Multiple authors, same name - how to manage

[dewd]

As title. I have several books which are written by unconnected authors who share a name - i.e. there is more than one author called (for example) Joe Bloggs. If I search by clicking on the author name, obviously it picks up all the books by either one of those authors. The best solution I've come up with so far is to add (1) or (2) after the author's name, but I have to remember a) to do that for every added book, and b) which Mr Bloggs is which.

Any better ideas?

[ownedbycats]

If the middle name or initial of one is known, can be used to differentiate.

[dewd]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

If the middle name or initial of one is known, can be used to differentiate.

No known middle name or initial. Very inconsiderate of them. ;-)

[MSWallack]

I'm not sure if this helps, but when I've encountered that problem, I add either: (a) the author's birth year; or (b) just a number, in brackets after the author sort name (but not the author name). So it might be "Bloggs, Joe [1974]" and "Bloggs, Joe [1981]" or "Bloggs, Joe [1]" and "Bloggs, Joe [2]". Not perfect, but it seems to work.

[Tarana]

Different genres? Joe Scifi Blogs and Joe Fiction Blogs.

[dewd]

Originally Posted by MSWallack

I'm not sure if this helps, but when I've encountered that problem, I add either: (a) the author's birth year; or (b) just a number, in brackets after the author sort name (but not the author name). So it might be "Bloggs, Joe [1974]" and "Bloggs, Joe [1981]" or "Bloggs, Joe [1]" and "Bloggs, Joe [2]". Not perfect, but it seems to work.

This (with numbers) is what I've been doing, though I've been adding it to the author name. How are you adding it to the author sort name only though? When I change it for one book, it changes the author sort for all of them. I tried creating a new author with a slightly-changed name, and editing the author-sort-name for that one, but as soon as I have "Joe Bloggs" and "Joe Bloggs", they seem to join together again.

Originally Posted by Tarana

Different genres? Joe Scifi Blogs and Joe Fiction Blogs.

Hm, that might be a slightly better solution in that it might help me remember which one's which.

[MSWallack]

Originally Posted by dewd

This (with numbers) is what I've been doing, though I've been adding it to the author name. How are you adding it to the author sort name only though? When I change it for one book, it changes the author sort for all of them. I tried creating a new author with a slightly-changed name, and editing the author-sort-name for that one, but as soon as I have "Joe Bloggs" and "Joe Bloggs", they seem to join together again.


Hm, that might be a slightly better solution in that it might help me remember which one's which.

When I get a chance, I'll try to make some notes about the workflow that I've used.

Using a genre for a middle name does sound like a good approach, though I'd probably make one tweak and put that faux middle name in brackets or something to make it clear that I'm using the middle name as a distinction as opposed to the author's actual middle name.