Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

This relates to series. Is there a way where the series could be displayed on all of the authors profiles? When I first became a librarian I learned that a series only shows up under one of the authors names. The specific reason I ask is two-fold. I read the The Phantom Queen Diaries Series. It is written by Shayne Silvers and Cameron O'Connell. Cameron does most of the actual writing, but Shayne was the more established author, so his name is first. The series only appears on Shayne’s page. I thought it was a glitch, but of course that is how the system works. That is my first example. My second is the Trixie Belden Series. That one the author actually changed. Julie Campbell was the original author. She retired. The publisher’s kept the series going using ghost writers under the name “Kathryn Kenny”. With Phantom Queen I can understand why it wouldn’t show up under Cameron’s since Shayne’s name is first on all of the book. But Trixie doesn’t have that excuse. The books by “Kathryn” do not have Julie’s name anywhere on them. Compounding the frustration in regards to the Shayne/Cameron books is that on the series page only the first author’s name appears. One has to go to the individual books to see Cameron’s name.

Tawnya wrote: "Is there a way where the series could be displayed on all of the authors profiles?"

Short answer: No. Series currently only display on the profile of the first-listed author. This applies even in cases of co-authorship. It's a limitation of the system, not a glitch, and unfortunately there's no workaround at the moment.

I understand your frustration. I had a similar case and discussed this issue with GR staff, but nothing can be done.

In my case it was even more difficult:
- two equal co-authors
- on the cover of the first book in the series the first name listed was "Author 1", the second book - "Author 2", the third book - "Author 1", the fourth book - "Author 2" and so on in turn
- different editions listed different authors first

I had a hard time figuring out which author should be the first one in order to combine all the editions. And then it turned out that the series only shows on the page of one author (the one who is the first author of the first book in the series).

Moreover, this pair of authors has several sub-series, which are part of the same world, but with different heroes. And the first author on different series also takes turns. So now (according to the GR rules) on one author's page there are couple of sub-series and on another's page there are a couple of others. I think this is very inconvenient for readers. Series should be displayed on all of the authors profiles.

I agree - the GR limitation is inconvenient for readers and makes the site less usable.

My work-around is to edit the other author's profile and add a direct link to the series. Of course, this doesn't work for authors who have claimed their profile.