Author bios added

Many author pages now have short author bios on the top, like this:



Some examples:
* Stephenie Meyer https://www.librarything.com/author/meyerstephenie
* bell hooks https://www.librarything.com/author/hooksbell
* Stieg Larsson https://www.librarything.com/author/larssonstieg
* Plutarch https://www.librarything.com/author/plutarch

The data comes from Bowker. It's either publisher provided or—for the most popular authors—is a custom-written biography. In all cases, the bio is fundamentally linked to a work—it's the bio that was provided along with the other book data, to help Amazon and etc. sell the book. So the work is listed too.

>1 timspalding: Is there a way to get rid of wrong or outdated bios? See Poppy Z. Brite, for example.

Here https://www.librarything.com/topic/341572#7829537, @amanda4242 wrote:

I've noticed that bios from publishers are now showing at the top of author pages. Intentional or another escapee? I have to say that if these bios are now going to be included, then we really need a way to get rid of the outdated ones: the one for Poppy Z. Brite is really bad since Brite is male and also divorced.

There are a few solutions here. One is that I'm currently using the bio from the most popular book. I think there's a case to be made it should be the LAST bio. The trick is that the bio is often slanted toward the book it's selling. That is, if their last book was about car repair, it's going to go on about how they love cars, even if most of their books aren't about cars.

I hesitate to have a page with all the bios. Most authors with many have basically the same over and over--the differences are truly trivial. But maybe that's the right answer for one reason—to let people pick.

As with work summaries, it's probably also a good idea to have a flagging mechanism.

I'll look into Billy Martin / Poppy Z. Brite. This may get complicated, though. Note that their works, at least under the latter name, link to an Amazon bio. So maybe they're maintaining a pen-name/real-name distinction? Worth investigating (See https://www.amazon.com/Devil-You-Know-Poppy-Brite/dp/1887368779 , https://www.amazon.com/Poppy-Z-Brite/e/B000APW4MC/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1 )

>2 amanda4242: Sorry. Was adding this.

>3 timspalding: Yeah, Brite/Martin will probably be complicated. To the best of my knowledge the last thing he published was a collection of short stories as Brite, and this was after transitioning. I don't think he's published anything as Martin.

Another trans author with an outdated bio is Riley Black, and I'm sure there are many more.

>1 timspalding:

1. Is there some reason to have this and the "short* biography" field in CK? (Indeed, much of the biographical data is already in CK, so why repeat it?)

2. I must say that some of these bios sound more like advertisements.

3. Frankly, I'd love to be able to hide this on a case-by-case basis. And/or have the possibility to see "less" after I see "more". I may want to open that to read what's there, but, after having done so, I'd like to reduce the text.

* though some people have an odd idea of what constitutes "short"

>4 amanda4242:

Interesting. Amazon has pages for both names, which don't include all the books. The Brian Switek page mentions a forthcoming book from Riley Black, but otherwise ends in 2015. If Martin has not published since, that might explain no action. But it seems odd to me that they aren't unifying the Riley Black pages.

2. I must say that some of these bios sound more like advertisements.

Well, they are to some extent. People had similar complaints about the work summaries. Ultimately, I think they're useful to provide. They are currently 300 characters long—two lines for me, for not for everyone. In the new authors page they will be two lines long no matter the screen size.

>6 timspalding: And that's what you get for relying on Amazon for data. :)

Brite/Martin's official website and his blog haven't been updated in years. He has a number of recent posts on his Patreon, where he's listed as "Poppy Z. Brite (Billy Martin)." https://www.patreon.com/docbrite

Is there some site called "error", or is this one? : https://www.librarything.com/author/mccarterrobert

People had similar complaints about the work summaries.

There are work summaries? Do you mean the descriptions? But they're not in your face when you go to the work page, as these bios are. You have to choose affirmatively to see them.

>9 lilithcat: Nice catch. The bio came from a combined work. Gotta trace it down.

There are work summaries? Do you mean the descriptions? But they're not in your face when you go to the work page, as these bios are. You have to choose affirmatively to see them.

No. They're there. Exact same place. Been there for months. See https://www.librarything.com/work/11234211

>11 timspalding:

Weird. Because I'm not seeing anything that labeled "work summary". I see "published reviews", but they're way down on the page.

>12 lilithcat: Look in the box at the very top of the work page, immediately under the data boxes for Members, Average Rating and so on. This is what Tim means above.

They are not labeled "work summary" - they are descriptions (unlabeled again unless you go to the Descriptions tab. Are you saying that you do not see the descriptions on work pages? Because they are the ones which are at the same place as with these bios.

>13 AnnieMod: There's a setting not to see descriptions IIRC

>13 AnnieMod:

No. Under the box for "members" is the box for Tags.

The book descriptions are way down at the bottom of the page, below the CK fields. There is nothing in the same place as with these bios.

>14 SandraArdnas:

Oh, yes! That's it! In account settings, under "Your Books", then "other settings", you can hide "Work-page top descriptions". Which I did. And completely forgot their existence.

>14 SandraArdnas: Ah yes, the "Work-page top descriptions" selection in https://www.librarything.com/settings/other. I've forgotten it is in there.

>15 lilithcat: >17 AnnieMod: :) We were cross-posting while I was looking through the settings - I've forgotten about that configuration... :)

>4 amanda4242: I'm sure there are many more.

No doubt. ND Stevenson is the first I've noticed. She/her pronouns aren't wrong at this time, but I'm fairly certain the author has moved away from their birth name.

Almost certainly in need of combining, there won't be only one copy of Lumberjanes Vol 1 on Librarything.

ETA: Yep, here's the main author record and yes, the author bio is outdated https://www.librarything.com/author/stevensonnoelle

>20 Aquila: Good catch. I've combined the pages.

ETA: In an entertainment news article about the upcoming release of the Nimona animation, I saw a studio insider refer to "Andy Stevenson", so that's another name that might soon pop up on LT for the transitioning author.

I think the bio on this page is incorrect:
https://www.librarything.com/author/bible

Similarly, Le Guin: https://www.librarything.com/author/guinursulakle

This one could be solved by excluding works where the author is a secondary author.

>23 Stevil2001: Ouch. Yeah, the works where someone is a secondary author will need to be excluded or we will end up with a lot of introduction writers for popular books in this state. Incidentally, that will also help explain to people why it is important to set that setting properly.

Vita Sackville-West has the biography for Molly Keane.

>10 timspalding:

If it helps, Arthur Conan Doyle's bio is also from "error".

Something else to note: if there are multiple authors, some of the bios include info on the other author(s), in addition to the person on whose author page it appears.

See, for example: https://www.librarything.com/author/weisberggabrielp

Martha Thorne was a curator at the Art Institute of Chicago, but she is not the Art Institute: https://www.librarything.com/author/artinstituteofchicag

So two errors there.

And Peter Ackroyd(1) is not Geoffrey Chaucer: https://www.librarything.com/author/ackroydpeter-1

Alberta Hutchinson's books may be published by Dover, but she isn't Dover: https://www.librarything.com/author/dover

Murasaki Shikibu's author page has the bio of one of her translators.

And JRR Tolkien has Christopher's biography https://www.librarything.com/author/tolkienjrr

I hope these potted bios will not replace the free text user generated bios currently entered in CK. These latter often will contain much key info lacking from the publisher's/Bowker;s thumbnails.

>1 timspalding:

You might want to consider the wording of "biography from WORK". The bio of Meyer, frex, may be linked to Twilight, but it's not actually from that book, at least as originally printed.

I would like to request the ability to turn them off as we can for works, per >16 lilithcat: and >17 AnnieMod:

>32 gilroy: Yes, please.

Scott Lobdell's bio is for Scott Snyder: https://www.librarything.com/author/lobdellscott

Terry Jones's bio is showing up on Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, and Monty Python. Terry Gilliam has John Cleese's bio.

timspalding (#3):

Doing your best not to knowingly misgender trans or non-binary authors is reason enough to pick the most recent bio available. Bios are nice information for readers, but let's try not to actively harm the person they're about, please.

(And trans authors are of course completely free to continue using a previous name to publish, just as anyone else can use a pseudonym associated with a different gender. That doesn't make it OK to misgender them.)

>21 aspirit:

"Andy" vs "ND" could also be a transcription or speech-to-text issue at some point, since they'd be pronounced similarly.

Looking into some of these issues now.

>37 lorax:

I've seen some very odd results from those. Like this:

at this rate you might was well use Wikipedia. At least it's more up-to-date

Improved many above; working on more.

Graham Chapman now has John Cleese's bio.

>42 amanda4242:

I know. I'm workin'

>43 timspalding: Gonna cycle through all the Pythons until you hit the right one? ;)

Heh. Something like that.

I spent a good deal of time working on a better matching algorithm. The problem is that not all bios have names attached, some include multiple names in the same bio, and even then there's some issues matching them with LT names in splits, etc.

Anyway, it's running. 30m to go.

>44 amanda4242: :D

>45 timspalding: I thought Python code was something else :-)

Ha ha, when I pulled up Talk this morning I thought it said "Author bias added!"

Great work as always, LT. Thanks for your care on preventing misgendering.

Okay, I re-ran it with a new method. Of the above misassignments, only Murasaki Shikibu remains as a problem. There are fewer matches overall, because it's just playing it safer.

I'm going to work on doing recent bios next.

Then I'll work on a system for nixing bios, generally and for people who transition, and other situations where someone changed major things that render their bio very off.

Robert Pinksy translated Dante, but he isn't Dante: https://www.librarything.com/author/alighieridante

Hm, are sure all these supposed "misattributions" aren't right? Should do some computational linguistics; they might show us all these works are really by six people. Robert Pinsky COULD have been Dante's ghost-writer.

>51 Stevil2001:

You are a BAD man!

>51 Stevil2001: I mean, we haven't seen Stephen King and John Grisham on the same stage at the same time...

>51 Stevil2001:

Good think I wasn't drinking my tea when I read that.

LOL. Is that thread still going. (off to check ignore list)

>55 SandraArdnas:

It's actually been continued: https://www.librarything.com/topic/341561

>53 gilroy: oh, gods, no. Before someone takes this seriously...

Bookends: John Grisham in Conversation with Stephen King (YouTube)

>57 aspirit: I stand corrected. Bad choice of popular authors on my part.

>58 gilroy: That video means nothing. Both are just figureheads for one of the 6 ghostwriters of the 21st century.

>59 SandraArdnas: I want to complain about that thread spewing over, but I can't think of a way to do it so someone isn't likely to accuse me of being Stephen King under a pseudonym.

Back to the topic...
>49 timspalding: Thank you.

>60 aspirit:

likely to accuse me of being Stephen King under a pseudonym.

Do you sign your checks "Richard Bachman" ?

James

The fact that Stephen King has a known track record of writing under a pseudonym only strengthens the evidence for his membership in the Post-Modern writing guild. He has also written part of a novel as Paul Sheldon, wich is clearly an in-joke reference to the existence of his ghost-writer membership in this group.

Ugh. I don't want to keep this up. I feel dirty now.

Come on, people! Everyone knows the guy we call Stephen King is really an actor hired by the true author: Richard Bachman. Bachman created the King pseudonym to protect his identity and hired a down on his luck actor to do public appearances. When the novels Bachman published under his own name didn't prove as popular, he put out the story that Bachman is actually the pseudonym of King to improve sales of the Bachman books.

ETA: "John Grisham" and "Stephen King" aren't the same person. Grisham is obviously a pseudonym of James Patterson.

Salvatore A. Lombino, an author best known as, "Ed McBain", legally changed his name to one of his other pen names, "Evan Hunter."

I can call a restaurant and make a reservation as Ed McBain, and when I get there the chef will be coming out of the kitchen with books for me to sign. If I call as Evan Hunter, I get a table near the phone booths.

— New York Times, 30 July 1997 (and reprinted elsewhere, including for his 2005 obituaries).

James

>61 Keeline: Not that I can recall.

For the record, I am not Stephen King.

I am also not anglemark. I am not amanda4242. (Hi!) I am not AbigailAdams26.

I have not published under the byline J.K. Rowling. I have not published under the byline Danielle Steele. They are almost certainly two separate people from each other, as well.

Further, I am not a ghostwriter at all! (Maybe a ghost writer, though... hmm....)

I do personally know more than six novelists. Some are them are even *gaaaasp* women. Who actually sell books under their own name! So hard to believe, I know, but it is true. They're not even trying to spread Nazism into Russia or anything like that. Reality is surreal, truly.

>65 aspirit:

I am not amanda4242. I am not AbigailAdams26

Aren't they the same person?

>63 amanda4242: Sure this seems funny, but do you know how long I spent thinking Stephen King was the author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull?

>66 lilithcat: Don't you know you're supposed to first assume they are, scrape all their public messages on LT, then manipulate the data in convulated ways to prove they are? If you didn't do that, then you can't write several books on how the one person is involved in an elaborate conspiracy to embarass you on this site.

You didn't do that. I won't do that. So they're separate people.

Oh man.

All of us are actually Tim.

>69 timspalding: Aha, there's the signature of all LT staff posts. I knew it, it's all ghostwritten by conceptdawg.

>70 aspirit: Tim, you say?
https://youtu.be/aZJZK6rzjns

>72 gilroy:
Is it significant that there are (well, were) SIX members of Monty Python? Should I assume they are responsible for all humor media generated in 20th and 21st century?

For anyone hopelessly lost by the turn this thread has taken, consider yourself fortunate.

>49 timspalding:

Yeah: being able to thumbs-down an inaccurate or out-of-date bio would be great. (Such as this one, which is for the editor of one specific edition rather than the author.)

>75 Petroglyph:

Coming.

>76 timspalding:

I know, I know. I'm just trying to bring this thread back on track.

>77 Petroglyph: I'll help you by keeping silent :-)

I will be silent too.

Mum is the word

>80 SandraArdnas: I am sitting here very quietly, not pointing out it's nonsensical for you to bring your mother into the discussion. ;)

Okay, updates here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/341715