Ok. I've tried to search, and have found several threads that deal with multiple series. And I started to put this question at the end of one of them, but the forum software suggested a separate thread. So I've started a separate thread with it instead.
I don't know that I need Calibre to change, but I simply don't know how to get the results I'm looking for.
If I'm following a series, I'd typically sort by the Series tag to see what I have--or to find something in that series.
What I'm looking for is to get the same result from a search when one of these books has a part of a series. I've noted a trend for series stories from several different authors to be bundled in a single volume typically with at least one "popular" author. (BTW, my take on them is that while they are typically built around a theme, I think the real idea is to drive traffic to the various authors' series. And it works!)
It sounds (from the threads I've read here) like having multiple entries in the Series field wouldn't be a good idea (even if it were possible--I'm not clear on that). I saw the suggestion to use a custom column, but am not clear how this would work. Could you help?
To be really concrete, assume this book:
Volume name: "Anthology" (which has 3 stories by 3 authors from 3 series)
Authors: "Writer" (who has a series of books/stories called "Mystery")
"Hack" (who has a series of books/stories called "Horror")
"Scribbler" (who has a series of books/stories called "Fantasy")
In each case, the author has written a story which is part of their own series of books/stories.
When I want to see what I have in the series "Mystery," I'd like "Anthology" to be included in the list. Similarly, when I want to see what I have in the series "Horror," I want "Anthology to be included there too, and of course I want it to be included in the list of books in the "Fantasy" series as well.
I suppose I could simply choose one of the Series for the "official" series entry. And then list the other two series in the Comments (or a custom column of some sort?). And whenever I'm searching for a series, use the "Advanced Search" for "This Exact Phrase" instead of searching in the Series Search. (Seems like that would work.)
But is there a better way? How should I go about this?
Thanks for your help.
LisaAlissa