Authors shelves hates comma

[catimini]

Hello there.

I noticed that the latest firmwares (4.4.9344 for my Glo HD, 4.4.9349 for my Aura) allow us to navigate by authors, quite a good option.
But I write my authors using the convention "Lastname, Firstname". And when opening the Authors collection, I've two shelves: Lastname and Firstname.

Is there a way (in a future firmware) to choose on which cararacter we'll split the authors ?
Or does this option exists (hidden) in the Kobo Ereader.conf file ?

Thanks by advance.

Regards

[frostschutz]

Originally Posted by catimini

But I write my authors using the convention "Lastname, Firstname".

You shouldn't have to. There is a separate authors_sort field where you can do that and thus achieve authors being sorted by last, rather than first name, and still have the authors name appear regular.

[catimini]

I know, but I'm used to have my authors displayed like this, which is the international normalization.

[GeoffR]

The last name sort on the Authors pages is very badly done. It is a pity because the author sort used for the books list is a last name sort, and it works well, even if there is a mixture of different formats (e.g. "John Smith" and "Smith, Jane" are both correctly sorted under "S") and splits the authors where there is a combining word such as "and".

I'm not sure why they couldn't have just re-used the existing author sort function instead of creating a new, faulty one just for the Authors pages.

[catimini]

Sorry bumping this thread, but does someone found a way to have a correct author in Kobo ?
I use Calibre, peharps the array of metadata connection could help, but I don't know if I have to fill authors or author_sort, and I don't know how to remove the comma.
Will {authors:"re($, ',', '')"} work ?

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by catimini

Sorry bumping this thread, but does someone found a way to have a correct author in Kobo ?
I use Calibre, peharps the array of metadata connection could help, but I don't know if I have to fill authors or author_sort, and I don't know how to remove the comma.
Will {authors:"re($, ',', '')"} work ?

There are probably a number of different ways to achieve the same outcome, but this is how I do it now:

* In Calibre, enter the author name in the format FirstName LastName without a comma, or if there is more than one author as FirstName1 LastName1 & FirstName2 LastName2 etc.

(Don't worry about the Author Sort, the Kobo doesn't use that, it only affects how the books are sorted in Calibre.)

* Enter the Metadata Plugboard (Preferences > Metadata plugboards) for KOBOTOUCH device as program: raw_list('authors', ', ') with destination authors

See the screenshots below showing: Metadata for single author book, metadata for multiple-author book, metadata plugboard configuration.

[catimini]

Thanks GeoffR, I'll try that !

[GeoffR]

More problems with the way the authors list treats comma:

I have some books by authors with names like "Walter M. Miller Jr." and "James Tiptree, Jr."

If there is a comma followed by an ordinary space in the name then the authors list treats the part following the comma as a separate author, so "James Tiptree, Jr." is treated as two different authors, one named "James Tiptree" and another named "Jr."

But this can be worked-around: if there is a no-break space (U+00A0) after the comma then it is treated as one author "James Tipree, Jr."

Unfortunately, even with the no-break space, the names are incorrectly sorted under J for "Jr" instead of M for "Miller Jr." and T for "Tiptree, Jr."

The only way to get these sort of names to sort correctly in the authors list seems to be to use a comma and remove the space altogether, i.e. change the names to "Walter M. Miller,Jr." and "James Tiptree,Jr." but that looks a bit naff.

(The author sort in the books list doesn't have this problem because it recognises "Jr." as a name suffix and ignores it when sorthing by author.)

[HarryT]

How does the Kobo distinguish first names and last names? On the Kindle, for example, I have the "author" metadata for all my books set as "last name, first name", which the Kindle then rearranges as "first name last name". So Walter M. Miller Jr is stored as "Miller Jr, Walter M." but displayed as "Walter M. Miller Jr", and the Kindle knows that the surname is "Miller Jr" and sorts accordingly. Does the Kobo just take the last element of the name as the surname? That's not very smart!

Presumably the same issue would arise with two-part surnames that are not hyphenated? Eg, Alexander McCall Smith's surname is "McCall Smith", and should be sorted under "M", not "S".

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by HarryT

H Does the Kobo just take the last element of the name as the surname? That's not very smart!

The authors list sort does that, the author sort used for the books list is smarter:

A name in the form "Miller Jr., Walter M." is sorted under M for Miller, the comma indicates that the name is in the form LN, FN and jr. is recognised as a name suffix.

You can also present the name as "Walter M. Miller Jr." and it will recognise that Miller is the last name and sort under M.

Edit:

Originally Posted by HarryT

Presumably the same issue would arise with two-part surnames that are not hyphenated? Eg, Alexander McCall Smith's surname is "McCall Smith", and should be sorted under "M", not "S".

For the author sort in the books list that can be solved by using a no-break space to join McCall and Smith, or by presenting the author name as LN, FN format, but for the authors list the no-break space doesn't work.

The fundamental problem that this thread notes is that the authors list uses a new dumber sort algorithm when there is already a much smarter algorithm that has worked perfectly well for years in other parts of the firmware.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

The fundamental problem that this thread notes is that the authors list uses a new dumber sort algorithm when there is already a much smarter algorithm that has worked perfectly well for years in other parts of the firmware.

Sounds like a case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. Strange that they didn't use the existing author sorting algorithm which, as you say, does exactly what's needed.

[catimini]

Hello there,

Originally Posted by GeoffR

* Enter the Metadata Plugboard (Preferences > Metadata plugboards) for KOBOTOUCH device as program: raw_list('authors', ', ') with destination authors

See the screenshots below showing: Metadata for single author book, metadata for multiple-author book, metadata plugboard configuration.

I had test, and made several tests, but it didn't work. Authors are splitted on comma. It's not a real trouble, I'm used to navigate using series and tags, but I'm a little bit disappointed.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by catimini

I had test, and made several tests, but it didn't work. Authors are splitted on comma. It's not a real trouble, I'm used to navigate using series and tags, but I'm a little bit disappointed.

In what way didn't it work? I've been using that for a while and haven't seen any issues. But, if you have store the author as "LN, FN", rather than "FN LN" and relied on the separate author sort in calibre, then no, it won't work. The commas will still be there between the parts of the name and hence the author list will have an entry for "FN" and "LN". And for multiple authors, there will probably be "LN1", "FN1", "LN2" and "FN2".

[Nick Payne]

IS there any way to get my Aura HD to sort John Le Carré under L rather than C? In Calibre I have the author as John Le Carré and the author sort as Le Carré, John, but when I send the books to my Kobo, he is sorted under C both when viewing books sorted by author and when viewing authors.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by Nick Payne

IS there any way to get my Aura HD to sort John Le Carré under L rather than C? In Calibre I have the author as John Le Carré and the author sort as Le Carré, John, but when I send the books to my Kobo, he is sorted under C both when viewing books sorted by author and when viewing authors.

Yes, for the author sort in the books list. No, for the authors list.

Using a no-break space (U+00A0) instead of an ordinary space between "le" and "Carré" will give the correct(*) author sort in the books list, but it won't affect the sort in the authors list.

(Edit: Just to note, using a no-break space doesn't interfere with searching at all, you can still type an ordinary space into the search bar and it will list matches with a no-break space.)

(* Edit2: Perhaps John le Carré should be sorted under C for Carré, since the "le" is lowercase. But it is a made-up name, the normal rules might not apply. The publisher has him listed under L though.)