User talk:Boonmill

Mills & Boon Romance Title Page Discussion

I don't agree that their should be separate pages for Mills & Boon Romance and Harlequin Romance Titles that are the same book. For the following reasons:

1. They are the same book.
2. The publication history gives an opportunity for interested users to find the book within their home country.
3. Also, as a user, I find it interesting to compare covers and back cover descriptions of the same book to those issues printed later as well as in different countries and to see where it was printed first.

If you agree with the above, I also wanted to let you know the reasoning for some of the things I do:

I list each category romance by whichever publisher printed with paperback version first. I use the paperback version and not the first type of media published (i.e. hardcover), as most people who read category romance read the paperback version. Also, release month/year of the paperback version would be most familiar to them, especially if they were looking for a particular book they can't remember the name of.

If the first paperback version is released by both countries in the same month/year, I chose, the US version as there are more readers in the US compared to Britain (I'm assuming this as the US population is much greater compared to the UK). As such, I believe the majority of people searching would find the Harlequin more interesting/familiar than the British.

Please let me know your thoughts, so we can come to some sort of aggrement.--Greenstrawberry1982 06:46, 2 April 2011 (UTC)

When doing research I expect the information regarding any book to be correct. If I am looking at a Mills & Boon book, I expect the primary information to be about that specific book and likewise when I look for Harlequins and others, the primary information should be on that specific book. I quite agree that Mills & Boon and Harlequin printed the same stories but from a collector's point of view that doesn't make them the same book. I too find it interesting to see the variations in the book covers printed by both publishers through the years or that a book was actually published by both, as not all stories were taken on by both publishers. This, though I feel should be secondary imformation, maybe at the bottom of the page. Friends of mine have found some information to be confusing when looking for a Mills & Boon book and finding Harlequin information on that page instead. Yes, the blurbs are giving the same information about the story but other information such as spine numbers and publication dates, is not the same. That is why there are separate pages for Mills & Boon and Harlequin. It makes it easier for people, especially those who are new and are wanting to learn more, that there are differences, what those differences are and what to look for. Information also needs to be correct from a collectors point of view because so many book sellers are selling books on the story rather than the book itself. For most people, all they want is a book to read and are not particular about which edition it is. As a collector, I want precise information otherwise it ends up costing me a lot of money for a book that is useless to me. I would like to educate sellers on this point, although I feel I would get nowhere on that score. I love the fact that there is someone else out there that seems to share the same passion that I have for these books and wants to share in all the information that they have at they disposal. I hope that you now understand my point of view, even if you may not agree.

It would be great if wiki had a function where if you clicked or searched for a book and it would know which country's edition you were looking for so that information coud go on the top, but it does not. I still believe the information should be on the same page because the story is the same. so here is my compromise:

The top of the page would look like this.

Author: Author
First Published By: Mills & Boon Romance #00 (or whomever published first). See other later editions below.

Rest that follows would be the same.

If the page is small you would immediately be able to see that the UK or US information other then what was not listed above is below and if the page becomes too long to shows up in the contents section. And you already see that there is a mills and boon cover

Also if you do a search on wiki this could be confusing for people who are looking for the title thinking their are two books with the same title or that the UK version is different from the US version. --Greenstrawberry1982 17:42, 2 April 2011 (UTC)