (new)

Gökhan Bozkurt (khanbozkurt) | 8 comments Dear friends,
Recenly I am interested in dog-training books. I see that KYRA SUNDANCE is a reputable dog-trainer and the author of several books. The interesting question appears here. As far as I understood, in her books, she used the help of her own dog named Chalcy (dog's name) She seems that she used her dog (chalcy) for the pictures, and with the explanation of body language in practice. And on the cover of her books, she wrote the name of her dog as co-author too. It's lovely that somebody uses the name of her dog on the cover of her book, but in fact the dog is not a real writer. But goodreads policy states that we must stick on the author names that appear on the cover page. So, I see that now, there is an author page created for a dog! - Chalcy. So, what should be the correct policy here? Should wevkeep the dog's author page and include the dog as the author on new book additions? (I believe we should not, but would like to hear your opinions too)


message 2: by Olivia (new)

Olivia (livka) | 7926 comments I couldn't find the author site for F.D.C. Willard, so to be fair to other author-animals I would say no :)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._D._C...


message 3: by Scott (new)

Scott | 11112 comments Sneaky Pie Brown seems to be a valid author.


message 4: by rivka, Former Moderator (new)

rivka | 45177 comments Mod
Authors credited on book covers should be listed.


message 5: by Gökhan (new)

Gökhan Bozkurt (khanbozkurt) | 8 comments So; the dog is an author?? Cool; what should we write in its author page? Something like ‘It got famous with its barking style and finally decided to write a book... :p I believe that Goodreads must re-consider author policies for this kind of specific cases.


message 6: by Emy (new)

Emy (emypt) | 5037 comments Gökhan wrote: "I believe that Goodreads mus..."

Not really. It is traditional in cataloguing to assign books to their attribution as well as their practical author. In many conventional library catalogues you will also find works authored by ghosts for example.

If it helps, view the dog as a type of pseudonym.


message 7: by rivka, Former Moderator (new)

rivka | 45177 comments Mod
Emy wrote: "In many conventional library catalogues you will also find works authored by ghosts for example."

I believe we have some of those. Also disembodied spirits.


message 8: by Emy (new)

Emy (emypt) | 5037 comments rivka wrote: "Emy wrote: "In many conventional library catalogues you will also find works authored by ghosts for example."

I believe we have some of those. Also disembodied spirits."


That's a point - do we differentiate between "channelled spirit of Joe Bloggs" and Joe Bloggs? I seem to remember they're differentiated in AACR2 and Library of Congress, but I've not come across any here so not certain how we'd deal with them?


message 9: by rivka, Former Moderator (new)

rivka | 45177 comments Mod
They would be Joe Bloggs here in either case. But the profile might have "channeled spirit" or the like as part of the bio.


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