Wrong author on Kobo

[foosion]

I sent a book from Calibre to my Kobos. On the devices it listed the translator as the author, without listing the actual author.

I could fix the problem by updating metadata on device library with Kobo Utilities.

Metadata on Calibre has the author correct. I can't see anything in the epub files that would point to the translator (although I may not have looked in the right places).

I'm wondering what might have caused the initial problem. If nothing else, I'd have thought the sending function and KU would get author and other metadata from the same place.

[DNSB]

If I remember correctly, if you look at the author(s) in the .opf file, a Kobo ereader will use the first one in the list. Quite a few ePubs I've looked at use multiple dc:creator entries for author, translator, illustrator but without adding a role or refines to specify who did what. So if the content.opf lists John P. Longland first, Kobo will use that name as the author regardless of whether John was the author, illustrator or translator.

<dc:creator>Longland, John P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Michaels, Jenn</dc:creator>

Another example from the Duke Classics War and Peace is:

<dc:title>War and Peace</dc:title>
<dc:creator opf:role="aut" opf:file-as="Tolstoy, Leo &amp; Maude, Aylmer &amp; Maude, Louise Shanks">Leo Tolstoy</dc:creator>
<dc:creator opf:role="aut">Aylmer Maude</dc:creator>
<dc:creator opf:role="aut">Louise Shanks Maude</dc:creator>

Here, both the Maudes who translated the book are shown as authors but since the first dc:creator lists Leo Tolstoy, your Kobo should show that as the author. The entries for the Maudes should show the opf:role="trl" for translator.

<dc:title>War and Peace</dc:title>
<dc:creator opf:role="aut" opf:file-as="Tolstoy, Leo">Leo Tolstoy</dc:creator>
<dc:creator opf:role="trl">Aylmer Maude</dc:creator>
<dc:creator opf:role="trl">Louise Shanks Maude</dc:creator>

One of the better (i.e. less insomnia curing) pages is Readium's Parsing EPUB Metadata.

Note that these samples are for an ePub2 file, for ePub3 use role instead of opf:role.

[foosion]

Originally Posted by DNSB

If I remember correctly, if you look at the author(s) in the .opf file, a Kobo ereader will use the first one in the list. Quite a few ePubs I've looked at use multiple dc:creator entries for author, translator, illustrator but without adding a role or refines to specify who did what. So if the content.opf lists John P. Longland first, Kobo will use that name as the author regardless of whether John was the author, illustrator or translator.

Your memory is sound. The first listed creator in the opf file is the translator, with the author second.

It appears that Calibre's send to device function (including kepub conversion) will result in the device getting metadata from the opf file, while the Kobo Utilities' metadata function will use Calibre's metadata.

Thanks for clearing that up.

[foosion]

FWIW, the opf is a bit more complicated than the examples you posted.

<dc:creator id="cont1">Adrian Nathan West</dc:creator>
    <dc:creator id="id-1">Benjamin Labatut</dc:creator>

then farther down:

<meta refines="#id-1" property="role" scheme="marc:relators">aut</meta>
    <meta refines="#id-1" property="file-as">Labatut, Benjamin</meta>

[DNSB]

I deliberately avoided getting into refines. For the most part, in most ebooks they are not needed and add a level of complexity.

[foosion]

Yes, it does seem to be needlessly complex. More words without improving on the simpler example you posted.