author metadata not displaying or sorting correctly

[A Lurker]

ebooks I create in Calibre and load on my Kindle sort based on the metadata in the "Author(s)" field, rather than the metadata in the "Author sort" field.

This has always been the case going back to 2014, so it's not a problem specific to a device (it's happened on five different generation Kindles) or a problem specific to a particular version of Calibre (I've used numerous different builds of Calibre in that time frame).

I have a very simple, easy work around, so ultimately this isn't a serious problem (which is why I've never posted about it before). I'm raising it now mostly our of curiosity. Has anyone else experienced this? Does anyone have an explanation?

Here are the specifics:

Let's say I have two books and I enter their metadata as such:

Book 1:
Author(s): Bernard James
Author sort: Cribbins, Bernard

Book 2:
Author(s): Wally Adams
Author sort: Adams, Wally

If everything is working properly, those names should display on my Kindle as "First Name Last Name", yet be sorted alphabetically by Last Name, as such:

Wally Adams
Bernard James

Right? Well, that doesn't happen. 100% of the time the books sort by first name. The information entered into the "Author sort" field is completely ignored. They will display on my Kindle like this, alphabetized by first name:

Bernard James
Wally Adams

But I've found a work around to get my books to sort by last name. I list them as "Last Name, First" in both the "Author(s)" field and the "Author sort" field, as such:

Book 1:
Author(s): James, Bernard
Author sort: James, Bernard

Book 2:
Author(s): Adams, Wally
Author sort: Adams, Wally

That works 100% of the time. The books are sorted on my Kindle based on the metadata in the "Author(s)" field, rather than the metadata in the "Author sort" field.

You might think that my workaround (entering "Last Name, First Name" in the "Author(s)" field) would result in the books displaying on my Kindle in that format:

Adams, Wally
James, Bernard.

But that doesn't happen. They display properly ("First Name Last Name") yet alphabetized by author, exactly as I want:

Wally Adams
Bernard Cribbins

So in practice my workaround makes the books absolutely perfect, but in theory it makes no sense.

[jhowell]

There is no such thing as an "author sort" field in Kindle e-book formats, only an "author" field. Sorting by author always sorts by whatever is in the "author" field.

There is a special case in those devices that if the author field contains a comma it is assumed to be in "last, first" format and the parts on either side of the comma are reversed when displayed to the user.

When converting books to MOBI format in calibre there is an option in the "MOBI output" tab to "Use author sort for author". That should be used if you want author names to both display and sort properly on Kindle devices.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by jhowell

There is no such thing as an "author sort" field in Kindle e-book formats, only an "author" field. Sorting by author always sorts by whatever is in the "author" field.

There is a special case in those devices that if the author field contains a comma it is assumed to be in "last, first" format and the parts on either side of the comma are reversed when displayed to the user.

When converting books to MOBI format in calibre there is an option in the "MOBI output" tab to "Use author sort for author". That should be used if you want author names to both display and sort properly on Kindle devices.

There is a driver setting to use Author_sort in place of Authors for a Kindle

[A Lurker]

Originally Posted by jhowell

There is no such thing as an "author sort" field in Kindle e-book formats, only an "author" field. Sorting by author always sorts by whatever is in the "author" field.

There is a special case in those devices that if the author field contains a comma it is assumed to be in "last, first" format and the parts on either side of the comma are reversed when displayed to the user.

I want to make sure I understand... You're saying a Kindle won't recognize the information entered into the "Author sort" field... Rather, it relies on the "Author(s)" field for both knowing what info to display and knowing how to sort the ebook? Is that right?

If so, that makes sense.

With that being the case, is it normal that if I enter "First-Name Last-Name" in the "Author(s)" field that my Kindle sorts by first name?

What I've been doing since 2014 is entering "Last-Name, First-Name" in the "Author(s)" field to make sure my Kindle will sort it by last name instead. I assumed what I was doing was unusual... but if what you say is true, then my method might actually make sense...?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by A Lurker

You're saying a Kindle won't recognize the information entered into the "Author sort" field... Rather, it relies on the "Author(s)" field for both knowing what info to display and knowing how to sort the ebook? Is that right?

That is correct. There is no "author sort" field in MOBI format, only an "author" field. What goes into that field during calibre conversion depends on the "Use author sort for author" option.

Originally Posted by A Lurker

With that being the case, is it normal that if I enter "First-Name Last-Name" in the "Author(s)" field that my Kindle sorts by first name?

Yes, assuming that you do not select "Use author sort for author".

Originally Posted by A Lurker

What I've been doing since 2014 is entering "Last-Name, First-Name" in the "Author(s)" field to make sure my Kindle will sort it by last name instead. I assumed what I was doing was unusual... but if what you say is true, then my method might actually make sense...?

You can do it that way, but it is unusual. The option to "Use author sort for author" when creating MOBI books exists to solve this problem while still allowing the "author" field in calibre to contain author names in their natural form.

[Laurochka]

Hello jumping on this thread as I have a similar problem.
I have my calibre metadata author field as "FN LN" and author sort as "LN, FN"
However Kindle is sorting on First Name i.e Agatha Christie is sorted under A rather than C. This is for books that are not always bought from kindle.

I've tried:
Deleting the original from my kindle
Ejecting kindle and switching off
Updating/checking author and author sort metadata on calibre (It has always appeared to be correct)
Plugging in kindle to calibre again
"Send to device" for updated book
Checking on kindle

Thus far, this has not been successful and the Kindle has still sorted by FN.

I read in one of the forums that if you select "use author sort" for output to MOBI when converting then that would force the correct metadata to be used.

However some of the books I want to update have DRM.
I have tried updating metadata then converting to mobi but I cannot as I get the DRM dialogue box.

So my questions are:

Is there any way to "fix" the author sort on my kindle without having to convert to mobi in calibre?

How do I convert to mobi for DRM books?

Any help on how to get my kindle to sort books by author surname would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks