You can create a new Title record and attach an existing Contact record, or create a new Contact record “on-the-fly.” Here’s how.

While in the Title list view, click the action button at the upper-left, and select NEW Record.

Fill in the book’s title, subtitle, and any other data you want to add to the record. Titles are always joined to a Contact record via a Contract record. A Title can have any number of Contracts associated with it; think not just about the author, but an editor, translator, illustrator, photographer, etc.

To add a new Contract, click the green plus to the upper-right of the Contracts portal.

You will be asked to confirm that you want to create a new Contract record. When the card window opens with the new Contract record, click into the Artist field. Here you can start to type the name of the artist, beginning with the first name. The system will try to match with an existing Contact record.

If you select an existing Contact, the name will turn green, and a trash can will appear beside the name (to allow you to remove it, if you made an error). Note that anywhere data appears in green, this represents a link to that related record. So if you click the name, you will be brought immediately to the artist’s full Contact record.

If instead you type a name that does not match a Contact record in the system, you will be prompted that no such Contact exists, and confirm that you want to create a Contact record with that name. The prompt will help you populate the Contact’s name fields appropriately, which is handy if the artist has three or more names – sometimes the middle name is actually part of the first or last name. You can adjust the position of middle name(s) here (these can also be updated or corrected on the Contact record itself).

Once you click Add Contact, the Contact record gets created, plus it is auto-linked to this Contract record. You can proceed to fill in the details of the Contract (today’s date is auto-filled, but you can edit that)…

…, and/or click on the the new Contact’s name to go to the new Contact record, and there fill in particulars, like contact information, biography, etc. Note the new Title appears automatically in the Contact record’s Contracts portal – as a green link, showing that you can click to visit the Title record.

Another thing to note: because you set the Role for the artist on the Contract (in this case to “Author”), that category is automatically assigned to the Contact’s record (note the categories portal at the upper-right, where it says “Author”; a Contact can have multiple roles – to add more, use the green plus beside that portal).