# Sorting by author



## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

I'd like to figure out how everyone sorts their books alphabetically by author: I use Calibre and if I enter the author in it as the program suggests (in the "Authors" window First Name, Last Name; and in the "Author sort" window Last Name, First Name) - it sorts it in my Kindle by first name.  It just seems to completely ignore the "Author sort" field.  Is this the case for everyone?  It's very frustrating!  Do you enter Last Name, First Name in both "Author" and "Author sort" fields?


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## luvmy4brats (Nov 9, 2008)

I use Last Name, First Name in both fields in Calibre (author and Author sort) and it sorts by last name on my Kindle. Double check that the Author Sort didn't switch by itself in Calibre (it does sometimes, especially if you edit in the Grid and not using the Edit screen)


ETA-- OOPS, misread that at first --

The Kindle itself goes by what is in the Author field and Calibre sorts by what is on the Author Sort field. It DOES ignore the Author Sort field.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

I put in last name, first name in both fields on Calibre and the books show up with first name, last name of author on my Kindle like Stephen King, but it sorts by last name if that makes any sense  . I find Stephen King by hitting K, not S, but it displays first name last name. 

I have been doing this since I have had my K1 and now I have a K3.


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## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

Thanks!  I guess I have to re-name all of the authors in Calibre!  And I have noticed it sometimes automatically changes the names.  Very annoying!


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## Linjeakel (Mar 17, 2010)

I enter mine on calibre the same as the OP - but mine sort correctly on my Kindle, that is, by last name, so I'm not sure why others are having problems with that. Vey curious!


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## Morf (Nov 18, 2010)

Hmmm, curious! I use the same setup on Calibre as the OP. I don't normally use sort by Author, but I've just switched my Kindle to see what it does and it seems that some of the books are by first name, and some by last name! So it goes something like:

John Anderson
Andy Jones
Bill Doot
Peter Booble...

I wonder if the difference is whether the book was originally a mobi file, or has been converted to mobi by Calibre.

Looking through my books, I think (but can't be sure) that the ones converted by Calibre sort by first name, whereas the ones that were originally mobi sort correctly by last name. If somebody wants to investigate further and finds this is correct, it could be worth raising over on the Calibre forums on mobileread.


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## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

This is very confusing! 

Calibre has two Author fields: regular "Author(s)" and "Author sort." It will sort the books by author in the "Author sort" field within itself. But, at least for me, the Kindle uses the "Author(s)" field. (I think I'm getting this right.) So basically I have to have both fields filled out "Last Name, First Name" in order for it to be sorted correctly on the Kindle and in Caliber.

I don't understand why some people's Kindles sort alphabetically correctly by recognizing last names! My K2 was the same as my current K3. The entry _has_ to be "Last Name, First Name" to be sorted correctly on Kindle.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

I remember very early when I got my first K1 way back, I read a post somewhere saying if you want the books to look and appear a certain way, this is what you put in Calibre. I have been doing that ever since. So I haven't tried any other way and I have no clue what Kindle reads or not, but it works for me. 

I do Last name, First name in both author Fields. This gives me the authors sortable by last name but appearing last name, first name inside of Calibre. In Kindle its sortable by last name, but the appearance is first name, last name. 

I guess it also depends on how you want it to appear. Some don't like the last name, first name in calibre that my meta tagging does, but for me its fine. My priority is to see first name, last name on the Kindle but still be able to sort by last name. 


I don't know if any of my posts on this make sense after reading this one  .


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## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

It makes perfect sense, Atunah!  On my K2 I was doing it the way you describe, so I'm not sure what possessed me to try something different with the K3.  Maybe it's because Calibre suggests it be done in a certain way, which isn't compatible with the Kindle.  I find that kind of odd.  Maybe I'm thinking of Calibre in too narrow a way.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

I just already had too many books in Calibre by the time I got my K3 that I wasn't even going to mess with that. It worked for me, so unless they change the sort order somehow in a new update, I'll leave it as I had it.  

I did have to change a couple of things in one of the newer calibre updates in the tweaks, but that was so I could use those buttons to duplicate the fields since mine are the same. Saves me some time. Otherwise it copied things with a "the", by putting the "the" on the end of the title. So instead of The Lord of the rings, I would get , Lord of the rings, the.  .
Thankfully I read somewhere how to change that so I can use that copy button. Less typing. I put in Series name and numbers next to the title so I don't want to have to type all that twice. 

Every time there is a new update to Calibre I shudder. I don't know how most of that stuff works and if they mess up my system I am lost.  . I haven't gotten the new 0.8 one yet.


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