I already posted the following in the Love and Romance genre forum, in hopes that someone familiar with this particular author could clue me in, but maybe someone here can tell me what to do in the general situation described ... as it could happen with other authors as well, I suppose!

"I've recently tried to post to my bookshelf a few books in the Harlequin Presents series. The books causing me a problem in posting are by an author named -- according to my book covers, at least -- Helen Brooks. When I check the book info before posting, however, the author's name comes up as Barbara Brooks-Simon ... even though, on the covers pictured, the author's name clearly reads Helen Brooks, just like on my copy!

Thought some of you might be familiar with this author -- whether she underwent a name change at some point -- or could give me pointers on how to handle this. If the two names refer to the same person, seems like some book data editing is in order, to get both names on all her books ... but I don't know enough about this circumstance to feel confident about doing that."

Thanks for any help!

What is the title of the book? I just searched fantasticfiction.co.uk and found a Helen Brooks. She is listed as a pseudonym for Rita Bradshaw. You might look at that site to see if you see the title you are trying to post. No listing for Barbara Brooks-Simon. :(

Try this link.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/helen-brooks/

Thanks. There are actually several of this author's books in this series where what I've described happens. For one example, look up the title Husband by Contract. The author's name is given in the listing info as Barbara Brooks-Simon ... but the cover shown clearly reads Helen Brooks!

Well, sheesh, I've edited this twice and can't get the bold type to go away!! Sorry, it's unintentional!

After digging a bit more, I, too, found that Helen Brooks is a pseudonym of Rita Bradshaw ... but no clear indication that Barbara Brooks-Simon is!

I wonder if someone just got confused and changed the author info on these books...? The thing is, if you try to list a Helen Brooks (by your cover) book, the ISBN may pull up a listing where everything matches except the author's name ... so then, do you go by your book cover (and the pictured one!) and submit a data edit to change the name to Helen Brooks? I went ahead and did that on one of mine, but then thought I might be goofing up something I shouldn't be messing with.

The system (computer) searches for data and loads what it finds.  Garbage in, garbage listed.  Then we edit the data and it gets manually checked and changed.  The book data folks (human) usually don't change the data without confirmation from another site.   There is a delay between submitting edits and the changes, based on the volunteers time and schedules. 

It always helps to list where you got the data from.  In this case it sounds like the actual book cover.

I submit a lot of data edits.  When I do things like author name corrections, book title corrections-I'll always put in my reasons and refer them to where I found the info and point out what the cover says. 

Amazon lists the author as Barbara Brooks-Simon

http://www.amazon.com/PLAYING-KEEPS-CALIFORNIA-DREAMS-1/dp/0020419716

Alibris and Textbook.com (and a bunch of other sites) list her as Chelsea Brooks

http://www.alibris.com/search/books/isbn/9780020419716

http://nyts.textbookx.com/detail-book-9780020419716-_Playing_for_Keeps.html

There's an e-bay listing for Chelsea Brooks showing a cover:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1993-CALIFORNIA-DREAMS-TV-series-pb-book-1-HTF-EX_W0QQitemZ200376620379QQcmdZViewItemQQssPageNameZRSS:B:SRCH:US:105

Bit of a nightmare!! :-)  I'm guessing the title as been published under various pseudonyms.  I'm not seeing poor Helen listed anywhere.

If you want to PM me, I'll be happy to work with you on it.

Looks like the books should be listed under Helen Brooks,  and Barbara Brooks-Simon is another author with only a few books to her credit.

Here is Harlequin's bio on Helen Brooks:

http://www.eharlequin.com/author.html?authorid=333

Here are bios for Barbara Brooks-Simon from Amazon and Random House:

http://www.amazon.com/Barbara-Brooks-Simon/e/B001KHED4G

http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=69592

Thanks for all the good advice, people! I think for these few books -- since both MY cover and the cover pictured on PBS clearly state Helen Brooks -- I will submit edits for them. It's not a genre I'm real familiar with (I was given a couple of boxes of books) so I was not familiar with this/these authors at all.

From my research, as from most of yours, it looks like a big ole confusing mess surrounding Rita Bradshaw and her actual pseudonym and then some sort-of-like-sounding other authors that have somehow gotten lumped in with her. Wonder if she gets a kick out it? (Maybe so ... as long as it doesn't interfere with the royalties!!)