Help:Same Title Multiple Authors

Many titles have been reused over the years with different authors. In fact, we have a listing of such titles at category:Books - Same Title. To differentiate between books with the same titles, the title itself should be a page with a listing of all the books with that title and their authors (called a "disambiguation page"). See Example Page. Please use the following recommendations. You can copy the syntax from any box to help you.

Note: for listing of such titles see category:Books - Same Title.

Finding Books With Same Title

You may discover books with the same title in different ways:

Title Page Already Exists

• When you list all of an author's books on an author page or all the of the books in a series on a numbered series page, a title may already show up in blue. When this occurs be sure to click on that blue link and see if the individual book page is really the book by the author that you were planning. In many cases it will be a page for a book with the same title by a different author. In that case:
  • change the listing on your list to [[Book Title - Author Name|Book Title]]. The | (called a "pipe") allows the book title to display cleanly but still link to the specific book by the author in question.
  • follow the instructions below for changing the existing page for that title to a disambiguation page.

• When you go to the main Books page and navigate to the appropriate letter of the alphabet you find that the book title already is listed for a different author. Follow the instructions below.

You Create Individual Title Page, But Disambiguation Page Is Needed

• You have created a book page and then find that there are other author pages linking to your page. (This can be done by choosing the What Links Here tool on the left side of the wiki.) In this case, again, follow the instructions below.

Creating A Disambiguation Page

The easiest way to create title page (see Example Page) with a listing of all the books with that title and their authors is:

• Go the main Books page -- navigate to the appropriate letter of the alphabet. If the book title already is listed (usually for a different author), see Moving old Page and Correcting Links below.
• Open the list by clicking on the "edit" button. Add the title to the list.
  • Find the correct place to list the title alphabetically. Generally you should ignore any introductory articles like "A", "An" and "The" and alphabetize by the next word in the title.
  • Once your open the page for editing, you should insert listings for the main title and all the books with that same title as follows:

* ''[[book title]]'' 
** [[book title - the existing author's name|1]] - [[author name]], date, (Publisher)
** [[book title - your new author's name|2]] - [[author name]], date, (Publisher)
etc.

• These should be listed in chronological order, with the earliest book being 1, etc.

• Please note the format for the single title page: Between the Sheets - Tricia Adams is correct while [[Between the Sheets by Tricia Adams]] is not.

• Save the list and the title and both book pages will be in red type.

• Click on the title which will take you to your newly created disambiguation page.

Disambiguation Page Syntax

The content of the title disambiguation page is as follows:

[[category:Books - Same Title]] 
''Book title'' is the title of books by:

* [[book title - author name|1]] - [[author name]], date, (Publisher)
* [[book title - author name|2]] - [[author name]], date, (Publisher)

You can continue that listing for as many books as you know by that title. Ideally, please list the books in chronological order. Please note the format for the single title page:

Between the Sheets - Tricia Adams is correct while [[Between the Sheets by Tricia Adams]] is not.

Single Title Page

Please use [[Book title - author name]] as the format for each single title page. Fill in the content for the single title page as you would for any other book using the Book Template.

Books Page

On the Books page with the appropriate letter for the title, please use the follow markup.

* ''[[book title]]''
* [[book title - author name|1]] - [[author name]], date, (Publisher)
* [[book title - author name|2]] - [[author name]], date, (Publisher)
etc.

Moving Old Page and Correcting Links

If the page for the title already exists and referred to a specific author's version, you will have to create new pages for the individual author's books and make the general title page a disambiguation page as follows:

1. Copy the entry for the individual author's book into a text editor for holding.

2. Substitute the Disambiguation Page content as noted above.

• Save this page, and this will result in links to the pages for the individual author's books that you'll need next. The numbers in front of the books will appear in red type.
• Click on the number in front of the individual author's book, e.g., 1 which will take you to your newly created page for the individual book.

3. Copy the entry from the text editor to the newly created new page for that author's book.

4. Create book pages for any other book listed on the disambiguation page. This is usually the new book page you have been trying to create all along.

5. Back at the new Disambiguation Page, check for out of date links via the What Links Here tool on the left side of the wiki. There may be several or no links to other pages. On each of those pages, find the link to the [[Book title]] and correct to the appropriate author page by using the following:

[[book title - author name | book title]]

The | allows the book title to display cleanly but still link to the specific book by the author in question.

• Note: If #5 seems daunting please add {{Whatlinkshere Correction}} to the top of the disambiguation page.