Talk:Alex Rutherford

Requested move 3 April 2021

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

No consensus to move. After much-extended time for discussion, there is no consensus for a move at this time. I would suggest, as an alternative, creating the proposed article on Diana Preston, and if it makes sense at that time, proposing to merge or delete this article. BD2412 T 06:15, 26 April 2021 (UTC)

Alex Rutherford → Diana Preston – Diana Preston has written at least 15 books, most of them under her real name "Diana Preston". She used a pseudonym "Alex Rutherford" for a fictional series, but she is best known for her non-fiction works as Diana Preston. This is easily demonstrated by library holdings and user holdings. Whoever created/named this article appears to be only interested in her fiction work and mostly ignored her non-fiction which make up the bulk of her writing. Her biography article should be a normal biographical article under her real name. She also published some books with her husband, but most were done by her alone. Once renamed, I will begin to build a proper biography of Diana Preston, and include information about her pseudonym and co-authors. Green C  03:13, 3 April 2021 (UTC) —Relisting. Vaticidalprophet 06:57, 10 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Support per nomination. Unlike authors who are only known to the public via their pen names, Diana Preston is best known by her actual name. —Roman Spinner (talk • contribs) 12:56, 4 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Oppose. The article says the pen name Alex Rutherford is used by both Diana Preston and her husband Michael Preston. If they wrote the books together, we'll need a collective name for them similar to Coen brothers. The current title fits the bill better than the proposed one. Vpab15 (talk) 16:24, 9 April 2021 (UTC)
 * It's not unusual for a primary author to have collaborated with a co-author on some works, but we don't have separate articles for every author collaboration, the vast majority of collaborations have no separate article rather "also known as" in bold at the top and redirects and sub-sections. That they use a pseudonym for the collaboration is besides the point, they might also be called "The Prestons" like "Coen brothers". The important thing is it is a collaboration. The question then is the majority of work by the primary author done in collaboration and the answer is no. She is by far best known as an independent author, and the husband has no independent works. Since the collaboration is a secondary aspect of the authors total works, it makes more sense to include it in the authors primary biographical article with redirects and "also known as" at the top. This is what is most commonly done on Wikipedia. To put it another way, if this RFM fails I will need to create a standlalone article for Diana and the question arises about merging the two and/or AfD of Alex Rutherford for lack of independent sources that discuss the collaboration. --  Green  C  16:47, 9 April 2021 (UTC)
 * The question then is the majority of work by the primary author done in collaboration and the answer is no. Could you please elaborate? The article says the couple are mainly known for Empire of the Moghul, which they co-wrote. Is that not the case? If there are works by Diana that she wrote by herself but are not as prominent as the works they wrote together, we can have a section, similar to The Wachowskis. Vpab15 (talk) 17:01, 9 April 2021 (UTC)
 * The article does not say the couple are mainly known for the fiction series. In fact they are so well known by their real names and other books (all non-fiction) when they decided to branch out and try fiction they used a pseudonym to avoid confusion (commonly done). The majority of titles and library holdings by Diana Preston were published under her real name Diana Preston. Look at WorldCat, Library of Congress, Open Library, Amazon.com, Goodreads, LibraryThing and any other book database. Alex Rutherford is the name they use for fiction, and Diana Preston for non-fiction. The non-fiction is vastly more significant than this fiction series which was always a side project for them. They have been publishing non-fiction for decades with dozens of titles many are best sellers and critically well regarded. --  Green  C  13:47, 10 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Oppose - the article for the pseudonym should remain, but there is no problem in creating an article for Diana Preston for her own non-fiction work if she is notable for that work. The two articles are not mutually exclusive. --User:Ceyockey ( talk to me ) 01:28, 18 April 2021 (UTC)
 * You could that but the question is why. The pseudonym and fiction are not particularly notable. It's notable-enough if it ever went to AfD due to some book reviews, but that's about it. It's really a MERGE question. Most of the time, when authors have pseudonym's we don't have separate articles (with some famous exceptions). The only reason it happened in this case is the article about Diana Preston never got made before someone decided Wikipedia needed something about Alex Rutherford. --  Green  C  03:02, 18 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Maybe in the future, the content of this article can be split between Empire of the Moghul and Diana Preston. But until Diana Preston has an article, the discussion about merging is premature. And if/when that happens, Alex Rutherford should redirect to Empire of the Moghul, not to Diana Preston. Vpab15 (talk) 21:40, 18 April 2021 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.