HelpThing:Author

From WikiThing

Every author of a book that's been entered into LibraryThing has their own author page.

Contents 1 Picture 2 Main Information 2.1 Also Known As 2.2 You have books by 2.3 Quick Statistics 2.4 Books By 2.5 Series By 2.6 Events 2.7 Member Ratings 2.8 Common Knowledge 2.9 Conversations 2.10 Users with books by 3 Right Side Bar 3.1 LibraryThing Author 3.2 Search for Authors 3.3 Related tags 3.4 Links 3.5 Favorites 3.6 Also Known As/Author Combining 3.7 Who Should/Shouldn't Get Combined 3.8 Is This You? 3.9 Fun Author Links

[edit] Picture

A picture of an author, if someone has submitted one. Beneath the picture will be the attribution and statement of permission to use the image. Listed below the attribution statement is a count of how many images have been uploaded for an author. Clicking on this count (or on the image itself) will take you to the author's picture page, where you can see all of the images in larger sizes, vote for which image is the default, or flag pictures that are copyrighted or otherwise inappropriate. If you would like to upload a picture, the "add a picture" link will take you to the upload page.

[edit] Main Information

[edit] Also Known As

LibraryThing allows combining of authors much in the same way that it allows combining of books, so that "J. R. R. Tolkien", "JRR Tolkien", and "John Ronald Reuel Tolkien" all point to the same person. This list allows you to see a list of which variants and pen names are included in an author's page; clicking will expand the list.

[edit] You have books by

If you've cataloged any books by an author, a line will appear here saying "You have XX books by this author (see yours)". Clicking on the link will take you to a catalog view containing just the books you have by the author.

[edit] Quick Statistics

• Members - The number of LibraryThing members with at least one book by the author.
• Reviews - The total number of reviews written by LibraryThing members about this author's books.
• Rating - The average rating of all of this author's books.
• Favorited - The number of times this author has marked as a favorite. Clicking on the number will take you down the page to the Favorites section.
• Conversations - The number of times this author or any of their books has been marked with a touchstone in a Talk thread. Clicking on the link will take you the talk page showing only the relevant topics.

[edit] Books By

A list of all of the works attributed to this author, sorted with most popular first. Clicking on a book will take you to its work page. The "See all XX books" will expand the list on the page.

[edit] Series By

A list of series to which an author has contributed one or more books, sorted with most popular first. Clicking on a link will take you to the appropriate series page. Series information can be entered or edited on the Common Knowledge sections of the work pages of the individual books that belong to the series.

[edit] Events

Any events connected with this author in LibraryThing Local. These events are frequently appearances, lectures, and book signings by the author, but may also include discussions of the author's work (such as a book club meeting).

[edit] Member Ratings

The distribution and average rating of all of the author's books.

[edit] Common Knowledge

Common Knowledge is a place for users to enter facts about an author. To edit or add information, click on the small gray pencil . Most fields allow more than one line, to get additional lines hit the "+" box. For more information and formatting guidelines, see the Common Knowledge wiki page. If you want to see what changes have been made to the Common Knowledge fields over time, click on the "view history" link in the header bar.

Clicking on a fact will search for other incidences of that fact in Common Knowledge - for instance, clicking on "Chicago, Illinois, USA" in the "places of residence" field will find other authors who have also lived in Chicago.

[edit] Conversations

The number of times this author or any of their books has been marked with a touchstone in a Talk thread. Clicking on the link will take you the talk page showing only the relevant topics.

[edit] Users with books by

A list of members who have books by this author, sorted with most number of books first. Clicking on a member's name will take you to their profile page. Clicking on the number of books will take you to their catalog view, showing only their books by that author.

[edit] Right Side Bar

[edit] LibraryThing Author

If this author is a member of LibraryThing, a box with the LT Author Badge will appear at the top of this column, along with a link to their profile page, where you can view their catalog.

[edit] Search for Authors

Not the author you were looking for? Enter their name (whole or part) here to get a list of possible results.

[edit] Related tags

A mini tag-cloud of tags that have been applied to this author's work. Click on "show numbers" to see the number of times a tag has been used. Tags are sized by a combination of frequency of use and overall rarity of the tag; thus "celtic" might be larger than "fiction", even though it is only used 18 times to "fiction"'s 124 - because "celtic" is much rarer across the site, its concentration on this author's works is more significant.

[edit] Links

A space to enter links to external sites relating to this author - their blog, their publisher's author site, interviews, etc. You can add new links or edit existing ones by clicking on the respective buttons in the top right of the box.

Most authors should have an auto-generated link to Wikipedia - if no one has been to check this link, it will say (unconfirmed) next to it. Click on the link to check that it actually goes to a Wikipedia page about this author. If it does, click "edit" and you will see a link to "confirm". If the Wikipedia page is incorrect, you can edit or delete the link.

[edit] Favorites

A list of LibraryThing members who have marked this author as one of their favorites; clicking on their names will take you to their profile. Click the link to add it to your favorite author list; a yellow star will show up in the box. Click again to de-favorite. You can see the list of all of the authors you have marked as favorites on your profile.

[edit] Also Known As/Author Combining

LibraryThing allows combining of authors much in the same way that it allows combining of books, so that "J. R. R. Tolkien", "JRR Tolkien", and "John Ronald Reuel Tolkien" all point to the same person. The top part of this box allows you to see which variants have been combined into one author's page (like the list at the top), and to separate out any combinations you think are in error.

There may be some suggested authors to combine. These are based on authors whose works have been combined via ISBN. For instance, if one person has the book "Combining for Dummies" by Random Q. Author and another person has the book "Combining for Dummies" by author R. Q. Author, both copies with identical ISBNs, someone may have gone through the Debris page of either work and combined the books. If that's the case, then R. Q. Author will show up in the "Combine with..." section of Random Q. Author's author page.

If you suspect there are other variants of an author name out there, you can search for them - results will appear on the author search page, with options to combine them with the author page you came from.

[edit] Who Should/Shouldn't Get Combined

Should

• Variants of spelling, middle initials, capitalization, etc.
• Pen Names ("Samuel Clemens" and "Mark Twain")
• Designations of role after the author name ("George Lucas (director)" and "George Lucas")
• Ordering differences where multiple authors are listed as one ("Ingri & Edgar D'Aulaire" and "Edgar & Ingri D'Aulaire")
• Authors where another non-author contributer (i.e. Illustrator) is listed in with the main author ("Julie Andrews Edwards; Emma Walton Hamilton (Illus.)" and "Julie Andrews Edwards")

Should NOT

• A surname only with an author with that surname, even if it's the most popular. ("Brown" should NOT be combined with "Dan Brown")
• An individual with a collaboration ("Neil Gaiman" should NOT be combined with "Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett")
• Anything you're not sure is right! When in doubt, don't combine, and ask a question in the Combiners! group.

If anyone appears on the "suggested combination" list that belongs to one of the "Should NOT" categories, you can "never" that author to prevent them from being combined in the future. Again, don't "Never" someone unless you're sure, and ask questions if you're not.

[edit] Is This You?

If you're a LibraryThing member as well as an author with at least one of your works listed on the site, become an LibraryThing Author! E-mail Abby to get your shiny yellow button, or see the LibraryThing Authors page for more information.

[edit] Fun Author Links

• The all-LibraryThing author cloud
• Your personal author cloud
• The author zeitgeist page, for some LibraryThing-wide author stats.
• Your author gallery, for pictures of your authors
• Some recently uploaded author pictures
• A list of all of the LibraryThing Authors