[Old Thread] Pseudonyms

[ddjohn]

I've searched the forum for "pseudonym", but did not find anything that actually addresses this situation. There was some discussion about books that appear in multiple series, but I didn't see a distinct solution to this. It stills leaves you searching in multiple laces.

Wondering how others handle authors who use multiple pseudonyms. Do you list them all using the author's real name, or just the pen name? Has anyone figured a convenient method for tracking both the real name and the pen names? Would appreciate your input on how to handle these situations.

thx, DJ

[Sami]

I have taken to using what ever name is on the cover. I've noticed most authors who use separate pen names also write in multiple genres and this tells me at a glance whether the story will be paranormal, contemporary or young adult. It also helps when looking for the next in a series, if you're looking at the wrong name you won't see the next book.

You could also create a custom column to make searching for all written by the author easier.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I add all possible names for an author (pseudonyms and actual name) as tags.

[FizzyWater]

I use the author name on the book. However, when I upload into Calibre a book that's in a series, I add the series name and # to the book name. I usually sort by Title, not by author, so this puts all the books together that way.

I have one series I read that's had books released under three of the author's published names! So if I left it sorting by author, I'd have to jump back and forth between the "C", "K", and "Q" to find the various books in the series.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

I use the author name on the book. However, when I upload into Calibre a book that's in a series, I add the series name and # to the book name. I usually sort by Title, not by author, so this puts all the books together that way.

I have one series I read that's had books released under three of the author's published names! So if I left it sorting by author, I'd have to jump back and forth between the "C", "K", and "Q" to find the various books in the series.

Why not put your series name and number in the series column? That way, you can sort by series name and number no matter what author name appears.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

I add all possible names for an author (pseudonyms and actual name) as tags.

I put pseudonyms (whatever name is on the cover) into author and the real author name into comments. Sometimes, it's also in the tags (I allow all tags when fetching metadata, so it may be there). This is one reason I always use the search bar and seldom use the Tag Browser. I type the author name into the search bar, without the prefix "author:" and books with that author name will be found no matter where the name is located (tags, comments, author, etc.).

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

Why not put your series name and number in the series column? That way, you can sort by series name and number no matter what author name appears.

Calibre "series" column is not a choice in the Sony. It sorts by author, by Title, and maybe by filename. On my Sony, I want the series to sort together.

[Perkin]

If you set the series and series index, open the preferences->plugins->device interface->sony and set the collections section to series.
Then in your Sony reader, you can view collections, the series will be listed and they'll be in order.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

Calibre "series" column is not a choice in the Sony. It sorts by author, by Title, and maybe by filename. On my Sony, I want the series to sort together.

Series order support between Sony devices and calibre is perfect. As Perkin says you just have to have calibre create collections based on Series and the books in that "Series" collection will be in series order.

[FizzyWater]

I have hundreds of collections on the reader. I find them almost worthless, to be honest.

[DoctorOhh]

For the Original Poster.

I deal with pseudonyms in varying ways, but most frequently I will place their "Pseudonym" in author field followed by aka Real Name and then manually enter the author_sort field with the Author's real name (LN, FN). this way all books written by a given author will all sort together.

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

I have hundreds of collections on the reader. I find them almost worthless, to be honest.

Since you already have a solution that works for you feel free to ignore the rest. I'm not trying to convert you. The great thing about calibre is the way we all choose to use it to fit our individual requirements.

However since you find the majority of your collections to be useless try narrowing the field. Currently I'm guessing your collections are created by calibre based on any tags and series info for a given book. You can minimize collections by not creating collections based on tags.

Go to Preferences - Plugins - Device interface plugins - Sony and customize. You will end up with some thing like my attachment. Ensure only Series is in the lower window. This will ensure the only collections created on your device will be based on Series information.

While you're poking around go to Preferences - Sending books to device and set metadata management to automatic (see attached). this will ensure any metadata you change will be automatically updated when you connect your reader for any books on your device.

[ddjohn]

Thanks for all the feedback. At first I was putting the real name in the author field with the pen name in parentheses behind the author name. The result was to create Author tags for each real name - pen name combination.

After much contemplation and your feedback, I've decided to list all the books as the cover name in the author field. The author's real name will go in a second tagged column. This will allow each pen name to be located individually in the author tags. And the secondary column/tagged field will remind me the real name including sortable option on the real name pulling up all books regardless of the pen name.

As for books that are included in more than one series.....still working on that one.

thx, DJ

[Manichean]

Originally Posted by ddjohn

As for books that are included in more than one series.....still working on that one.

Add a custom series column or two.

[transmitthis]

I was just wondering about this.
Decided to put the "pen name" as author, and also add the real name.
Iain Banks & Iain M Banks for example.
Rachel Caine & Roxanne Longstreet Conrad example

Seems to work for me

[DoctorOhh]

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I appreciate you are trying to help, but as a general rule please do not add answers to old threads. Most of the time the questions have been surpassed by the multiple revisions of calibre between then and now.