Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

I took this up in the policies and practices because these kinds of books are a complete mess, under all sorts of author names and they flip flop around between authors constantly. Although they're essentially just pen names, having an explicit policy seems useful.

So here's a probably way too wordy explanation for the librarian guidelines.

House names are collective pen names used to provide consistent branding for a multi-author series. Creator names often function as house names when the original series creators are no longer writing the books but are the most prominent or only names on new releases.

The usual pen names and first edition rules apply - the Primary author should be the name listed on the cover of the first edition, with roles of "House name" or "Creator" or "Series Creator" as appropriate.

If the actual author is listed on the cover of the first edition, list them as primary author for all editions. Where the ghostwriter is widely known from reliable sources (publisher or author pages for instance), but are not on the cover, they can still be added as additional authors.

Where a house name is in use on first edition:
House name/Creators, Actual Author (or as many of these as are present.)

Where a house name is not in use on first edition:
Actual Author, Creators/House name (or as many of these are as present.)


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In case anyone doesn't know what this is about, examples in the spoiler:

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Examples of house names:
Carolyn Keene (Nancy Drew)
Kenneth Robeson (Originally Lester Dent, later many other authors)

Examples of creators functioning as house names:
L.J. Smith (The Vampire Diaries, written as work for hire, after the original author stopped writing the series, several other authors completed it but her name remains on the covers - the actual authors are unknown for many of these)
Don Pendleton (Most books in the 400+ book Mack Bolan series have only "Don Pendleton's Mack Bolan" on the cover, although the actual authors are widely known - Pendleton himself only wrote the first 38, the rest under this series https://www.goodreads.com/series/4064... have only his name on the covers, but are all listed incorrectly under their (not on the books) actual authors. Ironically there was a thread just yesterday about this, because a reader naturally looked for a series on the Don Pendleton page - that's what's on the cover, and couldn't find it.)
https://www.goodreads.com/series/40641
Warren Murphy & Richard Ben Sapir did not write the last 100 odd of the Destroyer series, but many editions only show their names on the covers.
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Correction: L.J. Smith not L.J. James ;)

Jeeze, the op is clearly a lamebrain who needs to learn to proofread.

(Also, fixed, thanks Emy :)

*grin* No problem