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Expanded archive listing

Post-submission pages for Edit Publication submissions updated

All "Modified Content" tables displayed on EditPub post-submission pages have been updated. Table cells which used to say "Current" now display a link to the Title ID about to be modified. Multiple yellow warnings are now displayed correctly and include the names of new/alternate name/disambiguated authors.

This pretty much completes the cleanup of post-submission pages. As always, if you come across errors or anything unexpected, please let me know. Ahasuerus (talk) 18:30, 30 March 2023 (EDT)

The software has been tweaked to display a yellow warning if a non-existing series, publication series or publisher matches a disambiguated record of the same type. For example, this yellow warning will be displayed if a submission uses "The Rules" in the "Series" field because we already have The Rules (F. T. Lukens) and The Rules (Aaron Oster) on file. Ahasuerus (talk) 12:26, 2 April 2023 (EDT)

Several Problems

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5590099; I was going to cancel this since nobody came to an agreement about what the publisher should be but when I looked at it I realized the note makes no sense because it describes a 1977 date for this 1983 book, also edit history's 2014 entry is offset from the rest so there seems to be a problem there, too. --Username (talk) 08:36, 1 April 2023 (EDT)

Resurrected Holmes

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?33870; I made some edits, still pending, adding March to the title date, correcting the title to "The Resurrected Holmes" since whoever entered info here went by the cover title and not the title page plus I imported the "Giant Rat" story in the HC into the TP. The contents are on OL and there's an Archive.org copy of the TP; if anyone knows which of the contents are genre or were written by authors above-the-threshold they may want to flesh the records out, but be aware that 1 story, R. Lupoff's "The Adventure of the Boulevard Assassin", was reprinted in his collection Claremont Tales II as "The Adventures of the Boulevard Assassin" so a variant will be needed; unlike the few other non-genre stories in that collection nobody entered a note saying where it originally came from even though it says so on the copyright page. --Username (talk) 16:25, 1 April 2023 (EDT)

Introduction Title Question

An editor submitted this edit changing the titles of the two introductions in this publication. For each introduction, there is the word Introduction in a large font over an author credit (e.g. "by China Miéville") in a significantly smaller font. Each essay is also signed with the author's name at the end of the text. I had originally considered the byline to be a simple author credit and thus titled each essay simply "Introduction (The Left Hand of Darkness)". However, the signature at the end gives me pause. I think I still agree with my original title, but I see how it could be interpreted differently. Also if we include the byline as part of the title, should we still disambiguate. What do other folks think? --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 08:00, 2 April 2023 (EDT)

I consider the byline to be just an author credit as well. We already have the author in the author field, adding “by author” to the title feels like an overkill. If we decide to keep it in the title, it still needs disambiguation IMO - it is as generic as Introduction on the author’s page after all. Annie (talk) 12:37, 2 April 2023 (EDT)

If I may explain how I arrived at the proposed titles. Usually there is only one novel introduction and where that is the case, it is simply titled "Introduction" and may or may not be signed. Here, we have two introductions (the Miéville one being added for this Masterworks II edition). To make it clear to readers whose introduction each is, the publishers have extended the title to include the author's name (probably for the first time) and, for our purposes, have created a variant title. In the notes I have tried to make it clear that the title is as it appears above the work (as the titling rules require) and not just a whim on my part. That we also have the author in the author field I consider as just a system function. I added the disambiguation for the purposes of the author's page, as noted above. Hope that helps. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 15:16, 2 April 2023 (EDT)

I still do not think we should add it as part of the title - we never add the author name to the title unless it is incorporated cleanly and a byline is not an incorporation for me. I understand how you came up with the titles but I just do not think that we should be doing that. Two introductions or an introduction and a foreword are essentially the same thing from our perspective - but you are proposing we handle one of these differently from the other because they happen to both be called introductions. Annie (talk) 13:55, 3 April 2023 (EDT)

I agree with Annie. It's not part of the title. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 16:38, 3 April 2023 (EDT)

Thanks for those answers, but I'm left unclear as to what you mean by "unless it is incorporated cleanly and a byline is not an incorporation". I think I get the meaning but can you expand on that a little. Does it follow that if the author's name appears above the essay it should always be treated as a byline and therefore ignored? Thanks, Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 22:23, 3 April 2023 (EDT)

Unless it is part of the title organically, the author name does not get added to the title regardless of where it is on the page - below, above, in between the two lines of a title, led or not led by “by”. Otherwise as most title pages out there have the author name, one can take your argument to the extreme and make a case that we always add the author name to the title of stories, books, essays and so on because it is on the page after all; your case is not different from that really even if you are restricting it to a limited usecase in your mind - there is no reason to mad an exception here. So “Isaac Asimov Presents” keeps the name as part of the title because it cannot be separated. Or “Neil Gaiman Talks About Things”. Similarly to how we do not keep a series title inside of a title for example. We are not ignoring it - we just have a different place for it in our record so we use that. Just like we do with series names. Annie (talk) 00:26, 4 April 2023 (EDT)

Thanks for taking the time to explain that clearly. As I couldn't find anything in the help pages, it's been nagging at me :) Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 19:46, 4 April 2023 (EDT)

F. Cantor

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?26927; People here have been working on Silverberg's anthology Mirror of Infinity, cover artist Fred(erick) Cantor only has credits for that and The Exorcist, cover image of which has been used countless times on later editions, but he also has 1 interior credit for a cover of John Farris novel All Heads Turn... but there's no cover credit on any edition on ISFDB. So which cover did he do? Also, there's 1 credit here for Frederik Cantor for a reprint edition of Exorcist that he didn't do the cover for, it being just an image from the film, so that is something to look into, too. --Username (talk) 12:04, 2 April 2023 (EDT)

Conan

https://archive.org/details/conan00howa; https://archive.org/details/conan0000unse; One very old Archive.org upload, one fairly new, I'm not sure about the Ace edition because there's no updated date on the copyright page, whether it's the '77 or '79 (with illustrations) edition, neither is PV so if anyone wants to do something with them, also that British edition's notes are unclear, long-gone PV says reprinted 1977 but wrote reprint line from copyright page below that so I don't know if they had an edition that actually said 1977 because the Archive.org copy doesn't, I don't know the history of these endless Conan reprints at all but I know others here do so they may want to do something with this, too. --Username (talk) 12:38, 2 April 2023 (EDT)

Brian Williams

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?8790; I just made an edit adding link to copy of Vampirium, one of those Lone Wolf game books, and the cover artist, Brian Williams, was also the interior artist but that wasn't entered so I did it. Now the problem is he died in 2010 but there are multiple entries on ISFDB after that date; I believe this guy, https://fantlab.ru/autor13980, wrote those series novels while the deceased was the artist, but the problem with that is the last 3 interior art credits are for books written by the novelist, implying that he illustrated some of his own books. Then there's the question of which Williams wrote the 2 70's letters and the 5 short stories spanning early 80's to 2013. Who knows which one did those 3 computer magazine stories but "Tie Your Own Rope" was done for a White Wolf anthology, a well-known gaming company, so maybe the artist wrote a story now and then, but then the last story was written for a disturbing sex anthology that I remember writing about on these boards once before, and I can't picture either one of these Williams writing a story for that, especially since the artist died a few years before it was published, so that's possibly a third Williams. There's also the fact that while the first 4 cover credits are gaming-related as is Vampirium, 2 others are for gay-themed anthologies and the last is for an obscure American horror magazine. Note also another Brian Williams, a comic artist, is on ISFDB being interviewed (possibly the same guy as the above artist except the interview is dated more than 6 months after he died; different guy or long lag time before publication?) and there's another Williams who wrote a dragon fantasy novel in 2018 from a UK self-publisher so not likely to be by the above novelist whose books are from major publishers. So untangling is needed if anyone is interested. EDIT: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5627339; This one was missing both cover artist and interior artist so whenever the artist is separated into his own record I have a feeling there'll be a lot more books than the 2 I edited that are missing his credits here. --Username (talk) 21:29, 2 April 2023 (EDT)

Lost story, no title, no author, only rough memories of the plot

This is set WAY WAY WAY far in the future. The location of Earth has been lost in time. Horses and dogs are coequals with humans in society. A horse approaches a young and wealthy woman and offers her something amazing if she'll help him find and restore old Earth. To cut it short, he lets her have a horseback ride. She falls in love with it, and becomes INSANELY wealthy, sends out scout ships, finds Earth, terraforms it, and hands it over to the non-human members of society. The horse gives her another ride and they all live happily ever after. Sorry to not be more eloquent. I just finished a 12 hour shift at the ambulance company's dispatch center where I work. Thank you very very much. Sak1776 —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Sak1776 (talk • contribs) . 20:39, 2 April 2023‎ (EDT)

If no one can answer your question here, we have a few other sites that can help listed at ISFDB:FAQ#I need help finding a book. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:00, 3 April 2023 (EDT)

I checked around with a few people and they suggested it was "Dreams Done Green" by Alan Dean Foster. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 16:25, 3 April 2023 (EDT)

Yes this is definitely "Dream Done Dream" by Foster.Zybahn (talk) 23:14, 3 April 2023 (EDT)

Nordon

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=leisure+b&type=Publisher; Many of the books on ISFDB as by Leisure Books are actually by Leisure Books / Dorchester Publishing so when I come across them I fix them, but for some reason 5 books on ISFDB are under the Nordon name. The problem with that is all the early Leisure books before they hooked up with Dorchester in the mid-80's say published by Nordon on the copyright page (93 of them were found by doing a text search on Archive.org); the Dorchester name is used here to differ the later books from the earlier ones so there's no need to do that for the early books. Would there be any objection to me changing those 5 to just Leisure Books so they merge with all the hundreds of other books by that publisher here? Only 1 of the Nordon books is PV (by MLB). --Username (talk) 08:30, 4 April 2023 (EDT)

Wasteworld

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?19205; 4th one's a chapbook but 1st one has same page count so shouldn't it be so, too? --Username (talk) 19:11, 4 April 2023 (EDT)

Expired Link

This publication has a note regarding the cover art followed by a link. The flickr page being directed to no longer exists--in such a case can I simply remove the note or is it customary to notify a PVer? I do not know which one had left the note. Thanks. Zybahn (talk) 22:18, 4 April 2023 (EDT)

It's Mavmaramis's link - I've notified him. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 23:22, 4 April 2023 (EDT)

Before deleting a link, see if you can find if archived in the web archive. If not, then all we can do is to delete it. Annie (talk) 11:07, 5 April 2023 (EDT)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/markfullerdillon/52607643318; Is that what you're looking for? Also, if you replace old link can you also correct the 2 misspelled words in the note? I've done so for many of this editor's notes. --Username (talk) 11:11, 5 April 2023 (EDT)

Thanks to all. I've made the corrections & submitted. Zybahn (talk) 21:55, 5 April 2023 (EDT)

Throat Sprockets

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?8169; A copy of the rare American edition was just uploaded so I added a link and a bunch of other stuff, including correcting the month which was off by a couple of months, but the 2 even rarer British editions seem to have disappeared almost entirely, with no eBay copies I can see or any online scans of anything besides the cover. The one review I could find, https://criminolly.com/2021/10/27/throat-sprockets-review/, has a different page count than either edition and a month that neither have. So if anyone owns a copy or can actually do better than me and find online info it would help. Poor Mr. Lucas lost his wife recently so it would be nice to flesh out and correct his info here. --Username (talk) 08:02, 5 April 2023 (EDT)

Leviathan Awakes (excerpt) (sic) by James S. A. Correy (sic)

I stumbled across this by chance the other day, with both the title and author name incorrect. It's strikes me that 2 errors is perhaps more likely to be down to data entry here than mistakes by the publisher, but it's from a 2011 pub transient verified by an editor who has not been active for several years. Any thoughts on whether the appropriate varianting and note-adding is the best course of action, or instead to correct the title and editor fields?

FWIW, some cursory Googling threw up a library entry that indicates the correct title and author name was used. ErsatzCulture (talk) 09:15, 5 April 2023 (EDT)

https://openlibrary.org/books/OL25033756M/Degrees_of_freedom; One of those OL-only non-preview things; search inside says Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey. --Username (talk) 13:16, 5 April 2023 (EDT)

Thanks, I have now updated title and author name, and made a parent title for the real authors Franck and Abraham. ErsatzCulture (talk) 18:26, 12 April 2023 (EDT)

E. Borgese

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5623541; https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=borgese&type=Name; Will my rejected edit be un-rejected if my fixing of her name in the original Brit edition is made a variant or variant is deleted or whatever it is that needs to be done? I'm confused. --Username (talk) 11:15, 5 April 2023 (EDT)

That won't fix the issue. The problem is that the add publication submission was made to add a publication to the title by Elizabeth (with a moderator note that you were adding it with the incorrect name). Your subsequent submission updated both the existing title and publication records to Elisabeth. I was not aware of your second submission until after I rejected the first, but it wouldn't have mattered. Changing the source record does not update any pending submissions (e.g. your rejected edit). Had you done these two submissions in the opposite order, and waiting until the name change was approved before submitting the add publication, you would have been fine. The other way you could have done it, was to submit your first edit as a new publication. Then, when both were approved, you could merge the title records. At this point you can submit a new Add Publication from the updated title record (Elisabeth). By the way, there is a second step that is still required for your change of the existing title record from Elizabeth to Elisabeth. Since you changed it to a variant name, you need to make the altered record into a variant of the canonical name. Hope this helps. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 13:56, 5 April 2023 (EDT)

But her real first name is spelled with an S, so that should be the parent name. There's nothing on ISFDB that was published as by "Elizabeth Mann Borgese". --Username (talk) 14:23, 5 April 2023 (EDT)

Well, we currently have 11 title records that have been published as by Elizabeth Mann Borgese. We have no concept of "real name", we only reflect how things have been published. The canonical name is the name by which the author is best known in the field. You'll note that her legal name, as Elisabeth, is reflected in the legal name field. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 14:57, 5 April 2023 (EDT)

They weren't really published as by Elizabeth in her collection, whoever entered the original Brit edition here (Chris J? He's first in edit history) incorrectly wrote her name that way and thus she's credited that way. Her American edition also says Elisabeth so it's not like they changed the spelling due to some British/American differences, it's just wrong. So her name needs to be changed to Elisabeth for all those stories and then when everything says Elisabeth my edit adding the American edition can be un-rejected, re-added, whatever. I just saw a full wraparound cover online so that'll be something extra to upload that wasn't in my rejected edit. --Username (talk) 15:10, 5 April 2023 (EDT)

There are two issues that you are talking about. First, you submitted an edit to add a new publication, but you submitted incorrectly. I don't think your edit could be unrejcted even if all instances of "Elizabeth Mann Borgese" were changed to "Elisabeth Mann Borgese" (i.e. the two authors are merged). Even that is impossible because there are publications where the author is credited as "Elizabeth Mann Borgese" (e.g. here). Regardless, there is nothing that can be done to change the author's name in your rejected edit that you submitted as Elizabeth. Even if "Elizabeth Mann Borgese" was deleted from the database, your edit would re-add the name as a new author were it approved. I've mentioned above the best way to proceed. I noticed that you did not include the content in your rejected edit. The content from the other record cannot currently be imported because the title records have the incorrect name. There are two ways to bring these records into shape.

1. You could edit the existing collection and change the author credit for those stories that appear only in that collection. You would also need to remove any stories that are published elsewhere from the collection, then re-add them with the correct credit. There is a further step in that variants need to be made, but I'll discuss that below when covering the second overall issue.
2. Alternatively, you could manually add all the stories, with the correct credit, when you re-add the George Braziller publication. You could then remove all the stories from the MacGibbon & Kee publication and import the ones with the correct author credit from the other pub. Again variants will need to be made to finish the process.

The second issue is what name needs to be canonical for this author. Absent evidence to the contrary, I would assume that all other publications are correctly credited. That leaves us with 6 titles in 13 publications credited to Elizabeth. There are 10 titles appearing in 3 publications as Elisabeth. I'm not counting translations which are all variants anyway. You could argue that the canonical name be changed to Elisabeth, but I'd recommend proposing that in a separate thread. Also, would you be volunteering to do this work (it's many edits)? You would need to move all the author data from the current canonical record to the new one; Break all of the parent child author name relationships; Make all new alternate names variants of the new canonical name; Merge any titles with the new canonical name where the former parent name appeared in no publications, deleting the parent title relationship; Change the author credit of any titles with the former canonical name that appear in no publications to the new canonical name. Break any remaining parent child story relationships; Make any remaining titles by alternate name variants of the new canonical name. If you don't want change the canonical name and can't find someone else to do it, or the community decides to keep it as Elizabeth, you'll need to finish the above edits by making the new Elisabeth titles into variants of Elizabeth. Again, I hope this helps. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 19:09, 5 April 2023 (EDT)

Dude, as I've mentioned somewhere on the message boards before, I was hit in the head a few times when I was a kid, many years ago, so I'm a little slow, and my mind has been rapidly deteriorating recently due to personal and external issues, which shows in the occasional misstep I've made here lately which is highly unusual for me, so I don't have a clue what it is you're asking me to do; you and others here seem to forget that I've said more than once that I'm a total amateur with no background in anything literary who just started doing this a few years ago to pass the time (which makes the fact that I have one of the largest number of non-moderator edits in the history of this site even more remarkable). I'm just about done doing this, anyway, for many reasons, and am mostly doing simple stuff these days, so I have a suggestion; you mentioned recently that you're still in contact with this Chris J, so maybe you can ask him if he's the one who entered the name wrong and, if so, why. If it was him, maybe you can convince him, now that I have brought the American edition to everyone's attention, to do whatever it is you said above. I notice that the Archive.org copy was uploaded in September, 2015 and his first entry in the edit history was November, 2015, so the correct spelling of her name was available at the time. If nobody wants to do any of this, it won't bother me. I've done hundreds of edits since this one and can barely remember it, anyway. I'm sure, though, that the ones here who like to variant every name and title difference would want to see it entered; people who've searched for her on this site over the years may have come away disappointed because her name has been wrong for so many years. --Username (talk) 19:48, 5 April 2023 (EDT)

I'm not going to contact another editor on your behalf. Chris J's talk page is here. However, there is no point in contacting Chris. None of the edits in the history added the content to the record. Even if we could determine who added the records incorrectly, what would be the point of contacting that person? They could have been working from a secondary source that was incorrect, but in the end, it doesn't matter. You've discovered an error in a record and you've fixed only part of that error. That's good, but the job isn't finished. The bare minimum to fix this record is:

1. Go to the title record where you changed the name and use the Make This Title a Variant tool to make it a variant of the canonical name. Use Option 2 and enter the canonical name, "Elizabeth Mann Borgese" and click Create New Parent Title.
2. Go to the publication record and use the Edit This Pub tool to edit the record. For each story where the edit fields are not disabled, change the author's name to "Elisabeth Mann Borgese". For all other stories, add "delete" to the page number, use the add title button to add a new row and copy the title of each story to the new title field, enter "Elisabeth Mann Borgese" as the author for the new author field. You can enter this edit at the same time as the one above.
3. After the above edit is approved, go back to the publication record and use the Remove Titles From This Pub tool. Mark each title with delete in the page number.
4. For each title that does not have a parent title (you can find them all at Elisabeth Mann Borgese after the above edits are approved). You need to go to each title and use the Make This Title a Variant tool to link the title to the appropriate parent. At this point, the parent titles should exist. Find each matching title at Elizabeth Mann Borgese. Take note of the Title Record # at the top right of the screen. In the make variant screen, use Option 1 and enter the title number to link the titles.

Making variants when an alternate name is used is not something that is optional or done only when people like to. It's a data integrity issue that needs to be resolved. As it stands, this record will show up on several cleanup reports until it is fixed. Also, there is no problem in searching by an alternate name. If set up correctly, each alternate name has a link to the canonical name, as does all 4 of Ms. Mann Borgese's alternate names. By the way, when you being one of these multi-step edits, it is generally a good idea to let the moderator know that you intend the next steps by adding it to the moderator note. I've tried to give you complete instructions, but if you have any questions when attempting this, please reach out either here or on the Help desk. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 21:31, 5 April 2023 (EDT)

Number Line

https://archive.org/details/nailedbyheart0000clar_p5s1; What printing is this? It's 3rd, isn't it? --Username (talk) 14:49, 5 April 2023 (EDT)

Yes, the 3rd - the lowest number on the list gives you the current printing (with a special note for some number lines that contain a year as well as a printing number). That specific configuration of numbers is a pretty common one. Annie (talk) 19:48, 5 April 2023 (EDT)

OK. I asked because of this, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5625372, where either I goofed or there was some hiccup when I entered it, so I made a new edit with the right cover, but the 2002 edition on Archive.org matches the ISFDB note which says "third printing" yet the mod who rejected this said 4th printing, which I had a feeling was wrong. I'll now add a link in that record. --Username (talk) 19:53, 5 April 2023 (EDT)

The Heaven Maker

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1518099; I recently added the 2014 TP and a link to the Archive.org copy which was recently uploaded; why page count is different between all 3 editions is unknown, someone entered them for the HC and they seem accurate, final essay starting on p. 249 and page count being 254, while TP is 20 pages longer but doesn't seem to have any extra material, but more importantly is while importing HC contents into TP and adding page numbers I now notice that the foreword, which is actually titled Forward in the book, is by Janis McKay, who is actually Janis Mackay per signature, an author with several credits on ISFDB, while the intro is actually by Herbertson. So if anyone can get a hold of the original HC edition and verify it's the same then those can be corrected. --Username (talk) 15:30, 5 April 2023 (EDT)

Magnus Fin

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?30867; Print editions are all same price, one says TP, one PB, and one "unknown", in case anyone knows which they should all really be. --Username (talk) 15:33, 5 April 2023 (EDT)

They are all the standard B format in UK (a few mm under 20 cm) - which is a tp in our DB. I've fixed the 2 that were added in error. Annie (talk) 19:51, 5 April 2023 (EDT)

Tenth Time (A)round

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?74425; I randomly came across that Venture issue on Archive.org, a Brit magazine that apparently reprinted F&SF with added illustrations, if I'm understanding it correctly, and I immediately noticed a problem; McIntosh's story, which ISFDB claims is only "Tenth Time Round" in Venture, is the same in F&SF, too; it's not "Tenth Time Around". There are some active PV so I'm not touching it but this seems like a fairly big change so I thought I'd mention it. --Username (talk) 20:36, 5 April 2023 (EDT)

I updated the title in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 1959 based on the Internet Archive scan and notified the active verifiers. I will also expand Venture Science Fiction, October 1964 based on its Internet Archive scan. -- JLaTondre (talk) 19:34, 6 April 2023 (EDT)

https://archive.org/search?query=%22venture+british+ed%22&sort=-addeddate; I think these are all the issues available, in case anything else needs fixing. --Username (talk) 10:54, 8 April 2023 (EDT)

Thank you. Searching for Venture Science Fiction only returned the one hit and Venture too many. I appreciate you finding a good search term. I will add the links to the magazines and make updates as needed. -- JLaTondre (talk) 11:08, 8 April 2023 (EDT)

Pranks

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?17626; I've been trying to fix publisher Leisure as many of their old books here as by Leisure Books were wrongly entered here with Dorchester in the publisher; with this book I have a vague memory of working on it last year, trying to get all the cover images to match price/ID entered here, and after adding an Archive.org link to the 3rd one I noticed the 1st one, entered by ChrisJ in 2014, is the same as the 3rd one (which I entered last year) except he used the original edition's 1983 date instead of the reprint's 8/89 date which is on the copyright page, so I think the 1st one can be deleted. The 2nd one has a broken image and a Not Found message when it's clicked; I see that I made an edit some time ago for that, too, but obviously if the image was broken back then it would have been noticed. So does anyone have any ideas about that? --Username (talk) 21:58, 5 April 2023 (EDT)

Plus qu'humains

https://openlibrary.org/works/OL19267614W/Les_plus_qu%27humains?edition=key%3A/books/OL26778119M; Full cover, which none of the images on ISFDB show, with a date that's earlier than other editions with that cover, so French-fluent editor may want to add it, re-date the cover art, etc. --Username (talk) 18:45, 6 April 2023 (EDT)

Robert Wise

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?4333; Cover of J. Rovin's UFO Movie Quiz Book says intro by Wise (who was a famous director) so I added that here and put (director) after his name to differ him from the Wise on ISFDB who wrote Christian novels; interview is also by the other Wise, https://www.ebay.com/itm/371173025862, as the seller mentions in his description. Now that it's an interview about films should it be deleted or should (director) be added to that, too? --Username (talk) 08:52, 7 April 2023 (EDT)

My edit was finally approved; how about that interview? --Username (talk) 13:48, 20 April 2023 (EDT)

Ad Astra's analysis of our data

In "James Gunn's Ad Astra" #12 (the current issue), René Walling writes an essay on "Report: Books, Creators and Series, 1800-2018", in which he does a statistical analysis of books published in the genre during the specified period. He analyzes 168,012 genre books, of which 162,140 come from isfdb, and another 5,872 come from "The Locus Index to Science Fiction" and the "SFBooklist". He focuses his attention on (1) Number of books and creators; (2) Number of books published by an author; and (3) Number of series published. And, of course, how these numbers vary over time. If you're interested, the article is online at https://www.adastrasf.com/report-books-creators-and-series-1800-2018/. Chavey (talk) 12:47, 7 April 2023 (EDT)

Of course there are lots of question about the data he generated, e.g. Did he count translations as different books? Did he use our non-genre flag? Did he correctly process our "variants" of a title? etc. Nevertheless, it may still be slightly interesting to some. Chavey (talk) 12:55, 7 April 2023 (EDT)

Curious. Comparing Percent of Titles in Series by Year generated by our weekly reports and the "ISFDB" column in Table 6: Percent of books in a series per year, 1891-2018, I see that the numbers are somewhat different. It makes sense since we count "novels" and "short fiction" separately while René Walling apparently consolidated everything that he considered "books":

• Novels, chapbooks, collections, anthologies and nonfiction books related to the genres of fantasy, horror and science fiction, i.e. found in one of the above mentioned lists, were all included.

Moreover, our chapbook records do not have "series" information, which will inevitably affect the stats. Ahasuerus (talk) 14:03, 7 April 2023 (EDT)

Doubleday and The Crime Club

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=crime+club&type=Publisher; I did an edit for the Gores/Pronzini Tricks and Treats anthology and made Doubleday into Crime Club / Doubleday, but ISFDB has a jumble of different ways that people added the publisher, with the Crime Club / Doubleday one also having Doubleday Crime Club as a pub. series with many more books than the publisher has, some of which are from the Doran era which has its own separate entry here, Crime Club / Doubleday Doran, while I think none of the ones as by Doubleday / Crime Club make sense because Doubleday was the publisher. So if anyone wants to take a look at this some merging/standardization would probably help. --Username (talk) 12:28, 8 April 2023 (EDT)

Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems

Hi,

Joshua Gage's speculative fiction poem, "Penrose process . . ." has been long listed for the 2022 Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems by The Haiku Foundation.

I would like to have this award added to those supported by the ISFDB software, as the award does recognize poetry in the speculative fiction genre.

The Haiku Foundation, as part of its mission to expand possibilities for English-language haiku, created the Touchstone Awards Series in 2010 for individual haiku and senryu (The Touchstone Award for Individual Poems) and books (The Touchstone Distinguished Books Award). In 2022, the Touchstone Award for Individual Haibun was added to recognize individual haibun.

All awards seek to reward excellence and innovation each calendar year. Results are determined through a year-long nomination and selection process and are released the following year on April 17, International Haiku Poetry Day. Award recipients are selected by independent panels comprised of authorities in the field.

https://thehaikufoundation.org/touchstone-poem-awards/

https://thehaikufoundation.org/2022-touchstone-awards-for-individual-poems-long-list/

Thank you. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by SillyWilly (talk • contribs) .

Thanks for bringing this award to other editors' attention. It appears to be legitimate and I see no reason not to create an Award Type record for it. Ahasuerus (talk) 09:10, 10 April 2023 (EDT)

Utopia Awards

Hi,

Several ISFDB titles have been nominated (or won) the inaugural 2022 Utopia Awards. Considering their website, it appears to be legitimate.

https://www.android-press.com/2022-utopia-award-nominees

Would it be possible to add it to the database?

Thanks. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Alittlebook (talk • contribs) . 09:52, 10 April 2023‎ (EDT)

I suggest waiting to see if they are awarded a second time. I can't find much about them outside of that one site. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:00, 10 April 2023 (EDT)

Richard Hill

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=richard+hil&type=Name; This falls under the category of "never assume anything". So I randomly found a copy of Squane's Journal #4 (1997) on eBay, a special Ramsey Campbell issue, and took the time to enter the extensive essays included, 1 of which was by a Richard Hill. Something seemed familiar about that name and, being fairly common, I checked to make sure there weren't others with that name here. It turns out that there's a Richard Hill from the USA who wrote a few SF stories in the early 70's, but he had 1 story that was dated many years after he died in 1999. Turns out that story belonged to Richard Hill (I), who wrote a few recent stories in horror publications. However, under this (I) was a 1980 anthology, Hot Air, which I entered in 2021, although I have very little recollection of doing so and apparently just did it so I could enter the original appearance of Ramsey Campbell's story "Out of Copyright" in this obscure British publication. Thinking I was clever, I added a (II) to the editor of Hot Air and also added it to the poem's author since that was written for an early 90's anthology, Now We Are Sick, edited by 2 Brits and so was almost certainly by the same Hill. However, after these edits were approved, I clicked on the Horror Zine bio under Hill (I) and discovered that, I think, the Hill who's written a few recent horror stories is the SAME GUY as the Brit Hill, since it mentions him being from Liverpool and he's obviously an older guy judging by his photo; there's also another bio I found, http://www.thehorrorzine.com/Fiction/June2012/Hill/RichardHill.html, which describes him as a widely published poet, and I notice that in the first bio there's a poem reproduced from who knows where; the title of it, Slick Jack Brady, is completely unknown to Google. So it seems a guy who edited an ultra-obscure mainstream Liverpool travelogue that's only remembered today because Campbell had a story in it decided after 30 years to suddenly write short stories in mostly American magazines (although his last story on ISFDB was in a Brit anthology). So I think I should change the 3 entries as (II) to (I) unless anyone can tell me that the recent Hill is a totally different guy who just happens to also come from Liverpool. Anyone? Hey, I just noticed something; 2 of the Hills have 1941 entered as their birth date. I assume the USA Hill was verified but I have a feeling the Brit Hill's date may be a mistake, although it's certainly possible that they both just had the same birth date. --Username (talk) 13:20, 13 April 2023 (EDT)

Snow Fury

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?258899; [1]; Shouldn't the date be March? --Username (talk) 08:17, 14 April 2023 (EDT)

Yes. The verifier (who is no longer active) added the pub note stating March so I updated the pub date to match. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:36, 15 April 2023 (EDT)

Fekete

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=feket&type=Name; First name probably the same guy as Joe with Jr., Joe without Jr. wrote a story in 1965, could be the same guy or his dad. I noticed this when adding story links to stories in Gateway Magazine; most now have links although a few were dead or couldn't be found. Most of them are terrible, but that's besides the point. --Username (talk) 14:31, 14 April 2023 (EDT)

Russell Miller

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?21117; I added a link to an edition of Bare-Faced Messiah; the short story is by some lawyer, https://www.heroicfantasyquarterly.com/?p=1111, bio at bottom. I don't see anywhere online that mentions Miller stories in those other publications mentioned, 2 of which are genre and 2 of which sound like mainstream magazines. Differing needed. --Username (talk) 18:56, 14 April 2023 (EDT)

The two authors have been separated. I also updated the story with the link you provided. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:39, 15 April 2023 (EDT)

FK Young

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?165423; The poem and first 2 stories are by some old pulp writer; the new guy is the subject of a recent post on Wormwoodiana. --Username (talk) 08:52, 17 April 2023 (EDT)

They've been separated. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:17, 20 April 2023 (EDT)

Rare Ligotti Story

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5641814; Ligotti.net, according to an article I read, existed in several incarnations and the early ones are lost, but someone got parts of it from somewhere so, while trying to get a link for "Teeth" by Matt Cardin (his first story), the link to which just defaults to the modern Ligotti site and a "not found" page, I saw there were other stories listed, including a few from the man himself. 2 sounded familiar but "Ghost Stories for the Dead" didn't, and it turns out it's never been collected. It was reprinted in Crypt of Cthulhu in '89 but it turns out it's from '82. The index on philsp.com is wrong; E. M. Cioran is not a pseudonym of Ligotti but a real poet, and this article, https://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=527&page=2, mentions his admiration and that he used a quote to introduce "Ghost Stories", which is probably why the index is confused. I mention all this in case anyone ever enters the missing issues of Grimoire here, only 1 and 4 currently, because as usual online info is not to be trusted. EDIT: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5641848; The feoamante.com site, still online but dead, gave me a link to the old Ligotti site, when they were using a totally different URL, www.longshadows.com, so I've replaced the archived link since this one says 1999 while the previous one said 2019 (although the earliest links are May and October 1999 but when you click on them they refuse to go to those archived pages and instead go to November; spooky). Also, I found Cardin's story "Notes of a Mad Copyist"; it's also on the 2019 archived site but while the old site shows it just fine the new one is completely black and the text needs highlighting to read it; sadly, "Teeth" is missing on the old site, too, and Cardin revised many of his stories for his collections, so it would be good to read the original; if anyone can find it on some other old site I don't know about that would be great. I also discovered that Ligotti's story "Allen and Adelaide" is on ISFDB twice, the 1981 original and the 1989 Crypt of Cthulhu reprint, the difference being & vs. and, so I've made them variants. One I'm not sure about is "Three Scientists", https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2702155, which actually contains the first 3 titles here, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?360640, with their 1985 dates being because, according to online info, they originated in Songs of a Dead Dreamer, problem being the earliest edition on ISFDB is 1986 and no edition contains any of them. I also notice the first title was in a 1986 poetry best-of, so 1985 is likely correct, except it's actually from 1982, so this is a problem. How to variant the 3 titles to the original umbrella title is the question I have. Also, anyone who can further clean up Ligotti's info would be appreciated. Just now I found his poem "Envoi" on some obscure site and added a link. EDIT: I see that Cardin has several stories which are in his record twice, with one being spelled differently (Theater vs. Theater), so variants likely needed there. I also found a link to his recent huge collection To Rouse Leviathan, https://archive.bookfrom.net/build_in_search/?q=matt+cardin, on a site which probably shouldn't be linked to in his record so I'll just leave it here in case anyone just wants to read the stories. EDIT: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2749745; 3 titles mentioned in note are also individual stories on ISFDB. --Username (talk) 11:33, 21 April 2023 (EDT)

Balefires

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?215571; 2009 PB on Archive.org, I added a link in a pending edit, I think 2008 PB is redundant and can be deleted. --Username (talk) 19:04, 21 April 2023 (EDT)

Duplicate deleted. -- JLaTondre (talk) 19:16, 21 April 2023 (EDT)

Saxton Stories

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?124321; The variant for "Woe..." is correct, I checked, but "Heads Africa...", as confirmed from PV of Orbit edition where it first appeared, has no comma after Africa but it does in Saxton's collection; also, is it correct that "Gordon's Women" is dated '76, French date, but "Pollyanna Enzyme" is dated '86, collection date, and not '80, German date? --Username (talk) 10:04, 24 April 2023 (EDT)

Razar

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5644587; Bewildering Stories, which only has recent issues indexed here, has many stories in old issues that are here and while adding some links I saw a story, "Groomed", by Chris Bartholomew that jogged my memory. It's in this weird anthology but the problem is 2 of his stories were jumbled together so it's here as "Ante Up Groomed"; I also noticed some of his other stories don't have exactly the same titles as here. So if anyone can access the full issue a lot of fixes can be done, along with page numbers, etc. --Username (talk) 16:31, 24 April 2023 (EDT)

Novelization for Unfilmed Screenplay?

I'm holding this submission. The help template specifies that the novelization flag is for "novelization of a movie, TV show, game or other non-written work" (emphasis mine). I may be splitting hairs here, but it strikes me that this work is an adaptation of a screenplay (a written work which would be eligible itself were it published), rather than a novelization. Do we want to include this sort of thing in the novelization flag? --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 10:39, 25 April 2023 (EDT)

If a film using the screenplay had been made, wouldn't this be a typical novelization? To my simple mind, the act of filming the screenplay has no bearing on the nature of novel. It seems to me novelization should be adaptation-as-a-novel of any work produced for delivery via a non-"reading" medium. --MartyD (talk) 11:14, 25 April 2023 (EDT)

Perhaps a rewording to something like "novelization of the screenplay or script of a movie, TV show, game, or other non-written work" (emphasis added to show the new wording). ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:00, 25 April 2023 (EDT)

Don't replace the word movie. See Luana for a reason. The fact the movie was not filmed (or distributed or shown) seems irrelevant. I'm more in agreement with MartyD's approach, but why limit it to non-"reading"? A play has a script delivered via a non-"reading" medium - acting - so should novels produced from them should be novelizations? Play scripts have been published, though rarely. But do we allow for novelizations from short stories? or poems (Beowolf?)? ../Doug H (talk) 16:30, 25 April 2023 (EDT)

I didn't replace the word "movie" in my suggested rewording, so I'm not sure what you mean. Also, I wouldn't call Luana a novelization since he just made up a story based on the poster and watching a movie in a language he didn't understand. That's not novelizing. That's making it up wholesale, with a little inspiration from visuals. It's a completely different story.

As for play novelizations, I'd consider those covered under the "or other non-written work" part. Expanding a short story into a novel is not so much novelization as it is making up entirely new scenarios and plots based on the short content of the original story. Same with a poem. For me, a novelization is an adaptation of a similarly-lengthy (so not short stories or poems) visual medium such as television, movies, games, plays, and the like. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 17:11, 25 April 2023 (EDT)

If it helps, Wikipedia defines it as "a derivative novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film, TV series, stage play, comic book or video game." ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 17:15, 25 April 2023 (EDT)

FWIW I tagged the Pat Cadigan adaptation of the William Gibson attempt at Alien 3, which seems to be a similar scenario to the edit in question here, as a novelization, and that edit was approved by Annie back in 2021 when I didn't have self mod privs. ErsatzCulture (talk) 17:18, 25 April 2023 (EDT)

(unindent) One of the challenges here is that -- in most cases -- we don't know how much the "novelizer" relied on the written script/plot outline that the media work was based on. Chances are that the author watched/played the media work in question at least once, but it's also likely that the author was familiar the script/plot outline. It's entirely possible that some novels/stories which we list as "novelizations" and which say "Based on [media work]!" on the cover were primarily based on script/plot outlines as opposed to on actual media works. (I say this in part because that's how some novelizations read.)

Because of this uncertainty I would be inclined to use the "novelization" flag and then add a note explaining the gory details. Even if we don't use the flag, we'll want to add notes.

After reviewing the linked Help template I am also thinking that we could profitably clarify the text in other ways, but that's a separate issue. Ahasuerus (talk) 20:25, 25 April 2023 (EDT)

I think the clarification should consider what ISFDB wants to consider 'novelization' to be, as opposed to relying on external definitions. Interestingly we have a Note saying that Peter Pan is a novelization of a play, but the Novelization flag is not set. ../Doug H (talk) 08:22, 26 April 2023 (EDT)

The flag is relatively new -- we used to use the contents field with specifically designed strings before and these were not set as often as the flags are now. I often find such obvious omissions... :)

I think that if something claims to be a novelization, we put the flag up and add a note with all the details we know - until more evidence is found that makes that incorrect (then we change the note and explain why it is not a novelization). Annie (talk) 11:25, 26 April 2023 (EDT)

This may be more of a Rules and Standards topic, but here are my thoughts:

• A novelization must follow the same plot as the "media work" being novelized. If a work of written fiction is set in a media universe but has an original plot, it is not a novelization. This rule excludes original novels and stories set in media universes like Star Wars, Star Trek, Warcraft, etc.
• A single work of written fiction which follows the plots of multiple TV episodes can be entered as a novelization if the plot is close enough to the original plots. Borderline cases are left to the editor's discretion provided the specific are explained in Notes.
• If a script, a screenplay, a libretto or a plot outline (e.g. for a game) which was used to produce a "media work" is subsequently published in written form without alteration, it is not considered a novelization.
• An expansion or amalgamation of pre-existing works of written fiction into another work of written fiction (e.g. fix-ups) is not considered a novelization.

Ahasuerus (talk) 16:32, 26 April 2023 (EDT)

Portuguese Jedi

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?852871; I think this should be a variant of an English-language novel, right? Also, it's Kahn who wrote Star Wars novels, not Khan, so that might be wrong (and James Khan has a recent story in his record, so there may actually be a Khan totally unrelated to the Star Wars guy). This, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1394010, seems to have been done correctly. --Username (talk) 12:36, 26 April 2023 (EDT)

Varianted. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:17, 26 April 2023 (EDT)

The Fire Worm

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?5223; I just added a link in a pending edit to the Grafton edition; it mentions "Jingling Geordie's Hole" on copyright page, a 1986 Interzone story that (I think) is used for one of the chapters and seems to be mentioned elsewhere in the novel. No edition on ISFDB mentions this fact, so should it be noted somewhere or should the story be imported? Also, and I have a vague memory of asking this before, but the e-reads edition says 1988, which is wrong because that company wasn't founded until 1999. It's 1 of 6 with a too-early date on ISFDB, none PV, so fixing shouldn't be a problem if anyone knows what dates they really should have. --Username (talk) 15:40, 27 April 2023 (EDT)

It might be 1998-12-01, which would work okay. That's around the dawn of ebooks. Also, this listing on Abebooks states the novel is based on the "Jingling Geordie's Hole" short story, so that's what the mention was likely referring to. The short was apparently expanded into the novel. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 16:10, 27 April 2023 (EDT)

I've changed the year based on the assumption 1988 is just a typo. I added a note about it, too. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 16:13, 27 April 2023 (EDT)

https://openlibrary.org/works/OL3691729W/The_Fire_Worm?edition=key%3A/books/OL8007597M#editions-list; 2002 e-book and 9/2004 PB, so there's probably several releases for each book by the company. Also, I think the complete short story is in the novel, copyright page says the story "first appeared" in Interzone. This, https://archive.org/stream/interzone-26/Interzone26_djvu.txt, says "constructed around" the "originally self-contained" story, so someone more familiar than I with Watson's work would need to see if the story is in the novel complete, spread among the chapters, etc. Likely importing the story would be incorrect but certainly a note could be added mentioning the novel's based around the story. --Username (talk) 18:41, 27 April 2023 (EDT)

New SFWA "Infinity Award" category

https://file770.com/sfwas-inaugural-infinity-award-honoree-is-octavia-e-butler/

Looks to be the same sort of thing as the Grand Master Award. ErsatzCulture (talk) 18:37, 27 April 2023 (EDT)

Cool. She's a great author. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 22:22, 27 April 2023 (EDT)

The official press release is here. As near as I can tell, the first Infinity award will be presented at the 2023 "Annual Nebula Awards® Ceremony", but it will be separate from the Nebula award. Unlike the Bradbury award and the Norton award, the Infinity award is not mentioned on the Nebula Rules page. Ahasuerus (talk) 00:48, 28 April 2023 (EDT)

FWIW the Grand Master Award isn't listed on that rules page either. Looking at their page for last year's awards, Grand Master, Solstice and Service to SFWA are all in a "Other Awards" list on the right, separate from the main "Nebula Awards" list.

In passing, I note a couple of potential other issues that might need resolving:

* Some of the category naming is inconsistent: the YA, dramatic and service awards have a person's name before them, but we don't have Damon Knight Grand Master Award or Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award. Looks like these were renamed after their inception - [SFE says] 2002 for Damon Knight and 2016 for Kate Wilhelm. I know from the likes of Campbell / Astounding and Tiptree / Otherwise that the main award records try to capture name changes, I dunno if there are official rules and standards at the category level

* The Nebula note says "Note that the "Andre Norton Award" and the "Ray Bradbury Award" are awarded at the same time, although they aren't strictly Nebulas", but this is contradicted by the SFWA rules page which references "The Andre Norton Nebula Award" and "The Ray Bradbury Nebula Award", and that on the 2021 results page, they are listed alongside the other Nebulas, rather than the "Other Awards" sidebar. I have a vague recollection that they might have become "proper" Nebulas - Wikipedia says this happened in 2019.

Anyone with more insight or opinion on these? ErsatzCulture (talk) 07:04, 28 April 2023 (EDT)

I think we discussed the SFWA Grand Master Award at some point after its name was changed to "Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award". If memory serves, we considered renaming it to "Grand Master Award / Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award", but it felt awkward. Now that we have more experience with changing award names, I think expanding the award name would be a good idea.

As to whether the Norton and Bradbury awards are technically Nebula categories, I have reviewed the 2019 blog post that the Wikipedia article links to and I am still not sure I understand how it works. It would be best to find an official announcement before we start changing things.

In the meantime, I have created a new Award Type record, a new Award Category record and a new Award record for Octavia E. Butler. Ahasuerus (talk) 22:10, 29 April 2023 (EDT)

Clint Smith

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5648349; SFE says it's not the same guy as the later horror writer; https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/smith_clint. --Username (talk) 10:02, 28 April 2023 (EDT)

I sent a message to the SFE editors asking about that since their bio says to not confuse the Clint Smith they list with the one who did the Gholjaw collection, but they list the Ghouljaw collection in that same bio. In the meantime, I've added a Clint Smith (I) entry until we know more. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 20:08, 28 April 2023 (EDT)

The SFE entry has been fixed and I have added notes to the ISFDB record. Ahasuerus (talk) 22:12, 29 April 2023 (EDT)

Carl (J.) Hoffman

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5648405; Here's a weird one. This rare book was uploaded recently so I made the above edit, checked afterwards for Carl J. Hoffman, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2144766, I think it's a mistake and should be this, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?945236. Mistake by editor here or Italian editor in the Horror Story anthology? --Username (talk) 11:09, 28 April 2023 (EDT)

Third Alternative #6

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?61651; I fixed a poem title ("Latest Things") and there's a story that's dated March here, there's 2 mentions in the zine of March, I propose all contents and issue itself be dated March. Yes or no? --Username (talk) 11:59, 28 April 2023 (EDT)

I think if you could find a scan of #5 and it had an "In March" section on the TOC page (as this one has "In July"), you could use March and cite that as the source of the date. Unfortunately, there's no source cited for the March date on "The Bee Keepers", so we can't tell if there was something ascribing a March date to this issue and how authoritative that source might be. Otherwise, the standard treatment for issues with timing specified by season is to use just the year, so we're stuck. --MartyD (talk) 08:42, 30 April 2023 (EDT)

Dom and Va

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5648943; ISBN trouble. --Username (talk) 19:19, 28 April 2023 (EDT)

That's what shows on the copyright page as well as the LOC entry, so that's what we go with. I added a couple additional notes based on the Archive.org copy that's linked there. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:56, 28 April 2023 (EDT)

Flexi-Disc?!?

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5649045; https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5649045; https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5649045; Related to my mention here somewhere a while ago that magazines uploaded years ago on Archive.org aren't always complete, I took a look at these since there were only a few issues published. The first 2 had a few things fixed/added, but the 3rd is most interesting. According to front cover, contents, and intro something called a "flexi-disc" with music from The Bridge, an old Skipp & Spector horror novel that apparently was made into a film or something, was included in this issue. Now I'm certainly no youngster but I don't have a clue what that is; was it some pre-Internet music format or something? Was it like a CD? Anyway, the uploader, Sketch the Cow, who added a metric ton of old genre zines years ago, likely removed the disc but it seems to have screwed up the pages because there are several missing. Most alarming is the supposed JK Potter art for the Ray Bradbury poem, a little bit of which is on the contents page but nowhere to be seen in the zine itself. So I think the starting page entered here may be off for at least the poem, possibly others, too. Any chance someone owns a mint copy who's willing to unseal it and respond here? Also, there's always the possibility I missed a few other mistakes in these issues; there's also movie reviews and such that someone may think are worth entering, etc. --Username (talk) 23:38, 28 April 2023 (EDT)

Hi, Username!

Flexi disc is phonograph record made of thin, literally flexible :) piece of vinyl.

Those discs used as a means to include sound (speech or music) with printed magazines or sometimes books before CDs.

For an example, look at the popular Soviet literary and musical magazine "Krugozor" (the article is in Russian, but it should be clear from the photos). --Zlogorek (talk) 04:50, 29 April 2023 (EDT)

Thanks. I see that I've never left a message on your page in all the years you've been here, so welcome. This Bridge flexi-disc thing is bugging me because there's literally almost no mention of it online that I can find except on discogs.com and a random comment on Goodreads where a guy named "Tom" says "At least I have a flexi-disc of one song from the soundtrack". Highly unusual when every minute detail of almost everything is mentioned somewhere. Skipp and Spector were once 2 of the most popular horror authors around so you'd think this item would be hot stuff but no, nothing. The important thing, though, is finding a complete issue of Iniquities #3 so we can see exactly how the contents are. --Username (talk) 10:53, 29 April 2023 (EDT)

Nina A.

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?328172; These are both by Nina Allan. --Username (talk) 10:23, 30 April 2023 (EDT)

I have fixed the Strange Horizon review, as that can be clearly seen to be correctly attributed on the SH webpage.

The story is a bit more of a pain, because it's in a PVed pub, and there are some other related issues. I'll message the editor in question. ErsatzCulture (talk) 11:21, 2 May 2023 (EDT)

Jewish Fiction Award

The Jewish Fiction Award has been given by the Association of Jewish Libraries to works with significant Jewish themes each year since 2018 (first year they were awarded). It looks like these are the types of awards:

• Winner
• Honor Book

This is a general fiction award for novels or collections of short fiction by a single author, with genre works winning or receiving honors on occasion. It doesn't appear to be a poll (I can't find details on exactly how the winner is decided each year), there's no fee to enter, works published only as ebooks are not eligible, reprints of previously-published work are not eligible, and the full guidelines are here. Should we add it? ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:45, 30 April 2023 (EDT)

The organization behind the award has been around for generations and they have given awards to SF works like Atomic Anna. Looks eligible to me. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:03, 30 April 2023 (EDT)

Hearing no objection, I have created a new award type, two award categories and two award records. Ahasuerus (talk) 10:36, 13 May 2023 (EDT)

Thanks! Those are the only two I could determine are genre. None of the others seemed like genre works. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:03, 24 May 2023 (EDT)

Lovecraft Studies

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5650639; A dozen random issues of this magazine were uploaded on Archive.org in 2016 but today, while looking for something else, I stumbled on a single issue that was uploaded by a completely different person in 2021. Surprisingly, there was quite a bit that needed added/fixing; I tried my best, but I'm sure someone can improve on a few things after it's approved. Dirk B. entered it here in 2019 so he might want to look at it. Also, I made a follow-up edit merging "More Chain Lightning" by Lovecraft, keeping 1915 date and essay format. --Username (talk) 20:23, 30 April 2023 (EDT)

Mr. Murphy

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5651017; https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5651022; There's a note by someone discussing Jim/James A. Moore's name in the anthology but it turns out Murphy's name was wrong here; however, in their novel he really was credited just as Kevin Murphy. There's also a story, "Awake", published in old British horror zine Peeping Tom, many 90's/early 2000's cover art credits (some for books by Moore and so very possibly by the same Murphy who wrote with him), an interview with a guy from the old MST3K show, and a (II) who wrote a letter to Analog in the late 70's. So when my edits are approved the Murphys need separating if anyone can figure out who's who. --Username (talk) 11:33, 1 May 2023 (EDT)

Tinmey

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=tinm&type=Name; Same person, probably. --Username (talk) 08:49, 2 May 2023 (EDT)

Peter Tate

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?11147; Note in his first story says it's slightly different version of the second story. Should they be made variants? --Username (talk) 09:36, 2 May 2023 (EDT)

Looking for 90s e-zine Cosmic Visions

Good afternoon. I am trying to find any information about the late 90s ezine 'Cosmic Visions' that was put out by John Fultz for several years. I spoke to the editor myself, and he said he had no records or copies remaining. Specificaly, I am trying to find the September '97 edition which included a story by Stanley C. Sargent called "Synopticon of Fear". Does anyone have a lead re. any collectors or archivists out there that may be able to point me in the right direction? Thank you! --MagusManders (talk) 15:24, 2 May 2023 (EDT)

Was it published on a website? If so, do you know what the URL was? Was it published as an ebook? ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:46, 2 May 2023 (EDT)

It was an ebook, distributed via PDF from cosmicvisions.com. The website went down in 1998, but there's some archived pages here. The editor told me that becase the copyrights were donated, each issue had an "expiration" date, but it wasn't clear to me if this meant he would stop distributing it, or if the files actually deleted themselves. And thanks for fixing my posting error. --MagusManders (talk) 15:59, 2 May 2023 (EDT)

https://web.archive.org/web/19970416090028/http://www.cosmicvisions.com/html/cvse.pdf; Only PDF in the archived pages as far as I can tell. None of the contents are on ISFDB. Whoopee. --Username (talk) 16:34, 2 May 2023 (EDT)

https://web.archive.org/web/20111119172143/http://www.stanleycsargent.com/bibliography.html; Looks like he had 5 stories in Cosmic Visions and an interview with Bruce Campbell, star of the Evil Dead movies (evidence of that seemingly nowhere online at present). So I think a lot more than the story you mentioned above are elusive; the only evidence of it I see is your comments on Reddit. EDIT: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/note_search_results.cgi?OPERATOR=contains&NOTE_VALUE=cosmic+visions; famed author Brian A. Hopkins had a bunch of stories in the zine; non-famous author Sean Rodgers had at least one. --Username (talk) 17:30, 2 May 2023 (EDT)

Well, I'm working my way through the archived pages and trying to add what I can find. You can see the issue grid here for what I've entered so far. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:38, 3 May 2023 (EDT)

It looks like a lot of big names were in this zine and it seemed to run for a long time. I keep finding random mentions in online bibliographies and such (even on LYSATOR, for God's sake), but I'd be happy if I could just find the Campbell interview. At least we now have that PDF linked here. Even the guy who ran the zine didn't seem to mention it; he probably forgot it was there. Websites in the nineties are like fossils now. --Username (talk) 12:52, 3 May 2023 (EDT)

Based on what I can find, it appears the magazine folded shortly after the January 1998 issue. I can't find anything in the archives about any issues beyond that one. So, it appears to have lasted about 1.5 years. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:17, 3 May 2023 (EDT)

It looks like Robert Silverberg, Thomas Ligotti, Lin Carter, and Brian Lumley all contributed based on the entry on this page. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:31, 3 May 2023 (EDT)

I'm curious how you know "Synopticon of Fear" was in the September 1997 issue. I can't find that information anywhere, though I may not be searching for the right information. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:23, 3 May 2023 (EDT)

Ah, it's on the bibliography page archive linked by Username, above. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:27, 3 May 2023 (EDT)

I think I've gotten the Stanley C. Sargent bibliography as far as I can with the current sources I've found. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 17:28, 5 May 2023 (EDT)

Wow, thank you Nihonjoe and Username! You jumped on this faster than I could have imagined and did more than I could have myself! I am going to try to reach Robert M. Price to see if he has anything in his archives he's able to share, and I'll reach out to you if there's anything to be found. --MagusManders (talk) 14:22, 8 May 2023 (EDT)

You're welcome. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 17:01, 8 May 2023 (EDT)

Atwood's Dancing Girls

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5653645; Nobody ever entered original Seal PB so I did from recently uploaded scan but got ISBN trouble. Only site in Google Search with the ISBN without the dashes is Open Library which of course links to Archive.org, but there's also 1 lonely site that has the ISBN with the dashes, https://leavesandpages.com/2012/07/03/review-dancing-girls-by-margaret-atwood/. So somebody out there has a copy with the same ISBN. --Username (talk) 22:00, 3 May 2023 (EDT)

Changing the checksum digit did not result in a valid ISBN. In these cases, we move the ISBN to the catalog field and make a note that it has an invalid ISBN in the pub notes. I have taken care of that. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:34, 6 May 2023 (EDT)

Added another link to a copy and replaced cover. --Username (talk) 09:25, 6 May 2023 (EDT)

[2]; Bluesman moved ISBN to ID like you did for one of his PV and left some notes in both PV about ISBN; apparently spines need to be seen to get the real ISBN. I just added the month to the 3rd printing using eBay and the ISBN on spine doesn't match that on copyright page, so Seal books were a mess, it seems. --Username (talk) 10:16, 6 May 2023 (EDT)

Constable

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?532472; While adding a bunch of edits for Jonathan Aycliffe books I discovered a lot of the recent editions had wrong covers with somewhat different text. Constable & Robinson is the publisher for most on ISFDB but I also got a Corsair. Problem is most were actually published by the Constable imprint, with that publisher being on the title page and the copyright page mentioning it's an imprint of Constable & Robinson, but there's only a handful on ISFDB with imprint/publisher being entered correctly (I've fixed the few I've come across in my edits). However, Corsair is also an imprint of theirs and yet there are nearly 200 books on ISFDB by them but none as an imprint. That's a separate issue, but I'm only interested in this particular case where Constable is on the title page but copyright page now says it's an imprint of Little, Brown. There doesn't seem to be any combination of those on ISFDB so how should this imprint/publisher be entered? A text search on Archive.org revealed that the copyright text about Little, Brown for Aycliffe books only finds this one. There's several Little, Brown publishers on ISFDB, ISBN 1-4721 leads to several British ones. --Username (talk) 09:43, 4 May 2023 (EDT)

From the 3 Constable anthologies I have print (*) pubs to hand for, it looks like something changed around 2014/5:

- Dozois' Best New SF 26 has "First published in the UK by Robinson, / an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd., 2013", and no mention of Little, Brown anywhere on the copyright page

- His Best New SF 29 by contrast has "First published in Great Britain in 2016 by Robinson"; there's no mention of Constable anywhere on the page, but down at the bottom it does have "Robinson / An imprint of Little, Brown Book Group". I note also that the address is the Hachette UK HQ at Carmelite House, whereas the previous 2013 book has Russell Square.

- The Mammoth Book of Kaiju is also 2016 and has the same details as Best New SF 29.

(* I also have a bunch more of their anthologies in ebook that presumably have similar details, but as I'm led to believe that some people don't think there's any value in keeping records of them, I was disinclined to spend time digging them out and investigating further.)

Re. how these should be entered, I'll let someone more experienced speak to that, but my reading of Template:PublicationFields:Publisher is that whilst "Foo / Bar" may be preferable to "Foo" or "Bar", neither of the latter are intrinsically "incorrect"? ErsatzCulture (talk) 15:59, 4 May 2023 (EDT)

OK, thanks. Except for the sarcasm. --Username (talk) 16:07, 4 May 2023 (EDT)

Machen Merges

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?55418; Person who entered contents, J.D. Cowan (has their own record on ISFDB) didn't merge anything in the 2nd and 3rd volumes and a few things in the first may not be merged, either, from what I can tell. They seem to have generated a lot of messages on their page about not entering things properly but never answered any of them so it's pointless to leave a message there; if anyone wants to merge all of that I'm letting you know. Machen's stories were published under a mess of slightly different title variations so it probably won't be easy. Also, looking at his ISFDB page I see that stories jump from 1937 to 3 1987 Italian titles, a 2019 Italian title, and a 2022 Portuguese title; the 2019 story, Un frammento di vita, capitolo IV, is possibly the same as the last poem on his page, Un frammento di Vita, so that's another issue. Is it a story or a poem? --Username (talk) 10:57, 4 May 2023 (EDT)

Duplicates merged. -- JLaTondre (talk) 07:50, 6 May 2023 (EDT)

FIRE

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5654147; Judging by edit history the title changed back and forth, with Stonecreek, I believe, entering the full title, but shouldn't all words be capitalized? ISFDB doesn't care how it's entered in the book, words should be capitalized, I seem to remember reading that somewhere? Also, Hand's ISFDB author image is the cover of this book; it would be nice if someone could find a good one to replace it with. --Username (talk) 11:51, 4 May 2023 (EDT)

Dutch Tilly

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?542210; I have a few suggestions. There's a copy, https://archive.org/details/tillyroman0000pere, which is 111 pages, not 112, unless that last unnumbered page is in some way a part of the novel, in which case a note should be added about last page being unnumbered. Also, the subtitle Roman is not needed because it just means novel and those kinds of things aren't included in titles per ISFDB rules. Most importantly, this is some later edition judging by copyright page and 13-digit ISBN. By the way, there must be other genre-related books from this publisher, right? Because this is the only one on ISFDB. EDIT: I discovered something interesting while adding a link to the English-language edition; it says "a novel" on the cover but "the novel" on the title page because apparently it was originally an audio drama in 1986. So I don't know how exactly English translates to Dutch but if it's "the novel" then possibly that was meant to delineate between this print edition and the original spoken word. In which case subtitle "The Novel" should be added to the English and "Roman" left as is in the Dutch. If anyone cares about something so minor. --Username (talk) 21:11, 4 May 2023 (EDT)

Bill Prosser

https://archive.org/details/horrorshorrorsho0000unse/page/181/mode/1up; A rare British edition of one of Helen Hoke's thousand or so anthologies was just uploaded on Archive.org, I added a link and fixed the ISBN (which was incorrectly the same as the American ISBN) somebody entered from WorldCat, I think (I have a feeling a lot of stuff is wrong in these books considering how many different editors here entered them over the years and the insane mess of multiple printings, interior art being re-used between USA and British but often totally different cover art, etc.). However, in this case what I want to know is if there's a way to extract an image from the back flap, because there's actually a clear photo of Bill Prosser, who did interior art and British covers which are pretty awesome (sometimes re-used for USA, sometimes not). Date is 1978 but he looks like a dirty hippie who just crawled out of a commune in Haight-Ashbury or whatever the British equivalent of that was so I'm assuming this was an old photo that probably is in other British Hoke editions if anyone could actually find the damn things. --Username (talk) 21:47, 4 May 2023 (EDT)

If you could update this page with the appropriate template variables, it should serve. ../Doug H (talk) 08:08, 5 May 2023 (EDT)

I'm a moron. I have no idea what that means so if you could explain further. Also, should I click on the image link and add it to his record in an edit? I think probably yes. --Username (talk) 08:22, 5 May 2023 (EDT)

And I'm a maroon. I didn't know where or how to connect it up and this was the best I could do as it was just graphics. ../Doug H (talk) 22:15, 5 May 2023 (EDT)

I have filled in the license template. Each template page has the instructions for completing the template. -- JLaTondre (talk) 07:37, 6 May 2023 (EDT)

Masterless Swords

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5654953; Obscure NZ newspaper article has revealed the contents, the titles of which seem to be nowhere on the web. However, I'm assuming the first 2 should be marked non-genre after this is approved. The article doesn't explicitly state the 3rd story's title but it's implied; there's a copy on eBay which shows title page but not contents page, so if anyone here has a copy that could help with possibly identifying the cover artist, verifying the title, and determining story lengths (I'm guessing it's 3 novellas). EDIT: I thought of searching newspapers.com and got 1 hit in an English paper but sign-up is required so I searched Google, verbatim, and got nothing but searching non-verbatim got 1 hit, https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/issue/straitstimes19480422-1, which shows a little bit of a review on p. 9 which seems, from the text, like a different review than that above, so if anyone has a subscription or whatever then possibly this review may verify the 3rd story's title, which is the only genre one and the most important. --Username (talk) 08:18, 5 May 2023 (EDT)

This author is not above the threshold IMO so their non-genre content would not be eligible. While the newspaper review implies the title is the same as the collection title ("third story explains the title"), but it is not explicit. We need a better source for the title. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:21, 6 May 2023 (EDT)

Jack Red Bear

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5655023; I think the right thing is making original a variant of the more common name, right? If so, shouldn't the date of Strete title be 1977-10-00, date of his collection it appeared in under that name? Also, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=nocka&type=All+Titles, where Strete supposedly wasn't even co-credited in the original and apparently it was by Strete under an alternate title and then the original title in his collection. I'm passing the baton on that one. --Username (talk) 10:56, 5 May 2023 (EDT)

I varianted both stories to being by Bear and Strete. Due to how ISFDB works, if they were varianted to just Strete, they would disappear from the Bear page & we'd be left with an empty author page. It seems quite possible Bear was an alternate name for Strete so I added that to the Jack Red Bear author page, but without a source, it will have to remain speculation. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:12, 6 May 2023 (EDT)

Selkie Questions

https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/User_talk:Willem_H.#Signet_Selkie; I tried discussing things with this guy but he's giving me his usual attitude so I'm going to ask further questions on this board. So I see from edit history that back in my early days here I entered the exact HC date using a clear photo of a review copy slip that's on FantLab. Recently I entered a later printing of the Signet PB but things were messy because the map date said March due to somebody messing with the date long ago, although he claims it was in 2010 but I don't see that anywhere, I think he meant 2009. He fixed the map date so now it should obviously be imported into the HC since that's where it comes from. So do others here see, as I do, that the map is also on p. [6] of the HC like it is in the PB? PV of HC doesn't respond except by e-mail which I'm definitely not sending. He PV it in 2007, prehistoric days in terms of this site, so maybe people weren't entering things like maps back then. Also, if anyone thinks the page count really needs [6] added to it like this guy did for his PB PV they can always add it to the HC and my PB entry, you have my permission, although there's still the case of the mysterious 1990 12th printing entered, possibly, by Bluesman who's long-gone and also where printings 2, 4-11, and possibly more are and whether they all included the map. --Username (talk) 11:29, 5 May 2023 (EDT)

See this submission from April 2010, scroll down to Modified Regular Titles and you see the date change of the map to 1982-03-00. That was not messing with the date, but aligning it with the date of the hardcover edition, (1982-03-00 since this october 2009 edit. I pointed to the edit that changed the date to 1982-04-16 in May 2021. I also pointed to the helptext that explains why the pagenumber should be [6] for the first paperback printing. Is there anyone else who thinks this has anything to do with "attitude", or is this simply the same editor complaining whenever someone disagrees with anything he does? --Willem (talk) 15:13, 5 May 2023 (EDT)

You also advised me that you skipped an edit I made for the HC of this book because I didn't leave a note on the PV's page even though it wasn't changing anything but just importing the map credit which either PV didn't think needed entering or maybe entering map info wasn't a thing here back in 2007, and whoever entered the map info in the PB forgot/didn't know or care to import it themselves (I see from edit history that the map was likely entered by Bluesman and APPROVED BY Mhhutchins, the same person who didn't enter it in the original HC that they PV, so why after approving it in the PB he didn't just import it himself to his own PV is a mystery that maybe you can ask him/her). Plus the fact that the PV has pretty much given up and doesn't respond to much of anything these days, requesting people send them an e-mail which I'm not going to do because the last thing I want is anyone on this site knowing my e-mail address. After our initial encounter a long time ago where you threw a fit because I told you I changed a few things in one of your PV and a few later unpleasant discussions we had you actually seemed to be responding professionally for a while to several of my messages without giving me much of a problem but I guess your meds ran out or something because you're back to your old self. You were the only active PV of the PB so I was trying to sort out the mess as I've done for thousands of other books but apparently your personal problems, whatever they are, are more important. Who cares, 50,000 edits done so far, losing 1 here or there doesn't bother me. --Username (talk) 16:10, 5 May 2023 (EDT)

Please note that "your meds ran out or something" is a personal attack. They are not allowed as per ISFDB:Policy#Blocking_Policy. A warning has been left on User:Username's Talk page as per the Policy. Ahasuerus (talk) 16:56, 5 May 2023 (EDT)

F&SF Sep/Oct 2022

I noticed on the F&SF series page that the Sep/Oct 2022 issue isn't part of the 2022 record. I only have a vague understanding/recollection of how magazines work, so I'll let someone more familiar with them work out if this should really be like that, and if not, how it should be fixed. (FWIW that standalone issue is PVed, but by an editor who hasn't been around since the start of the year.) ErsatzCulture (talk) 08:54, 6 May 2023 (EDT)

I merged the two title records together. -- JLaTondre (talk) 09:09, 6 May 2023 (EDT)

Thanks. (I'm currently in the middle of adding the remaining 100-odd Locus Award finalists, and didn't want to get sidetracked spending a bunch of time looking into that tangentially related issue.) ErsatzCulture (talk) 10:05, 6 May 2023 (EDT)

A pricing anomaly

If we ever get into codifying multiple prices, here's an oddity to keep in mind - a book with two prices that are date dependent. "£19.99 until 31 December 1998" / "£24.99 from 1 January 1999". (The Silmarillion) ../Doug H (talk) 12:09, 6 May 2023 (EDT)

RVT

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=ray+van+tilb&type=Name; Very likely the same person, problem is 2 of the publications are scarce zines and the Dragon issue, which I checked on annarchive.com, says Raymond Van Tilburg. --Username (talk) 14:17, 6 May 2023 (EDT)

This explains (and lets us correct) the Tilberg here. It's "Ray van Tilburg" on the cover and several mentions, but the artwork credit list below the TOC says "p.20 Ray van Tilberg". The artwork is credited on p. 20, however, with "Ray VanTilburg". The text associated with that begins "Ray Van Tilburg has a niche...". I am going to change it. --MartyD (talk) 15:55, 6 May 2023 (EDT)

One follow-up on all of this: A little Googling reveals "VanTilburg" is correct, not "Van Tilburg". See the litany of Pinterest, Facebook, Etsy, and his OffWorld Designs Art site. Per ISFDB standard, spacing is normalized when recording the credit, so I am going to remove the space from the canonical name and note that an extra space is sometimes included in credits. --MartyD (talk) 08:36, 7 May 2023 (EDT)

Brown's Brightest Day

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=the+brightest+day&type=Fiction+Titles; While adding links to stories that were on the old House of Pain horror site I added a link to Eric S. Brown story "The Brightest Day" but according to ISFDB it was published in a 2002 issue of Black Petals as Eric Brown, which means that is lumped in with the well-known Eric Brown who wrote a lot of SF. So if anyone knows how to get that issue of Black Petals and verify what his name is then either it can be variant or merge. I suspect there are other stories on Eric Brown's page here that belong to Eric S. Brown. --Username (talk) 21:07, 6 May 2023 (EDT)

Shumate Story

https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/User_talk:Biomassbob#Time_To_Scare_Gramma; I suppose titles should be merged since they're the same but the lengths are totally different, so what do you suggest? --Username (talk) 10:27, 7 May 2023 (EDT)

Le James Bond

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?260470; French edition, https://archive.org/details/jamesbondchassea0000otfi, if anyone wants to enter it. --Username (talk) 13:07, 7 May 2023 (EDT)

Leokum

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5657866; While doing this I saw an Arkady Leokum on Wikipedia with different birth/death dates but at the bottom of his credits is a book with Posnick (it's on Archive.org). Just thought that was weird. Maybe dad and son? Wiki mentions "pulp fiction" (doesn't list any, though) so maybe they're confusing Leonard with his dad, except that Wiki mentions a son but his name is Peter. --Username (talk) 14:13, 7 May 2023 (EDT)

Linton Christmas Story

http://www.philsp.com/homeville/FMI/n04/n04934.htm#A181; 2 separate titles that don't match the title here, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2851147. EDIT: I made these 2 edits, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5658281, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5658282, but there's a problem with "The Veiled Portrait" because it was given the wrong name and the date doesn't match either of these, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1359048, so I think somebody with a copy of this book needs to correct info somebody entered here; it seems to be Toff, who judging by the few entries on their page also entered some other Valancourt anthologies, so a look at those may be needed, too. --Username (talk) 20:16, 7 May 2023 (EDT)

Asimov's Essays: The Hugo Winners

On Asimov's summary page we have the series Introductions for 'The Hugo Winners'. This excludes his other essays - afterwords, postscripts and appendices - and so I propose enabling their inclusion by renaming the existing series to "Asimov's Essays: The Hugo Winners". What do others think? Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 21:48, 7 May 2023 (EDT)

The existing series has only Asimov's essays, and is missing the introduction by Charles Sheffield. Not including it suggests the title is wrong, but including it keeps it from being Asimov as your proposed title suggests. Also, prefixing it with "Asimov's Essays:" suggests that there are, or should be, other collections of his essays. Given how many he has written and how often they are reused, it may be difficult to categorize them. I think the series adds little value and don't care if it's changed, but I do think that a hierarchy of titles (e.g. "The Hugo Winners", "Essays for 'The Hugo Winners'") should be considered. ../Doug H (talk) 08:24, 8 May 2023 (EDT)

Author DJ Tyrer

I have been working on a number of publications involving DJ Tyrer, as an editor or a contributor. In the actual publications, he is always credited as DJ Tyrer not D. J. Tyrer. Despite this, the ISFDB only showed separate initials. A quick check of the canonical record's edit history shows three merges. I contacted DJ and he confirms his first name is David-John, one name. He only goes by DJ. Separate initials are wrong. I intend to merge the two author records and all the appropriate title records. David-John Tyrer and David John Tyrer (one title each) will remain alternate names unless I can verify an error. I will add a note to the new canonical record so there will be no question in the future. He was also kind enough to review his summary bibliography and only found 4 errors, which I will correct. John Scifibones 19:59, 8 May 2023 (EDT)

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5659503; There are at least a few other thehorrorzine.com Tyrer poetry pages currently online spanning several years where they printed several poems on each page, including "Afraid of the Dark" which has a 2021 date here but it's on a 2018 Horror Zine page. --Username (talk) 23:15, 8 May 2023 (EDT)

Sounds good to me. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 11:26, 9 May 2023 (EDT)

Gruft

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?495335; While doing edits for F. Paul Wilson books I saw this; that looks like a Les Edwards cover, doesn't it? If so, someone who can ID it can also variant it to the original. --Username (talk) 12:00, 9 May 2023 (EDT)

Lincoln Hunters Date

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?9373; I just added a link to the Rinehart 1st ed. and I think the dates are wrong because they're from the club ed. which usually comes later; anyone know original date? 3 PV of club ed., 2 long-gone and 1 with a very odd name has zip on their discussion page. --Username (talk) 13:16, 9 May 2023 (EDT)

Butterfly Revolution Questions

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?20540; Some more editions of Butler's books recently uploaded on Archive.org, I've been making some edits, I noticed someone (Don Erikson?) wrote a note about where they got cover artist from for the original American PB but didn't actually enter the artist. So if anyone has the book he got it from they may want to enter it. Also, the most recent American PB on ISFDB is a 20th printing but there's a 1984 19th printing uploaded with the same cover, so if anyone knows which edition was the first to use that cover they can fix the art date. --Username (talk) 14:16, 9 May 2023 (EDT)

Bloch's Second Coming

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1222802; https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?97532; Might be the same thing. This, https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2017/04/ffb-eighth-stage-of-fandom-by-robert.html, describes it as articles about Jesus; this, https://cthulhuwho1.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/2256_inventory_4.pdf, says it was in an obscure periodical, Osgledaren, foreign I'm guessing. So some obscure things here, Taboo, Eighth Stage of Fandom, and that periodical are not anywhere I can see, so help if you can. --Username (talk) 16:03, 9 May 2023 (EDT)

Joan D. Vinge's Heaven Chronicles and Vernor Vinge's Zones of Thought - same series?

Per a James Davis Nicoll piece published today on tor.com, "Finally, there is the curious matter of Joan D. Vinge’s 1978 Outcasts of Heaven Belt, which shares a setting with Vernor Vinge’s Zones of Thought stories... Vinge explained the genesis of her novel and the connection to the Zones in a 2008 letter to her readers. Until I read that letter, I had no idea there was a connection" and there's a link to an archive.org copy of that letter (which I've only skimmed over).

There are a fair number of PVs of both the Joan and Vernor Vinge novels, any thoughts on whether those series could/should be merged, one made a subseries of the other, just have linking series notes, etc? I don't have any personal opinion or insight on this, as the only one of them I've read was A Fire Upon the Deep, which I have to confess I DNFed a third of the way through... ErsatzCulture (talk) 10:53, 10 May 2023 (EDT)

The linked article says:

• ...the "Heaven Belt" stories are linked to the "Zones of Thought" series created and written by my former husband (and still friend), Vernor Vinge.

I would turn the two series into sub-series of a super-series. Ahasuerus (talk) 14:12, 10 May 2023 (EDT)

Thanks - I've created an unimaginatively named superseries with some brief extracts from that letter, and a link to it. ErsatzCulture (talk) 18:13, 13 May 2023 (EDT)

We Are All Legends

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5661090; My note is in addition to notes that other editors wrote for the other 2 editions on ISFDB. I assume ISFDB rules state that this should be a collection as opposed to a novel even though it's called a novel on the copyright page. --Username (talk) 12:40, 10 May 2023 (EDT)

Trek: The Lost Years

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5661789; James Van Hise is on title page regardless of what cover and Archive.org note writer says, so what's the procedure? Shouldn't it say James Van Hise (in error) and variant to Edward Gross? Assuming, of course, that Van Hise didn't actually write it. EDIT: Cover artist has an extensive record without their middle initial; https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?133578. --Username (talk) 18:40, 10 May 2023 (EDT)

RWH

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?175902; https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?58684; Someone added link to one of Hedge's poems years ago so I just added link to the other poem even though 1990s Nightscapes issues are somehow still online and not hard to find; however, I think this is a pseudonym for Ron Goulart because that essay (not short fiction as ISFDB calls it) from F&SF is clearly a fake bio. EDIT: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5662212; I found another poem by "Hedge" hiding in that HPL issue. This page, http://www.epberglund.com/RGttCM/nightscapes/NS04/hplindex.htm, lists all the letters and other stuff that The FictionMags Index didn't list in case anyone thinks those need entering. The date is fishy, too, because it was published in October judging by the production dates but it's called "April-October". --Username (talk) 09:36, 11 May 2023 (EDT)

Sargent Review

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?395035; Title is wrong, it's Lost Cities, note makes no sense with the dates vs. book date, non-genre series book with many other Lost Cities volumes, only here because of review, delete? --Username (talk) 11:04, 11 May 2023 (EDT)

Book deleted. Review turned into an essay. -- JLaTondre (talk) 14:06, 13 May 2023 (EDT)

I just fixed a short story in Sargent's record, turning it into an essay; I think it was this one so mistake was made when entering, I guess. I also added a few more story and poem links and think that I've done pretty much all there is to be done with him for now, at least until someone uploads one of his hard-to-find books, which will probably open a can of worms because I see at least one problem with 2 of his stories probably being the same but one having a subtitle in his collection. --Username (talk) 12:40, 16 May 2023 (EDT)

Hitler Art

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5649674; Someone familiar with the foreign editions, tell us which cover Hoffmann really did. SFE, as so often before, has wrong info, but it was obviously wrong anyway because it's a tinted photo of Adolf H. who didn't come to power until long after Hoffmann died. I tried to explain that in my note but it didn't help. So when someone identifies which cover is his this can be un-rejected. --Username (talk) 16:53, 11 May 2023 (EDT)

I see JLaTondre just updated the book with notes and mentioned the Hoffmann credit that's on the flap; however, this can't possibly be the Hoffmann on ISFDB because he died decades before Hitler came to power and so clearly isn't the artist here, especially since it's just a photo, anyway. So either book has wrong info or there's someone else with the same name who's responsible. --Username (talk) 09:07, 14 May 2023 (EDT)

(edit conflict) SFE was correct. It is credited on the back flap of the book. The photograph is by Heinrich Hoffmann (1885–1957), Adolf Hitler's official photographer. I have disambiguated this Hoffmann from the other one. -- JLaTondre (talk) 09:11, 14 May 2023 (EDT)

Investigations of Avram Davidson

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5663113; Fixed this up but there's another record, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?35403, which has an award nomination, so I think the award should probably be moved to the record I just edited and the other record deleted. --Username (talk) 09:01, 12 May 2023 (EDT)

Fixed. -- JLaTondre (talk) 14:02, 13 May 2023 (EDT)

John Stewart

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?27454; I just had author image approved and noticed that short story is likely not by the artist because he died several years earlier. There's also an alternate name for the story which was also an alternate name for a few interior pieces by the artist. --Username (talk) 14:32, 12 May 2023 (EDT)

The publisher's website and the title verso of the publication containing the story agree the authors name is Jeff Stewart, not John Stewart. I'm hoping it's this Jeff Stewart. John Scifibones 14:52, 12 May 2023 (EDT)

C. Armitage Harper

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5663571; Death date very different, mother's name slightly different, verification needed. --Username (talk) 19:14, 12 May 2023 (EDT)

External ID template additional wording needed

In the Template:PublicationFields:ExternalIDs here, for the Audible-ASIN entry, could something like "If the Audible ASIN is an ISBN-10, convert the ISBN-10 value to ISBN-13 and place the ISBN-13 value in the ISBN field." be added after the sentence that reads "Also note that, unlike regular Amazon ASINs, we record Audible ASINs even when they match the ISBN-10."? Thanks! Phil (talk) 08:30, 13 May 2023 (EDT)

I think I must have put this in the wrong discussion group so I just copied this to Rules & Standards. Phil (talk) 06:54, 22 May 2023 (EDT)

Harry O

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?273603; I randomly came across a non-fiction book by R. Matheson, Mediums Rare, that was never entered here but after doing so it said Harry O. Morris was a disambiguated name because of that 1 wrongly-entered cover credit; do I have permission to merge with this, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1282130, since PV with wacky name never responds to any messages sent to them on their page? --Username (talk) 09:42, 13 May 2023 (EDT)

I merged them. That was an obvious error (entering the cover illustrator & interior designer and labeling them with their roles). -- JLaTondre (talk) 13:47, 13 May 2023 (EDT)

Crispino Cover

https://fantlab.ru/art9850; Says he's Italian but credits on ISFDB are for German books, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?244341; cover on FantLab is the same as this, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?603133. Also, the note on FantLab about the artist (RIGHT-CLICK AND CLICK TRANSLATE TO ENGLISH), if I understand it correctly, says he's wrongly credited as D. Crispino in that book. --Username (talk) 12:33, 13 May 2023 (EDT)

Martin H.

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=martin+hof&type=Name; I think the 2 German artists are the same person. --Username (talk) 13:04, 13 May 2023 (EDT)

There is an English artist, a German artist, and a German essayist. If you question the credit on any of these, they all have active verifiers whom you can ask to double check. Otherwise, you would need a source that shows any of these are the same person in order to create an alternate name. -- JLaTondre (talk) 13:56, 13 May 2023 (EDT)

John Craig

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?19264; None of those are by the guy who died before any of them were written/drawn, and likely none have anything to do with each other, although it's slightly possible the guy who wrote the stories wrote the essays, too. --Username (talk) 13:08, 13 May 2023 (EDT)

Tipped-In

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?815229; Book is 1920, preface is 1930, this page, http://wormwoodiana.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-revels-of-orsera-query.html, says it was tipped into leftover copies of the 1920 edition, link someone provided here to Harvard copy doesn't seem to have the preface, this copy does, https://archive.org/details/b29826123, what do you suggest? Add Archive.org link and mention preface in notes? Clone edition? --Username (talk) 19:06, 13 May 2023 (EDT)

I would make a second pub, 1930, for the one on Archive.org, with that dated pre-TOC preface in the contents as the differentiator (note it also has a "By the same author" list not seen in the other copy, and the "v" number on the first TOC page no longer aligns with the physical page count). The linked Harvard copy has the library's date stamp "Dec 6 1920", which pretty much guarantees it is an edition published before that date and can't possibly have a 1930 preface. --MartyD (talk) 07:51, 14 May 2023 (EDT)

DW and the Genesis of the Daleks

https://archive.org/search?query=dicks+daleks+pinnacle; According to edit history I added Archive.org link to Day last year although I have absolutely no recollection of doing so. However, the recently-uploaded Genesis is problematic; it says second printing, May 1982 with a $1.95 price but the only ISFDB edition with that price says 1-1981 and the 1982 edition is $2.50. So someone who knows the complex history of these Who books can add the link if they can decide which edition it belongs to. I assume it should be the 1981 because that has the right ISBN in which case the date would need changing, but then the 1982 would need a new date because it's a third printing. There's no note in 1983 that it's a fourth printing, either (and no price), although there is for the fifth and sixth printings. --Username (talk) 20:08, 14 May 2023 (EDT)

French Dark Channel

https://archive.org/search?query=garton+alliance; I've been doing a lot of Ray Garton edits and came across this in case anyone wants to enter a French edition. --Username (talk) 10:14, 15 May 2023 (EDT)

Ronald Fraser Art

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5666000; Unusual last name of artist, he's on ISFDB, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?373087, Desert title page photo online says E. while signature can't be found on Flower Phantoms cover but few online mentions use Eric; I also added a link to Fraser's Landscape With Figures and the artist there is also on ISFDB twice, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=lucchesi&type=Name, with 1 cover clearly signed E. and the other Edmund. So I mention these things in case after approval someone decides which names are parents and wants to variant the other ones. --Username (talk) 19:59, 15 May 2023 (EDT)

Saga Press Dates

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?576157; I just did an edit adding Archive.org link to this; I don't often deal with such recent books so I'm not familiar with Saga but is it normal for their print books to have one date, in this case 0816, on the flap and another date, in this case November 2016, on the copyright page? One of the bios at the back says a book from one of the authors "will appear in August 2016". --Username (talk) 23:45, 15 May 2023 (EDT)

E. Gornall

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=gornall&type=Name; While adding some M. John Harrison edits I was going to add a link to Ice Monkey but it was already there via RTrace last year, but I noticed artist Eddie Gornall is also on ISFDB as Eddi; PV of that book, Jlassen (Jeremy Lassen?) is gone and never responded to any messages, copy on eBay shows everything except back flap where I assume cover credit is, and Archive.org copy of Ice Monkey is coverless. I can't get a handle online about what his real name was so if anyone knows they can variant one to the other, assuming they're really spelled differently. Being older fantasy books I assume some people on here have their own copies they can check. --Username (talk) 00:15, 16 May 2023 (EDT)

Zombie Apocalypse

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?36612; I made a bunch of edits to a few of the anthologies; I'll just mention that they don't really say "Mammoth Book of" on US title pages, just on the cover, so there's really no variant titles. --Username (talk) 11:29, 16 May 2023 (EDT)

Jagendorf

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5666413; "Demon and the Rabbi" was the only title I couldn't fix, appearing in one of Helen Hoke's anthologies (one of several by him in her books) as M. A., in his collection as Moritz A., and ISFDB saying it first appeared in 1968 somewhere under some unknown name; anthology says it comes from his collection Ghostly Folktales (not on ISFDB) but gives no date. So take a look at that after approval if you wish. --Username (talk) 12:36, 16 May 2023 (EDT)

Hoke Horrors

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5654666; I've made another edit simply adding the Archive.org link, but someone more versed than I in technical stuff can help explain what should be done with this. SBN is for Brits, ISBN is for Americans, why SBN gets no hits I have no idea but that's clearly the number on the copyright page. Why did Helen Hoke have to edit so MANY books and why did the American publishers change so much but not change other stuff and confuse everybody? A good assignment for someone with a lot of patience would be to go through her entire ISFDB list and double-check everything; they re-used British covers for American editions sometimes but other times they were completely different, both editions of each anthology would need to be seen side-by-side to verify if the Bill Prosser illustrations are the same between editions, British spelling of certain words in story titles that may or may not have been used for American titles, multiple printings of certain books of which very few have been entered here, etc. Someone keeps uploading ex-library copies on Archive.org but the titles of some of her books are so similar it's hard to keep track of them or remember if I added links or not. On a side note I discovered that at least a few of her books were part of a pub. series called Terrific Triples but that's only mentioned on their copyright pages; I have a couple of pending edits adding the series but hell if I can remember which ones they were; many more out there, it seems, some for her many non-genre books not on ISFDB. --Username (talk) 10:46, 17 May 2023 (EDT)

Brief server downtime at noon

The server will be down for maintenance between 12pm (noon) and 12:05pm server time (Eastern Daylight Time). Ahasuerus (talk) 11:10, 17 May 2023 (EDT)

The server is back up. Ahasuerus (talk) 12:01, 17 May 2023 (EDT)

If that was related to the many messages by Alvonruff lately, what is the hoped-for outcome of his behind-the-scenes work? Will it improve anything on our, the editors, end? --Username (talk) 12:12, 17 May 2023 (EDT)

The downtime was unrelated to the project that Al is currently working on. It was simply to free up some disk space.

Al's work will update what's happening behind the scenes and -- eventually -- improve our multilingual support. For example, it will let our searches recognize that the Cyrillic letters "А" and "а" are the same for search purposes.

More generally, we need to update the underlying software that we are using. At this point it's so old that it's no longer supported by the vendor. It can cause a variety of security and compatibility issues. Ahasuerus (talk) 12:41, 17 May 2023 (EDT)

Quanta

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?54005; Chris J entered all issues on ISFDB but there are several missing; this page, https://web.archive.org/web/19990224223357/http://www.etext.org/Zines/Quanta/issues.html, seems to have all of them, in case Chris is still around and wants to finish them or someone else is interested. I noticed this because the serial by Vassilakos is missing several parts on ISFDB (it also says 17 parts but archived page ends at 16 so that's odd). --Username (talk) 11:16, 17 May 2023 (EDT)

He's still around because he just made a ton of edits adding/fixing stuff. Thanks. --Username (talk) 12:25, 18 May 2023 (EDT)

All done.--Chris J (talk) 17:08, 18 May 2023 (EDT)

Pertwee's Whodunnit?

https://archive.org/details/whodunnit0000radn; I came across this randomly, seems to be a murder mystery anthology but some of those titles (especially "A Curse on the Pharaoh's Rod", hee hee) sound like they could be genre. Anyway, a Who is on the cover so that may push it over the line. Older Brits here may have read this in their youth and remember details. --Username (talk) 12:24, 18 May 2023 (EDT)

Merge Titles -- more error checking added

"Merge Titles" has been enhanced to perform additional checks before creating submissions. You can no longer create Merge Title submissions which would result in "circular" variants, i.e. variants whose parent record ID is itself. If you come across any issues, please let me know. Ahasuerus (talk) 16:37, 18 May 2023 (EDT)

Non-Genre Stories

After recently printing contents not available elsewhere (which is most of them) from the 1935 British anthology My Grimmest Nightmare at a local library I've finally started reading them and discovered that several are non-genre so I've been marking those and giving brief synopses. This is a common issue here with collections/anthologies both old and new; I think it would be helpful if editors who come across non-genre stories mark them and write a synopsis so people will know which are genre and which aren't. I also want to mention that this anthology is nuts. I read the rare A. Blackwood story long before the others and it was pretty creepy, as expected, but besides the several ghost stories there are a philosophical discussion of the afterlife with what seems to be an atheistic ending (probably raised a few eyebrows back then), a slice-of-life about a sad old guy in a top hat who gets hit by a bus, an account of 2 hikers lost in the mountains that seems like it strayed in from National Geographic, a shopkeeper who apparently gets punished because he didn't donate enough money to charity, and my favorite, a jungle tale of an explorer who encounters spiders, were-hyenas, and a giant half-spider/half-were-hyena which ends with what I think was meant to be a nasty joke about his bride-to-be's looks (no #MeToo in 1935). Least favorite so far? Probably the one about the guy who likes SOS messages on the radio and decides to visit some old guy looking for his long-lost son; the old guy's Irish maid is drawn so broadly I'm surprised she wasn't chewing on a potato when she answered the door. --Username (talk) 20:49, 18 May 2023 (EDT)

Reginald-3

I got a sudden urge to know what is entailed when someone makes a Reginald-3 verification, I think it's called. I know RTrace does a ton of them and I see a few others doing it occasionally, but where do you go to check that and what exactly is it? Maybe I'll try some. Are secondary verifications considered something important here or do people just do them because they want to? Does anyone find them useful? Are there any rare ones people have been looking for? --Username (talk) 23:08, 18 May 2023 (EDT)

When you're viewing a publication page, click on "Reginald-3" in the Secondary Verifications section and it will take you to this page. It's a big case-bound book that has tons of author, titles, awards, and such in it. It's a very useful thing to have , but only for works published between 1975-1991. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 00:09, 19 May 2023 (EDT)

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?4975; Did it for Seth Pfefferle's 2 books since I entered 1 of them early last year. Is this something people have been doing since 2006 when public editing started here or is it recent? Because it seems weird that those books had never been verified before someone like me did them. Are there, like, tens of thousands of books still not verified or have most of them been done already? What's the criteria for not verifying something in that book? Is it known to have lots of mistakes? --Username (talk) 00:32, 19 May 2023 (EDT)

It's generally considered reliable, but unless you have access to the book (Reginald-3) itself, you shouldn't be verifying anything with it. It's got around 1500 pages (if I'm remembering correctly), and it's always possible it's missed some books that were published in that period. However, for the books it does have, it's considered very accurate. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:26, 19 May 2023 (EDT)

It's easy to verify with it because I'm using the Archive.org copy that I added a link to 6 months ago. --Username (talk) 13:46, 19 May 2023 (EDT)

Awesome! Have fun adding the verifications. I don't think those even require a moderator to approve them. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:52, 19 May 2023 (EDT)

Honestly, as soon as I added those 2 verifications I lost all interest. Half the "fun" of editing here, for me, is waiting for a mod to look at my edits and then decide whether to approve them (50,000 and counting, in the top half-dozen all-time for a non-mod/non-self-approver and the only one who still edits regularly except for "Fixer" which is a robot and doesn't really count), especially when they claim something was wrong when it actually wasn't and then think they can argue with me. If I'm lucky sometimes they even apologize when they find out they made a mistake. Doing Reginald seems entirely pointless if there's no approval needed. I only mention my adding the link so that others here who actually want to verify those ID know that the book is readily available. It seems to me that one of the computer geniuses who are on this site should have figured out a way by now to trawl the book and automatically add ID to all books that don't have them yet, but maybe it's not easy/possible to do. --Username (talk) 15:23, 19 May 2023 (EDT)

Adventures Of The Adventurers' Club

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5669128; https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/9339400; I think the edition on ISFDB should really be paperback because of the cover and price; Stanford copy linked above is clearly hardcover and notice that it doesn't mention drawing on title page like Archive.org copy does. So what do you think? Change to PB and maybe clone a HC edition with Stanford link? --Username (talk) 13:44, 19 May 2023 (EDT)

Phenix

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5669692; Story seems never to have been reprinted in English but it was in a French gaming magazine for some reason, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?39139, https://www.amazon.com/Phenix-n45-magic-jeux-role/dp/2871535426, in case anyone wants to enter it. I'm guessing there's more translated stories in the other missing issues. --Username (talk) 08:19, 20 May 2023 (EDT)

French Potter

https://www.google.com/search?q=potter+scalehunter+ebay; I just added an Archive.org link to Scalehunter in a pending edit and I don't see that art so I don't know if it's in a limited edition or what but I noticed it's also here, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?727762; French cover art should be a variant, I think. --Username (talk) 08:46, 20 May 2023 (EDT)

L. Ron Hubbard's Colon

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?8224; I've been adding links to copies of this series including several that are only Open Library non-preview and I noticed that editors over the years entered the title randomly with it being almost evenly divided between commas after Future or not. So a standard should really be decided on and titles fixed so they all match, although I think going by ISFDB rules they should all have a colon after Future, right? --Username (talk) 09:28, 20 May 2023 (EDT)

Boom! Comics - Firefly/ Serenity

Is there anywhere a list of the stories Boom! Comics have produced for the Firefly/ Serenity series? The usual artist is Greg Pak.

The company's website is a mess and they don't seem to announce anything. —The preceding unsigned comment added by Femmefan1946 (talk • contribs) 14:35, May 20, 2023‎

They're likely all listed over on the Firefly Database. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:27, 20 May 2023 (EDT)

Canonical name Amir Zand

There is an canonical author Amir Zand (San) but only one title is credited to him. 10 titles are credited to his alternate name Amir Zand. Wouldn't it be useful to change the canonical name? --Zapp (talk) 16:11, 20 May 2023 (EDT)

Go ahead and make the switch. Please add his website to the new canonical name. John Scifibones 17:24, 24 May 2023 (EDT)

Done. --Zapp (talk) 08:16, 25 May 2023 (EDT)

Thanks! Christian Stonecreek (talk) 08:55, 25 May 2023 (EDT)

Next time, please do not use "'Make This Title a Variant' (breaking the relationship) and 'Delete This Tile (previous canonical) for titles only published under the previous alternate name. Use advanced search and then merge the two titles, paying attention to the radio buttons. Not only is this one edit instead of two, but will save the information from the previous canonical title record. Delete should always be your last option! John Scifibones 09:08, 25 May 2023 (EDT)

Fantasist Anthology

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5670646; This book, even though it has a PV, had a lot of stuff missing/entered wrong, so after approval please take another look to make sure I caught everything or didn't make a few mistakes myself. --Username (talk) 10:21, 21 May 2023 (EDT)

Since Don is no longer present, I will accept the edit and make some other updates based on the Internet Archive scan. But first, I'm going to point out the existing bad page number to Ahasuerus as it seems like the clean-up report should have caught that, but it is not listed. Thanks. -- JLaTondre (talk) 12:28, 21 May 2023 (EDT)

Rebecca M.

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisheryear.cgi?40797+2012; I added image to Sparks; cover artist is obviously the same person for both books but spelled differently, Amazon previews don't reveal anything helpful, so if anyone knows a way to see how she's credited that can be fixed. Also, while looking for the publisher I saw there's another Earthbound, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?354536, which may or may not be the same, but there's a problem in that the book is called 3rd in a series but the first 2 on ISFDB were published years later by a different author. So that might be a mistake. EDIT: 1 of Mr. Lobe's books available and entered here by me, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5670781. --Username (talk) 11:57, 21 May 2023 (EDT)

Darker Places

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?66822; I'm sure there aren't many Matheson collections that don't have numbered contents here so I thought I'd found something special when I saw FantLab's page, https://fantlab.ru/edition117836, until I saw the note (RIGHT-CLICK to translate) which is kind of unclear. So if anyone has a copy maybe they can say what the numbers should be and enter them (unless someone understands what the FantLab writer was trying to say). --Username (talk) 21:18, 21 May 2023 (EDT)

Earthsea numbering

Gollancz are putting out a new hc of the Tales from Earthsea collection this week, and I noticed that a few places such as Amazon UK and Gollancz are listing it as "The Fifth Book of Earthsea". However, the series page here has this collection unnumbered, with The Other Wind as #5. In turn, Amazon UK and Waterstones have The Other Wind listed as book 6 of the series.

Now, I appreciate that the often crappy data that appears on retailer sites doesn't necessarily count for much when determining what gets recorded in ISFDB. However, I do see that the Gateway ebooks of these titles - not currently recorded here, although I'll try to rectify that shortly - do have "The Fifth/Sixth Book of Earthsea" as subtitles on their title pages, which perhaps lends more weight to that numbering scheme?

I've double checked my Orion UK tps of these, and neither has any such subtitle. I also have the UK ebook of the collected Vess illustrated edition, and whilst I haven't spotted anything that explicitly says either book is numbered 5 or 6, there's an afterword that states (my emphases): "Here at last, for the first time, is Earthsea, in English, all together in the right order. .... The six books of Earthsea ... and in England one publisher calls it a quartet, and another reversed the order of the fifth and sixth books as if it didn't matter." This also makes me think that 5=Tales/6=Other Wind might be the more correct/author-approved numbering.

(FWIW, the Wikipedia page doesn't number them; it does state "the fifth and last novel of the series, The Other Wind", but obviously that's qualified by "novel" rather than "book".) Template:TitleFields:SeriesNum doesn't indicate anything about collections being treated differently to novels when it comes to series numbering.

Despite owning duplicate copies of these, I've never actually read any of them, so I don't have a dog in this fight, but wondering if there might be consensus for a change? ErsatzCulture (talk) 07:58, 22 May 2023 (EDT)

I've read the first four novels so far only, so I can't comment on the contents of Tales from Earthsea and The Other Wind. But I own the German edition of the collected Vess illustrated edition, which contains an introduction by Le Guin, written by her in 2016 and which should be this one in the English edition. In this introduction, she's mentions the "six Earthsea volumes" and explains, how Tales from Earthsea and The Other Wind came into life. She stresses that Tales from Earthsea, "the fifth book" (!) has been treated as marginal, but, according to her, is essential for the series. As a result I'd say you are correct: 5=Tales/6=Other Wind. That's also the order the works are printed in the illustrated edition. Jens Hitspacebar (talk) 15:04, 23 May 2023 (EDT)

Thanks - if I don't hear any objections, I'll do the 5/6 renumbering in a couple of days. ErsatzCulture (talk) 13:14, 27 May 2023 (EDT)

BM

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5671406; https://www.amazon.com/Beastmaster-Myth-Richard-Knaak/dp/1439144176; I can just make out "51600" in archived copy's back cover barcode through the sticker but that Amazon page linked above has a much higher price but the same ISBN and look inside has the same number line, so if anyone knows if there were later printings or something let us know. --Username (talk) 16:31, 22 May 2023 (EDT)

Ayan(n)a Mathis

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=na+mathis&type=Name; I added a link to the Times supernatural issue and it is Ayana, but I can't get a clear idea of how Ayanna is credited or which is her real name because she's called both all over the web, plus a Christian website I came across congratulated her on getting married and changing her name from Ayanna Thomas. So does anyone know more about her? --Username (talk) 11:28, 23 May 2023 (EDT)

I have absolutely zero knowledge of this author or their works, but the impression I get from Google results (and the photos next to the various results) is that there are 2 different people, with the single-n one being an author who's the most likely candidate to be the one of interest here, based on author website and publisher site. The double-n one seems to be some sort of influencer/self help guru?

The two titles associated with the double-n author name are from the same fairly recent PVed pub by Gzuckier, so I'll post on his page to look at this item. ErsatzCulture (talk) 19:05, 23 May 2023 (EDT)

I'm looking at the Times archive online, and it looks like I misentered the recent review, and it should be Ayana. I'll change it. Thanks for the alert. gzuckier (talk) 23:18, 24 May 2023 (EDT)

Ace Books / Ace Fantasy Books

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?18305; All 3 Ace editions are on Archive.org so I added links but while they all say "Ace Fantasy Books" on title page only 1 edition says that here. There's over a hundred here as by that name so I just thought it was odd; I wonder how many other books here as by "Ace Books" are actually by the longer name and whether it would matter to anyone to fix those; did they officially change their name to the shorter version at some point after 1986? --Username (talk) 11:43, 23 May 2023 (EDT)

Pyramids

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?697334; I was fixing a few Zebra Books from 1986 and on that should have had Kensington as part of the publisher; I got most of them except a few romance junk novels that were reprinted like a thousand times so I didn't even bother with those because I'm not even sure if they belong here. However, I was disturbed to discover afterwards that many of the old 70s-early 80s Zebra Books have Kensington as part of the publisher (?) I suspect I know who entered many of them so I will now start fixing those but the first one I looked at wasn't entered by that person but rather by Artisan, who I don't believe is around anymore. Not sure why it was accepted because the author is not above threshold in the slightest and this book is seventies paranormal "non-fiction" nonsense. So it should probably be deleted, but if not at least the regular date should be changed to March because editor mentioned that in their note but didn't actually make it so. EDIT: After further investigation I think, unlike Leisure Books and their later separate history with Dorchester, Zebra Books used Kensington even in their older books. So I think I've finished cleaning up (except for Death Screen, can't find info on that one) but this book still doesn't belong here, I believe. --Username (talk) 17:45, 23 May 2023 (EDT)

Italian Valancourt Edition

https://archive.org/search?query=blackburn+beastly-business&sort=-addeddate; Italian price on back cover and notice on last page about being printed in Italy in 2022; does this require a separate record here or can I just add the link to the current edition? --Username (talk) 18:50, 23 May 2023 (EDT)

The Witch Book

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5672915; https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5672916; If anyone owns a copy or knows where one can be seen online most of the page numbers need entering and author/title verification is needed for most of the stories; also, I replaced the cover because new cover has the price sticker or whatever it is on the top corner but it's not a great image so if anyone can replace it with a better one with that sticker after my edits are approved that would be great. --Username (talk) 23:13, 23 May 2023 (EDT)

Macbeth

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?582305; Macbeth link leads to B. Coville version published many years after J. Blackburn review. --Username (talk) 23:53, 23 May 2023 (EDT)

I've asked a verifier of a pub containing the review if they would check. Thanks. -- JLaTondre (talk) 09:08, 27 May 2023 (EDT)

I've re-pointed the review to the correct title. Thanks. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 09:59, 27 May 2023 (EDT)

Alex Ebel

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?25577; Short story isn't by the artist who died years before it was published but this person, https://sites.google.com/view/alexsebel. The archived story link seems missing, however, so it's possible story header says "Alex S. Ebel" since that's the name in his site's URL. --Username (talk) 14:02, 24 May 2023 (EDT)

Author separated from artist. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:56, 27 May 2023 (EDT)

Bruce Campbell Biography

I'm holding this submission to add what looks like a biography of the actor Bruce Campbell. I see that we have an earlier biography already in the database, but it appears that it was added by virtue of being nominated for Stoker and IHG awards. My sense is that the new book would not be in our scope, but I wanted to put the question out to the community first. Thoughts? --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 14:57, 24 May 2023 (EDT)

Out of scope I think. A biography of an author is arguably eligible (as it will talk about some of the books after all). This one seems to be one additional step removed from that. Annie (talk) 15:01, 24 May 2023 (EDT)

Back in 2020 we clarified the "Rules of Acquisition" as follows:

• Included: Published non-fiction works about speculative fiction which can be plausibly linked to published (as defined above) speculative fiction. This rule allows the inclusion of secondary bibliographies, i.e. bibliographies of bibliographies, which are two steps removed from published speculative fiction. It also allows the inclusion of non-fiction works about shared cross-media universes like "Doctor Who" and "Star Wars", but only as long as there is a plausible connection to the universe's published component. Thus a book about "Star Trek physics" can be included (because it applies to all types of media including novels) while a book about Star Trek movie outtakes and bloopers should be excluded.

Since Bruce Campbell is an actor with no published speculative fiction credits, I think his biographies should be out unless they trigger some other condition. Ahasuerus (talk) 18:18, 24 May 2023 (EDT)

Groovy. I will cancel my edit. --Username (talk) 19:33, 24 May 2023 (EDT)

Graveyard Reader

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?45152; I just added a link in an edit to the anthology of the same title and judging by ID it was published April or May, but story is October which is when it next appeared. So I think it should either have month changed to 00 to match the anthology or anthology month should be changed to 04 or 05 if anyone can pinpoint date and then story month changed to that. --Username (talk) 15:53, 24 May 2023 (EDT)

Fugue XXIX

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?869505; Same editor entered both TP, I think, but one could probably be deleted because it has same ISBN as HC and was likely a mistake that didn't get erased, although it has cover artist and correct (?) page count unlike TP with unique ISBN. --Username (talk) 21:28, 24 May 2023 (EDT)

Deleted. Locus1 lists the format as "hc", but with the "tp" ISBN. This was the source of the original record. I added notes to the other pubs to clarify the discrepancy. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:48, 27 May 2023 (EDT)

Onyeama

https://vaultofevil.proboards.com/thread/8116/dillibe-onyeama; https://openlibrary.org/search/authors?q=dillibe+onyeama; 3 novels pictured on Vault seem genre, other titles on OL possible, no copies of any book by him on Archive.org except one with the N word which likely isn't genre, so an author that somehow was never added here, anyone own any copies? --Username (talk) 18:09, 25 May 2023 (EDT)

S. B. Divya != Divya Srinivasan

I don't believe the author/editor S. B. Divya aka Divya Breed is the same person as the artist Divya Srinivasan. Their photos - PW interview for the artist - don't look like the same person to me, and their respective sites (sbdivya.com and pupae.com) don't make any reference to the works of the other person. I can't see the edit history to know who to chase regarding why they were made as alternate names, maybe a moderator can take a look? ErsatzCulture (talk) 19:56, 25 May 2023 (EDT)

You want to talk with Dirk. :) Annie (talk) 20:14, 25 May 2023 (EDT)

PS: No moderator notes on this edit or on any of his other edits on both authors around the same time. Annie (talk) 20:18, 25 May 2023 (EDT)

Thanks, have left a note on his page pointing here. ErsatzCulture (talk) 08:33, 26 May 2023 (EDT)

I agree, they are not the same person. One was born in India (the science fiction author) and the other was born and raised in the United States (the artist, per the PW article). Based on that, I've separated them. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:29, 26 May 2023 (EDT)

According to Wikipedia they ARE the same person: "S. B. Divya is the pen name of Divya Srinivasan Breed".--Dirk P Broer (talk) 17:02, 26 May 2023 (EDT)

But Divya Srinivasan and Divya Srinivasan Breed can possibly be different people? Do we have a connection that establishes them as the same one? Annie (talk) 17:09, 26 May 2023 (EDT)

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5675343; I made an edit with 3rd printing of Runtime, saw somewhere that obliquely mentioned eff-words.com, current site defaults to sbdivya.com so I added archived site which started nearly 10 years ago, it may offer old/new info removed from current site because there's nothing in archived bio about "My gender doesn’t conform to social standards" so other things may have been added/dropped over the years. There's a picture of her at the back of Runtime, also, with a short bio. --Username (talk) 18:20, 26 May 2023 (EDT)

I noticed the different places of birth and appended to the notes in both records.--Dirk P Broer (talk) 18:36, 26 May 2023 (EDT)

Doctor Who 'nonfiction' vs Nonfiction on 'Doctor Who'

Anyone know there are two separate series? The former has well over a hundred entries (including a few subseries), the latter just three titles.

The quotes around 'nonfiction' implied - to me at least - that it might be "in-universe" non-fiction like technical manuals, but it seems to me that it has just been used for anything that isn't conventional narrative fiction.

Any objections to moving everything from the smaller series into the bigger one, and removing the quotes around 'nonfiction'? ErsatzCulture (talk) 17:19, 26 May 2023 (EDT)

Looking at the history of the titles in the series, the smaller one (Nonfiction on 'Doctor Who') had been created and used by a single editor (Stonecreek) mostly moving the books from pre-existing other series (some of them later deleted, some of them still existing). You may want to ping him and see what he may have been thinking but considering that the edits are from years ago and he never bothered to do more (or to write ANY notes explaining what he was doing and what is to be used for what), that looks like something that should not have happened, especially without discussing with the community first. I think it is safe to move the 3 books back where they belong and delete the extra-series but ping him anyway in case he actually had a plan and a good explanation. Annie (talk) 17:38, 26 May 2023 (EDT)

Thanks for digging. I see from the edit histories of those three titles that there's also been "Doctor Who Reference Books" and "Doctor Who Non Fiction" in the past, so I'll wait for further feedback before making yet more changes. (Will also see if I can wrangle anything out of wiki search w.r.t. any prior discussion.) ErsatzCulture (talk) 18:49, 26 May 2023 (EDT)

Some new Japanese awards

There are a few new Japanese awards I think out to be included here, so I'll group them under one heading to make it easier than a bunch of different sections. This will also allow us to learn the names of some of the Japanese fanzines out there, and therefore be able to find information on them and add them to the database here.

Nippon SF Fandom Award

This award (日本SFファンドム賞) was given out from 1965-1969, then replaced by the Seiun Award. We have the latter in the database, but not the former. I'll be happy to enter the information for it. There aren't too many to list, as shown here (same website/group where they host the Seiun Awards). It was given by the same group that gives out the Seiun Award, and there is only one level (no categories), so it's an uncomplicated award to enter.

Sounds pretty straightforward. If there are no objections, I will add these on Monday. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:24, 27 May 2023 (EDT)

Done. Please feel free to edit the record and add a category. Ahasuerus (talk) 08:38, 1 June 2023 (EDT)

Thanks! I'll work on them. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:34, 2 June 2023 (EDT)

SF Fanzine Awards

This award (SFファンジン大賞) was given out between 1982 and 2003 to speculative fiction fanzines in Japan. The winners were decided by a committee that changed annually. Japanese site here. It had several categories:

• Fanzine Grand Prize (ファンジン大賞)
• Creative (創作部門)
• Critique (評論部門)
• Translation/Presentation (翻訳・紹介部門)
• Art (アート部門)
• Layout (レイアウト部門)
• Editorial Work (エディトリアルワーク部門)
• Research (研究部門)

Looks like Layout was merged with Art in '84 and '85 before being dropped entirely? Dunno if that merits a separate category being created for those 2 years... ErsatzCulture (talk) 08:51, 27 May 2023 (EDT)

A new award type has been created. Please feel free to create award categories. Ahasuerus (talk) 08:41, 1 June 2023 (EDT)

Thanks! I'll work on them. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:34, 2 June 2023 (EDT)

Takumi Shibano Award

This award (柴野拓美賞) was given at the same time as the SF Fanzine Award, but was judged solely by Takumi Shibano. It was a single award given out each year (though a few times people shared the award in a single year). Same site as above. It's considered a separate award from the SF Fanzine Awards rather than a category under that award.

I'll be happy to add these. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 20:57, 26 May 2023 (EDT)

Done. Ahasuerus (talk) 08:46, 1 June 2023 (EDT)

Thanks! I'll work on them. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:34, 2 June 2023 (EDT)

Banner Art

The last banner art that I uploaded was in 2009. The first banner art was put together in 2007 on a glass CRT with VGA resolution (640x480 pixels), and the last one was done on my first LCD display with DVI resolution (1920x1200 pixels). The banners are 90x900 pixels, which was about 40% wider than the VGA screen, and about 50% of the DVI screen, which seemed like a pretty substantial size at the time. My current display is 5120x2880, so a banner is now about 3/4 inch tall, and pretty difficult to see any detail. So a few things:

1. I've been upscaling the banners using an AI tool. I'm running them on isfdb2.org at 180x1800, which seems to be a pretty good match for my current browser width. They are pretty good, but not perfect (especially some of the smaller lettering) but my 2009-era computer doesn't turn on any more, so the original photoshop files may be lost.

2. In 2020 Ahasuerus put a notice on the Banner Art Credits page to post new images here. I have been working with Generative AI at work, so I thought I would apply some of that to generating a new banner art candidate. It's artwork from a 1950s-era magazine that never existed on our timeline - let's call it "Interplanetary Stories". All the images were created by DALL-E, with prompts to push it towards an early 1950s artwork style. Obviously, it is copyright free. (The version of the banner displayed below is smaller than 90x900, in order to meet the 200kB size limit of the wiki. See the 180x1800 size version here: [3])

3. If anyone has requests for a banner honoring a specific magazine (from our timeline), post it here or on my talk page. Otherwise, I may pull over a few more alternate timeline magazines. Alvonruff (talk) 20:32, 27 May 2023 (EDT)

The new banner looks pretty good except for the second woman from the right whose face looks off. Ahasuerus (talk) 07:44, 28 May 2023 (EDT)

What about the "leaf woman"? Her forearms are totally merged together. I'm sure that's explained in the cover story. How about this new blaster woman?

Alvonruff (talk) 22:18, 31 May 2023 (EDT)

The face is much better! The way she holds the blaster looks a bit odd, but then I have never held a functional blaster, so what do I know? Ahasuerus (talk) 08:49, 1 June 2023 (EDT)

Alan Brennert Questions

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?274235; https://archive.org/details/weirdromancetwoo0000menk; PV doesn't respond to much these days, so does anyone know why ISBN is different? Did Samuel French release different editions? Also, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?58584, where someone added a link but according to a note on the Archive.org page Brennert's story "The Second Soul" was removed at his request and seems it was never reprinted in print, so maybe someone knows some shadowy ancient archived SF site or something where they reprinted it. --Username (talk) 20:46, 27 May 2023 (EDT)

German Pfister

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=pfister&type=Name; Last 2 authors are likely the same. --Username (talk) 21:07, 28 May 2023 (EDT)

Charnas Stories

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?273; A couple of questions about her stories. "Oak and Ash" was published in a 1992 issue of Pulphouse Magazine which nobody's going to have, I'm sure, but it was reprinted in a shady sex anthology in 2001, Sextopia. I can't get any info about that, so maybe someone will admit to having it. Also, "Land of Lost Content" is in 1998's Streets of Blood, one of a million Martin H. Greenberg anthologies, as original but online info suggests it's Chapter 2 of her 1980 novel The Vampire Tapestry. No copies of the anthology, either (there's a 15-photo copy on eBay but the seller seemed more interested in showing the covers from every angle instead of taking a clear photo of the acknowledgments page), so if anyone owns a copy maybe it mentions this so a note can be added here about it. --Username (talk) 12:41, 29 May 2023 (EDT)

A Wrinkle in Time Cover Art

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1079586; It's unlikely that the 1976 date is correct because the artist's next credit is 1990. I think there's some confusion with this, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?581503, which has similar art. EDIT: This page, https://www.tor.com/2023/05/25/can-you-solve-the-classic-wrinkle-in-time-cover-mystery/, doesn't mention John Berkey who did other 1976 Dell covers, but this page, http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:nmFZMfSDiAMJ:https://70sscifiart.tumblr.com/post/179261051240/john-berkey&hl=en&gl=us&strip=1&vwsrc=0, says he did it. --Username (talk) 08:56, 30 May 2023 (EDT)

Self-nomination for self-approver - Philfreund

I would like to nominate myself to be a self-approver. If that's granted, I'll be certain to continue to ask for help if I'm uncertain as to the best approach to take. Granting me this will likely shorten the submission queue significantly since I'm entering a lot of ClonePub submissions on a daily basis, mainly for audiobooks and audio/MP3 CDs. Thanks for your consideration. Phil (talk) 13:56, 30 May 2023 (EDT)

Support. Had not seen too many hiccups with Phil's submissions in the last months and he had shown a willingness to seek and listen to advice (and remember it for future submissions). Annie (talk) 16:53, 30 May 2023 (EDT)

Support, John Scifibones 19:03, 30 May 2023 (EDT)

SupportKraang (talk) 00:11, 1 June 2023 (EDT)

Support. No complaints! --MartyD (talk) 08:27, 1 June 2023 (EDT)

Outcome

Self-approver flag has been set on the account. Congratulations! Ahasuerus (talk) 10:01, 5 June 2023 (EDT)

Thanks everyone! Phil (talk) 12:32, 5 June 2023 (EDT)

K. Sano

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=iko+sano&type=Name; Kazumiko only has 1 credit; may be the same as Kazuhiko. --Username (talk) 18:49, 30 May 2023 (EDT)

It's definitely an unusual name (Kazumiko). However, that credit was a decade prior to anything by Kazuhiko, and as SFE and others also list the credit as "Kazumiko", I think we should stick with things as they currently are. It's possible it's a typo, but it could also be a rare name. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:05, 31 May 2023 (EDT)

Bad Poetry

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?11176; https://ibecomethebeast.com/autumn-2023/; The poem by John Grey, "Man/Beast", was published in an old 1998 issue of Jack Fisher's Flesh & Blood as "Man-Beast". The other Grey poems may qualify vaguely as genre so if anyone thinks it's worth entering this magazine for that I'm just mentioning it. Also, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?21876, where I believe the essay is correct but the poems should be with John Grey since John Gray is an alternate name for him. --Username (talk) 07:58, 31 May 2023 (EDT)

Portuguese titles capitalisation / rationalisation

For anyone with an interest in Portuguese titling, please take a look at this discussion. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 16:00, 31 May 2023 (EDT)

Sexpunks BC

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?29722; I and another editor have been doing a few edits for early 90s Spine-Tingling Press cassettes (at least 2, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Matthew Costello, are MIA) and there are some annoying details but this one I think someone can answer. A note, likely written by me some time ago since it's in my particular style, mentions that Mark Molnar did the back cover for a book that almost certainly never would have been published if the author didn't run the company, Sexpunks & Savage Sagas. Is it possible the artist is this man, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?263913? From the back of a book of "erotic" stories by an obscure publisher to doing a cover for an edition of Dune, one of the most famous SF books of all time, from an expensive specialty publisher? Can it be true? Also see this thread, https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/User_talk:Username#Monsters:_Three_Tales, in case anyone has anything helpful to say about those issues. --Username (talk) 18:52, 31 May 2023 (EDT)

Ace Earth Abides

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5679463; Any of the many active PV think this should be by Ace Star since it does say that on cover and copyright page? ISFDB has 31 "Ace Star" books and 4 "Ace Star / Ace Books" books. --Username (talk) 21:02, 31 May 2023 (EDT)

Barrington J. Bayley

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5679804; I added a new link; story text is different than old link on Weird Fiction Review. Were Bayley's stories revised for his collection? --Username (talk) 11:43, 1 June 2023 (EDT)

German Ghost Book

[4]; Link to the German edition of 1950s anthology The Second Ghost Book from 1971, I think, in case anyone wants to enter it. --Username (talk) 14:20, 1 June 2023 (EDT)

Grand Canyon Artists

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1347049; I have 2 edits, adding cover image (from SFE) to Brit edition and price to American edition (also fixed author's name because it's the same in both editions and there really was never a variant); however, there are signatures on both covers. Brit, lower right, looks like 2 initials followed by Lupton, while American, lower right, has KW. Artists for other books by the publishers on ISFDB don't match up to either so if anyone can find out more reply here. --Username (talk) 13:38, 2 June 2023 (EDT)

Costello's Vacation

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1309571; MLB PV a transient copy of HC which has author's name wrong, Google Books copy says there's no J., TP uploaded in 2021 is raggedy and has no title or copyright page but also has no J. on cover, supposedly CD edition has no J., so as usual there's not really a variant name and they're all by Matthew Costello, no J., in case anyone can see TP title page which would clinch it and then HC and TP can be changed to no J. and variant deleted. --Username (talk) 19:08, 2 June 2023 (EDT)

German Horseman

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?42064; https://archive.org/search?query=horseman+hubble%27s&sort=-addeddate; I entered Archive.org link, fixed page count, and added cover artist in a pending edit to the American edition of Hubbles' Treasure Hunt and while doing so saw that book linked above which is a 1971 (?) translation of Hubble's Bubble, in case anyone wants to enter that. The publisher, Union Verlag Stuttgart, seems to have no books on ISFDB, but I'm guessing there are probably some that should be; 31 hits on Archive.org including another kid's book, Golden-Eye, that looks promising and a title with Hexen in it which I think means "witch" so that's a possibility, too. Ignore the Hans Holzer psychic photography "non-fiction" book which is in English but likely was published in German first by that publisher. --Username (talk) 11:50, 5 June 2023 (EDT)

ISFDB recording Gateway as imprint

I suspect Gateway as imprint (or even publisher?) is coming to us from Amazon into Fixer, but Gateway is only a marketing website set up by Gollancz. This is noted on this page under the sub-heading "SF Gateway website", and with more detail here Gollancz and here sfgateway. If it's agreed, could we have a Fixer tweak so that pubs/ebooks coming onto the DB start out as imprint/publisher Gollancz / Orion? See this example of the disparity. Thanks, Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 21:04, 5 June 2023 (EDT)

Ever since Amazon killed off API access to Amazon UK data - circa 2019? - I imagine I've added more Gateway pubs than Fixer has, so changing the Fixer config might not help that much. My recollection of things is:

* "Proper" Gollancz releases are listed on Amazon, Blackwell's, etc, as being published by Gollancz. (Waterstones are annoying, as they just bundle everything as the parent Orion group - grr)

* SF Masterworks are listed as being published by Gateway, but actually have Gollancz on the title and copyright pages. e.g. see Roadmarks tp and ebook. I know when I first started actively submitting pubs, I did a few of these as "Gateway", but when I saw that PVers were subsequently changing them to Gollancz, I've got a mental note to change the submission accordingly.

* I *think* there might be an exception to the former if there was previously a Gateway ebook that has been "promoted" to be a Masterwork, but retains the same ISBN. I think those might just get a new cover image slapped onto the ebook, but the title page still has Gateway branding. I think I might have a Silverberg that falls into this category, will try to dig it out in a bit. EDIT: Some inconsistent findings: My purchased-in-2021 ebook of Silverberg's The Book of Skulls has an SF Masterworks cover, but the title page has Gateway. Other than the cover, I suspect this ebook is identical to the 2011 "yellow cover" Gateway pub recorded here. OTOH, my ebook of Clarke's Imperial Earth still has Gateway branding on the cover, even if I download a fresh copy on a different device. The metadata in the title does claim it's an SF Masterworks edition, but there's nothing to support that. Both of these ebooks have Gollancz on the copyright page FWIW.

* "Proper" Gateway releases have "Gateway" on the title page, even though they may well have Gollancz on the copyright page. An example of this is my PVed Warm Worlds and Otherwise ebook; although it's not explicitly stated in the note, I have just opened the ebook, and the title page has the "Gateway" logo with www.sfgateway.com below. My understanding of the rules is that the title page trumps the copyright page, so these should be recorded as "Gateway / Orion" (or some variant thereof) rather than "Gollancz / Orion" (or some variant thereof).

The impression I get is that there's no meaningful separation of Gollancz and Gateway in terms of staff, office, etc, but there are a few peripheral things I've noticed that make me inclined towards keeping the entities separate here:

* The Gollancz site no longer lists SF Masterworks, or at least the majority of them e.g. the Zelazny page doesn't have the aforementioned Roadmarks - or any of his other Masterworks pubs - but they are on the Gateway site. This wasn't the case a few years ago; there seemed to be an active decision to separate Masterworks from the Gollancz site. (Even though they have Gollancz on the books themselves..)

* Similarly, Masterworks pubs used to be listed in the Orion trade catalogues, but nowadays they just get (at best) a brief mention of the line in the Gollancz section, with no details about what pubs might be coming out that period.

ErsatzCulture (talk) 06:33, 6 June 2023 (EDT)

Picazo Format

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5672945; All the 25+ Marte XXI series books are TP so I changed the final one to the same, mod says a site he checked disagrees, I doubt they changed format for one book so Linguist, who seems to be in edit history for most of these books, or someone can possibly say what it really is and hopefully my edit can be un-rejected, although the fact that page count is much higher for the last book and cover artist is different than all others points to a slight possibility that maybe they got fancy when they knew the series was coming to an end and jacked up the size. I also note that only a few have prices and 2 are missing cover artists in case anyone can fill in that missing info. I was pretty surprised to see that none are PV, unusual for old SF series on this site. --Username (talk) 10:08, 6 June 2023 (EDT)

Did you look at the cited sources? All three agree the size is 18cm x 11cm. John Scifibones 11:07, 6 June 2023 (EDT)

As you say, but since none are PV I wonder if they really changed format for the last in the series or whether some or all of the earlier ones should be TP, too. In this case I wonder if those sources confused this particular edition with its earlier '62 Fleuve Noir PB; there's a note in the previous book's record about confusion between Picazo and Fleuve Noir. Also, another Picazo series here has 4 Asimov books with 1 having an unknown format, so maybe someone knows that, too. --Username (talk) 11:37, 6 June 2023 (EDT)

Todd Ritter = Alan Finn = Riley Sager

Currently author Todd Ritter has the alternate name Alan Finn, with one shortfiction for the former and a novel for the latter.

Wikipedia informs me that Riley Sager is another pseudonym. That author currently has 2 novels in the database - both of which have title notes explaining that their eligibility here isn't 100% certain - and the aforelinked Wikipedia page indicates the Sager alias is the most profilic and current one.

Any preferences to which one should be the primary? I'm slightly inclined towards Sager, but happy to go with any consensus. ErsatzCulture (talk) 17:41, 6 June 2023 (EDT)

How many of the Sager novels are genre? It won't matter that he uses that for most of his thrillers if they are not genre. I am leaning towards Ritter quite honestly (when the numbers are about the same, I'd go with the legal name or the currently used name) - unless we have enough Sager novels to balance it that way a lot more. Annie (talk) 17:47, 6 June 2023 (EDT)

No idea - he wasn't on my radar at all, until I skimmed through the forthcoming list and saw there was one out today. I've glanced through the blurbs on his site, and of the 7 novels, if we take away the two already in the database, only one looks like it might possibly be relevant here, and TBH it feels like it's more gothic than supernatural. I looked at a couple of them on GR, and saw no mention of speculative elements, so I think it's just the two we already have.

I don't mind keeping Ritter as the primary, as I guess that'll be slightly less work (no need to redo the Finn author alternate)? ErsatzCulture (talk) 18:12, 6 June 2023 (EDT)

The gothic ones always get me - it is very hard to sort out which one belongs if you do not read it. We can always reverse the direction if need be. :) Annie (talk) 18:21, 6 June 2023 (EDT)

I have 2 pending edits adding Archive.org links to the print editions of his novel and also fixed their page counts; also have an edit for the author adding Wikipedia link and his Amazon photo. There is almost no mention of his short story online; I hope someone can find that somewhere someday and add a link. --Username (talk) 11:41, 7 June 2023 (EDT)

I've just done the author and title varianting; there's a rilersagerbooks.com link that I guess should be moved from the RS author record to TR, but I'll wait for those other edits to be accepted, just to avoid any risk of async approvals losing anything. ErsatzCulture (talk) 16:16, 7 June 2023 (EDT)

Broken Fantascienza Author Image

https://www.fantascienza.com/catalogo/autori/NILF17713/james-lovegrove/; I made a couple of edits for James Lovegrove books and then decided to replace his B&W image with 1 of 2 nice color images on FantLab; I like to add unique images and since Open Library has none and Fantastic Fiction uses the same image as Amazon that leaves Fantascienza, but unusually the image is broken. Anyone know how to find out what it is/was so I don't use the same image from FantLab, assuming there is a match with one of them? --Username (talk) 10:57, 7 June 2023 (EDT)

Neely

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1096598; https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5685960; As can be seen in my edit I changed the publisher name; I think the 1906 edition may be a date error (there's no edit history) and can probably be deleted. --Username (talk) 11:37, 7 June 2023 (EDT)

Clarkesworld

We had a conversation about this one a few times and it never went anywhere so let's try again. We have two separate series for the magazine:

• Clarkesworld (print issues) - the print versions
• Clarkesworld Magazine - the ebooks and the webzines

In addition, the 2022 issues are entered with different editors in both: just Clarke in the ebooks and Kate Baker, Neil Clarke, Sean Wallace on the print issues. The magazines are essentially the same and even if they had some extra content, that had not stopped us using a single series elsewhere. I propose to merge the two series and to clear up the editors. Based on the masthead, I favor the 3 editors vs just Clarke but it can be interpreted either way. Any objections to the merge and any thoughts on the list of editors? Annie (talk) 12:52, 7 June 2023 (EDT)

Agree 100% with merging the two series. My choice is to credit the Editor-in-Chief, but I have no objection to crediting all three. Some of the publication records could also use some cleanup. John Scifibones 14:03, 7 June 2023 (EDT)

I've no concerns with combining the series. I too feel that we should go with a single editor. I had previously thought our policy was to go with the Editor-in-Chief when multiple types of editors are listed, but the last time I researched that I couldn't find it documented. I'd go with the Editor-in-Chief. I will note that neither Miller/Contento nor Locus1 list an edition. FictionMags doesn't for the early issues, and lists Sean Wallace for the most recent ones. He is also listed on Galactic Central. For the single issue for which I have a hard copy, Kate Baker is credited as Non-Fiction Editor/Podcast Director which seems a little attenuated to me. I'd like to avoid getting into a situation like the semiprozine Hugo nominations for Strange Horizons. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 21:02, 7 June 2023 (EDT)

Yellow Peril

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?287140; I added Archive.org link to PB and saw LCCN says 383 for HC which is much higher than what's on ISFDB; does anyone own a copy who can correct page count if necessary? --Username (talk) 19:25, 7 June 2023 (EDT)

Times Mirror

After coming across countless NEL books that say "Times Mirror" on title page I realized it wasn't a co-publisher or imprint but just distributor or parent company or something similar and shouldn't actually be entered here as part of the publisher name; I removed the ones I had changed to New English Library / Times Mirror a while back (thank goodness there were only 4) but this one, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5447529, was not done by me. I suspect I must have seen this and followed along blindly. The note is not by me, I just added Archive.org link, but notes in a couple of the other records are written similarly so I probably just cut-and-pasted this original note. So if anyone (I think 1 PV, Spacecow, is still sort of active) wants to make publisher of this one just New English Library that's up to them. --Username (talk) 00:02, 8 June 2023 (EDT)

Rest In Agony

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?828278; I replaced Younger's Pharaoh book cover and uploaded new cover for this book from Bookscans; ID doesn't match what's on the cover. I don't know who's responsible for that, MLB who uploaded the old cover, RTrace who secondary verified stuff, Rosa, anybody else that worked on this, so someone may want to decide what to do about that. --Username (talk) 09:16, 8 June 2023 (EDT)

Magic Ring

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1135737; The Valancourt TP was just upped on Archive.org, I made an edit, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5687545, but there's problems. Someone named ElectricStarboard was the last one to edit the HC and seems to have altered the title. Judging by their page and the fact that almost every message is about how they fixed or merged or did other stuff incorrectly I'm guessing that the HC should also have the subtitle; if it does, and assuming the Sturgis intro is just the TP intro ported over verbatim, then TP intro I entered and HC intro can be merged. I'm pretty sure, being a deluxe edition, the HC would also have the short story "Field of Terror" that as of now is only in the TP. Whenever there's a "data from Amazon" note that usually means page count is wrong and I fixed it for the TP but even though HC also says the same in the note judging from online info that page count may be correct, although almost certainly Roman numerals would need to be added to it for all the essays and other stuff at the beginning. Does anyone own the HC? That would be very helpful. --Username (talk) 20:45, 8 June 2023 (EDT)

Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5687723; ISFDB has a 1989 edition which is barebones, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?37485, and the Knopf edition I edited says original was by Michael Joseph in 1989 so I assume that's what it should be here. Surprisingly, only 2 editions are on Archive.org, Knopf and a 14th (?) printing of 1990 Penguin with a cover from some completely different book by another author for some reason. I assume the preface I entered comes from the 1989 edition so if anyone has it and enters it the preface can be re-dated and merged. --Username (talk) 10:16, 9 June 2023 (EDT)

Archives of Haven

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?20178; Notes in other 2 books in the series about getting Corgi Joe Petagno cover credits from R. Holdstock's Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, no credit for this book, there's a copy of the encyclopedia on Archive.org with no mention, it seems, of this book but a few online sites identify it as by Petagno. All 4 PV are gone so does anyone know if it's him or not? --Username (talk) 12:42, 9 June 2023 (EDT)

Wrong Titles On Archive.org

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5688508; A cautionary tale here. Elizabeth Engstrom's 1992 20-story collection Nightmare Flower was upped last month so I added a link and fixed/added various things. On a whim I decided to enter her name in the search page but in text contents instead of metadata. Not really expecting to find anything I hadn't already entered I was stunned to see her first book, When Darkness Loves Us, a 1985 two-story collection. Since Valancourt put out their reprint edition a few years ago I've tried many times to find somewhere online that showed any of the several earlier editions and could never find any site that showed a contents page so I could enter the numbers, which was very annoying. It turns out the reason why it couldn't be found on Archive.org specifically is because whoever upped it way back in 2011 got it mixed up with a completely different title from another author and publisher. They're not even close. This is far from the first time a book had the wrong title on that site but for some reason I had never thought to search contents for this one. So to anyone looking for anything on that site I suggest searching for titles/ISBN/whatever in contents because you may find a lot of stuff you didn't think was there if you just searched for them the regular way. I'm very happy about this but a few things remain that need doing; the Tor edition has the same page count as the HC and I assume page numbers are the same, so if anyone owns a copy they can verify that and enter them. The Apex edition has a completely different page count which may or may not be right; maybe someone has a copy of that, too. Finally, the first story says it's a novelette but page count is almost 70, way over the 50-page limit for that length, yet in the Hartwell anthology that it was reprinted in the count varies from 30 pages in the HC to around 60 in the PB while in the Valancourt PB (which I edited last year using a library copy) it's 65. So I have a feeling it should be a novella, too, like the second story in the collection. --Username (talk) 19:43, 9 June 2023 (EDT)

Your submission is approved. My rough count was approx. 19,000 words. I would approve the change. John Scifibones 20:05, 9 June 2023 (EDT)

Done. --Username (talk) 22:08, 9 June 2023 (EDT)

I added WorldCat ID to the Apex edition and noticed note says "data from Amazon" which is a signal that info, especially page count, is probably wrong; WorldCat says 201 pages, not 218, so I made an edit changing it since that's probably correct or closer to it, anyway. I also noticed it says "updated foreword" on their page but I don't know what that means because Theodore Sturgeon was dead for nearly 25 years when this edition came out (I see he died in May of 1985 so the foreword was likely one of the last things he wrote before he died; sad). Supposedly this edition is in 2 public libraries down south in North Carolina and Kentucky which makes sense because Apex is based in Kentucky, but there's also a copy in a university in Taiwan (?!?). --Username (talk) 16:10, 13 June 2023 (EDT)

Change series name: Chubby Lewis Barnavelt

I'm not sure how the series name Chubby Lewis Barnavelt was created but I think it's offensive as-is. I suggest it should be changed to simply "Lewis Barnavelt". Are there any objections? Phil (talk) 08:01, 10 June 2023 (EDT)

I updated it. Regardless of the offensive part, searching for "Chubby Lewis Barnavelt" produces only 11 hits[5]. Strickland's books have "John Bellairs's Lewis Barnavelt in TITLE" on cover and title page. It seems more reasonable people would be looking to find this as "Lewis Barnavelt" than "Chubby Lewis Barnavelt". -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:49, 10 June 2023 (EDT)

The series was called "Chubby Lewis" in the 1997 Encyclopedia of Fantasy. I can't find the word "Chubby" in the e-text that I have. I'll need to check my paper library to see if I have an early edition. Ahasuerus (talk) 10:30, 10 June 2023 (EDT)

https://bellairsia.blogspot.com/2005/09/who-is-chubby-lewis.html. --Username (talk) 10:48, 10 June 2023 (EDT)

Checking the 1993 reprint of the first book, I see that other children call the protagonist "Fatty" on a couple of occasions, but there are no references to "Chubby" that I can find. I found a reference to "her chubby friend Lewis" in The Ghost in the Mirror (volume 4, 1993, completed by Brad Strickland), but that's it.

I guess we can add a note explaining that the protagonist is called "Chubby Lewis" in the Encyclopedia of Fantasy, the Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy and in Don D'Ammassa's Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Horror Fiction, but we can find no occurrences of this nickname in the editions that we have access to. Ahasuerus (talk) 11:35, 10 June 2023 (EDT)

Back cover of this book says "Chubby Lewis": https://archive.org/search?query=%22barnavelt%22+%22chubby+lewis%22&sin=TXT. --Username (talk) 11:43, 10 June 2023 (EDT)

Thanks. I have updated the Notes field with the information that we currently have. Ahasuerus (talk) 14:08, 10 June 2023 (EDT)

Williamson Effect Intro

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5689255; One of those OL-only copies with no preview; while correcting page count I noticed intros in HC and TP are entered differently. There's also a similarly titled essay in a 2008 David Brin collection, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=love+with+change&type=All+Titles, but it has a 2006 date with no note about where it came from. So the '96 intros can be merged if someone decides which one is more properly titled; whether the later essay is the same one is hard to say because there's no copy of that collection. --Username (talk) 18:36, 10 June 2023 (EDT)

Jelly Ink

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=jelly+ink&type=Publisher; I just made an edit adding a link to the 4th printing of Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link; publisher is Jelly Ink / Small Beer Press even though Jelly Ink is only mentioned on copyright page, but a chapbook by Link, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?28159, is as by Jelly Ink Press with a note about being an imprint. Both of those things can't be right so which publisher name should be the parent? --Username (talk) 11:50, 11 June 2023 (EDT)

Later printings of "Stranger Things Happen" (with unknown dates of publication) are verified, so we shouldn't change them. Stonecreek (talk) 12:14, 11 June 2023 (EDT)

PV Andrewk and Teddybear are no longer active. --Username (talk) 12:34, 11 June 2023 (EDT)

Math Book

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?249351; I see in history that I added cover and price nearly 2 years ago but this book really doesn't belong here, being non-genre and with no review, so should probably be deleted. --Username (talk) 17:51, 11 June 2023 (EDT)

Agreed. I've removed it. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:48, 12 June 2023 (EDT)

Golden Enemy

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?20192; A discussion of a book by Alexander Key on the boards here prompted me to add a few minor things to 2 of his books I'd edited long ago but I also noticed The Golden Enemy, which I never edited, has a copy on Archive.org, https://archive.org/search?query=golden-enemy, which is 166 pages, not 176 like ISFDB and many other sites say, while there's an Open Road reprint that says 156 pages. This copy, https://picclick.com/The-Golden-Enemy-by-Alexander-Key-194249590087.html, looks like it has the same copyright page so I don't think the archived copy is book club or anything, and there are no Westminster book club editions on ISFDB. So if anyone can solve this mystery, respond here. --Username (talk) 19:18, 11 June 2023 (EDT)

I have collected Alexander Key books for years, and I find that with Westminster Press it can be very hard to determine what printing you have. They did not bother marking First Editions or reprints until sometime in the later 1970's, from what I have seen. I recently posted a copy of "The Forgotten Door" that I belive is a First Edition, mainly because of the ads on the dust jacket. I think some titles had very few printings, if not just one. While a few titles were quite popular and were probably reprinted numerous times. I know "The Forgotten Door" was reprinted, because I own a few differnt editions, including later printings with number strings on the copyright page for a 13th printing, and a 14th printing. I believe "The Golden Enemy" was also popular and reprinted several times. This could be part of the page numbering issue, but it could also just be a cataloging mistake. The Library of Congress records a copy with 176 pages. I have seen cases where the mistake of one library is copied by cataloging departments in several libraries. Basically if someone in The Library of Congress made a mistake, it may have been replicated may times. I have an early copy of this title, but it is packed away right now, so I can't check it. I have seen books where the page numbering was changed to include an "About the Author" page, or an afterword, but 10 pages does seem to be a bit much. Bernarrd (talk) 16:49, 18 June 2023 (EDT)

Heads up on making edits to several hundred pubs, some of which may have verifications

Per User_talk:Ahasuerus#Weird_broken_Amazon_image_URLs , there are ~600 author and pub record that have Amazon image URLs that are now broken. Most of these URLs can be fixed programmatically, and I've got a simple script to submit the edits via the API.

Some of these pubs may well have verifications, apologies for any notification spam you might get for them, but I don't think there's any need to create talk page items for everyone whose edits may be affected.

Although the process is simple, the clicking through approvals for several hundred edits (especially on the selfmoderator pages?) will be tedious, so I'll probably be doing this over the next few days. ErsatzCulture (talk) 07:52, 12 June 2023 (EDT)

Kevin Clarke: two different people?

Kevin Clarke has a late '80s Doctor Who novelization, and 3 bits of fanart from the early 80s, on his page. I strongly suspect these are 2 different people:

• The SFE page only mentions his Doctor Who work
• Wikipedia only mentions involvement in music, TV and academia, although I suspect a few bits of fanart wouldn't get much of a mention.
• TARDIS wiki (not currently linked from here) doesn't have much, but only mentions TV work
• Googling for '"kevin clarke" bsfa' indicates he may have been active in UK fandom earlier and later than the work on record here e.g. November 1979 Ansible, a 2006 fanzine (PDF, pages 20 and 26); possibly a 2010 Novacon progress report.

At the very least I feel this merits an author note, but would there be any objection to separating these out into two different author records? ErsatzCulture (talk) 10:03, 13 June 2023 (EDT)

Adding a note is a sure thing for sure (Sure? Sure!). I do have some reservations about dividing the entries / authors: things like those do happen (a fan being active in two areas): there are some who do both, and others who begin in one field (say drawing) and do find their fulfilment in another one (say writing, or vice versa). That the candidate(s) both was/were active in the 1980s and seem(s) to stem from the British Isles, leaves the distinct possibility that it is the same person, I'd think.

And none of the given sources would mention fan artwork, I'd think (because they aren't aware of it). Christian Stonecreek (talk) 14:43, 13 June 2023 (EDT)

Stories from the Twilight Zone

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?33354; I have an edit adding LCCN ID to this TP edition but noticed there was a 1989 PB on Archive.org which somehow was never entered here so I made an edit for that, too, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5691762, but there's a cover art question; 1986 says Roger Bergendorf did the "cover photo" but 1989 says Stan Watts did the "cover art" which has a 1986 copyright date. It looks like art to me so if anyone is familiar with Watts' style maybe they can identify him as the artist and his name can be entered, possibly with a note in TP record about wrong cover credit. --Username (talk) 01:52, 14 June 2023 (EDT)

You'll have to discuss with the primary verifier, who's active as editor. Stonecreek (talk) 05:08, 14 June 2023 (EDT)

TP PV is transient so they wouldn't have their copy anymore and they probably have no idea about the art question because they didn't even enter Bergendorf as cover artist (maybe they thought photos don't count as art, even though by looking at it closely it appears to be artwork and not a photo). There's no PV to ask about the PB because that edition wasn't on ISFDB until I added it (approval pending). Maybe someone is familiar with Watts' art and can identify it as his or there's a clear copy with a signature somewhere on the cover. It wouldn't make sense to have 2 separate art credits here for what's obviously the same art so one artist should be decided on and entered. --Username (talk) 08:07, 14 June 2023 (EDT)

Eclipse Pages/Dates

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5692038; Most of Beford's books are either on Archive.org or in 2 cases OL-only no-preview editions; the last one I edited has a couple of issues. Note says it should be 309 pages per ISFDB but it should really be 311, right? also, these Edge books sometimes have that Canada/USA date thing on copyright page; how to tell what's a USA edition if they just put both dates? Couldn't this book just as easily have a 2006 date? --Username (talk) 10:20, 14 June 2023 (EDT)

Daw Duplicate

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?669885; Should the non-PV record be deleted? --Username (talk) 21:09, 15 June 2023 (EDT)

It has a different ISBN and based on the ISBN and the fact that it is a later one, I'd say it is a reprint and probably a 2000 one (See the rest of the ISBNs starting with the same numbers here). Looking up that second ISBN online (0886778832), I see some records so seems like a valid one indeed. I will do some more digging and eventually re-date to 0000-00-00 for now if I cannot confirm the 2000 and if it still looks like a reprint. Annie (talk) 22:07, 15 June 2023 (EDT)

French Replay

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?528161; https://archive.org/search?query=grimwood+seuil; As I was adding edits to some editions of K. Grimwood's Replay I found that French one. Edit history shows only Hauck who according to his page here wants nothing to do with this site and says it's no use to "left" messages, so any other French-fluent editors who want to enter that (price is different on the back so I assume it's some other printing) can do so if they wish. --Username (talk) 09:25, 16 June 2023 (EDT)

New cleanup report: pre-1967 pubs with an ISBN

A new cleanup report has been deployed. It looks for pre-1967 publications with an ISBN. The data will become available tomorrow morning. I expect the report to find 49 suspect records. Ahasuerus (talk) 14:15, 16 June 2023 (EDT)

Thanks! ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 17:27, 16 June 2023 (EDT)

Desert of Death's Domain

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5694536; I think all 3 PV are gone so someone who's into these Rhodan books may want to look at this one because I see some possible problems with series being part of title and title in contents being shortened and also having one with a # and one without. Maybe this is correct and the way others in the series were entered but I doubt it. --Username (talk) 20:03, 16 June 2023 (EDT)

Yellow warnings for ISBNs enhanced

In NewPub/AddPub/EditPub/ClonePub submissions, post-submissions yellow warnings for ISBNs have been enhanced as follows:

• Multiple yellow warnings are now fully supported. In the past, only some combinations of yellow warnings were displayed.
• The threshold year for pubs with ISBNs has been changed from 1970 to 1967. The language of the warning has been clarified to indicate that ISBNs are not allowed for pre-1967 publications.
• If you edit a publication with an ISBN value and change the publication date value to a year prior to 1967, the same yellow warning is displayed in the publication date row.

Ahasuerus (talk) 10:56, 17 June 2023 (EDT)

R. Dunkley Story Title

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1374862; Open Library lists contents and they say "Zane", not "Zazine"; little photo evidence of this book online, so maybe someone here has a copy and can verify what it is and fix if needed. On the plus side, while looking into this I found that Dunkley has a website and Nick Bantock did the cover art for The Twilight Book, so I made edits adding both. --Username (talk) 10:33, 18 June 2023 (EDT)

Black Is A Man

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?815472; A copy of this rare novel was upped last November so I added a link along with LCCN. There's an awesome sticker on the cover from J.M. Fields with a 57-cent price; that store went out of business in 1978 according to Wikipedia so this copy's at least 45 years old. I didn't see any artist credit inside the book but it may be hiding somewhere in that creepy artwork in case anyone can find it. --Username (talk) 17:26, 18 June 2023 (EDT)

I couldn't see any signature on the front or back cover, or on the flaps. I added a note to that effect. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:52, 20 June 2023 (EDT)

King's The Plant

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?92669; http://jerryshouseofeverything.blogspot.com/2017/08/forgotten-book-plant.html; I'd like to know the best way to enter that PDF mentioned at the bottom which is a dead link but is still online at club-stephenking.fr. Is it a novel? A chapbook? It was published electronically in 2000 (note the Stoker nomination here) but it has page numbers. --Username (talk) 10:06, 20 June 2023 (EDT)

Looks like each part should be a SERIAL, with its publication a CHAPBOOK. Although it's unfinished, in composite they would be a novel, so you'd variant all six to a parent NOVEL record and note that it is unfinished. stephenking.com has info and PDFs for groups of three. I see the site you linked has a PDF for all 6. I would use the page numbers to compute "pages" for the installments and note the actual number range in each one. --MartyD (talk) 13:50, 20 June 2023 (EDT)

Biomass Bob (Robert E. Lumpkin passing 6/20/2023)

Hello ISFDB Community, My father asked me to share his passing with you all. He died yesterday 6/20/2023 of pneumonia. My brother and I were with him and he died peacefully. The illness came on very suddenly, but once it took hold, it proved impossible to beat. He valued this site and all the contributors so much.

My brother and I will be selling his spectacular collection of science fiction/fantasy books/media in the next couple of months. We don't share his love of the material and we want it to go to a good home. If anyone can direct us to an appropriate dealer or place to talk about selling his collection, it would be greatly appreciated. We will check back here periodically.

I apologize if I have placed this notice in the wrong place. Best, Nancy Sowers

Hello Nancy,

No, that's the perfect place for it. I am so sorry for your loss. Bob was a part of the site and of our community and we will sorely miss him. I hope you find some solace in the fact that he won't be forgotten. Try to find some time for yourself in these hard times and we will all miss Bob :( Annie (talk) 16:36, 21 June 2023 (EDT)

I am very sorry to hear about Bob's passing :-( He was always very dedicated and a pleasure to work with.

I am afraid I can't help with finding a dealer, but some of our contributors may be in a better position to point you in the right direction. Ahasuerus (talk) 17:12, 21 June 2023 (EDT)

I'm so sorry to hear that. Our condolences to you and your family. Bob will be missed. -- JLaTondre (talk) 19:16, 21 June 2023 (EDT)

Bob was always a pleasure to work with. Sorry to hear he's gone, I'll miss him. As for the collection, you might try Centipede press (mail to jerad@centipedepress.com). Sometimes they sell special collections for family of former customers. I think Bob was one of their better customers, recently he helped them with a rare Lafferty story and his collection is certainly special. --Willem (talk) 08:28, 22 June 2023 (EDT)

My condolences as well. Your father was one of my favorite ISFDB collaborators to work with. I will miss him greatly. --MartyD (talk) 10:55, 22 June 2023 (EDT)

He will definitely be missed here. He contributed quite a bit over the years. My condolences to you and to your family. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:35, 22 June 2023 (EDT)

I am so sorry for your loss, Nancy. Bob was great to work with, I valued his input on many projects and he will be missed here. May his memory be a blessing. Rest in Peace, Bob. PeteYoung (talk) 03:43, 23 June 2023 (EDT)

I'm so sorry to hear about Bob. I had lunch with your Bob and your brother at the Windy City Pulp collector's convention in 2019. It was one of most enjoyable encounters I have had in the last several years and I'd hoped to meet with him again.

If you can wait until ~April 2024 to sell his collection, the upcoming Windy City Pulp convention will give you the opportunity to contact 50-100 dealers, and you might be able to arrange for an estate auction.Rkihara (talk) 12:27, 30 June 2023 (EDT)

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?178737; Maybe someone here who knows his personal info would like to update his record. --Username (talk) 12:52, 30 June 2023 (EDT)

I've updated it with his date of death and linked it to his user page here. If anyone can find an obituary for him, we can update it more. I've had no luck finding one. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:17, 30 June 2023 (EDT)

I've been in and out of the hospital myself recently, so I missed Bob's death, but I've always found him a helpful editor and moderator, ever since I started here eleven years ago. He will be missed. MLB (talk) 00:33, 21 August 2023 (EDT)

Golem Questions

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5698892; This is the original edition, I think. Then there is this, https://archive.org/search?query=meyrink+golem+wolff&sort=-addeddate, where the 2 Golem editions are by Kurt Wolff but are different on title/copyright pages. Any of the many German editors here may want to approve my edit and then add details to it which escaped me, being non-fluent in the language, and also enter those other 2 which are likely later editions. On a semi-related note I asked 2 PV recently about Bester's Golem 100 but one of them is now deceased so if anyone knows the answer, possibly the other PV, thanks. --Username (talk) 11:21, 22 June 2023 (EDT)

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5698892; Someone finally got around to my Golem edit but rejected it because of the date, although I think it's because it was published in December and, as so often, books published at the end of the year have a copyright for the following year. But whatever. If anyone ever does anything with this they can decide if the archived copy is a first printing, a later edition, whatever. --Username (talk) 09:57, 3 July 2023 (EDT)

Madrone Tree

https://archive.org/search?query=the-madrone-tree; There was a recent message here about an A.C. Clarke cover being originally from Dark Dominion by David Duncan; I see his "reviewed in The Arkham Sampler", almost genre, novel The Madrone Tree was recently upped but there's no cover and copyright page is pretty bare so I suspect it's some kind of book club edition, in case anyone can figure out from a gutter code or something what exactly it is and wants to enter it here. --Username (talk) 08:59, 23 June 2023 (EDT)

Derek Hegsted

I was adding a few edits to editions of L. Ron Hubbard's Fear when I noticed the note for the 1991 HC said they're not sure where the internal art credit came from, so I found a 1994 article on www.deseret.com which mentioned Hegsted and said he did art for 3 books including Serpent Catch and Murisaki. The first is by Dave Wolverton and credits Derek Hegstead so I did all the needed variants and such but the second is unknown; searching for that title on WorldCat found 1 musical score for the harp and nothing else, so if anyone knows what it is (novel?) that would be great. --Username (talk) 20:01, 23 June 2023 (EDT)

They might mean this anthology, though the art is apparently by Stephen Youll. I actually have this anthology, so I will check it when I get home from work. I also have Serpent Catch, so I can check that one, too (for the spelling of his name). ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:49, 30 June 2023 (EDT)

I have 2 pending edits for Serpent Catch. After those are approved I don't think you'll need to do anything else with that book. --Username (talk) 23:08, 30 June 2023 (EDT)

Complete Cthulhu

For Lovecraft fans, https://archive.org/search?query=complete-cthulhu&sort=-addeddate; not sure which edition it is, leather bound or collectible ("collectible" didn't show up in a text search and "leather" only shows up in some of the stories) and it's a 3rd printing, I think, but ISFDB has a 9th (!) printing. So I mention it in case anyone wants to enter. --Username (talk) 09:41, 24 June 2023 (EDT)

Baen Books vs. Baen Fantasy

See this discussion, https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/User_talk:Dirk_P_Broer#Warriorwards, in case any of the many PV agree and want to make Baen Fantasy a publisher series and make Baen Books the publisher. This is similar, I think, to how most people entered the countless Tor publications as just that but a handful decided to enter Tor Horror, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?73896, as if that's a separate publisher or something. EDIT: There's also a related issue where a handful entered Avon Horror as a series, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubseries.cgi?9753, when it isn't. --Username (talk) 13:47, 24 June 2023 (EDT)

2 Vikings

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubs_not_in_series.cgi?67171; First book is by cheap UK 50's PB publisher while others are UK editions of major American publisher Viking so something should be added to PB publisher to differ. --Username (talk) 14:25, 24 June 2023 (EDT)

WSFA Small Press Award

(discussion moved from the Help Desk)

Is the WSFA Small Press Award in the database? I was checking a few authors who were already nominated for it but couldn't find it in neither their pages or in the Awards Directory. Alittlebook (talk) 18:55, 16 June 2023 (EDT)

It doesn't look like it's been added yet, looking at the list of awards. I think it's likely eligible. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:26, 19 June 2023 (EDT)

Thanks! Where is the best place to propose a new addition to the Awards directory? Alittlebook (talk) 00:58, 24 June 2023 (EDT)

Ahaseurus usually adds the award itself, and then any moderator can add categories to it (if needed) and any editor can add awards to various titles and moderators will then approve them. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 16:23, 26 June 2023 (EDT)

Sorry I missed the question when it was posted on the Help Desk. I agree that the award looks eligible. Ahasuerus (talk) 17:19, 26 June 2023 (EDT)

If there are no objections, I will create this award type tomorrow. Ahasuerus (talk) 23:41, 29 June 2023 (EDT)

The Award Type has been created. Thanks for bringing it to everyone's attention. Ahasuerus (talk) 09:18, 30 June 2023 (EDT)

Manfred W.

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=manfred+wil&type=Name; Usual PV for these languages, Stonecreek, JLochhas, Rudam, Willem, so if any of them know whether these 2 guys are the same or whether one or the other is misspelled and needs to be made a variant or if they're not the same guy at all, have a look. --Username (talk) 17:54, 26 June 2023 (EDT)

James Barry

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?141183; I made some edits for Mutants recently and noticed clicking on James Barry leads to another person's record; some variant is needed. --Username (talk) 13:16, 27 June 2023 (EDT)

I disambiguated the two James Barry's. -- JLaTondre (talk) 01:50, 29 June 2023 (EDT)

Two review books

I have two anthologies that are nothing, or almost nothing, but reviews on slick paper. One is Paperback Fantasic #3 and The Collected Pulp Horror. Both are profusely illustrated with book covers, some in color. Do I list the cover reproductions/reprints along with the reviews and articles? Is there a rule about this? I have no life, so either way is fine, and I got the time to list everything. MLB (talk) 20:03, 27 June 2023 (EDT)

If the reproductions are of genre novels and books - YES - as interior art that then gets varianted into the covers when possible! If they are not - as long as the reviews are of eligible books, the whole book is eligible so... yes. There is actually a chance that you may discover previously unknown artists for some of our books - in which case you can add a coverart record crediting the books you are holding and then use that as a parent for the reproduction. :) Annie (talk) 20:48, 27 June 2023 (EDT)

Angry Candy Art

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?123061; I was adding 2 links to Houghton Mifflin and 1 to Mariner (+ page numbers) when I noticed the odd page numbering for the art in Plume; very early 2007 PV here so maybe that was the thing back then but now it doesn't need page numbers, does it? --Username (talk) 11:00, 28 June 2023 (EDT)

Hughart Omnibus

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?136566; Finding a photo of Barry Hughart on FantLab spurred me to add archived links to editions of all 3 of his novels but his omnibus is nowhere to be found. The original publisher apparently published nothing else and the Subterranean edition was re-released with corrections. Someone here must have a copy of one of these books; if they do, I'm sure some info can be fixed/added. --Username (talk) 12:00, 28 June 2023 (EDT)

Cleanup Report: Potential Duplicate E-book Publications

I just noticed that all of the titles by Glynn Stewart that have a Patreon edition ebook publication are showing up on the Potential Duplicate E-book Publications Cleanup Report. For example: "A Question of Faith". Right now there's only about 35 of them but is there any way to tweak the report criteria so they aren't on it? They are very definitely not duplicates. Phil (talk) 15:58, 28 June 2023 (EDT)

Thus the word "Potential" - these reports have a hidden functionality in them :) Moderators can ignore the ones which are valid and do not need to be flagged. For non-moderators, if you provide a list of the valid ones in a Moderator Board post, a moderator will look them over and click on the ignore for you. This is valid of a lot of our reports - they don't always mean that there is an issue - or that what they are flagging is the issue - they are just a "go check this again" warning based on automatic checks. Annie (talk) 16:10, 28 June 2023 (EDT)

Itsy Bitsy Spider

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1013230; This is a very confused title. I just made 3 PENDING edits removing title from Shivers III, importing title from Read Your Fears into Shivers III, and re-dating that title to date of Shivers III. Now the problem is that the parent title is wrong because this story was co-authored with his daughter (and the 1994 date is also wrong) but his collection Aftershock does list the title in table of contents as Itsy Bitsy Spider and doesn't mention a co-author. Archive.org copy of Aftershock is messed up and doesn't allow any searches so I think the correct thing to do would be to add co-author to parent title and then re-title it and date it to match the kid's anthology it first appeared in and for someone who has access to Aftershock to verify what's on the story's title page and fix if needed. Anyone have it? --Username (talk) 01:20, 29 June 2023 (EDT)

I reversed the variant and parent so that the original title with both authors is now the parent. Looking at the Amazon Look Inside for Aftershock & Others, Meggan C. Wilson is listed in the acknowledgements for "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and searching her name within the Look Inside shows a hit on page 151 (page story starts on) even though the page is not shown. As such, I added her to that story. -- JLaTondre (talk) 02:02, 29 June 2023 (EDT)

Lucifer and the Child

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5705474; Judging by the wartime note on copyright page and 1944 dates of writing on last page I think book date should be changed to 1945 like WorldCat says. What say you? --Username (talk) 09:49, 29 June 2023 (EDT)

Spanish Genesis

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?88476; https://www.amazon.com/-/es/dp/8432037427; I was entering several edits for Harbinson books and came across this. Someone more familiar with Spanish publications may know what the "2d" on the cover means, whether this is a reprint of the original Planeta or if there was an earlier edition from someone else, and I'm sure the seller's description in Spanish has some info that could be useful. In case anyone wants to enter anything. --Username (talk) 20:29, 29 June 2023 (EDT)

Betancur

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=betancur&type=Name; Likely the same artist. --Username (talk) 12:49, 30 June 2023 (EDT)

It-Alien Nation

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?3405; Some weird uploader from Canada has 3 obscure Canadian non-fiction items in their account and a HC Italian edition of Alan Dean Foster's novelization of the 1988 film Alien Nation, https://archive.org/details/aliennation0000fost, in case anyone fluent wants to enter that. --Username (talk) 18:34, 30 June 2023 (EDT)

Out of the Everywhere

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?37423; I added Archive.org link in a PENDING edit to 1981 US PB, someone's note about comma only on cover and spine but someone added it to cover art and Canadian PB title, needs removing, also someone's note about LCCN not being on LoC but someone added it to both US and Canadian, needs removing from External ID and adding number to notes. --Username (talk) 23:02, 30 June 2023 (EDT)

Caramine

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=weapon+master&type=All+Titles; I don't usually dabble in old pulp but I think I stumbled across something here. Note in Caramine's record says it's a pseudonym of a SF guy; search for title and Robert Hoskins gets a few mentions in SF bibliographies but this search, https://archive.org/search?query=%22weapon+master%22+%22a.+l.+caramine%22&sin=TXT&sort=-addeddate, shows a few copies of the zine where Caramine's credit was. This review of the zine where the Hoskins credit was, http://andrewdarlington.blogspot.com/2015/12/retrospect-science-fiction-adventures.html, mentions Newcastle and Jordan's Delight, 2 places mentioned in the Caramine story, so I think it's obvious that Hoskins reprinted the story under his own name. Also interesting is that the note here, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?212773, mentions "Ac" as artist for the Hoskins story; Ac=A. Caramine? --Username (talk) 13:33, 2 July 2023 (EDT)

Jason ? Brock

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=dark+sea+within&type=All+Titles; Last item has no period after V in Brock's name; eBay copy also shows no period on contents page and Kobo preview shows no period on acknowledgements page but all-important story page wasn't seen, so if anyone owns/knows where a readable copy is it would help to decide whether it needs to be a variant or merged. --Username (talk) 18:44, 2 July 2023 (EDT)

Lee Ann Barlow / Lee Kuruganti

Lee Ann Barlow appears to be the married name of Lee Kuruganti.

• Lee Ann Barlow - 49 titles, earliest 2016-10-00.
• Lee Kuruganti - 109 titles, latest 2016-01-00.

Normally we would make Lee Kuruganti the canonical name. Are there any objections to making Lee Ann Barlow the canonical name? This will avoid having to reverse the relationship at the point where Lee Ann Barlow is the most recognized. John Scifibones 10:57, 3 July 2023 (EDT)

Ordinarily, recently published titles have more "weight" when determining "the most recognized name for the author within the SF genre", so I would be agree with the proposal if the numbers were close. However, 49 vs. 109 is rather lopsided and there is no guarantee that the artist will continue publishing as by "Lee Ann Barlow" going forward, at least at the same rate of publication. It makes me hesitant to create an exception. Ahasuerus (talk) 11:34, 3 July 2023 (EDT)

Your point regarding future publications is valid. I'll make Lee Kuruganti the canonical name for now. We can revisit if the credits equalize. John Scifibones 14:20, 3 July 2023 (EDT)

Mr. Scott

I added cover artist to American edition of The Jules Verne Companion, Steve Hofheimer, thanks to FantLab, but the British edition is confusing. Both American and British (searchable on Google Books) say "Designed by Christopher Scott" on title page. ISFDB has a Chris Scott, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?228831, with cover art credit for the British, and a Christopher Scott, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?112902, with interior art for another Peter Haining anthology. Both Scotts also have short story credits for some other Scott with the same first name; whether author Chris and author Christopher are the same guy is another question. So anyone who maybe owns the British and can verify it says "Chris" on a flap or something would help. Separating authors from artists is also needed. --Username (talk) 11:36, 3 July 2023 (EDT)

Independence Day

; . --Username (talk) 00:46, 4 July 2023 (EDT)

Manor ISBN

[6]; Killer Pack is the only Manor book which starts with 1532, just over 200 Manor books on ISFDB start with 0532, this eBay copy, https://picclick.com/Killer-Pack-Herbert-Myers-Paperbacks-From-Hell-285355696448.html, has no starting number on the spine, should it be changed from 1 to 0? --Username (talk) 22:20, 4 July 2023 (EDT)

Twilight Tales Presents, September 1998

What happened to the cover? Also, it's verified for Locus1, but where is it listed there? I thought Locus was only for books. --Rosab618 (talk) 14:08, 7 July 2023 (EDT)

Twilight Tales Presents, September 1998. Galactic Central either moved the cover or had to delete it for some reason - the risk in using outside/non-ISFDB hosted covers. If it was moved, someone may be able to track it. If it is deleted, we need to find it elsewhere...

As for Locus1 - check with Ron. Part of it is that some of the things we consider magazines are considered anthologies by others (and vice versa) but the verifier can tell you what the answer is better than anyone else. Annie (talk) 14:28, 7 July 2023 (EDT)

Thanks, Annie. Sorry I didn't put the link in my post. I wonder why Galactic Central deleted it… --Rosab618 (talk) 14:31, 7 July 2023 (EDT)

Copyright challenge, personal information (if there was a label on it?), a mistake by someone, just moving it somewhere, a better cover was uploaded but the name not used for some reason - who knows what happened. Their covers are usually stable (unlike their links) but things happen. You can always ask them if you want :) Annie (talk) 14:38, 7 July 2023 (EDT)

Locus1 actually does cover magazines in addition to books. Hope this helps. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 15:13, 7 July 2023 (EDT)

So I did ask Phil S-P, and this is what he said: "[Twilight Tales Presents] is one of those strange borderline publications that is sometimes classed as a magazine and sometimes as an anthology (I see that the ISFDb currently tries to have it both ways by listing some issues as magazines and some as anthologies!). My view is that it was an anthology series and, as such, falls outside my core remit."

Disappointing. —Rosab618 (talk) 14:32, 10 July 2023 (EDT)

Linking Award details on Award Type and Award Category pages

We currently use asterisks ("*") on Award Type and Award Category pages to link to nominations without a numeric value. See 2023 Hugo Award for an example of an Award Type page which has no numeric values because only nominations have been announced: every link is an asterisk.

As User:ErsatzCulture pointed out earlier today, these asterisks are not particularly intuitive; it's hard for our users to tell that you need to click on an asterisk to see each award's detailed data. How about we replace "*" with the word "Details"? Ahasuerus (talk) 14:42, 7 July 2023 (EDT)

I think having the word "Details" would clutter up the page, especially given how those tables are displayed. Maybe use the Unicode 🛈 (U+1F6C8) or Ⓘ (U+24BE). Some other possibilities: ⎆ (U+2386), ⎘ (U+2398), ⏵ (U+23F5), Ⓓ (for "Details", U+24B9), ▶ (U+25B6), ► (U+25BA), ➤ (U+27A4), ➨ (U+27A8), ➔ (U+2794), ➜ (U+279C), ➥ (U+27A5), and ⮩ (U+2BA9). You could use one of these if "Nominated" was selected: 🅝 (U+1F15D), 🄽 (U+1F13D), 🅽 (U+1F17D), or 🇳 (U+1F1F3). If they're a finalist, there are the equivalent versions of "F": 🅕 (U+1F155), 🄵 (U+1F135), 🅵 (U+1F175), and 🇫 (U+1F1EB).

I lean toward one of these two (out of those I listed): ▶ (U+25B6), ➤ (U+27A4). If you like the letters for "Nominated" and "Finalist", then I like 🇳 (U+1F1F3) and 🇫 (U+1F1EB). This is where I found these. Looks like they also have medals, too, for first (🥇 (U+1F947)), second (🥈 (U+1F948)), and third (🥉 (U+1F949)) places. That might be a little too fancy, though. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:47, 7 July 2023 (EDT)

I'm getting horrible flashbacks of sitting in meetings where a project manager and a graphic/UI designer were having a screaming fit about whether a white-i-in-a-blue-circle, or a question-mark-in-a-circle were best icons for this sort of link ;-)

I do agree that "Details" might be a bit long, my initial thought was something like Heavy Asterisk ✱ (U+2731) and/or doing with the CSS to have a min-width on the link to make it easier to click on.

However it then struck me - "Details" is perhaps overselling things for the majority of awards - in many cases, the award detail page doesn't (IIRC) have any info that isn't already shown on the ay.cgi list page. Could we perhaps do something like this for the link text:

- if there's a number, show that (like we do at present)

- if there's a note for the award - i.e. if the award_note_id is not NULL or zero - then show "More", an arrow icon, or something else that indicates there's more info available if the user wants it. (NB: we don't care what that info is, only if it exists, so there's no need to join onto the notes table in the underlying query)

- if there's no note - i.e. award_note_id is NULL or zero - then show an asterisk, or some relatively uninteresting UI element, which facilitates clicking through to the award_details.cgi page, but doesn't mislead a user into thinking there's anything interesting to be found behind the link

ErsatzCulture (talk) 16:27, 7 July 2023 (EDT)

I believe you are correct: the only thing that the Award page shows that isn't available on higher level "list" pages is Notes. I like the idea of having some kind of indicator to distinguish award records with Notes from award records without Notes. "More" is probably the most straightforward way to do it without adding clutter to the page.

Re: Unicode characters like 🇳 and 🇫, it's a complementary idea which can be addressed separately. We can certainly use them instead of asterisks for specific "award levels". Ahasuerus (talk) 17:46, 7 July 2023 (EDT)

Here's a barebones implementation (less than a half-a-dozen lines changed) of what was discussed, at least as I understood/interpreted it

My initial thought is that "More" makes that column a bit too wide; maybe instead use something like one of these images? ErsatzCulture (talk) 17:57, 11 July 2023 (EDT)

We already use "ⓘ" to indicate that a record has Notes -- see the "Translations" table on this page, so I guess we could use the same symbol on Award pages. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:22, 13 July 2023 (EDT)

FR 1579, "Display a mouse-over Notes bubble for award records with Notes", has been created. Ahasuerus (talk) 17:36, 15 July 2023 (EDT)

Profit of Doom

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5712870; I'm starting to slowly go through ErsatzCulture's very useful list of books published only in the UK and this one had a note from the long-missing PV "Prof Beard" with a link to the photo, so I uploaded it. The publisher has about 20 books on ISFDB with either David Hardy or David A. Hardy as cover artist so it's very likely the same guy but a jacketed copy would need to be seen in order to know how he was credited. This book seems to have fallen off a cliff into a black hole because there's almost no info about it anywhere, so if anyone can do better and find an online copy or owns one then the artist will probably be able to be entered. Unless they didn't credit him at all. --Username (talk) 18:55, 7 July 2023 (EDT)

Russian Sheckley

https://archive.org/details/belaiasmertfanta0000shec; While fixing some title dates and adding a link to Dead Run re: Robert Sheckley's Stephen Dain novels I ran across this, an omnibus of all 5 of those books plus The Man in the Water, in case anyone fluent in Russian would like to enter that nearly 1,000-page monster. --Username (talk) 00:26, 8 July 2023 (EDT)

Series Map

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?2147; Should a map really be part of a series or is that a mistake that should be removed? --Username (talk) 10:52, 8 July 2023 (EDT)

Five Star Questions

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?933215; I've done a ton of edits for Five Star books today; 2 issues: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?933215, should those credits be separated since art is different? Also, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1150004, title date is November, book date is December, search of Google Books copy can't get a grasp on the copyright page credit, intro month needs adding, so anyone who can verify what's the month can fix title or book date and add month to intro. --Username (talk) 18:49, 8 July 2023 (EDT)

Trek Ladies

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5713417; There's no photo on Culbreath's Wikipedia so I found one but her writing partner Sondra Marshak has a photo of Vonda N. McIntyre on her Open Library page; I recognize it because some time ago I added 3 different versions of the same photo to her record here, each one better than the last, until I found the best one that's there now. Vonda's Open Library page has a much later photo that's correct because it shows up elsewhere online on pages re: her death. Any idea why her older photo is on the wrong page or why Culbreath's birth date on Wikipedia is several months later than what's here? Now that I think of it, it's possible Culbreath's photo isn't really her, either. Some older SF people here will probably recognize everyone and chime in. EDIT: Good Lord, it isn't her. An obituary on file770.com reveals that image is of Shirley S. Maiewski, another Trek writer, so I cancelled Culbreath and added the image to Maiewski. The mystery remains of what Culbreath and Marshak really look like and what's Culbreath's real birth date. --Username (talk) 19:06, 8 July 2023 (EDT)

Witches Wraiths Warlocks

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?916737; I added 2 links to 1971 edition and 1 to 1973 edition, plus changed title from and to & like it says on cover and title page. Sadly, PV of all 3 editions is gone and 1988 edition says and on cover so he can't be asked if it's really & on title page and the 1 eBay copy shows back cover but not title page. So does anyone own the 1988 edition? Introduction would also need re-titling if it's &. --Username (talk) 12:10, 9 July 2023 (EDT)

Robert C. Goldston

Robert C. Goldston (1927-1982) was an American author who published 4 speculative fiction novels (we have 3 on file) and a significant amount of non-SF, some of it as by "James Stark". Ahasuerus (talk) 11:04, 10 July 2023 (EDT)

I have added the missing title and sent a correction to SFE. Ahasuerus (talk) 11:02, 13 July 2023 (EDT)

Our record currently links him to the "James Stark" who illustrated Nebula Science Fiction in 1956-1958. A SFE contributor has suggested that the US author and the UK artist were likely two different people. Would anyone happen to know more about this issue?

Also, we don't have Goldston's exact date of death on file. In a 2017 Usenet/Google Groups discussion one of the participants claimed to be Goldston's child and wrote:

• He died at the age of 54, in Palma de Mallorca on Jan 15 1982 after a short-lived and vicious battle against renal carcinoma. His death was attended by all of his family who would be the only ones who have this information, simply because nobody ever asked us.

I hesitate to add the date to our record without additional verification, but perhaps it may point someone else in the right direction. Palma de Mallorca is a Spanish city; perhaps a local/regional/national newspaper may have mentioned it? Ahasuerus (talk) 11:04, 10 July 2023 (EDT)

I would take the cautionary way and add '1982-01-00' with an accompanying note that it has to be verified. Stonecreek (talk) 10:23, 12 July 2023 (EDT)

Thanks for the feedback. Since we don't seem to be able to find a (semi)official source, I left it as "1982-00-00" and added the Usenet/Google Group quote to Notes. Ahasuerus (talk) 12:57, 13 July 2023 (EDT)

Re: the other point (the James Stark pseudonym): The Wikipedia entry states that he at "one time was a science-fiction cover artist under the pseudonym James Stark for Nebula Science Fiction.[6]" (the [6] referring to a now defunct source: sfcovers.net), so it seems quite possible that the two names belong to the same person, also for the cover artwork. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 10:23, 12 July 2023 (EDT)

Wikipedia's article about Nebula Science Fiction mentions David A. Hardy's article Art & Artists in Robert Holdstock's 1978 Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Checking page 129 of the book, I see that Hardy wrote:

• The Sottish-based magazine Nebula Science Fiction, which appeared between 1952 and 1959, also gave cover space to artists including Eddie Jones, Alan Hunter, James Stark and Gerald Quinn. Stark's covers were often just that: severe portrayals of technology against which men were mere ants.

Hardy doesn't mention the Goldston connection, which I suspect he would have done if he had been aware of it.

Galactic Central doesn't link James Stark the artist to Robert C. Goldston either.

It would appear that the only specialized bibliographic source that is not the ISFDB and that links the two people is the defunct SFcovers.net site -- see this archived Web page. It's even possible that they got the idea that the two authors/artists were the same person from us.

Given the above, I would be inclined to break the Alternate Name link and document what we know in Notes. Ahasuerus (talk) 12:28, 13 July 2023 (EDT)

Hearing no objection, I have broken the link between the two author records, deleted/adjusted the VTs as needed and added Notes to both author records. Ahasuerus (talk) 14:26, 15 July 2023 (EDT)

Bear II

https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/ISFDB:Community_Portal/Archive/Archive50#Bear; A copy of this was just uploaded and my edit adding a link was just approved; if anyone can stand to read it then it can be determined whether it's really genre or not. From skimming I get the feeling it's not, so deletion is possible. --Username (talk) 11:07, 10 July 2023 (EDT)

Awards where the title has multiple authors, but some have declined

(This is a slightly edited version of an item I posted on Ahasuerus' page, but he suggested I post it here for wider opinion.)

S. B. Divya has announced that she declined 2 Hugo nominations. One is a novelette, and I've added an appropriate entry for that, even if I guess it's not technically official until the stats report becomes available.

The other is more awkward, as it's a joint editorship of a semiprozine. I've added a note to explain the situation, and to try to pre-empt any complaints. However, this isn't visible on the title page or her award page.

One "solution" would be to unlink the award from the title, which I think might then allow you to edit the authors? I'm definitely not going to try that without a second or third opinion, and losing the link to the title record doesn't seem good. There might be some hack with editing the award_author value to lose the leading "S. B. Divya+", but I don't think that would solve the problem with the title.cgi or eaw.cgi pages?

Ahasuerus' response:

   "Some authors/editors accepting a nomination and some authors/editors declining it" is a scenario that I don't think I have seen before. I can't think of a way to handle it given the current database schema, but perhaps I am missing something. I would suggest starting a discussion on the Community Portal to see if other editors may have other ideas.

Anyone got any thoughts on how we might be able to best handle this? ErsatzCulture (talk) 11:57, 10 July 2023 (EDT)

I consider our awards pages an extension of our publication pages, not our author pages. So I'd just add a note in the second case and that will be it - in the same way how we won't delete a book just because an author is now embarrassed of it (or something). If they are on the title record and the title wins an award, we mark it as such. Annie (talk) 12:15, 10 July 2023 (EDT)

At the moment we have two types of awards: title-based awards and "everything else" awards. We also have outstanding requests to add support for author awards (FR 583), publisher awards (FR 269) and series awards (no FR yet), but no work has been done on them as of yet.

For title-based awards, we link award records directly to title records. Our software then uses the linked title's author(s) and title when displaying the award; there is no way to have an award record display different authors or a different title. Award records are then given a "nomination level", which can be anything from "win" to "finalist" to "ineligible" to "withdrawn -- nomination declined".

This approach reflects how actual awards are structured reasonably well most of the time, but we have seen borderline cases which our software didn't support. For example, if an award has no provisions for an author withdrawing a nominated title, it's possible for a text to be both "nominated" and "withdrawn".

The situation described above reflects another issue with our model. If a title has multiple authors/editors and a subset of the authors/editors declines the nomination, we have no way of capturing the scenario in the database outside of Notes.

I guess one way to handle it at the data model level would be to create a separate "accepted/declined" multi-field with one value per author. It would be fairly time-consuming to implement and we would want to make sure that this solution doesn't have any holes in it before we create an FR. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:08, 10 July 2023 (EDT)

I really don't think that we need more than notes here. When all authors decline a nomination, the title is not nominated - we can handle this case already. When at least one does not decline, the title gets nominated and can even win - these are nominations for the texts, not for the authors after all. What happens if someone gets an award somewhere and a year later decides to withdraw (because they just learned about it and really dislike the body giving the award for example)? Or if whoever gives the award ignores a nomination rejection? I think we should just use the notes to document the cases where a rejection does not influence the title becoming a nominee/winner... Annie (talk) 13:33, 10 July 2023 (EDT)

For the moment, I've edited the note on her page; more than happy if someone else wants to refine the wording. I don't think we need to do anything with the EDITOR title record, as that doesn't show any author/editor names in the awards section. ErsatzCulture (talk) 14:06, 10 July 2023 (EDT)

I disagree with adding this note to the author's Summary Bibliography page. It is not our function to highlight what is really a personal decision. As bibliographers, were record the award and leave it at that. I'm fine with moving the note to the award record. Even if the consensus agrees with the current placement, the comment regarding our software is inappropriate and should be removed. John Scifibones 14:53, 10 July 2023 (EDT)

I agree - the note does not belong on the author note level - it should be on the award level - that is where it is relevant. I'd be ok for it to be on the title level (for better visibility) but it definitely does not belong on the author level. Annie (talk) 15:26, 10 July 2023 (EDT)

You may be unsurprised to find that I disagree. I don't think we should have a page saying "Author X was a nominee for Award Y" when they have made a clear public statement that they have not. I think people would understand if we explicit acknowledge this error is due to technical reasons; obviously it would be better if that info only appears on the page it is pertinent to (the awards tab of the author page; it's not needed on the summary, alphabetical or chronological pages), but again that's not something currently supported. As I said, I'm more than happy for others to finesse the wording, but I feel we need to acknowledge the info shown is incorrect for reasons that we're not able to fix currently.

It's barely 6 months since a blow-up which ended up with this (final para of History section, see also Talk page) and this and various luminaries criticizing this site e.g. Tor editor-in-chief, Locus reviews editor and anthologist, SFWA Director-at-Large. (There are a load more than those three, but the broken Musk-era Twitter is only showing them to me on the Android app, not the web version.) I imagine most of the editors here understand the structure of the database and site, but this stuff isn't apparent or easily understood to the wider audience. ErsatzCulture (talk) 16:45, 10 July 2023 (EDT)

I think that was blown way out of proportion. While they claim to have been trying for "over a year", they never posted here (or on any of the other discussion pages) until 14 Dec 2022 about their concerns. Once we knew about the concerns, they were completely addressed within about 5 days. Their whining on Twitter and the coverage by Sanford were extremely one-sided and rather disingenuous. My guess is that the changes submitted (whatever they were, and whenever they were) didn't include appropriate documentation. Sanford also mischaracterized an editor's rather bigoted comment as by a "moderator", which was clearly false (not everyone who posts on that noticeboard is a moderator). We try to be as accommodating as possible, but when what they are complaining about is historical, they really don't have much ground to stand on. We document information as it was at the time of publication. We don't have a Ministry of Truth that wipes out historical information. All things considered, I think we did a great job handling the issue once it was brought to our attention. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 18:04, 11 July 2023 (EDT)

I agree that the issue, once posted on the Moderator Noticeboard, was handled expeditiously. As I wrote below, "when Lee Mandelo asked to have our records updated to make "Lee Mandelo" the canonical name in December 2022, we requested additional information to support the notion that "Lee Mandelo" was "the most recognized in-genre name" as per the ISFDB policies. Once the supporting information was provided, the canonical name was changed."

That said, the scenario where "the changes submitted (whatever they were, and whenever they were) didn't include appropriate documentation" is fairly common. There is a big knowledge gap between casual ISFDB users and experienced ISFDB contributors, especially moderators. When reviewing a new contributor's submission which seems to go against ISFDB rules, it's important to query the contributor to determine what the intent of the submission was. It's been my experience that many seemingly wrong or even nonsensical submissions contain good information once you figure out what the submitter was trying to do. Ahasuerus (talk) 10:58, 12 July 2023 (EDT)

Perhaps we should add something like the following to all database editing forms. If it was placed at the top, and made very obvious (perhaps put it in a box with a yellow background?), it might help alleviate such issues:

When submitting new information or changes to existing information, please include in the Moderator Note field references to where you got the information. This can be URLs to specific web pages, book or magazine titles and page numbers, that you spoke directly with a relevant person (please include details of the conversation), or anything else that will help us verify the changes you are submitting. This information should also be included in the publication or title note fields, as well. Doing this will help speed up the process of approving the submitted changes. Thank you!

Thoughts? ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:35, 12 July 2023 (EDT)

A few things come to mind:

• We could limit the display of the proposed "yellow box" to editors with fewer than 20 Wiki posts. It would be similar to the way we color-code submission rows on the Moderator Queue page. The text could start with something like "Hi! Since you haven't made many posts on the ISFDB Wiki, it looks like you are a new editor. Please be aware that the ISFDB database and its data entry rules are complex and may not be intuitive at first glance. When submitting new information or changes to existing information, please include [etc].
• We should use "Note field" as opposed to "publication or title note fields" because the proposed box will appear on all Edit pages.
• I am not sure asking new editors to duplicate what they enter in regular Notes in Moderator Notes would be a good idea.
• This topic probably merits a separate Community Portal section since we are up to 12 levels of indentation.

Ahasuerus (talk) 13:13, 13 July 2023 (EDT)

I see three separate issues here. The first one is the accuracy of our data. The second one is the substance of ISFDB policies and what various people think of them. The third one is whether our practices match our policies.

Re: accuracy, our software doesn't let us create a comprehensive picture of award records where only some of the co-authors/co-editors declined a nomination (outside of Notes.) There are three primary ISFDB pages which display this award in an incomplete manner due to software limitations:

• the award record
• the EDITOR title record
• S. B. Divya's Award Bibliography page

I think it would be best to have a note on all 3 of these Web pages in order to make sure that we don't inadvertently mislead our users with incomplete data. At this time the Award record and the Author record already have notes while the Title record doesn't have a note.

In addition, we may want to clarify the language of the note. Something like "Note that the ISFDB award record for Escape Pod - 2022 states that it was nominated for the 2023 Hugo award, which is only partially accurate due to software limitations. One of the co-editors, S. B. Divya, declined the nomination on 2023-06-29 while the other co-editor, Mur Lafferty, remains nominated as of 2023-07-10. See the award record for details."

Re: the substance of ISFDB policies and what various people think of them, as the ISFDB FAQ says, we do not have official social media presence. If someone wants to suggest a change to the ISFDB policies, they are welcome to post on the Rules and Standards page.

Re: the issue of whether our practices match our policies, when Lee Mandelo asked to have our records updated to make "Lee Mandelo" the canonical name in December 2022, we requested additional information to support the notion that "Lee Mandelo" was "the most recognized in-genre name" as per the ISFDB policies. Once the supporting information was provided, the canonical name was changed. Ahasuerus (talk) 18:41, 10 July 2023 (EDT)

The problem comes up in several scenarios with title based awards. Those awards currently have a one to one relationship with a title record. Thus, for a title based award, we will always display the Title and Author fields from title record. I believe that schema for the awards table has its own title and author fields, and they used to be exposed and could vary from that of the title record. I had been using that feature to record differences between who was nominated vs who is on the title record when they varied, but Ahasuerus asked me to stop doing that in a prior discussion and we cleaned up any records where they differed. Aside from the current question (a nomination does not list all the editors for the magazine), we also have issues of having to enter multiple awards for a single nomination (same magazine for the 2023 Hugos, as there was a change in editors). We've had issues where the nominees for a title include someone in addition to the author of that title (see 2019 Best Art Book which was awarded to Charles Vess and Le Guin). We've also had instances where the title of the work differs from the title as published (see this 2021 Novelette nominee which was nominated as "Helicopter Story" which is the author's preferred title).

I think one way to solve these problems would be to allow the title and author fields for the award to vary from that of the linked title. I would also recommend that a single award could be linked to multiple title records. The award could then be listed in the author's award list for those authors from the award record and in all the title records that are linked. I'm not sure how radical a change that would be, though I suspect linking one award to multiple titles would be non-trivial. However, it would solve the issues noted above. I had seen Divya's announcement, but planned to wait to add the withdrawal until the Hugo statistics are published after the award ceremony. I hadn't worried about the magazine credit, because I'm used to the fact that magazine awards frequently do not reflect the persons nominated due to our software. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 19:25, 10 July 2023 (EDT)

Sorry about the delay; I am still thinking about the issues raised in your comments. There are some similarities with the way we handle REVIEW records. I am also trying to figure out how any future changes may affect the outstanding FRs for series-, publisher- and author-based awards. Lots of implications to consider. Ahasuerus (talk) 18:34, 13 July 2023 (EDT)

A few thoughts after sleeping on it:

• Back when title-based award records had separate titles and author names associated with them, it could -- and did -- cause data consistency problems. Let me use a real life example. Suppose an editor creates an award record for a cover by Mel Odom and links it to the COVERART record. A year or two later another editor discovers that Mel Odom the writer and Mel Odom the artist are two different people, then changes the COVERART record to be associated with "Mel Odom (artist)". At that point the COVERART record is associated with "Mel Odom (artist)" while the award record is associated with "Mel Odom". The same thing could -- and did -- happen when editors corrected the spelling of author names and/or titles. Over time it resulted in a significant number of discrepancies.
• Adding support for "titles and title authors as stated in the award nomination" wouldn't automatically address the issue that this discussion started with. What we are dealing with is a title record with two authors and two (effective) nomination records, one "nominated" and the other one "declined", a different scenario.
• From a purely technical perspective, the way award authors were originally captured in the database was very poor. Instead of having a separate table to capture the "one title - many authors" relationship that a properly designed database would have, the award table had a single "award_author" field. If an award was associated with multiple authors, they were all entered in the same field using "+" signs as delimiters. Anyone familiar with database design knows that this is a terrible idea which causes no end of problems. If we were to separate "title authors" and "title authors as stated in the award nomination", we would need to redesign and re-implement this part of the software. It would be doable, but non-trivial given how many different Web pages and internal data structures would be affected. The same table and field(s) are used by "untitled" awards, so they would be affected as well. If we were to add support for "transliterated titles/author names" -- as may be needed to capture non-English awards -- it would make an even bigger project.
• Award committees frequently use different forms of author names, including collective names like "The Brothers Hildebrandt", interchangeably. The first ballot may use one form of the name, the final ballot another and the name on the award document a third one. We'd have to come up with data entry rules for these scenarios.
• Letting title-based awards be linked to multiple title records is an interesting idea. It would require a fair amount of work, but it wouldn't raise the same design issues that adding support for "titles and title authors as stated in the award nomination" would raise.

That's all I have been able to think of for now. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:06, 17 July 2023 (EDT)

I fired up my MySQL instance (from a 2021 backup) and I see some of what you mean. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 21:08, 17 July 2023 (EDT)

Although awards-related tables haven't changed since 2021, I would recommend using the latest MySQL backup file to ensure that we are all looking at the same data structures. New tables and fields are added reasonably frequently; I added recognized_domains just a couple of weeks ago. Barring that, Database Schema should be up to date and display more information than MySQL's "describe" command. Ahasuerus (talk) 15:36, 20 July 2023 (EDT)

I actually recall using the + signs in my very early days of editing here. It does look like is an intermediate table that could be used to link one award to many titles (title_awards). Of course, the software would have to be altered to look at it that way. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 21:08, 17 July 2023 (EDT)

I believe you are right about "title_awards": it should be able to support a "one award - many titles" relationship as it currently exists. The problem lies in the software, which assumes that there can be only one title record per "title-based award" record. For example, the "Link Award" page tells you to enter "0 to break the link" between the displayed title-based award and its title record. It would have to be changed to be more like the "Make Alternate Name" page, which lets you specify which parent-title relationship to remove. Doable, but it would take time. Ahasuerus (talk) 15:36, 20 July 2023 (EDT)

Despite the sloppiness of some award committees in changing credits and titles, I think we are trying to model a real world object (an award) that naturally has a title and authors. Since they don't necessarily match our data model (for books, etc.) we run into the problems I mentioned earlier as well as the issue that spurred this topic. I do think that having distinct award titles and authors that differ from title record titles and authors would solve this issue. We would still need to have two records in the awards table (1 for the declined nomination and 1 for the nomination). I think maybe if I explain the use case. The award records would include:

• Record 1 - Title: Escape Pod; Authors: Mur Lafferty, Valerie Valdes, Benjamin C. Kinney... (there are 7 editors, assistant editors, etc listed in the nomination; award level nomination, linked to titles 3137421 and 3133670.
• Record 2 - Title: Escape Pod; Authors: S. B. Divya, Mur Lafferty, Valerie Valdes, Benjamin C. Kinney... (there are 7 editors, assistant editors, etc listed in the nomination; award level withdrawn nomination declined, linked to titles 3137421 and 3133670. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 21:08, 17 July 2023 (EDT)

This is a very interesting example since it raises an issue that I haven't considered before. This nomination, like a number of other recent nominations, lists a number of people who are -- explicitly -- not editors. The list reads:

• co-editors Mur Lafferty & Valerie Valdes; Assistant editors Benjamin C. Kinney & Premee Mohamed, host Tina Connolly, producers Summer Brooks and Adam Pracht

The question that it raises in my mind is whether this award should be linked to our EDITOR record, which is limited to two co-editors. I am thinking that it's best described as an "editorial team award" and should be entered as an "untitled award" instead. Not only would it, arguably, be a more accurate representation of the relationship between the award record and other ISFDB records, but it would also make the award record appear on Benjamin C. Kinney's, Premee Mohamed's, Tina Connolly's and Adam Pracht's Award Bibliography pages (Summer Brooks doesn't have an author record in the database.) Ahasuerus (talk) 15:36, 20 July 2023 (EDT)

I would argue that entering magazine awards as untitled awards would not be what most users would expect. The category for the award, semiprozine, is for the all the issues of a magazine for a calendar year. The EDITOR title record (or records) is the only title record that we have for magazines and fanzines. I think folks would expect to see the award in question listed on those title records. This would be especially confusing if we used untitled awards only in cases where the named persons in the award for a given magazine differ from those we list in the author field of EDITOR titles for the year. I think the Escape Pod nomination is an excellent example of the issues with magazine awards. It has both multiple EDITOR records for the calendar year, and differences between persons listed on the award vs listed in our title records. I do understand that software changes would be required for any of the changes I've proposed, and that we have limited resources for making such changes. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 21:01, 20 July 2023 (EDT)

Both awards would be displayed in the award pages as is currently done. The software could be altered to display the records in the authors list based on the authors in the award record. Thus, S. B. Divya would show only record 2, whereas Mur Lafferty would show both records 1 & 2. The software would also be altered to display the awards on each linked title record, but the title records would not cause the linked award to propagate its authors' records.

This approach would solve the problems of not showing the non-declined nomination on Divya's award list. It would also solve the problem of having to have multiple award records in order to link to multiple title records. Lastly, this would also allow us to include authors (assistant editors, podcast hosts) that are in the official nomination, but who we don't credit in our title records. The one wrinkle I thought of after my original post, was that we potentially have variant titles or variant author names that do not exist in our database. One solution to that would be to allow the creation of titles and authors that only appear because of an award. Variants would roll up to the canonical records as they currently do.

Regarding the sub-optimal author arrangement in the awards table. I agree that it should be changed, but I don't see that it would be necessary in order to allow the author name on the award to be editable, and to allow it to differ from that of the linked title. After all, it worked that way a few years ago, until editing those fields on the award record was locked down.

Agreed that we would have to come up with rules as to what the authoritative source is for award recipients and titles. This is currently an issue. I try to match the award to the title that matches the title and name announced for the award rather than linking them to our canonical title record. They roll up anyway.

I think this approach solves a number of problems. If others agree, it still sounds like the required changes would be extensive and non trivial. Perhaps there are incremental changes that could be made to move us forward. Thanks. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 21:08, 17 July 2023 (EDT)

@Ahasuerus re your final 2 paras. Fair point: I'll try to put something together to post over the next 2 days, although given that researching the Chengdu/Hugo stuff seems to turn up a new weird-and-wonderful thing every day (not all necessarily relevant to ISFDB), I'm not sure it might take a bit longer. ErsatzCulture (talk) 19:31, 10 July 2023 (EDT)

Apologies for not coming back on this; I've been preoccupied with other things the last few days. Re. some of the points raised, I know that there was a lot of work done to get the records changed; my concern is that a lot of ill will seemed to be generated due to initial stonewalling (or at least, the perception of it) by pointing to the existing Rules & Standards as a reason not to make those changes. I'll try to get a proposal posted by Sunday at the latest. ErsatzCulture (talk) 12:52, 13 July 2023 (EDT)

No problem. Re: the "perception of stonewalling", I suspect that it's related to the previously mentioned gap between what new contributors know about the data entry rules and what moderators know about them. When a moderator says "This isn't how we enter bibliographic data", it's based on multiple layers of understanding of what the rules say and why they say what they say. In the case mentioned above, once the rules and the reasoning behind them were explained in detail, Lee Mandelo realized that we were missing a significant amount of relevant information and provided it in a follow-up comment. It clarified the situation, at which point we were able to clean up and reorganize the data quickly.

Based on that discussion we added a new entry to the ISFDB FAQ, but it's relatively short. Perhaps we should create a new Help page or template explaining that we make a distinction between legal names, socially used names and professionally used "working names" and the reasons why the data entry rules are the way they are. Basically a summary of what I wrote in response to Lee Mandelo's original post. Ahasuerus (talk) 18:53, 13 July 2023 (EDT)

Sorry for making an already complicated item even more messed up, but I only just noticed Rtrace's comment from a week ago: "I had seen Divya's announcement, but planned to wait to add the withdrawal until the Hugo statistics are published after the award ceremony. I hadn't worried about the magazine credit, because I'm used to the fact that magazine awards frequently do not reflect the persons nominated due to our software." It definitely crossed my mind about whether I was jumping the gun on making those edits based on what an author said, as opposed to what the award body had publicly stated. If it had just been a regular single author record that had been declined, I wouldn't have changed anything; it was the magazine credit that concerned me. Given that was backed up by the author's statement, which mentioned both nominations, I made the (debatable, I'm more than happy to concede) decision to address both of them. Next time something like this comes up, I'll raise it here rather than making pre-emptive edits. ErsatzCulture (talk) 19:19, 17 July 2023 (EDT)

No worries, I'm just a little hesitant since the notice of declination didn't come from the official source. I suspect there are other declined nominations that we don't know about. They all should be reported in the official nomination statistics that are released after the ceremony. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 21:08, 17 July 2023 (EDT)

Contacting Kenneth R. Johnson

Can anyone tell me how? I found some vintage SF pornos that he should know about, and add to his bibliography, if he ever revises it. Thanks for any help. —Rosab618 (talk) 14:34, 10 July 2023 (EDT)

Never mind. Phil S-P helped me get in touch with him. —Rosab618 (talk) 02:28, 11 July 2023 (EDT)

Poem/Story

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5703635; If anyone's interested, I think it's a story, mod disagrees, hardly matters because it seems to be some squib from a much earlier play or something so if the link isn't added it wouldn't be much of a loss. I made a more helpful edit adding the Encyclopedia.com link I mentioned and also the archived jmichaelyates.com site, which goes back many years, because his site currently online is weird with many links going to an error page but other pages working just fine. --Username (talk) 18:36, 11 July 2023 (EDT)

Username omitted one piece of important information. The Locus Index to Science Fiction lists this as a poem in their entry for Tesseracts 8 which contains the item. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 19:02, 11 July 2023 (EDT)

Yeah. Also, the Encyclopedia.com mention is in the discussion with mod on my user page, not in the rejection above. Just to clarify. A reply from anyone would be helpful so I can leave this minor edit behind; I've got 1,000 others waiting to be approved. --Username (talk) 19:27, 11 July 2023 (EDT)

The work is short fiction not poetry. I've added an internet archive link onto the author's Summary Bibliography. Open the site and select the short fiction tab. Open the drop down list on your left and you will see the story. John Scifibones 19:33, 11 July 2023 (EDT)

Yay. Also, RTrace, while I'm here I noticed you added some Star Trek slash fiction, Companion, and the cover artist is Gayle F. but it's signed Feyrer, who is on ISFDB as the cover artist for a later non-Trek magazine, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=gayle+f&type=Name. Whose name do you consider the parent so I can make a variant? --Username (talk) 19:40, 11 July 2023 (EDT)

OK, thanks John for finding that. I've approved the submission.

Regarding Gayle F./Gayle Feyrer, Fanlore lists her as "Gayle F" which I suspect is how she is most frequently credited. It also appears that she also uses the pseudonym "Sylvia Knight", though we have no titles using that byline. In any case, I'd go with "Gayle F." as canonical. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 07:06, 12 July 2023 (EDT)

Feyrer has been made a variant. --Username (talk) 10:06, 12 July 2023 (EDT)

Malcolm for President

I'm holding this submission to update this title. There is an Amazon review asserting that this is an original story, though based on characters from the television series, which would seem to make the novelization flag invalid. However, I'm not certain that this title is eligible at all. From skimming reviews, I don't detect anything speculative about the novel. I also would question whether the authors Dan Danko and Tom Mason are above the threshold. If we determine that they are, I think the title should be marked as non-genre. What are other folks' opinions on whether this title should be deleted? Thanks. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 10:04, 12 July 2023 (EDT)

I don't see anything genre or even genre-adjacent in the novel either. Nor I see a reason for the authors to be considered above threshold. So I vote to delete the book altogether. Annie (talk) 12:48, 13 July 2023 (EDT)

Hearing nobody coming to this title's defense. I will zap it. Thanks. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 19:43, 19 July 2023 (EDT)

Fright Night Covers

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?289979; [7]; So I have been doing some Skipp & Spector edits, the splatterpunk co-authors who were so popular back in the 80s and 90s, and I discovered that Craig Spector's homepage URL now links to some foreign (Vietnamese?) site so I replaced it with the archived version which goes all the way back to 2005. While looking through the site I found that cover linked above; the Tor edition on ISFDB shows the villain of the movie, the head vampire played by Chris Sarandon, but the cover on Spector's site shows a totally different cover with one of the villain's minions, the girlfriend of the movie's teenage hero, played by Amanda Bearse, who would become famous a few years later for playing Al Bundy's neighbor Marcy on Married With Children. So was it re-released with a different cover? Is it an early mock-up that was changed before release? I'd like to know if anyone knows. It could have been worse; they could have used another one of the villain's minions, the hero's friend Evil Ed, on the cover, played by Stephen Geoffreys, who gave up mainstream acting in the early 90s and pursued a career in hardcore gay porn. --Username (talk) 14:13, 13 July 2023 (EDT)

Doubleday First Edition

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?266014; https://archive.org/search?query=clickwhistle; https://www.ebay.com/itm/153845632156; I replaced cover image with another Amazon one with a different URL that looks exactly the same but is much bigger. I wanted to add the Archive.org link but over time I've come to realize that a lot of Doubleday (and probably many other publishers) books I and others here have linked to may not have been the true first edition because, as can be seen in the links above, the 1 useful copy on eBay shows the copyright page with "First Edition" while the archived copy does not say that. So is there a way to tell which edition it is? Gutter codes or something? EDIT: Also this, https://archive.org/search?query=watkins+the-god-machine. --Username (talk) 15:58, 13 July 2023 (EDT)

Zebra

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubs_not_in_series.cgi?52948; I'm trying to get this page down to zero. What I've done today is add Kensington Publishing to publisher for 1987 edition of Time-Kissed Destiny because that's what it says on title page (also added author's note on last page); first edition of Once In a Lifetime already has Kensington in it on ISFDB. So ElectricStarboard, who entered the later editions of those 2 novels, may want to chime in with whether they have Kensington on their title pages so it can be added. That Warren Smith book is 70s "non-fiction" junk about space pyramids and should be deleted. I asked NihonJoe about whether his PV copy of Book of Space says Kensington and he put my edit on hold a long time ago but never responded so I cancelled it; if he reads this maybe he can say now what it says on title page. Dracula's Guest, which I just made an edit for fixing the cover artist (turns out it's not Greg Theakston but rather the mysterious FMA, who has about a dozen ISFDB credits), has 1 copy on eBay with photos but doesn't show title page. As far as Death Screen, I don't know, can't find it anywhere. So after my Time-Kissed edit is approved and Book of Space has Kensington added, I hope, and the pyramid book is deleted, that will just leave 4 books. --Username (talk) 11:51, 15 July 2023 (EDT)

Joe just fixed Book of Space; only a few more to go. --Username (talk) 12:31, 26 July 2023 (EDT)

Geller the Artist

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=geller&type=Name; M. Geller is almost certainly Martin Geller because they did covers for a single St. Martin's Press book each, one in '78 and one in '79. However, the credit for Infinite Dreams by Martin says design, not art, so probably shouldn't have any credit except in notes. So should it be moved to notes and M.'s legal name be made Martin (this is assuming, of course, that M.'s credit really says art in the book like it says in the PV's notes)? --Username (talk) 02:14, 16 July 2023 (EDT)

Mary Shelley Award for Outstanding Fiction

I'd like to add this award to the ISFDB data base -- here is a list of past recipients https://media-ecology.org/Past-Awards (scroll down for Mary Shelley Award) PaulLev (talk) 20:27, 16 July 2023 (EDT)

I am not familiar with Media Ecology Association, but their Executive Board and the list of present/past officers include a number of scholars at accredited universities, so it appears to be legitimate. Award recipients include Ted Chiang, William Gibson and Ernest Cline. Curiously, they are associated with The Institute of General Semantics which was founded by Alfred Korzybski, who influenced a number of SF authors like van Vogt and Heinlein back in the day. Ahasuerus (talk) 21:23, 16 July 2023 (EDT)

I'm not sure a win for Ready Player One does much for their credibility /s —The preceding unsigned comment was added by ErsatzCulture (talk • contribs) .

I realize that it's a joke, but let me clarify for the benefit of new editors. We determine whether an award is legitimate based on what kind of organization administers it and for what purpose. Awards given by publishers or promotional/advertising companies to promote their clients' books and stories are generally not considered "real" awards for our purposes and are not included. Ahasuerus (talk) 12:07, 17 July 2023 (EDT)

Sorry - more than happy for that cheap gag to be removed/struckthrough/whatever, if you think that would be best. ErsatzCulture (talk) 13:40, 17 July 2023 (EDT)

No worries, it created an opportunity to clarify our eligibility criteria. Ahasuerus (talk) 14:09, 17 July 2023 (EDT)

But seriously, this looks like a good addition to my eyes. I have a couple of questions relating to practicalities, which maybe PaulLev knows the answer to:

* What exactly is the eligibility period? This page asking for 2024 nominations says "Open to novels, short stories, hypertexts, plays, scripts, comics, audio recordings, motion pictures, videos, and other narrative forms, published or released in 2019 or later...", so is it a rolling 5-year period? (TBH, if that's the case, that's pretty cool - one of my problems with awards is that they're all seemingly based on the past 12 months, which privileges stuff that has a lot of hype and frontloaded readership.)

* Besides that list of recipients, is there any sort of press release that has more details about the winners? I know when I've added stuff like this year's Locus finalists, when you get down to some of the more obscure categories where nominees weren't already in the database, tracking them down, working out if their pubs are eligible for inclusion here, etc can require a fair bit of legwork. If there's some info about the winners published, that would help in reducing that burden.

* I looked up 2017's winner on Amazon UK, and it doesn't appear to have any speculative element. For such works, I guess doing an "untitled award", with a note saying it's not speculative, is the way to go? (Again, any PR that describes the winning work will be helpful in determining the speculative-ness.) For awards like Goodreads Choice Mystery & Thriller category, we only add the speculative works, but given there's just a single winner here, maybe having an untitled entry will make it clearer?

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by ErsatzCulture (talk • contribs) .

Good questions! 1. Yes, the eligibility period is a rolling 5-years. 2. This announcement is put up on the Internet every year https://media-ecology.org/2023-MEA-Awards 3. The only criterion is "fiction" -- so, yes, in principle, there could be an award given to a work that is fiction, but not speculative fiction. But as far as I can tell, that happens very rarely. Also, the award is not given every year. PaulLev (talk) 13:10, 17 July 2023 (EDT)

Hearing no objection, I have created an Award Type record and entered these awards for the SF titles that we have on file. I didn't create "untitled" award records for non-genre titles. Ahasuerus (talk) 10:55, 23 July 2023 (EDT)

Thanks! PaulLev (talk) 23:25, 24 July 2023 (EDT)

Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award

Rich Horton posted about this year's winner, and I went to add them, only to find this award doesn't currently exist in the database. TBH it's one that I only had vague awareness of, but it does have SFADB and SFE pages, and has been going for just over 20 years.

In essence, it's a single category award, just a winner, no nominees or finalists, and is to an author who the judges felt does/did not get as much attention as they deserved. Most of the past winners are names that I recognize, even if I think I've only read half-a-dozen or so of them. (Possibly the sort of scenario that the award was set up to address?)

The award's site lists who has been on the judging panel; again they're people I recognize and who are respected in the field. (Although it looks like that page hasn't been updated for a decade?) ErsatzCulture (talk) 03:57, 18 July 2023 (EDT)

I thought we already had an Award Type for this fairly well-known award, but apparently not. Must have been an oversight. Ahasuerus (talk) 10:51, 18 July 2023 (EDT)

I must confess all the less-well known awards named after people who were active years ago blur into one in my mind - the non-Astounding Campbell, Crawford, Crook, Wellman, this one - blur into one in my mind.

If and when this gets set up, I'll add all the winners - should be pretty straightforward compared to the likes of Hugo and Locus. ErsatzCulture (talk) 11:04, 18 July 2023 (EDT)

Since this is a no-brainer, I have created an Award Type record for it. Ahasuerus (talk) 09:16, 19 July 2023 (EDT)

Thanks - unless someone else beats me to it, I'll probably add all the winners on Saturday. ErsatzCulture (talk) 12:01, 19 July 2023 (EDT)

A day later than I'd promised, but these are all in now. Thanks again for adding it. ErsatzCulture (talk) 18:02, 23 July 2023 (EDT)

Thanks! Ahasuerus (talk) 18:27, 23 July 2023 (EDT)

Alex Gordon

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?6359; The essays are by this person, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0329966/, but they may not be eligible since he usually wrote about old movies in his long-running column for Fangoria. If they are eligible, some variant is needed. --Username (talk) 10:43, 18 July 2023 (EDT)

Watson Bon-Bon

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=de+bon-bon&type=All+Titles; Copy of BBR #11 just uploaded, I made an edit adding link and adding/fixing other stuff, this Watson work was in French originally and reprinted in English in this zine, never collected, but as can be seen capitalization, subtitle, and whether it's fiction or essay are issues. So it's for someone else to decide what's best re: those things. --Username (talk) 19:20, 18 July 2023 (EDT)

Fake Ring

https://archive.org/search?query=ring00pier&sort=-addeddate; While adding links to 2 copies of Piers Anthony's 1968 Ace edition of The Ring I found a 3rd copy on Open Library but it's actually a completely different thing, a sampler of some T. A. Barron books, in case anyone thinks that's worth entering. --Username (talk) 21:30, 18 July 2023 (EDT)

Canonical name change Willard E. Hawkins from Willard Hawkins

Any objections to making Willard E. Hawkins the canonical name and Willard Hawkins the alternate? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Scifibones (talk • contribs) . 05:38, 19 July 2023‎ (EDT)

No objections here. Ahasuerus (talk) 09:09, 19 July 2023 (EDT)

Hearing no objections, the relationship has been reversed. John Scifibones 19:00, 25 July 2023 (EDT)

Chiller

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?961199; Someone named Aardvark entered this recently. I knew I'd seen that cover art before on one of Karl Edward Wagner's horror anthologies and I had, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1435921. So it apparently originated here, not the French book. Also, I saw on OL that Chiller is "based on" a 1972 novel by Sale, The Love Bite, whatever that means. Maybe that one belongs here, too. --Username (talk) 09:16, 19 July 2023 (EDT)

Cover Artist: Ampersand Book Covers

We currently have a cover artist named Ampersand Book Covers. I just found the website for that artist and was going to add it to the existing Author record but noticed that the website shows the name as "Ampersand Book Cover Design". So far the only titles that are credited to this artist use "Ampersand Book Covers" as per the statements on their copyright pages. I have several new titles that are by this artist (not credited but definitely by this artist per the website portfolio page) and wonder if I should just use the existing artist after adding the website data and a note about the full name to the existing artist record or if I should use the full name from the website and make it a variant of the existing artist record. Thanks. Phil (talk) 15:20, 19 July 2023 (EDT)

I would credit 'Ampersand Book Covers' and a note in the canonical record. John Scifibones 14:54, 20 July 2023 (EDT).

P.S. The pub still gets a note stating that the artist is uncredited. I 'm aware you know this already, but less experienced editors might be following this thread. John Scifibones 15:39, 20 July 2023 (EDT)

Will do. Thanks. Phil (talk) 15:31, 20 July 2023 (EDT)

Green Knight

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?15963; Philfreund, Chavey, GlennMcG, letting you all know LCCN isn't on their site, should be removed and put in notes section. --Username (talk) 20:04, 19 July 2023 (EDT)

The LOC site isn't always reliable for older LCCNs. It's likely still valid, just difficult to find. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 20:05, 21 July 2023 (EDT)

Swedish Vampires

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5720694; After approval I'm sure those who are fluent in the language can improve upon my edit. --Username (talk) 08:52, 20 July 2023 (EDT)

Hound of Frankenstein

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?284512; I'm not sure why I added that ponderous link re: the prices in the note a long time ago because the back cover is on FantLab, but anyway, while adding a link today to FantLab and replacing cover with theirs I noticed there's no "The" on title page but there is in the first Mammoth Book of Frankenstein edition which I checked via the archived link. So if anyone can verify there's a "The" in all editions of that anthology then the story title should be separated and made a variant of the original title. Also, someone added full date to chapbook from Amazon UK but I don't know if anyone trusts them enough to add it to the story itself. --Username (talk) 14:08, 20 July 2023 (EDT)

George Wells

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?24739; I've been doing a lot of edits for old Arthur Stockwell books (there's a huge gap between the last older book and the recent ones) and came upon George Wells. As someone wrote, there may be more than one; I suspect it's 4 different guys since it's not likely a very obscure British author would write an article for an American pulp zine 25 years later and it's also not likely that the author of a cheap paperback horror novel would write a couple of stories for a semi-literary anthology series more than 20 years later. Also, cover of Taurus on Amazon has $2.95 on the cover so either the price on ISFDB, $2.50, is wrong or there's at least one reprint. EDIT: 1 copy of Taurus on eBay, it's Canadian thus the higher $2.95 price, like DAW Books in the 1980s Signet Canadian editions start number line with 2, glad someone wrote a note about that in another 1982 Canadian Signet book on ISFDB otherwise I would have entered it as a second printing. Should be approved soon; hopefully someone will upload a copy of this book to Archive.org someday. --Username (talk) 15:56, 20 July 2023 (EDT)

I noticed this morning that another editor has separated old novel & article, '82 horror novel, and recent short stories into 3 separate Wells. While looking into this I discovered there's a George O. Wells but searching for his story title inside Archive.org I discovered it's George R. Wells, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5721607, so that's a bonus. There's also a G. A. Wells that wrote a story for a 1923 issue of Weird Tales the same year that a George Wells wrote the novel from Stockwell so could that be the same person? A lot of Brits wrote stories for that zine. EDIT: Jeez, it turns out the other entry in that zine with George R. Wells is wrong, too, it's Inside of a Piece of Sugar. There's nearly 100 issues of Science and Invention on ISFDB and I doubt I came across the 1 issue with wrong names/titles so a thorough check is probably needed. EDIT: Fixed this, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?3036272, quotes around Loaded. --Username (talk) 08:13, 21 July 2023 (EDT)

Raw Brunettes

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1256247; Wild Women pub. history, searched on Google Books, says "first two sections" so that one should have (excerpt) after it and be separated from its full appearance in the Wordcraft book. I've been doing a lot of Wordcraft edits and their Speculative Writers series numbering is a mess, whether their fault or editors here I'm not sure, so that will probably need some discussion later on. --Username (talk) 15:19, 21 July 2023 (EDT)

Paksenarrion World Chronicles

With the publication (and entry) of Elizabeth Moon's new collection Deeds of Youth, I have created a new series named Paksenarrion World Chronicles. Would there be any objection to placing the older collection Deeds of Honor in it as number 1? I'd also like to remove the series name in the title and the cover artist (who's actually credited as the cover designer) from this publication which was sole PVed by the late Biomassbob. Phil (talk) 08:32, 22 July 2023 (EDT)

That would be fine. Please move the cover designer to the pub notes vs. completely removing. Thanks. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:38, 23 July 2023 (EDT)

Wrong Author and Their Variant

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5722391; I was going through Eerie, Indiana book series, got through first 4 before #5 only had a 3rd printing on Archive.org and I lost interest, but all of them (and I suspect the others, too) have a lot of missing/wrong info. Only 1 of the 4 was PV (O'Fearna) but 1 of the non-PV had a co-author who didn't co-write it. So now that I removed Mike Ford will the record for the book with his other name, Michael Thomas Ford, go away or does it have to be deleted or something? --Username (talk) 09:12, 22 July 2023 (EDT)

The proper way to deal with the parent is with a merge. I took care of it for you. John Scifibones 09:36, 22 July 2023 (EDT)

Bond, Stephen Bond

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5722846; Only 5 issues, none PV, all on Archive.org, figured I'd add links and a few minor things and that would be it, but of course I ran into trouble with the first issue (by the way, is the page count I entered correct?) because the Flying Saucer essay is by Stephen Lloyd, not Stephen Bond, but it is by Bond in the Fantastic Universe issue it originally appeared in. There's also the fact that a 2022 novel by a Stephen Lloyd was recently entered here so there goes that name. What would you like to be done? --Username (talk) 19:28, 22 July 2023 (EDT)

I accepted the edit. Yes, that page count was correct - for magazines we include the covers in the page count. As for the essay, I will unmerge it, credit it to a Stephen Lloyd (I), variant to the original, and create a new alternate name. Thanks. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:33, 23 July 2023 (EDT)

3rd issue had alternate title of Kapp's story so I imported that and deleted the wrong title. This, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?327861, has no alternate title but checking UK New Worlds on Luminist.org it's "The High Road" but it's "High Road" in US issue. EDIT: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?44455; it's "Waiting Grounds" in US issue, a title that apparently is not used anywhere else. EDIT: #5 seems OK so I think I'm done. I currently have 7 New Worlds edits plus 1 changing alternate title date of Kapp's story to match where it first appeared (more than 50 years earlier). --Username (talk) 10:30, 23 July 2023 (EDT)

Chaos Weapon

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?9236; I added Archive.org link to 1977 US PB in PENDING edit, as note says it's DiFate on copyright page, no space, but credit here is for Di Fate. Correct name was entered here for the 2 1984 editions so 2 1977 editions (and French edition) should probably be the same; DiFate has dozens of credits here already. I count half-a-dozen active PV of this edition. --Username (talk) 11:18, 23 July 2023 (EDT)

PSP

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5722877; Is there any word on whether Phil Stephensen-Payne is going to update to https? Because there are tens of thousands of images on ISFDB from his various sites. It's not exactly true that they don't display here, they do if you right-click and choose "Open image in new tab", but still. I just added an edit to his page here adding a link to a search engine at pulpflakes.com, chose Braunbeck at random and search engine immediately opened a new tab with the philsp.com record for Gary Braunbeck. This search engine IS https; come on, Mr. Payne, do the right thing and update your sites. --Username (talk) 18:13, 23 July 2023 (EDT)

Ted Koppel

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?161708; I remember adding to this page a long time ago, photo and possibly bio info, but as I came across the name just now while looking at Phil Stephensen-Payne's record I wonder if the famous newsman is the right Koppel. He was born in England but moved to America long before the 2001 UK edition of this, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1275674, where a Ted Koppel was co-author. Could there be a bio in the Harness work? Anyone own a copy? I assume if there is a different SF-related Koppel the 1979 essay in Starship would be by the same guy. --Username (talk) 18:38, 23 July 2023 (EDT)

Ingalls With Dirty Faces

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5724110; I was doing a whole mess of Rachel Ingalls edits and the very last one gave me trouble; is it just me or does anyone else see the replacement cover with black smudges on it? It doesn't look like the cover does on SFE. Amazon and SFE covers look pretty much the same so no real reason to replace it, anyway, I'd just like to know if I'm seeing things. --Username (talk) 10:58, 24 July 2023 (EDT)

Rage By FMA

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?166329; https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?269444; I mentioned this cover artist in my Zebra message above, FMA did covers for paperbacks in the 1970s, today while adding a link to an article about Stephen King's 1977 Richard Bachman novel Rage on the Fox News (!) website I noticed the spine (which isn't shown in the cover on ISFDB) had something that looked like a signature and it turned out it's FMA. I can't find a single mention anywhere online but I find it hard to believe a rank amateur like myself discovered something like this so if anyone can point to somewhere that mentions it I'd appreciate it. In the meantime I've made an edit adding cover artist to Rage; there's also a later British NEL PB on ISFDB with different cover art so maybe someone here can identify that artist, too. Identifying FMA would also be great. --Username (talk) 20:07, 24 July 2023 (EDT)

German J. Kirby

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?576053; Kirby died in 2001, this book is 2004, could be that the cover is re-used from some earlier English book, anyone recognize it so variant can be made? EDIT: I managed to figure this one out, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5724820, took a bit of looking because German cover here is the size of a postage stamp. I also did this, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5724821. There are others which need more looking into, a Piper 7th printing with no cover and a German Good Omens cover which has 3 editions that credit Kirby but none of the English editions credit him (?); on the plus side, I saw an OL-only copy of the Berkley edition of Good Omens so I added a link to that. --Username (talk) 17:54, 25 July 2023 (EDT)

I'm slowly working through the German editions and printings of Pratchett when i get a hand on them and with that Josh Kirby's artwork. I'll merge or variant them, whenever i can. Sometimes not easy, sometimes the german publisher used cutouts, even from english backcovers.

Here's an example where i couldn't find an english pub with the same picture yet Omnibus "Gevatter Tod/Wachen Wachen". So far i only found it on an 2001 Discworld wall calendar, which isn't listed here.

This might also be the case with the german "Good Omens" covers, maybe it comes from a calendar or portfolio but was never used for an english edition.

This one i have, i'd love to contribute a better image, but it's so shiny that scanning isn't possible, even a photo is tricky. Maybe some day when i figured out how to make a useable image. Welo (talk) 04:17, 26 July 2023 (EDT)

New yellow warning for conflicting submissions

FR 1453, "New yellow warning for conflicting submissions", has been implemented. Post-submission review pages for Edit Record submissions have been updated to display yellow warnings if the currently displayed submission overlaps/conflicts with another Edit Record submission.

Please note that the new warning won't be displayed when there is a conflict between an EditPub submission and a related EditTitle submission, at least for now. This is due to performance issues, but it may be possible to address them in the future. Ahasuerus (talk) 19:27, 25 July 2023 (EDT)

Out of the Unknown

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?34126; None of the notes in the various editions really mention "Second Edition" on copyright page so someone more familiar with the history maybe can tell me which record this copy, https://archive.org/search?query=%22out+of+the+unknown%22+fantasy, belongs to so I can add a link to it. --Username (talk) 22:59, 25 July 2023 (EDT)

John Gregory

[8]; Old pulp story and 70s SF novel aren't by the same John Gregory. Also, I made an edit adding OL ID to the novel and noting the bizarre situation where OL link to Archive.org leads to a Shakespeare book; searching for novel's title displays all of these, [9]. --Username (talk) 09:13, 26 July 2023 (EDT)

Parker Poltergeist

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?860463; I was going to add something to the Parker edition's publisher name to differ it from the 40-years-later Parker but really it probably shouldn't be here, being "true" paranormal junk by an author below the threshold whose only relevant credits are some cover art many years later. Ace edition has 2 PV, one gone, one active but transient. --Username (talk) 11:06, 26 July 2023 (EDT)

"Next Submission" link for self-approvers

Self-approvers now have access to the same "Next Submission" link that moderators have on post-submission review and post-approval pages. The difference is that the self-approvers' version of the "Next Submission" link takes them to the next submission created by themselves. Ahasuerus (talk) 19:19, 27 July 2023 (EDT)

Looking for an old story

G'day, Does anybody know of any sites or forums that could help me find an old short story? Cheers. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Nailgun Johnny (talk • contribs) .

We have compiled a list of resources that may help identify stories and novels. It's listed in the FAQ, but it's short enough to re-post it here:

• Book Sleuth on AbeBooks
• printSF subreddit on Reddit
• rec.arts.sf.written newsgroup
• Tip of My Tongue
• What's the Name of That Book??? on Goodreads

HTH! Ahasuerus (talk) 21:32, 27 July 2023 (EDT)

Or you could just give a description of the story here and let us try to figure it out. --Username (talk) 07:56, 28 July 2023 (EDT)

Award display enhancement

Award records which have Notes associated with them now display a mouse-over bubble with the Notes text, e.g. see the "Awards" section of this Title bibliography page. The presence of mouse-over information is indicated by the ⓘ character, which is the same character that we use in the "Other Titles" section to indicate the presence of Notes. Ahasuerus (talk) 08:20, 28 July 2023 (EDT)

Thanks for picking this up after I dropped the ball somewhat. One bug I just noticed: templates don't seem to be rendered in the bubble.

e.g. if you go to this year's Hugos, and scroll down to Best Series, the text is rendered as { { S|Seriesname } }. I've a feeling the rendered link might be impossible for a user to click on - as the bubble disappears if you mouseover it, although maybe keyboard navigation could get to it? - so perhaps if that just rendered as ordinary HTML text, that'd be sufficent? ErsatzCulture (talk) 10:24, 28 July 2023 (EDT)

Thanks for reporting the problem. Oddly enough, the "Other Titles" section renders bubbles correctly even though it uses the same code. Let me poke around... Ahasuerus (talk) 11:14, 28 July 2023 (EDT)

And fixed. Ahasuerus (talk) 17:58, 28 July 2023 (EDT)

Barzman Twinkle

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?20160; I just added 2 links in a PENDING edit to Archive.org copies of the Book Club edition, 1 from 2010, 1 from just a few weeks ago. Title has no commas on cover seen many places online, two commas on ISFDB, 1 comma on title page. I can only find club copies online so if anyone has/can find non-club copy and it only has 1 comma then all titles, regular, both editions, cover art, can be fixed to just one comma. --Username (talk) 08:56, 28 July 2023 (EDT)

Helen Chen

https://fantlab.ru/art34256; https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5727128; Someone familiar with Chinese name standardization can decide whether Mingjue is her legal name and needs to be added or whatever after my edit is approved. --Username (talk) 18:39, 28 July 2023 (EDT)

French Reeves-Stevens

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5727232; As usual when I make a rare attempt to enter a foreign edition I'm sure some improvements can be made after approval. I'll just mention that NooSFere calls artist Kopik and ISFDB has 4 credits for that name but it also has 1 for Copik so someone who knows can decide on parent and variant, although partial signature starts with C so that seems to be the real name. Also, what does that phrase on the back mean, Maquette Vaporetto? Online check seems to imply it means "steamboat sketch" but that can't be right. --Username (talk) 19:49, 28 July 2023 (EDT)

Greg Reeves

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5727251; I don't think this is by Garfield Reeves-Stevens. Nothing about the opening pages in Amazon Look Inside matches anything in the 2 copies of Dark Matter by Reeves-Stevens on Archive.org. Maybe this, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2563054, is really by Reeves-Stevens or maybe not. The novel, however, should be separated into a different author, I think. --Username (talk) 20:00, 28 July 2023 (EDT)

'Publications not in a Publication Series' pages updated

As per FR 952, 'Show covers' and 'Show Last Year First' are now available on all 'Publications not in a Publication Series' pages. Please let me know if you run into any issues with pages like https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubs_not_in_series.cgi?17013 . Ahasuerus (talk) 21:46, 28 July 2023 (EDT)

Bonvissuto

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=bonvis&type=Name; I added Goodreads page (with photo) and middle name to Stephanie, added IMDB page (with 1 credit) to Steven A., and made Steve a variant of Steven A., but that S. is a mystery. No info online for the 2 story titles except the usual Locus/Philsp pages, might be Steve(n) or Stephanie, if anyone ever finds out they can make a variant. --Username (talk) 12:29, 29 July 2023 (EDT)

Bebeto

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=bebeto&type=Name; They're both wrong, I think, first record should be Bebeto DarOZ, not Bebeto Dar0Z, and the other one should be the same. Publisher who PV one of them has been gone for years so no use asking; artist has a YouTube channel as Bebeto DarOZ. --Username (talk) 16:52, 29 July 2023 (EDT)

Merlins

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?62818; https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5728318; I think that very old Merlin record with missing/wrong info can be deleted. --Username (talk) 08:22, 30 July 2023 (EDT)

New yellow warning when a changed Publication date is before one of the Title dates

Post-submission review pages for Edit Publication submissions have been modified. If an EditPub submission changes the publication's date and the resulting date would be prior to one (or more) of the Title dates in the Contents section, the review page will display a yellow warning with a list of affected titles.

Please note that, at this time, the warning is only displayed for Edit Publication submissions. NewPubs, AddPubs and ClonePubs are currently not affected. Ahasuerus (talk) 08:50, 31 July 2023 (EDT)

I Purposely triggered one, very nice addition. Thanks John Scifibones 14:11, 31 July 2023 (EDT)

Glad to hear it's useful!

I believe this wraps up the software changes requested in April-July. Due to a number of reasons -- including the fact that Microsoft plans to stop security patches for Windows 10 in 2025 and the current version of Fixer requires Windows 10 -- I plan to concentrate on migrating Fixer to Linux, Python and MySQL as the next big project. Ahasuerus (talk) 09:27, 2 August 2023 (EDT)

Taurus Canada

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5721363; Am I right that like a lot of PB publishers in the 1980s, DAW Books for example, Canadian Signet editions' number lines start with 2? In other words, this is not a second printing and should be un-rejected? --Username (talk) 10:12, 1 August 2023 (EDT)

Warlock of Firetop Mountain

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5730397; Some issues with this. As can be seen on the back cover, the artist is Peter Andrew Jones, not Peter Jones. Also, there's only 2 foreign editions on ISFDB that actually include the 21 numbered pages in the page count. Also, the Archive.org copy (the only FF book on the uploader's page) is messy but I think the first page would be 13-14 and the last would be 99-100 of which one of those last pages is not part of the game book, so 13-99 x 2 would be 174 pages, not 170. So if anyone owns/can get a look at the very first Puffin original edition and it says Peter Andrew Jones that would entail a bit of a nightmare because a lot of the later editions from various publishers would need to be checked to make sure they actually said Peter Jones or if they really say the full name and editors here just imported the original edition's (incorrect) artist name. First edition would also need checking to see if those first 21 pages are numbered and a manual page count would be needed to determine how many unnumbered pages there are. The artist issue arose because whoever entered the name got it from an art book and not the actual book itself, a problem which has led to many names being wrong here, of which I suspect there are many more in the FF series that will need fixing. Fun times ahead; there are hundreds of archived copies of these books. On a side note, I entered a whole bunch of fantasy illustrator photos a while back including Steve Jackson (this one and the other one from the USA who also did FF books and just coincidentally had the same name) but apparently Ian Livingstone escaped me because he has no photo so if anyone can find a good one then they can add it to his record. --Username (talk) 13:56, 1 August 2023 (EDT)

My recollection is that he was always credited as "Peter Andrew Jones" on these, and I was surprised when I saw that "Peter Jones" was recorded here as his primary name. Fighting Fantasy is pretty well documented, so it shouldn't be hard to verify this - somewhere I have a copy of You Are The Hero which covers this stuff, in addition to all the online references.

As for Ian Livingstone, there are loads of photos of him around, as he's pretty high profile in the UK, like appearing on our version of The Apprentice. The Wikipedia photo is CC BY-SA 2.0 licensed, so I assume that can be used if nothing better is found. ErsatzCulture (talk) 14:19, 1 August 2023 (EDT)

I decided to look at #2 in the series, The Citadel of Chaos, and added a link to a nasty raggedy copy of some Puffin edition which has no way to tell what printing it is because a bunch of pages are missing from the front (I just added link to title record), also added a link to another Puffin printing which some mysterious PV named PortofHamburg added not too long ago but he/she didn't specify the printing history so I made a best guess and added the link to that record, and also corrected page count for recent Scholastic edition from 232 to 236 using a later printing on Archive.org. So if just 2 books have so much to do there are dozens more waiting. Not to mention the umpteen Wizard reprints which I'm not even going to touch, although I may have added a few links to some of them long ago, hard to remember. --Username (talk) 15:07, 1 August 2023 (EDT)

Gentlewomen of Evil

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5730762; Recent copy has a totally different back cover; possible reprint? Copyright page looks the same to me in both copies. Also, recent copy has a penciled-in date on the front flap and, just maybe, the bottom of the price barely visible above it, which contradicts the note someone wrote here which says there's no price in the book; someone else obviously got it from somewhere. So a little mystery here that someone may be able to figure out. --Username (talk) 18:25, 1 August 2023 (EDT)

Night SHADOWS by Mary SELLERS

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?963498; RTrace just entered this, I wasted my time tracking down the ID on BookScans and adding cover image, ISBN, and price, only for the software to tell me the URL was already on file because Rosab618 entered the book back in May but spelled the name wrong, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?949221, which is probably why RTrace couldn't find it and thought it was an unentered book. So I've cancelled my edit; the recent one should probably be deleted, Reginald ID moved over, last name corrected, and ISBN that's on top of the cover should be entered. --Username (talk) 00:02, 2 August 2023 (EDT)

I've essentially merged the two publication records. Thanks. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 06:52, 2 August 2023 (EDT)

Great. I also replaced Cat's Amazon cover with BookScans cover which is the same except bigger, added Goodreads ID to Bayou (they call her May, not Mary) and uploaded their cover which doesn't seem to be anywhere else, and just added archived link to Gambler, which was uploaded in March. I also learned from Gambler's dedication that she's the wife of Con Sellers so I added husband/wife A| links to both of them. I also see in Con Sellers papers at USM (which mentions he married Mary Raineri in 1943) that they include most of Mary's book titles so maybe he co-wrote them without credit? EDIT: Shouldn't ISBN be added to Night Shadows? --Username (talk) 08:17, 2 August 2023 (EDT)

No One Goes There Now

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5731000; As can be seen at the Archive.org links the real cover is totally different but no image can be found on Amazon, SFE, OL, FantLab, etc., so if someone wants to upload it from somewhere. Also, author's name is William Walling on title page so variant is wrong. --Username (talk) 00:52, 2 August 2023 (EDT)

Submission approved, author credit corrected and cover image replaced. John Scifibones 08:41, 4 August 2023 (EDT)

Ralph Blum

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1794382; I added Archive.org link to UK HC of Blum's novel; there's no reason for that non-fiction book to be here because author is not "above the threshold" and book is just New Age nonsense about runes, one of many the author has written. So delete and keep the review? --Username (talk) 17:38, 2 August 2023 (EDT)

If the publication is deleted as ineligible, you must remove this REVIEW title from this publication and delete it. Then you add an ESSAY type title for the review. For example, 'Review of "The Book of Runes" by Ralph Blum' and the reviewer Paulette Minaré is the author. Often, you will see the reason an essay title is appropriate in the title. Review of the non-genre book, review of the film, etc. I suggest you allow a week for any objections. John Scifibones 18:30, 2 August 2023 (EDT)

I have deleted the one publication but do think it's best to keep the title (I've added a note): this way we don't have to undergo the change of the publication with the review. Also, we already have some only titles that way (also for awards).

But if you think it's better to emphasize the change, that'd also be okay. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 11:39, 9 August 2023 (EDT)

Username: Since it has been a week and Stonecreek has deleted the publication, go ahead and submit the four edits I outlined above. I'll approve when I see them.

Stonecreek: We have no policy provision for creating title records for ineligible publications. I'm surprised you would suggest this in a thread where I'm advising the proper treatment. Not only are you misleading this editor, but all the others who monitor the boards. If you think your method has merit, start a discussion on Rules and Standards. John Scifibones 16:36, 9 August 2023 (EDT)

Dating Bentley Little

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?593285; What should title date of Evil Deeds be? --Username (talk) 09:17, 3 August 2023 (EDT)

If you are referring to this title record, the date of its first appearance. 1994-05-00. John Scifibones 10:53, 3 August 2023 (EDT)

Mike Turner disambiguation

I don't "do" SFnal stuff on Facebook, but I do search for mentions of ISFDB every now and again. If there is anyone is active on FB, they might want to follow-up this comment that indicates the current Mike Turner record conflates 2 or more people. As a stopgap, I've added an author note to raise awareness of the issue. ErsatzCulture (talk) 19:37, 4 August 2023 (EDT)

IA's Worlds of Science Fiction

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5733923; PV is gone, LCCN links up to a couple of other Asimov works on LoC, cover art not credited but likely from some issue of Asimov's magazine, so if anyone knows where it came from or what to do with the LCCN. --Username (talk) 13:18, 5 August 2023 (EDT)

I found https://lccn.loc.gov/81101251. Since the printed LCCN is live, I left it, added this one as a second LCCN ID, and added a note about what we see printed in the archive.org copy and what we find on the LOC site today. --MartyD (talk) 06:50, 7 August 2023 (EDT)

Altered Ego

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5734917; It's been 13 years so nobody's rushing to replace that ragged copy; if anyone here owns it and can upload it to Archive.org so there's a complete copy that would be good, although not strictly necessary because there's an HC edition archived in 2020, too. I see a lot of Pennant copies on eBay so I don't think it's very rare. --Username (talk) 13:02, 6 August 2023 (EDT)

International Polygonics LCCN

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?180301; I just entered this publisher's edition of William O'Farrell's 1942 novel Repeat Performance and only afterwards saw LCCN on copyright page is not on LoC site; I didn't go back and remove it and add a note about it because going back sometimes erases info. I checked the dozen or so other books by the publisher on ISFDB and 1 LCCN was entered and is on their site, 1 was entered in notes as not being on their site, and the one linked above is not on their site but the previous book in the series, Nine Times Nine, is in an International Polygonics edition but hasn't been entered here (yet). 2 PV, one transient and one who has no messages on their board, so should LCCN be removed and moved to notes? Also, can someone approve my edit so I can remove and move, too. --Username (talk) 13:48, 6 August 2023 (EDT)

Permabooks Problems

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?8005; I added an Archive.org link to Moon Pilot and noticed while it says it was originally published as Starfire in December ISFDB note gives it the date of the printing, October. Also, https://www.garysvintagebooks.com/product-page/son-of-flubber-by-walt-disney, where date is March with printing in January but ISFDB note has no month and note surmises that it was published in May or June because it comes between 2 other books with surrounding catalog numbers but likely months are wrong because some editors entered the printing date instead of the publication date. There's only 40+ Permabooks on ISFDB so this shouldn't be too hard to sort out. At least 2 active PV of Starfire, Rudam and Willem, so they may want to fix their month if that's the right thing to do. --Username (talk) 19:32, 6 August 2023 (EDT)

Courtney and Triffids

https://archive.org/search?query=triffids+ballantine&sort=-addeddate; Third printing (not on ISFDB) says R. Courtney on copyright page; not credited in Fawcett editions but PV of 1986 Del Rey 1st printing, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?902545, decided to just make the name the canonical name, which is wrong because it's credited as R., so I think it should be changed to R. for all editions and made a variant of Richard. Also, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?356604, where all 3 are based on signatures only (all entered by me last December), so what to do with those? --Username (talk) 20:53, 6 August 2023 (EDT)

Ghouls

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5735718; Invalid ISBN which does get a hit on LoC and a few sites online, so a look at that would be good by whoever approves this edit. --Username (talk) 11:17, 7 August 2023 (EDT)

Tilley

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?4506; Dark Corners was on Archive.org so I added a link and then discovered the title and several story titles/dates were also wrong so I fixed everything, I think; I also imported 4 stories into Something Else because even though someone wrote a note about titles being on WorldCat they only imported a few of them. Now here's the problem: "Medical Practice" is listed as the only new story but there's another one, "Attack of the Hiccups", which is not on ISFDB or anywhere else I can find. So if someone knows/owns/can find out that would help to complete the contents. --Username (talk) 19:55, 7 August 2023 (EDT)

Tarth?

https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/dail_c_c; Just a little something I came across that someone here with connections to SFE may be able to get fixed. The last word in the title on the cover has a trailing bottom line and a middle thing that is not on the A's in "Savage" so it does say "Earth" on the cover, just printed in a fancy way. Note about "Tarth" should be changed to "Earth". --Username (talk) 11:09, 8 August 2023 (EDT)

You can send feedback using this form. They're pretty responsive. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:45, 8 August 2023 (EDT)

Done. --Username (talk) 16:26, 8 August 2023 (EDT)

Wow, John Clute ("An interesting and informative exchange. The cover script is certainly eccentric, but the standard typeface announcing Chapter 22 carries the day") and David Langford ("Thanks for this suggestion. It's an interesting theory but I'm not convinced. The flourishes belong to the A in Tarth and the first letter is thus surely a T. This is confirmed in the book's text, where chapter XXII is titled in clear capitals THE SAVAGE TARTHS -- MAN'S PROGENITORS") responded in an e-mail. I see their point; Tarths are a race of beings in the book. Oh well. --Username (talk) 09:43, 14 August 2023 (EDT)

W. P. Maynard

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2449000; https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1133886; Different titles, different names, in case anyone can verify anything and merge or variant. --Username (talk) 16:56, 8 August 2023 (EDT)

It's sorted out now. Good find, John Scifibones 17:33, 8 August 2023 (EDT)

Dredd

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?4530; I added Archive.org links to both editions, copyright page of USA says UK came first but ISFDB has UK as second, also UK cover is actually same image as USA except with Boxtree on it, so if anyone knows where that yellow UK cover really belongs or what the real dates of the editions are let us know so they can be fixed. --Username (talk) 18:34, 10 August 2023 (EDT)

Canadian Sheep Look Up

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5738856; Before I leave a message to PV of this edition here, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?30229, asking him to fix publisher and add month from their note, whose price is right? If it's printed in Canada then Canadian price should be correct, right? --Username (talk) 18:48, 11 August 2023 (EDT)

Angels Inc.

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5739007; The only photos of the actual print book I can find are on a horrible Amazon page with the smallest (100x100) photos possible; https://www.amazon.com/N-G-L-S-Robert-Author-Bliss/dp/0072298235. If anyone can find some site with properly-sized photos then the cover can be uploaded. I'm wondering why McGraw-Hill didn't publish any genre books between 1990 and 1998 according to ISFDB and then published a weirdly priced paperback like this; another odd thing is that of the 120 other books by them on ISFDB there's only one other PB, a David Hartwell anthology, but other books with the same price are classed as TP, so that might need to be changed to TP, too, and also possibly this Bliss book. --Username (talk) 23:35, 11 August 2023 (EDT)

Boak

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=boak&type=Name; I entered an artist named Kathy Boake for some kiddie books and while doing so noticed that these people, A. Graham Boak/Graham Boak/Gray Boak, are one and the same. So if anyone can decide what the parent name should be those can all be linked together. --Username (talk) 11:29, 12 August 2023 (EDT)

ISFDB server downtime 2023-08-12 6pm

The ISFDB server will be briefly unavailable due to maintenance starting at 6pm server (Eastern Daylight) time. It should be back up after 5-10 minutes. Ahasuerus (talk) 17:12, 12 August 2023 (EDT)

The server was back up at 6:12pm. Ahasuerus (talk) 18:18, 12 August 2023 (EDT)

Brunner and Stuff

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubseries.cgi?121; After adding many, many links to John Brunner books over the last few days I was finishing up when I noticed that there are 2 items on his page listed as anthologies that are just 2-novel doubles like the hundred or so other ones listed as omnibus. As can be seen at the link above, some of those Belmont Doubles are anthology, some omnibus, and some collection. So should those 2 Brunner anthologies be changed to omnibus and what should be the standard for the Belmonts? --Username (talk) 19:30, 12 August 2023 (EDT)

See Template:PublicationFields:PubType for all the details, but for the cases at your link:

• Multiple short fiction by same author = collection
• Multiple short fiction by different authors = anthology
• Multiple novels = omnibus

The Brunner entries (Father of Lies / Mirror Image & The Evil That Men Do / The Purloined Planet) both consist of two novellas by different authors and so are correctly entered as anthologies. -- JLaTondre (talk) 19:58, 12 August 2023 (EDT)

Request for messages from international fans by a Chinese Hugo finalist - any interest in an ISFDB contribution?

This came up on Twitter a couple of days ago - the Chinese fan who uses the handle RiverFlow/河流 is planning an issue of his fanzine Zero-G SF which will have hand-written messages from fans around the world. There are some examples of what they've already received at the bottom of this Chinese language webpage.

I don't participate in any sort of offline or real-world fandom, but I wondered if there'd be interest in some sort of ISFDB contribution? I was thinking of maybe a general "Hello from ISFDB" message - precise wording to be worked here on Community Portal - with some sort of collage/grid of short handwritten individual messages from ISFDB contributors. For the latter, I was thinking maybe stuff that might fit on a square-shaped Post It note e.g.:

• Your username at ISFDB
• Your location(s) - city, state, country as appropriate, basically the sort of thing that gets put in author birthplace entries
• Date you signed it
• Possibly a short personalized message

I don't think this would be worth doing unless we have at least half-a-dozen individual contributions, preferably a dozen or more. Any interest? ErsatzCulture (talk) 09:39, 13 August 2023 (EDT)

The Twitter post says:

• If you want to send a signed, dated handwritten note in any language from anywhere in the world (but espclly Europe), wishing them well and supporting the project, email me at [snip]

I am not sure what the "project" in question is, but the ISFDB -- as an organization/project -- generally does not endorse or support other projects. We can and do link to other sites, from Wikipedia to SFE, but that doesn't mean that we support them as institutions.

Of course, ISFDB editors -- individually or in groups -- are free to contribute to and/or support any projects they want as long as they do it as individuals.

Based on the above, I would change "Hello from ISFDB" to "Hello from the following ISFDB editors". Ahasuerus (talk) 12:32, 13 August 2023 (EDT)

Sorry for overstepping the mark. If anyone's interested in contributing to this, maybe a better venue is to email me at {anythingyoulike}@ersatzculture.com, and discuss it further there. ErsatzCulture (talk) 14:09, 13 August 2023 (EDT)

No worries! The Community Portal is the best place to post announcements and it's entirely possible that some editors may want to write one or more postcards. It's all good. Ahasuerus (talk) 15:08, 13 August 2023 (EDT)

Ché Monro

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?367447; My old edit fixing name was finally approved and then I discovered there's 2 other records for this author, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?210757 and https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?365512, which have the same story, published within a month of each other by the same publisher, but the first name has the accent in a different place and has the ISFDB "question mark" thing after it. So 3 names, 1 story each, parent needs deciding and that 2012 story needs merging. --Username (talk) 10:47, 13 August 2023 (EDT)

Sorted out. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:46, 19 August 2023 (EDT)

Gordon Browne

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?14029; Story likely by another guy; this page, https://www.blackgate.com/2015/11/07/fantastic-january-1962-a-retro-review/, slags off our site about it, so maybe a (I) or something should be added to author's name. --Username (talk) 21:13, 13 August 2023 (EDT)

Separated out. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:48, 19 August 2023 (EDT)

Mr. Wright

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?231886; Non-fiction should probably be by Allan Wright; Alan was an old-time illustrator. --Username (talk) 21:16, 13 August 2023 (EDT)

Separated them out. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:36, 19 August 2023 (EDT)

Turkish Blatty

https://archive.org/search?query=seytan+blatty; A Turkish (!) edition of The Exorcist got uploaded recently in case anyone fluent wants to enter it. --Username (talk) 23:01, 13 August 2023 (EDT)

Pulphouse Dates

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?60072; Date for Landis and Frazier stories, both included in September 1991's The Best of Pulphouse, is 1991 and they are called reprints but the only entry for Issue Twelve on ISFDB is dated 1993. William F. Wu's bibliography, https://www.williamfwu.com/complete-list-of-short-fiction, has a confusing double listing for Issue Twelve, one in 1991 edited by K.K. Rusch and the other in 1993 edited by D.W. Smith, but ISFDB has them both as 1993 in Issue Twelve edited by K.K. Rusch. So I think all the original stories in Issue Twelve should really be dated 1991 unless there's something odd that I don't see. On a side note, a site named Anna's Archive uploaded several issues (#2-10 + Buried Treasures) of Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine as PDF's. Authorized or not, they are there for research purposes in case anyone needs them; getting a real print copy of any of them is next to impossible because they were limited editions and most were bought up by collectors, so not exactly something you can find at your local library. --Username (talk) 12:51, 14 August 2023 (EDT)

Jane Wagner(s) ?

I do assume that there are two different Jane Wagners' works listed under [10], some by the dramaturgist & script writer, the others by a fan. Would anybody know that the two are in fact one and the same person (else, it'd be better to separate the two)? Christian Stonecreek (talk) 11:27, 15 August 2023 (EDT)

Living Dead Head

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5742916; A foreign-language book I came across, as usual fluent people can probably improve after approval. One of the links I provided includes contents page in case anyone can decipher the small story titles and enter them. --Username (talk) 08:49, 16 August 2023 (EDT)

Far Out

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5743690; I was going to delete the intro because it's not in the archived copy but then I noticed that the first story starts on p. 13 but there are much fewer than 12 pages preceding it so I have a suspicion that it fell out/got ripped out from this ragged ex-library copy. So if anyone owns this edition (I was surprised page numbers for stories weren't entered and even year was wrong; I assumed most of these old SF books were pretty much taken care of long ago) they can verify if intro is there and delete if it's not. I'm not sure what the "5+" in the page count was about so I removed it. No cover images in any usable places so if anyone wants to upload one they can do so although it's just the standard boring yellow Gollancz cover. --Username (talk) 21:22, 16 August 2023 (EDT)

Smallcreep's Day

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?955909; [11]; Panther edition archived so I entered link and other stuff, says Peter C. on cover and title page, original Gollancz HC says Peter C. on cover but full name on title page as can be seen in photo linked above, so I'm mentioning this here because I can never remember if changing a name in one edition has a ripple effect; author's page has some info on it that might be erased (or not). Panther needs to be made a variant. --Username (talk) 22:03, 16 August 2023 (EDT)

Publication edit accepted, Panther edition unmerged from other, and new title varianted to old. -- JLaTondre (talk) 09:02, 19 August 2023 (EDT)

DF Lewis

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?1187; I've been adding links to some of this dude's hundreds of stories (and there are many more in obscure genre or non-genre publications that aren't on this site) since I've always wondered how someone whose writing was so incomprehensible and sometimes downright terrible managed to get published in so many places. It goes all the way back to when I would look forward each year to the new edition of Karl Edward Wagner's Year's Best Horror Stories which sadly ended 30 years ago. He included some Lewis tales and it always annoyed me because I knew he could have picked another story that was far better (and more horrific) but he seemed to have a touch of elitism where he would include pretentious and often barely-horror stories in each edition just to show his street cred, I guess. Anyway, many of the links I've been adding mention zines that are genre but not entered here; one that came up recently was End of the Millennium which featured Lewis in several issues. The story I added a link for was in #11 from 1999, which seems logical considering the title of the zine, but I (and the mod who initially rejected my edit) couldn't find any mention of it anywhere online except on Lewis-related sites. So if anyone can find verifiable info on any issues that would be good to enter. Take a look at this, https://nullimmortalis.wordpress.com/2010/08/20/dfl-partial-bibliography/, and marvel at all those obscure publications. It's a gold mine. --Username (talk) 19:09, 17 August 2023 (EDT)

I've entered many more story links recently but I thought I'd mention that when adding a link to "Dabbling With Diabelli" found at one of the author's dozens (literally) of websites I searched for a random line of the story's text on Google since that sometimes helps in finding stories online if the title is misspelled and only got one hit, https://books.google.com/books?id=4VVSsLbba9kC, so this guy actually got one of his fictions into a book of true-life tales! Unbelievable. --Username (talk) 11:39, 17 September 2023 (EDT)

Schwalme

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=schwalm&type=Name; These 2 Germans are probably the same person; whether one is spelled wrong originally and needs to be a variant or whether it's entered wrong here and needs fixing and merging is the question. --Username (talk) 19:59, 17 August 2023 (EDT)

Good find! This is in fact documented with the entry at DNB. I'll do the necessary pseudonyming. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 06:07, 19 August 2023 (EDT)

Another Dracula

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=another+dracula&type=All+Titles; 1930 publication of this title says it only appeared as a serial but there it is in one of the million Peter Haining anthologies in 1982 (with no question mark). Sadly, it's a William Kimber book, rare they are, so no archived copies. Richard Dalby site's copy doesn't help with any info that's not already here so if anyone owns it maybe they can say what the title is/if it's the full serial so it can be a variant or a merge. --Username (talk) 22:30, 18 August 2023 (EDT)

Feast of Laughter

https://www.feastoflaughter.org/; I have 4 PENDING edits replacing Google Drive links to issues 1-4 with the ones currently online but #5 apparently was never entered here. Differences between print and e. Mentioning this in case anyone feels like entering it. --Username (talk) 19:38, 20 August 2023 (EDT)

Yoh-Vombis

https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/User_talk:Rtrace#Yoh-Vombis; No help there so if anyone else can help/owns a copy a response would be appreciated. --Username (talk) 19:40, 20 August 2023 (EDT)

Phantasmagoria

● Just to let people know Phantasmagoria as listed on this site is really Phantasmagoria Special Edition. Phantasmagoria and Phantasmagoria Special Edition are two different magazines. Unless anybody minds, I’m going to have to change this soon. MLB (talk) 00:38, 21 August 2023 (EDT)

Weir - Project Hail Mary

I have the 2022 edition of this title and it contains the two pages of rocket diagrams by David Lindroth (credited, as noted in similar pubs, on the copyright page as "Rocket diagrams: © David Lindroth Inc.").

Currently, Lindroth's diagrams are titled "Project Hail Mary". So far, so good, but the diagrams are titled "Thrust Configuration" at the top left of the first of the two pages. Because they are titled, I propose retitling this title as "Thrust Configuration" (no disambiguation needed). Would this be correct? Also, there doesn't seem to be any difference to warrant separation in this title and so it could be merged. Comments please. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 04:27, 21 August 2023 (EDT)

No objection to your proposals. Seems useful and clear, and not overly burdensome for verifiers. Markwood (talk) 14:43, 21 August 2023 (EDT)

The rules (see Title-Artwork) state that Interior art should have the same title as the fiction or essay it is associated with. If it is independent of other content, and has no apparent title or caption, give it the title of the publication in which it appears, disambiguating if necessary. This, imo, implies that for art illustrating a piece of fiction (or is otherwise part of the story), it should get the title of the work it's associated with. Or, alternatively, if the work isn't associated with a title, and it has a title of its own, only then can it be entered using its title - but note that the rules don't actually say that explicitly. The TitleType/INTERIORART entry says, a.o., If the illustration has a separate title or caption, document in the illustration's Notes field. The rule doesn't state that you can use it as title for the interior art.

So, per the rules the title should stay as-is - unless, you want to argue that the illustration is in no way associated with the novel?

Concerning the duplicate title, those can be merged (seems unlikely that there'd be (meaningful) differences between editions).

PS. you can always start a rules discussion over at the R&S if you'd like... Regards, MagicUnk (talk) 06:22, 22 August 2023 (EDT)

and has no apparent title or caption, is the qualifying part of that first sentence. That's why I wrote "Because they are titled". Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 21:05, 22 August 2023 (EDT)

That qualifying part does not apply if it is not independent of other content. Since the art illustrates the novel (hence not independent) the novel's title is to be used per the first rules sentence, and the actual title added to the notes. Also, I cannot find it explicitly anywhere in the rules that the actual title of INTERIORART could be used any other circumstances. Merely, we can only infer (I think) from the rules text that when it is not related to anything in the publication, its actual title can (should) be used. Regards, MagicUnk (talk) 07:49, 23 August 2023 (EDT)

IF (independent AND Has_No_title) THEN Use_Pub_Title ELSE 'UNDEFINED'

If 'Has_No_title == FALSE (i.e. there -is- a title), we don't really know what to do, do we? Also, if 'independent' == FALSE (meaning, actually illustrating (part of) the work), we don't know what do do either, unless we're referring to the first sentence, which says:

IF (NOT independent) THEN Use_Pub_Title ELSE GOTO 'code above' (with NOT independent being equivalent to 'associated') MagicUnk (talk) 08:23, 23 August 2023 (EDT)

Although it most likely could be stated more elegantly, this is what I get from my understanding of the Help (and implications) for Artwork; "Interior art should have the same title as the fiction or essay it is associated with. If it is independent of other content, and has no apparent title or caption, give it the title of the publication in which it appears, disambiguating if necessary.".

There are 4 scenarios to resolve:

(1) Art is independent (i.e, not associated) and is not captioned.

(2) Art is independent (i.e, not associated) and is captioned.

(3) Art is not independent (i.e, is associated) and is not captioned.

(4) Art is not independent (i.e, is associated) and is captioned.

Therefore:

If independent AND Has_No_Caption Then

Use_Pub_Title (...scenario (1))

Else

If independent Then

Use_Caption_Title (...scenario (2))

Else

If Has_No_Caption Then

Use_Associated_Title (...scenario (3))

Else

Use_Caption_Title (...scenario (4))

Endif

Endif

Endif

There is a problem if one arrives at the last instruction and the art carries a different caption to the work it is associated with, but that's beyond our purpose here.

Here and here is an example where a single piece of untitled artwork is used in both independent and associated contexts; as a frontispiece and embedded in a short story. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 23:14, 24 August 2023 (EDT)

If I'm not making an error while analyzing your logic, it boils down to: "if it has a caption, use it. In all other cases, use the associated title". Honestly, that's a simple rule, and would work for me. However, that is not what I'm reading in the current rules text. I think this warrants further discussion and clarification. Shall we move this discussion to R&S? Regards, MagicUnk (talk) 08:08, 25 August 2023 (EDT)

Good idea, it would be nice to find out what the small print is :) See Interior art - do we use artwork captions in the titling. Thanks, Kev.--BanjoKev (talk) 20:43, 25 August 2023 (EDT)

Server maintenance 2023-08-21 1pm EDT

The server will be briefly unavailable between 1pm and 1:05pm server (Eastern Daylight) time. Ahasuerus (talk) 12:24, 21 August 2023 (EDT)

The server is back up. Hopefully the pesky problem with one of the Wiki tables growing uncontrollably has been fixed for good. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:05, 21 August 2023 (EDT)

"Achevé D'Imprimer" and "Dépôt Légal" - possible new templates

We have thousands of French publications which use "Achevé D'Imprimer" and "Dépôt Légal" in Notes. For example, consider Aux portes de l'épouvante, which says:

• Achevé D'Imprimer = None on book
• Dépôt Légal = None on book

or take La charnière du temps:

• Achevé D'Imprimer = Publication Date
• Dépôt Légal = September 1987 (nearly matches AI)

Most of our users are presumably not familiar with these terms. How about we create simple (i.e. no parameters, just explanatory text) Notes templates of the same names explaining what they mean? Once the new templates are defined, I can create a database script to replace "Achevé D'Imprimer" and "Dépôt Légal" with "{{Achevé D'Imprimer}}" and "{{Dépôt Légal}}". Ahasuerus (talk) 13:16, 21 August 2023 (EDT)

Fine idea, which I do support! Christian Stonecreek (talk) 13:25, 21 August 2023 (EDT)

A quick clarification to make sure that we are all on the same page. The proposal wouldn't change the way "Achevé D'Imprimer" and "Dépôt Légal" are displayed. It would only add mouse-over bubbles explaining what the terms mean. Ahasuerus (talk) 11:38, 22 August 2023 (EDT)

Yes. But it would be a good idea for those not knowing what those terms could possibly mean. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 11:55, 22 August 2023 (EDT)

What about : "Achevé d'imprimer" = "printing completed on…" (note not all AIs are dated) and "Dépôt légal" = "officially registered on…" ? The "dépôt légal" also implies that the publisher is legally expected to send one or two copies of the new book to the BnF (Bibliothèque nationale de France). Furthermore, it would be necessary to explain, I think, that the date of the "dépôt légal” can differ sensibly from the printing date, as it is a purely formal business, which can easily follow the date of actual publication by a few months (I know, this happened to some of my own books…). Linguist (talk) 08:45, 23 August 2023 (EDT).

Thanks for chiming in! A couple of questions to make sure that I understand the process correctly:

"Printing completed": Is this the date when the last copy of the print run was physically produced? In the US, the date when copies were physically produced and the date when they were "published", i.e. made available to the public, are often different. For example, the first printing of an edition may be printed in April and arrive in bookstores in May or June. Is it the same in France or are the "printing date" and the "publication date" so close as to be the same for most practical purposes?

"Officially registered". Can the "Dépôt légal" date precede the publication date or is it always the same as or later than the publication date? The reason I am asking is that we have come across cases where the copyright date was months or even years (!) prior to the publication date, which confused some cataloging librarians.

Ahasuerus (talk) 11:25, 23 August 2rif023 (EDT)

I didn't come across any case where the publication date precedes the "dépôt légal" date: the other way around does happen, though (for example, a higher printing doesn't need a new "dépôt légal"; usually the "dépôt légal" for the first printing is stated).

For the publication date: this seems to correspond to the "dépôt légal" for first printings, see the modern (after, say, 2012) correspondence of "dépôt légal" and date of publication per Amazon (or/also, the stated "dépôt légal" and reported month of publication at Perrypedia for the French 'Perry Rhodan' publications).

The copyright date is usually stated within French publications and is to be set apart from other dates stated. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 12:03, 23 August 2023 (EDT)

Dominique: What I don't understand about your experience with belated deliverance of personal copies to the author(s) is that as I understand it you had personal copies sent to you much later than the stated "dépôt légal", is that right? (If so, this would not speak against the stated "dépôt légal" corresponding to the date of publication or distribution, I'd think). Christian Stonecreek (talk) 14:08, 23 August 2023 (EDT)

On the whole the French statements for printing & legal deposit strike me to be very similar to this (German) publication, where there are statements for the month of printing ("Printed in Germany 4/2001") as well as for the month of publication ("Deutsche Erstausgabe 6/2001") to be found (with the actual month of distributing 5/2001). Christian Stonecreek (talk) 14:38, 23 August 2023 (EDT)

Ahasuerus and Christian : Yes, “achevé d'imprimer” corresponds to the date of the last copy of the run. Printing date and publication date can be indeed very close, but there's no strict rule about it. In any case, the "dépôt légal" normally comes some time after, as the books have to exist physically to be sent to the BnF. Officially, you are supposed to send some copies within three months after publication, but that delay is not always respected, for all sorts of reasons. This is from my own experience as an occasional publisher : the "dépôt légal" date has to be printed in the book before the actual registration, which can only take place after the book is printed — and sometimes months after publication, the estimated DL date being then purely theoretical. In the case of successive reprints, some publishers indicate a new DL each time, as well as the initial one, but some dont bother, and the only way to date the book is the printing date. As for a DL preceding the AI, like Christian, I don't remember coming across the case. But the copyright (not to be confused with DL) can easily precede AI and DL : quite a few re-editions only state the initial copyright of the book, although printed years after the first publication. Linguist (talk) 05:22, 24 August 2023 (EDT).

I have just met an rather interesting case in this publication : the DL is indicated as "à parution" (= as soon as published), honestly showing that a) the dépôt légal date cannot be stated precisely, and b) that DL should not be confused with publication date. Linguist (talk) 05:40, 24 August 2023 (EDT).

On the other hand, I do think it's even more misleading to use the "achevé d'imprimer", as this is per definition the date of printing, not of publication. I do think that the systems of publications in France & Germany are/were very similar: first a book is printed, and a few weeks later it is distributed/published (in many cases this id the next month). The stated "dépôt légal" is in any case closer to the date of distribution/publication (and on the point for those cases mentioned above, i. e. modern Amazon & French Perry Rhodan).

Obviously, in cases where there's no "dépôt légal" (or only one belonging to an earlier printing, or a useless one, as in your example), to use the "achevé d'imprimer" is the best you can do, if you have no other dependable information at hand, but if the first is there and valid, this should be used: the publisher gives a hint when the publication is distributed. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 06:00, 24 August 2023 (EDT)

Thanks for the clarification, Dominique!

Christian, please keep in mind that the immediate issue here is what the proposed mouseover bubbles should say -- as opposed to how we should use these dates to determine each publication's "publication date" as we define it.

Based on the discussion above, I am thinking that something like the following may work:

• Achevé D'Imprimer: Date when the last copy of the print run was physically produced
• Dépôt Légal: Estimated date when this publication will be officially registered and copies will be sent to the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Some reprints may list both the original Dépôt Légal date as well as the new one while some other reprints may only list the original Dépôt Légal date.

Will this work? Also, please note that the text in mouseover bubbles is editable by ISFDB Bureaucrats, so we can easily change the wording in the future. Ahasuerus (talk) 15:49, 24 August 2023 (EDT)

Sounds good! Christian Stonecreek (talk) 22:50, 24 August 2023 (EDT)

(unindent) I have created two new templates. The language is similar to what I proposed above with some stylistic modifications:

• Achevé D'Imprimer: Date when the last copy of the print run was physically produced
• Dépôt Légal: Estimated date when this publication is supposed to be officially registered and copies sent to the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Reprints may list either both the original Dépôt Légal date and the new one or only the original Dépôt Légal date.

Here is an example. If everything looks OK, I can create a database script and auto-update all Notes that use "Achevé D'Imprimer" and/or "Dépôt Légal". As I mentioned earlier, we can always tweak the template language later. Ahasuerus (talk) 11:15, 28 August 2023 (EDT)

Help:Using_Templates_and_HTML_in_Note_Fields#Non-Linking_Templates has been update to included the new templates. I plan to auto-convert all occurrences of "Achevé D'Imprimer" and "Dépôt Légal" to templates once I finish my current tasks. Ahasuerus (talk) 09:05, 1 September 2023 (EDT)

Earlier this afternoon 5,400+ Publication Notes with "Achevé D'Imprimer" and/or "Dépôt Légal" were updated automatically. The remaining 9 were updated manually. I believe we should be all set. If you come across any issues, please let me know. Ahasuerus (talk) 15:04, 3 September 2023 (EDT)

Server maintenance 2023-08-22 11am EDT

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The server is back up. The Wiki's search functionality has been restored. Ahasuerus (talk) 11:16, 22 August 2023 (EDT)

Best from F&SF: 12th Series

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5749433; Hey, active PV Kraang, Rtrace, Rudam, GlennMcG, should page count be upped by 1 with a note about last page being unnumbered? Because there's a full-page drawing after the last numbered page. --Username (talk) 12:28, 22 August 2023 (EDT)

Terese N.

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5750006; It's definitely Neilsen; I did a text search on Archive.org and the only other book with the misspelled name is Newton's Cannon, but I didn't change it there because there's many editions she's credited on here for that book; I did add Archive.org links to book club HC and Del Rey PB and it's Neilsen in both, with at least 1 note here mentioning (sic) for the name but entering it under her canonical name, anyway. So if anyone cares, her name will need to be changed. Also, there seem to be 2 separate map credits that may be the same, 1 uncredited and 1 with an artist named, so that's an issue, too. --Username (talk) 22:41, 22 August 2023 (EDT)

Batman Young Readers

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?1012; I added Archive.org links to all 3 and fixed/added some other stuff. What should be the standard for the titles? Either they should all start with "Batman in" or they shouldn't because Batman is the series. Which ones need fixing? --Username (talk) 11:26, 23 August 2023 (EDT)

Richard Drew Publishing / Richard Drew

Any objection to merging Richard Drew into Richard Drew Publishing? John Scifibones 17:08, 23 August 2023 (EDT)

Depends on how they are listed on the title pages of the publications in question. It's possible it changed over time. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 18:56, 23 August 2023 (EDT)

Points to consider:

• From the Publisher Field Template - "Where multiple forms of a name exist, it is not important to always enter exactly the form of the name as it appears on the book. For example, an imprint may say "A Tor Book", "Tor", "Tor Books", "Tor Books Science Fiction", or "Tor: A Tom Doherty Associates Book". Sometimes several of these varying forms will be on a single book. These can be converted to a canonical form; in this case "Tor" would be the sensible choice. The ISFDB does not currently have a page to identify and document canonical forms for publishers but may do so in the future"
• There is nothing in these four which supports 'Richard Drew' as the publisher. From the above referenced template - "The publisher has in the past not been a key entity in the ISFDB.", engendering little confidence in the entries. The secondary verifications , added much later, use their own canonical names. Reginald3 uses 'Richard Drew' and British Library uses 'Drew'.
• Here are the 17 scans for Richard Drew published books currently in the internet archive. All of them show 'Richard Drew Publishing'.

I see no benefit in using both forms and 'Richard Drew Publishing' seems the most appropriate. John Scifibones 08:56, 24 August 2023 (EDT)

Chandler Award?

It looks like we don't have an Award Type for The A. Bertram Chandler Award for Outstanding Achievement in Australian Science Fiction, which is listed by SFE. It's presented by Australian Science Fiction Foundation, which, judging by the Web site, may be moribund as of 2023, but they kept the award going for 3 decades. Should we add it? Ahasuerus (talk) 21:01, 23 August 2023 (EDT)

Seems like a good one to have recorded here. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 21:23, 23 August 2023 (EDT)

Hearing no objection, I created a new Award Type record and added the awards earlier today. I also discovered that we already had almost half of the awards entered under a separate Ditmar Award category. Although usually given at the same annual Australian convention, the Ditmar award and the Chandler award are two different awards given by different people (fan-voted vs. juried), so I moved the data to the new Award Type. Hopefully everything looks OK now. Ahasuerus (talk) 10:53, 28 August 2023 (EDT)

Damon Wilson

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?394521; Damon is Colin's son, I was going to add links in notes to each other but this is true-crime stuff, not really eligible on here, they wrote like a thousand of these things together, so I think book should be removed and maybe just zine review kept. --Username (talk) 18:05, 24 August 2023 (EDT)

I have added notes and third party URLs to the two author records. Ahasuerus (talk) 11:01, 28 August 2023 (EDT)

So this book is eligible? Because if it is there's a whole lot of other stuff like it by them; really depressing stuff. I hope people here didn't agree at some point recently that true-crime books are eligible now for some reason because if they are there's like thousands of them; maybe this one gets by because the elder Wilson is above the threshold? On a side note, the title of this book differs from what it says on the cover. --Username (talk) 11:08, 28 August 2023 (EDT)

Sorry, I missed that part. Colin Wilson is presumably "above the threshold" because he wrote a dozen SF novels and numerous books/articles about SF (like Science Fiction As Existentialism) and about SF authors like Tolkien, van Vogt, David Lindsay and Lovecraft. That's why we list his non-genre books, including his non-genre non-fiction. Some of them, like The Book of Time and From Atlantis to the Sphinx, are SF-adjacent but may not have been eligible if he were not "above the threshold". Ahasuerus (talk) 12:42, 28 August 2023 (EDT)

Steir or Stier

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?79153; I added Archive.org link and cover image to Doubleday edition of Leonard Daventry's Twenty-One Billionth Paradox, cover artist on ISFDB is Pat Stier (probably taken from SFE since there's no PV), Pat Steir is a well-known artist who's a lady, I added an edit noting her birth name from Wiki, thing is Wiki says she was born in 1940, not 1938, so does anyone know when she was really born and also if anyone owns a jacketed copy of Paradox let us know because I've also made an edit making Stier a variant of Steir but it could be Steir in the book and SFE was just mistaken in which case it would just need to be corrected without a variant. --Username (talk) 20:02, 24 August 2023 (EDT)

Death Tour

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5751841; A curse on these ex-library copies with no jackets. If anyone has a jacketed copy let us know because it's possible "Joe Chiodo" may not be what's actually on the back flap or wherever it is (only site online I can find that mentions Chiodo and Death Tour together is something called Paperback Palette but artist is credited as Charles Chiodo which is definitely wrong because he's half of a well-known special effects team with his brother; they directed the all-time classic KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE in the 1980's). EDIT: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5751849; Here's a lesson in never trusting info found on a random blog. Incidentally, the blog where that wrong info came from, http://markwestwriter.blogspot.com/, is on hiatus so I hope there's nothing wrong with Mr. West. --Username (talk) 20:33, 24 August 2023 (EDT)

L. Rey

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?122809; I added Archive.org link to first book, by Colin Wilson, previous book in the series said Luis Rey for the cover, this one said Louis, I made Louis a variant of Luis and made variants of Wilson book's cover art and Spock's World, too (copy on eBay), but that UK House on the Borderland eluded me. So if anyone owns it/can find it and it does say Louis then you can variant it to Luis or change it to Luis if it says that. Then the only question will be how many of the 60+ credits by Luis really say Luis and how many actually say Louis but the editor didn't notice or they did notice but just entered his regular name, anyway. --Username (talk) 00:24, 25 August 2023 (EDT)

Das große Buch der Märchen, Sagen und Gespenster

https://archive.org/search?query=dasgrossebuchder0000unse_e5m6; While adding links to some Franz Rottensteiner books I saw this one which doesn't seem to be here in case anyone German-fluent would like to enter it; it has a good selection of stories. --Username (talk) 09:52, 25 August 2023 (EDT)

Polish

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?21549; A while back I went on a long run of adding cover images and artist/author photos to books from Poland using FantLab mostly; today I accidentally stumbled on 2 more photos of Kiwerski and Kacperek and added those (plus a lot of other stuff for Kiwerski). I noticed that the above-linked publisher has very few images added, for example the 58 non-series books have a grand total of 10 images, so anyone more familiar than me with the language may want to work on this. Some of them seem to be on Google Books. A guy whose name escapes me right now was adding a lot of stuff years before I started editing, his name kept popping up as PV, but either he quit or passed on or something because a lot of his books were left unfinished with stuff missing. EDIT: Don't bother doing what I did and try to find images on Amazon by entering a search for a book's ISBN without the dashes; I tried several and got nothing except the usual car parts for sale that happen to have an ID number that matches the book or a bunch of scantily-dressed ladies on some sketchy site that offers "dates" and identifies each woman by a number, I suppose. I've seen more of those over the last few years than I can count and many of them I wish I didn't see. EDIT: I came across this, https://fantlab.ru/edition207519, which doesn't seem to be on ISFDB and is certainly genre-related. FantLab's note says it's the second English issue so there's an earlier one (not on FantLab) plus an unknown number in Polish. EDIT: Surprisingly there are only 5 publishers on ISFDB with Poland in their name but there's all sorts of stuff still to be done for them. A quick check reveals that 1) the missing cover art credit for one of Empire's Who books is a re-arranged version of the 1991 Target / Virgin English edition by Alister Pearson, 2) the Jaguar books include 5 TP and 2 PB so likely the PB should be TP, too, and Time*Out is missing cover image which is likely the same as the other editions, plus last 3 books are missing cover artists, 3) Phantom has 5 TP and 3 PB so likely the PB should be TP, too, and Card's book is missing cover image, and the 2 books with prices were entered differently (00 at the end of one of them), plus Poland was misspelled as Polan in the publisher note, 4) four of the seven Solaris books are missing cover artists and one that has an artist has an unknown format, 5) Victoria book is missing cover, searching for ISBN without dashes in Google Images only finds half-naked escort photos but I think this, https://polter.pl/ksiazki/Rozanooka-n19312, might be the right image. I'm sure I missed a few things. --Username (talk) 00:38, 26 August 2023 (EDT)

Analog Yearbook

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?2550; This is the only one in the series without a cover artist, note says there's no signature but I think there is, lower right corner, tried several legit (?) image enlargers online but didn't really help, someone else here may be able to identify it. I also added Archive.org links and a few other things to a whole bunch of Analog anthologies by Stanley Schmidt. --Username (talk) 02:02, 26 August 2023 (EDT)

Server downtime - 2023-08-26 at 3pm

The server will be unavailable between 3pm and 3:05pm server (Daylight Saving) time. One of the temporary Wiki tables keeps growing and needs to be periodically reset before the server runs out of disk space. I am still looking for a permanent solution. Ahasuerus (talk) 14:19, 26 August 2023 (EDT)

We are back up. Ahasuerus (talk) 15:02, 26 August 2023 (EDT)

Hitler's Crystal

https://openlibrary.org/works/OL20092886W/Predator?edition=key%3A/books/OL27272937M; For some reason the image for Predator shows 4 covers; one looks like a thriller with a gun, one's a romance novel, but that other one ... please let it be real. Online search only finds it on lpbooks.com (Lion & Phoenix), calls it #2 in the DimeNovel series. Otherwise, very little info. I know that company was shady and didn't pay their authors but some books were still published. If anyone can find proof of the Hitler book (and assuming it's genre) let us know. A text search for publisher and title/author and title on Archive.org both only found 1 hit, a mention in a 1992 issue of Science Fiction Chronicle which also mentions a few other titles not on ISFDB. --Username (talk) 21:00, 26 August 2023 (EDT)

Dark Star

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5753574; Only after I entered my edit did I notice that someone had written a price note of their own. Since this was published by an American company the $ price should be the one entered, I think, but what should be done with the UK note? Just erase it or leave it with an added "British price was" note or something similar? EDIT: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?92985; artist and essay/review writer are 2 different people. --Username (talk) 08:40, 27 August 2023 (EDT)

Add to the notes something along the lines of "British price of 7/6 from British Science-Fiction Bibliography", hence no information gets lost. Regards, MagicUnk (talk) 07:10, 28 August 2023 (EDT)

Uncle Stephen

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1028679; I added FantLab cover (cover image doesn't seem to be in very many places online for some reason) to first Tartarus record which was entered in the very early days of public editing here, but the Fixer robot entered the same book from Amazon in 2019. Page count is more accurate in the first record with Roman numerals but later record does include the day, so should second record be deleted and day of publication added to date of first record? Also, ISBN aren't exactly the same so maybe that's why the robot thought the book had never been entered. Sorry, Skynet. --Username (talk) 19:51, 28 August 2023 (EDT)

FortuneCity

https://fanlore.org/wiki/List_of_FortuneCity_Fansites; This link may be useful; it contains much genre-related material. Whoever compiled this huge thing deserves a medal. --Username (talk) 11:00, 30 August 2023 (EDT)

This Incredible Adventure

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?270570; I corrected someone's cover artist entry for The Apes by Eden Phillpotts from D. Burrouches to Dorothy Burroughes as it says on SFE; weird font in cover signature fooled someone into seeing the G as a C. Book I linked above is the only other credit here that's probably by her but there's no E in her last name, info such as cover image, etc., is scarce online, so if anyone can get an image or a flap or something either it will have name with an E and can be corrected or it won't and it'll be a variant. --Username (talk) 18:59, 30 August 2023 (EDT)

Ace Fantasy

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5758148; It really says Ace Fantasy Books on title page and there are 100+ entries on ISFDB by that name. Should it really be separate or changed to just Ace Books? Should this book and the original edition (and possibly the later one if they were still using Ace Fantasy then) be Ace Books? --Username (talk) 18:46, 31 August 2023 (EDT)

Saltflower

https://archive.org/search?query=saltflower; German edition in case anyone fluent wants to enter it. --Username (talk) 09:19, 1 September 2023 (EDT)

Okay here it is. But, since I don't know German either, somebody is going to have translate the translator. MLB (talk) 03:37, 2 September 2023 (EDT)

Day It Rained Forever

https://www.existentialennui.com/2017/11/science-fiction-beautiful-british-book.html; I was adding Archive.org links and some other stuff to 3 different editions of Bradbury's British book (2 Penguins and a Roc), and I noticed that the original Hart-Davis has a note about some reference work having the price as 18/-, and as can be seen in the photo at the link above it is 18/-; however, the first Hart-Davis book with a price that high was about 10 years later, so I believe it might be a later printing. So if anyone knows they can do something with that, maybe another record can be created. --Username (talk) 14:36, 1 September 2023 (EDT)

Jan B.

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=breug&type=Name; Both named Jan are on front page ("died"), they're the same person, yes? --Username (talk) 18:48, 1 September 2023 (EDT)

Alternate name established. -- JLaTondre (talk) 09:04, 2 September 2023 (EDT)

Welcome to the Silent Zone

● I just put Welcome to the Silent Zone on this site, but the copywrite page states that this is a translation (Hungarian?), but I can’t find the possible original anywhere. Anybody got any ideas? MLB (talk) 21:14, 1 September 2023 (EDT)

Dell 2nd Printing

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5759600; This one's annoying me because every copy on picclick/ebay is first printing; anyone own second printing so date can be fixed if it needs to be? --Username (talk) 12:29, 2 September 2023 (EDT)

Temps Morts

https://archive.org/search?query=temps-morts+maxim; I was doing a bunch of John R. Maxim edits and saw that the French translation of Time Out of Mind is on ISFDB only as part of an anthology, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?759828, but here, https://archive.org/search?query=temps-morts+maxim, are 2 editions with different names on their covers, one with the American/British HC art and the other apparently with original art, in case anyone fluent wants to enter those. Also, I thought it was funny that the only other work on ISFDB with the same title is a translation of Orson Scott Card's "Closing the Timelid"; I guess timelid has no meaning in French. --Username (talk) 11:31, 3 September 2023 (EDT)

Woman Who Married a Cloud

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1366097; https://archive.org/search?query=%22Married+a+Cloud%22; No English archived copies but I found a Polish (?) one in case anyone fluent wants to enter it so at least people who speak the language can read the stories. --Username (talk) 13:18, 3 September 2023 (EDT)

Pawel M.

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=pawel+mar&type=Name; Same guy, probably, one has the little question mark thing at the end of his name, one doesn't. --Username (talk) 17:39, 3 September 2023 (EDT)

Alternate name created. -- JLaTondre (talk) 12:24, 4 September 2023 (EDT)

Peter Cartur/Roger Flint Young/Peter Grainger/Forrest J. Ackerman

I submitted an edit to the page on Peter Grainger, where it reads:

---

Note that ISFDB lists Peter Cartur as a pseudonym for Peter Grainger. However, the copyright/acknowledgments for Fifty Short Science Fiction 
Tales includes:
Peter Cartur The Mist. Copyright 1952 by Fantasy House, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Forrest J. Ackerman.
Usually something like this would indicate that Peter Cartur is a pseudonym as copyrights need to be filed under the author's real name. It's 
not known if Forrest J. Ackerman bought the rights to this story or if Peter Cartur is one of Forrest J. Ackerman's pseudonyms.

---

Peter Cartur is not a pseudonym of Forrest J. Ackerman. Ackerman was Peter Grainger's agent, which is why he gave permission for reprinting "The Mist". (Note that the copyright, at that time, was held by Fantasy House, the publishers of F&SF where it first appeared.)

One of my sources for the assertion that "Peter Cartur" is a pseudonym of Peter Grainger, and not a pseudonym of Forrest J. Ackerman? A man named ... Forrest J. Ackerman.

I had earlier found a fanzine reference in the early 1950s in which Ackerman listed Grainger, Cartur, and Roger Flint Young among his clients. But I have found a better thing: an obituary by Ackerman for Peter Grainger, in the May 1974 issue of the fanzine Luna Monthly (#52). It's on page 8, and can be seen in full here: https://www.fanac.org/fanzines/Luna/Luna52.pdf

Here's the text of the obituary: "3 authors, 1 fan, killed simultaneously. The news is greatly delayed in being made public but late in 1971 fan Peter Grainger, probably in his early 60s, a fan who at one time had one of the greatest collections of all pulp magazines (in addition to sf and fantasy), was killed by a drunken driver.

With him died Peter Cartur (“The Mist,” F&SF, and “Nor Moon by Night,” Famous Fantastic Mysteries); Max Dancey (“Two-Way Stretch,” F&SF; “Me Feel Good,” Orbit SF; and “The Loneliest Town,” Fantastic Universe); and Roger Flint Young (“Forbidden Fruit,” Amazing; “Inoculation,” Fantastic Adventures; and “Suburban Frontiers” and “Not to be Opened—” in Astounding). All three authors were pseudonyms of Grainger. He last appeared in Perry Rhodan 38 as Max Dancey in collaboration with G. Gordon Dewey with “The Keknij Escape.”

Mild mannered, soft spoken, wry humored, he never made waves in the sf field, keeping to himself and a small circle of friends, operating a secondhand book and magazine shop, as far as I know, at the end of his life. I was glad to have been his friend, gratified to have been his agent, infuriated by the way he lost his life. -- Forry Ackerman" —The preceding unsigned comment added by Hortonwho13 (talk • contribs) 11:49, September 4, 2023‎

Angel(a) Arnet

I just added 1968 Stein and Day American edition to Elizabeth Walter's The Sin-Eater and design is by Angel Arnet, who has a credit on ISFDB for a Keith Laumer book, but an Angela Arnet has a credit for a Robert Silverberg book. So if anyone knows what her real name was one can be made a variant of the other, although she seems to be credited for design (even though art style is similar for all so she probably did art), which I put in the note for Sin-Eater, so maybe her name doesn't even really belong in cover art for those other 2 and should be moved to notes, also. --Username (talk) 12:55, 4 September 2023 (EDT)

To Do List

I'm not doing any editing from Labor Day to October 1 (Halloween Season!) but if I come across anything I think needs looking into I'll mention it in this thread and maybe someone will help.

1) https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?72190; Al Sarrantonio's "The Dust" is not the same as "Dust" and should be unmerged. I own the anthology Death, which is not on Archive.org, but "The Dust" was reprinted in 100 Hair-Raising Little Horror Stories which does have at least one archived link; "Dust" is from Quietly now, a very limited edition anthology from Borderlands Press which is almost impossible to find, but it was reprinted in a later collection of his which also has an archived link. --Username (talk) 14:43, 5 September 2023 (EDT)

I have checked two pubs in my collection and confirmed that they are different stories. Unmerged and updated. Thanks. Ahasuerus (talk) 16:20, 5 September 2023 (EDT)

Thanks. Will the variant for "Dust" go away after the site is updated or does that need doing manually? --Username (talk) 17:14, 5 September 2023 (EDT)

My bad; fixed. Ahasuerus (talk) 17:22, 5 September 2023 (EDT)

2) On this list, https://wfc2023.org/in-memorium/, the following have not been updated on ISFDB with their date of death in 2022: Jill Pinkwater, Jay Wilburn, Ned Dameron, Henry Morrison, Sue Strong Hassler, Erik Arthur, Jay Faulkner. --Username (talk) 18:44, 5 September 2023 (EDT)

Eleven author records updated, John Scifibones 11:06, 11 September 2023 (EDT)

Thanks. https://news.ansible.uk/a425.html also mentions the death of Erik Arthur in case you were looking for extra info before adding his date. EDIT: I see Michel Bühler at the Ansible link also doesn't have a death date here so others on the list probably don't have a date, either. EDIT: I did a quick check and Bühler actually seems to be the only one; not sure why he wasn't on the other memoriam list (not considered important enough to the genre, I guess). --Username (talk) 11:21, 11 September 2023 (EDT)

Arthur was entered some time ago, Bühler was just entered by Username using Bühler's Wikipedia page (thanks, me). --Username (talk) 20:56, 4 October 2023 (EDT)

3) Amazingstories.com, In Memoriam Those We Have Lost in 2022: "Fan John E. Ferraro (b.1952) died on January 13. John was an active convention attendee and helped run conventions in the Chicago and Milwaukee areas." Probably this guy, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?205939. --Username (talk) 22:54, 5 September 2023 (EDT)

Here's the link to the referenced post. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:40, 6 September 2023 (EDT)

Ferraro was entered some time ago. --Username (talk) 20:57, 4 October 2023 (EDT)

4) https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?33619; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jenkins_(author); Author of book died but it doesn't really belong here, I believe, because it's just about dinosaurs with no genre content. Also, short stories are by a different guy, https://www.amazon.com.be/-/en/Steven-Jenkins/dp/0993283659; Dark Moon Digest where they appeared is mentioned in his bio. --Username (talk) 23:12, 5 September 2023 (EDT)

Differentiated the authors; I'd also think the dinosaur nonfiction shouldn't be here, are there more opinion? Stonecreek (talk) 01:53, 7 September 2023 (EDT)

Book does not belong here, I deleted hundreds of these years ago in a cleanup. Will remove this one to.Kraang (talk) 15:49, 16 September 2023 (EDT)

5) https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?112614; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Swann. Saw he died while perusing the necrology in an old Best New Horror volume. --Username (talk) 23:08, 6 September 2023 (EDT)

Swann was just entered by Username using Swann's Wikipedia page (thanks, me). --Username (talk) 21:04, 4 October 2023 (EDT)

6) https://archive.org/details/science-fiction-conventions; I've added a few links recently to random volumes from this collection uploaded last year if there was something in them that was related to something else I happened to be editing but there's hundreds of others and I'm not big on old SF. If anyone's interested in adding more links or verifying and fixing any info they're there; you never know when they might be gone. --Username (talk) 23:20, 6 September 2023 (EDT)

7) On this page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Horror_fiction_awards, there seem to be 2 literary awards not on ISFDB, Gaylactic and Nocte. Only mention in a note search on ISFDB for the former is Queer Fear II, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?342199, while Nocte is mentioned here, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?665268, and here, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2368403, although another award, Premio Ignotus, is mentioned so there seems to be some confusion. --Username (talk) 00:38, 7 September 2023 (EDT)

8) https://archive.org/search?query=george+martin+game-of-thrones&sort=title&and%5B%5D=mediatype%3A%22texts%22; With the Game of Thrones spinoff Snow coming soon, supposedly, I did a search for author/title and got the page linked above. There's all sorts of stuff from various English-language editions to foreign editions to coloring books and puzzle books plus some non-fiction about the series. Many of those copies could be useful in fleshing out what's already here and possibly some aren't even here at all. --Username (talk) 15:43, 7 September 2023 (EDT)

9) https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=sailing&type=Name; Jasmine linked bio on her page refers to her 2 children and one of them is Amara so something should be added to their notes to detail the mother-daughter relationship. --Username (talk) 10:50, 8 September 2023 (EDT)

Relationship added, John Scifibones 10:05, 11 September 2023 (EDT)

10) https://archive.org/details/friendsofthesanfranciscopubliclibrary?query=%22perry+rhodan%22&sin=TXT&sort=title; Big assortment of Perry Rhodan books. Text search was necessary because several were misidentified as electronic or video recordings or by ISBN instead of title; I count 43 Rhodan books. --Username (talk) 11:51, 8 September 2023 (EDT)

11) https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?20806; https://www.cunninghamfuneralhome.net/obituary/lee-moler/; Moler died several years ago. --Username (talk) 22:11, 9 September 2023 (EDT)

Author record updated, John Scifibones 09:54, 11 September 2023 (EDT)

12) https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?141950; https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?500568; I think signature is "LeCroix 77". --Username (talk) 10:26, 10 September 2023 (EDT)

13) https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?16483; https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?16572; They're the same person. Variant needed. --Username (talk) 08:03, 11 September 2023 (EDT)

Alternate name established, John Scifibones 09:46, 11 September 2023 (EDT)

14) https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?532102; https://archive.org/search?query=blue-streak+medusa&sort=-addeddate; A Whitman sampler of editions of this book; as someone's note says it's hard to say which of the multiple printings these are, all just say 1946 on copyright page, one has no cover and the other 2 may have the same color cover, it's hard to tell because one of them is old and faded, if any experts can identify by gutter code or something similar they can add links if they want to. --Username (talk) 10:14, 11 September 2023 (EDT)

15) https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=hucken&type=Name; Which is parent and which is variant? The 1974 name is actually entered wrong, https://archive.org/details/Burroughs_Bulletin_034_1974_LauraS_FIXED/page/n14/mode/1up, so his real name needs verifying. EDIT: Title is wrong, too; it's Torquasian. EDIT: https://archive.org/search?query=burroughs-bulletin&and%5B%5D=mediatype%3A%22collection%22; I'm going to assume there are other mistakes throughout the various issues so this collection may help in fixing some of those. --Username (talk) 11:45, 11 September 2023 (EDT)

16) https://main.pemmi-con.ca/sf/in-memoriam/; People with no 2022 death date entered here: Celia Correas de Zapata, Drew Ford, Martin Barker. The Stephen Smith mentioned in the list may or may not be one of these Smiths, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?34578, and Kevin Barrett might be this guy, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?8563. --Username (talk) 12:16, 11 September 2023 (EDT)

Username just entered Zapata and Barker using their Wikipedia pages (thanks, me). --Username (talk) 21:15, 4 October 2023 (EDT)

17) https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=wojtow&type=Name; First 2 guys are almost certainly the same people as are the last 2 guys. --Username (talk) 12:22, 11 September 2023 (EDT)

18) https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?1038; Someone's been adding recent issues of Nightmare Abbey from this publisher (there's also a one-off here, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?662703). Almost all of their publications were PV by Thosengl who is almost certainly the owner, Tom English, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?127469, but he was a little shaky judging by the numerous corrections mods had to make to his edits. He hasn't been around for years (and for some reason at least 1 of his PV is by Thosengl7 who has a separate page here) and there are no copies of any of these books on Archive.org (must be a very small press) so if anyone owns anything maybe they can add/fix, in particular the series issue with 3 separate series names which almost certainly are the same. The first one, Literary Vampire, clearly says The Literary Vampire Series on the cover but "the" and "series" are in different sizes than the rest so maybe that's what led to the confusion. --Username (talk) 19:59, 11 September 2023 (EDT)

19) https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubs_not_in_series.cgi?13861; Someone's recently been adding edits for Keyhoe UFO books which seems a waste of time because he's probably not above-the-threshold and those books are likely going to be removed eventually. The Perma Star one linked above should probably be removed but more importantly while searching text on Archive.org for Permabooks and Perma Star together a Simak book came up, https://archive.org/search?query=%22permabooks%22+%22perma+star%22&sin=TXT, so publisher for that edition, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?149901, should probably be Perma Star, too. Either that or Clarke book's publisher should be changed to Perma Books and Perma Star added as an imprint to both. --Username (talk) 23:32, 11 September 2023 (EDT)

20) https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2447743; Jugement is probably wrong but Wiki titles it Judgment or Judgement depending on where you look, so real title needs verifying. --Username (talk) 11:36, 12 September 2023 (EDT)

21) https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?334653; On the slim chance anyone owns this issue I find it hard to believe that movie review is really titled Mad MARX and not Mad MAX. I picture Groucho in the Thunderdome smoking a cigar while fighting Master Blaster. --Username (talk) 12:23, 12 September 2023 (EDT)

22) https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1772293; Title of first story is wrong, it's "Pudgygate", Rusch offered it for free on her site kriswrites.com in 2011 (archived link is still working; she offered it a few times since but those don't have the text of the story anymore) and the 1995 anthology it came from, Cat Crimes Takes a Vacation, is on Archive.org. Also, Amazon preview identifies cover artist as Mega 11/Dreamstime (not sure about the first part, the font is kind of weird, might be II); problem is Dreamstime has many credits on ISFDB, some with a space separating the co-artist, some without, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=dreamstime&type=Name, so which is correct should probably be decided and wrong ones fixed. --Username (talk) 10:24, 14 September 2023 (EDT)

23) https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?107565; Lawrence R. Dagstine recently created a page here so I left him a message asking if he can provide info for his 2004 collection which is very sparse here and elsewhere online. While researching him I found this, https://lawrencedagstine.com/2007/07/16/kinships-7-now-available-final-issue/. The Nova credit is on ISFDB, Silverthought is a publisher that had a fiction section at their online site years ago, but Kinships was a print magazine, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?62884, that only has #1 and a later issue entered here. Both issues have a weird web link in their title records but the page on Dagstine's site has another link on Tripod which is still mentioned a few times online but the actual site is gone except in the archived version that doesn't seem to mention the final issue. So if anyone can actually find somewhere that mentions contents of #7 or any of the other issues those can be entered here. Typing "bibliography" and "Kinships Magazine" online only found 1 author site, https://jamesdorrwriter.wordpress.com/bibliography-1-short-fiction-3/, which mentions a story not on ISFDB and has a May 2002 date but doesn't mention what issue that was. --Username (talk) 13:52, 14 September 2023 (EDT)

24) https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=horror+of+oz&type=All+Titles; Craftlove was a pseudonym of Karr. Also, Fancyclopedia and her bio on Amazon say she wrote as Gregory Remington who has a story here, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?13994, so that's likely by her, too. She also has no photo on ISFDB and her Wiki (which only has 1 small not-so-good photo) says her last name was shortened to Karr but doesn't say if that was done legally; if not, her original last name, Karmilowicz, should be her legal name. --Username (talk) 23:57, 14 September 2023 (EDT)

25) https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=stinson&type=Name; J. G., Jan, Janine G., and Janine are all likely the same person; also, artist just named Stinson is almost certainly Paul Stinson who did other Leisure covers in the same style. --Username (talk) 21:38, 16 September 2023 (EDT)

26) https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?326338; http://andrewdarlington.blogspot.com/2020/03/science-fiction-magazine-dream-science.html; Author of "The Eighth Room" is credited as S. M. Baxter, not Stephen M. --Username (talk) 21:56, 16 September 2023 (EDT)

27) http://www.ravenelectrick.com/ravenswriters/index.htm; This page and the 2 other writer pages linked at the bottom of it contain photos for most of the authors and most of them have no photos on ISFDB so anyone who likes uploading author images here can get a lot from those 3 pages. --Username (talk) 21:27, 17 September 2023 (EDT)

28) https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?146553; http://wormwoodiana.blogspot.com/2021/02/rip-jeffrey-dempsey-1959-2021.html; He died a few years ago. --Username (talk) 09:15, 20 September 2023 (EDT)

Dempsey was just entered by Username using Wormwoodiana blog post (thanks, me). --Username (talk) 21:09, 4 October 2023 (EDT)

Erotic Fantasy & Science Fiction Selections

● What I would like to know is Erotic Fantasy & Science Fiction Selections; an anthology series, as seen here or is it a publication series, as seen here?. MLB (talk) 01:38, 6 September 2023 (EDT)

They all seem to be unique compilations so I would go with a title series personally but either way works... Annie (talk) 12:55, 11 September 2023 (EDT)

DAW Books as an imprint

DAW Books was acquired by Astra Publishing House in July 2022. As a result, DAW Books is now an imprint of Astra Publishing House. I'm not sure when the DAW titles started having the imprint information on their copyright pages. I have started using the publisher DAW Books / Astra Publishing House for new works since that data is on the copyright page. However, the title pages still show only DAW Books. In addition, using Amazon Look-inside, I see that at least some of the ebooks published by DAW as an independent entity have had their copyright pages updated to show "DAW Books" [over] "An imprint of Astra Publishing House". Should I still just use DAW Books for continuity? If I need to make changes, there are only 6 publications to change. Phil (talk) 10:10, 6 September 2023 (EDT)

Unless there isn't any publisher information on the title page, we should be going with what's on the title page. Anything else should be added as a note. At least that's been general practice for a long time. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:34, 6 September 2023 (EDT)

OK. I'll change the 6 publications. I'm the sole PV for two of them anyway. Phil (talk) 12:58, 6 September 2023 (EDT)

If I may, you're emphasizing "we should be going with what's on the title page. Anything else should be added as a note.".

The Help screen for Publisher states "Use the official statement of publication where you can.". The official statement of publication is the copyright page. Yes/no? Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 15:31, 12 September 2023 (EDT)

Looking at the totality of Help:Screen:NewPub#Publisher, I note that it gives editors a lot of flexibility, e.g.:

• Imprints are often a suitable choice since they may be genre specific. A good rule of thumb is to choose a publisher name that would not surprise the reader; thus "Del Rey Books" is a better choice for that imprint than "Ballantine Books", even though Del Rey was in fact an imprint of Ballantine, because Del Rey's imprint is the prominent label on the cover of those books, whereas "Ballantine" appears only in small print at best. However, if both an imprint and a publisher are listed, and particularly if both are known for publishing genre fiction, consider listing both. For example "Del Rey / Ballantine" may be an even better choice than either "Del Rey Books" or "Ballantine Books". [emphasis added]

and:

• Where multiple forms of a name exist, it is not important to always enter exactly the form of the name as it appears on the book. For example, an imprint may say "A Tor Book", "Tor", "Tor Books", "Tor Books Science Fiction", or "Tor: A Tom Doherty Associates Book". Sometimes several of these varying forms will be on a single book. These can be converted to a canonical form; in this case "Tor" would be the sensible choice.

I haven't done much work on imprints the last few years, so I am not up to speed on what the current practices in this area are. If we could get other experienced editors' takes on this, we may be able to update Help to be more specific. Ahasuerus (talk) 18:55, 12 September 2023 (EDT)

Nude French Alien

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?500568; I added to my "To Do List" thread with what I think is the cover artist but looking at edit history it was Hauck who entered the notes and he's one of those who wants nothing more to do with ISFDB so it's very unlikely he's going to respond; I'm adding this separate message so maybe someone else, possibly Stonecreek who added to Hauck's edits, will agree and enter the artist. EDIT: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?500843; https://memoriasfc.blogspot.com/2013/08/toxicofuturis-une-anthologie-de-michel.html; Maybe someone can determine signature and enter artist. Also, Hauck seems to have misspelled "signature" a bunch of times, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/note_search_results.cgi?OPERATOR=contains&NOTE_VALUE=siganture, so if anyone wants to they can fix those. --Username (talk) 10:47, 10 September 2023 (EDT)

2023-09-11 performance issues

The site is very slow at the moment due to hundreds of simultaneous requests apparently coming from robot accounts. I am investigating. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:33, 11 September 2023 (EDT)

It looks like it's over for now. Checking the list of IP addresses that were part of the attack, I see that a lot of them come from multiple countries, including multiple Chinese provinces, which means that the attack was at least somewhat sophisticated. Perhaps they were looking for software vulnerabilities. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:48, 11 September 2023 (EDT)

Plan 9

[12]; [13]; [14]; ; After seeing that someone has been making edits for some UFO books I thought I'd search for non-fiction books with related search terms in their titles to make it easier to get rid of them and just leave the reviews, if any, although a few are by above-the-threshold authors and likely can be justified in being here. There are many others that don't have any of those terms but this will be a good start. --Username (talk) 23:45, 11 September 2023 (EDT)

Night Visions 4

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?257996; I thought this was interesting. I was looking at "My Primary Verifications with Possibly Unstable "/G/" Amazon URLs" and I only have 2; The Rage by Jack Ramsay and the above title. While looking for a replacement cover I noticed that some photos have the price/publisher info on the middle left like my copy and this photo, https://openlibrary.org/books/OL7502962M/Night_Visions_4_Hardshell, but others have the info on the lower left. Turns out they reprinted it at least once, https://www.etsy.com/listing/990058853/hardshell-aka-night-visions-4-paperback, note 2nd printing number line on copyright page, and oddly the Canadian price is lower (4.95) than the first (5.25). They also removed/moved some of the text on the cover. So does anyone own a copy who can check what printing they have? If you have the 2nd (or later, possibly) that can be entered and PV. You never know if they shifted the pages around, too, but only a full copy can verify that. EDIT: ISBN is also different; I left a note on Collecting Koontz's Twitter notifying them of this; they only list 1st printing and got the date wrong (1998 instead of 1988). EDIT: I just saw that way back in 2011 someone did enter what I assume is the 2nd printing, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?865302, although they didn't leave any notes about that or how they arrived at the 1990 date. I'm uploading a cover that matches my 1st printing so this other one needs a cover, too, and cover artist imported since it's the same image as the 1st. No page numbers so someone with a copy will still have to verify and enter those. EDIT: I tweeted Collecting Koontz site and got a reply thanking me and saying they fixed the date. I forgot to tell them they misspelled the title, too, as "Hardhsell", so hopefully they'll catch that and fix it; kind of hard to tell because links to the site seem to be on separate pages so they may fix it on one but not the other(s). --Username (talk) 10:06, 12 September 2023 (EDT)

2023-09-12 performance issues

The malicious robots from yesterday are back as of 12:30pm server time and hammering the site, which is causing slow response times. I am monitoring the situation and will be looking into countermeasures. Ahasuerus (talk) 12:34, 12 September 2023 (EDT)

2023-09-12 server downtime at 2:15pm

The server will be down for maintenance between 2:15pm and 2:25pm server (Eastern Daylight) time. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:58, 12 September 2023 (EDT)

We are back up. Ahasuerus (talk) 14:24, 12 September 2023 (EDT)

Slow performance

Is there something going on with the server? The performance is currently pretty slow. It's taking over 10 seconds to load pages that normally load almost instantly. It's happening on both the main database and the wiki. Phil (talk) 22:39, 12 September 2023 (EDT)

It's fine this morning. Phil (talk) 10:06, 13 September 2023 (EDT)

Our hosting company, Nexcess, had issues across multiple servers on 2023-09-13 -- see https://status.nexcess.net/ for details. They appear to have been resolved. Knock on wood. Ahasuerus (talk) 10:12, 13 September 2023 (EDT)

Clearly I wasn't knocking on the right kind of wood. The server is once again experiencing problems. Contacting Al. Ahasuerus (talk) 11:14, 13 September 2023 (EDT)

The server is still experiencing massive issues. There is no ETA at this time. Ahasuerus (talk) 18:48, 13 September 2023 (EDT)

As of 5am server time, response times are back to normal. However, since we haven't resolved the underlying problems, there is no guarantee that we won't see more issues later today. We are still looking into it. Ahasuerus (talk) 05:25, 14 September 2023 (EDT)

After Hours

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?28067; After Hours was a horror magazine that ran from 1989-1995. I checked all 25 issues on ISFDB and none of them have interior art credits and none are PV so it wouldn't need checking with anyone else to add those credits which seem to always be on the contents page in the issues I've seen online. There's also the thing of having to change starting page numbers by 1 for those stories that begin with an illustration and a lot of the stories don't have lengths because editors likely added contents for most or all of the issues from Locus/Philsp and they call very short stories vi, meaning vignette, and those often are not given lengths here. There are some issues on eBay, a couple of issues on Richard Dalby's site (in the usual broken fashion for that site only one comes up when you search there, both show up when you search on Google), and I'm sure others are elsewhere (maybe a few people here actually own some issues). So if anyone wants to a lot of art credits, some by major artists, can be entered. --Username (talk) 18:32, 15 September 2023 (EDT)

Down On the Farm

https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/ISFDB:Community_Portal/Archive/Archive50#Stchur; RTrace just added Reginald stuff to Paddywhack, Stchur's novel about a BULLDOG FROM HELL, but questions still remain about his first novel. The 12-photo eBay copy mentioned in my old message linked above seems to be gone but there are a few others currently available. I'd still like to know who did that cool art, but I also noticed that the name on the title page of the HC is actually J. W. Stchur so book's name and title name need adjusting; whether PB uses John or not is unknown because there don't seem to be any photos of the title page online. --Username (talk) 11:53, 16 September 2023 (EDT)

Entering short story and essay entries within my own Author page

Hi. I've searched Help and cannot find guidance for:

For my own Author page, how to enter a short story I've had published in an anthology or an essay I've had published in a magazine.

I'm hoping I don't have to enter the entire anthology itself. I just want my story to appear on my page.

Thanks in advance.

Jim —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Jamesnemeth (talk • contribs) .

The ISFDB is a publication based database. So yes, to have a story listed, the publication it appeared in needs to be entered. You can read Help:Screen:NewPub if you wish to try entering the publication yourself. Or you can provide information on them here and someone may be willing to enter them. -- JLaTondre (talk) 16:02, 17 September 2023 (EDT)

Wditing - Tess Gerritsen

Hello, I kindly notice a possible review for the Author name "Tess Gerritsen". The real legal name should be "Terry Tom" (name and surname respectively). Tom is the maiden surname and Gerritsen is the husband's surname (as she get married with Jacob Gerritsen). Her children names: Josh Gerritsen (a filmmaker) and Adam Gerritsen; Her parents names: Ernest Tom and Jui Chiung Tom. She changed his name from "Terry" to "Tess" to use a name that sounded too masculine more feminine, already at the beginning of her writer career, as she personally told in some public interview.

«My real name isn’t Tess, but Terry. [...] I never really meant “Tess” as a secret identity. I took on the name way back when my first romance novel, CALL AFTER MIDNIGHT, was about to be published. Since “Terry” was considered a masculine spelling, my editor was concerned that readers might think the author was a man — and romance readers want books written by women. [...] TT would indeed be my first and middle names. (I use my maiden name, “Tom” for my middle name.)»

Sources: - Wikipedia Italian author page: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tess_Gerritsen - imdb-personal info (as "Terry Gerritsen): https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2446740/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0 - Interview: https://web.archive.org/web/20140221161847/http://www.tessgerritsen.com/writers-and-secret-identities/

So I kindly ask, if it correct to modify just the legal name in "Terry Tom, adding it in the database, together with her author bame Tess Gerritsen (always used). Thank you for a feedback about and possible update. Fantacollector —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Fantacollector (talk • contribs) .

I updated the legal name to "Gerritsen, Terry" as per SFE3 and en.wikipedia. For it.wikipedia, it says "born Terry Tom", not that Tom is her current legal last name. In the US, women frequently change their legal last name when married. Given the other sources, we will have to go with the assumption that is what happened here unless you have a clearer source that her current legal last name remains Tom. -- JLaTondre (talk) 16:10, 17 September 2023 (EDT)

New 4-volume Gollancz Collected Stories of PKD

Last week Gollancz put out the first 2 volumes of a "The Collected Stories of PKD" series, which I entered here and here. Out of a somewhat Dickian sense of paranoia, I didn't clone the contents of the existing volumes 1 and 2, or variant to them, in case these new ones didn't match, and it turns out those suspicions were justified.

It looks like that original 5-volume series is being split into 4 volumes. The first of the new volumes has all the stories from the old volume 1, plus the first four stories from the old volume 2. The new volume 2 picks up from the old volume 2, and additionally has a dozen-or-so stories from the old volume 3. There are volumes 3 and 4 scheduled for the end of October, which will presumably cover all the remaining stories from the old 5-volume series.

Given that all this is a recipe for confusion, does anyone have any thoughts on how to record these. Varianting them to the old volumes doesn't seem to make any sense, because the middle two don't closely match the old volumes 2-4. Maybe having a new (sub?)series called something like "The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick (Gollancz, 2023)" might be the best way of avoiding mixing them up with the old volumes? ErsatzCulture (talk) 18:53, 17 September 2023 (EDT)

I added Archive.org links to most (I think one was missing) of the Subterranean Press editions of his collected stories not too long ago so I thought I'd check to see what's there now and there is a British edition, https://archive.org/search?query=collected-stories+wub&sort=-addeddate. The only HarperCollins edition on ISFDB seems to be the same one, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?537594, except price is slightly less, there are no overseas prices, and number line note doesn't make sense because British paperbacks don't usually have the 9-1 (or 9-2 in this case) number line, that's an American book thing only, I'm pretty sure. Editor was Hauck, one of those people who hate this site now and want nothing to do with it anymore, so if you want to use the archived copy to correct their work I don't think they'll care much, or maybe it's an alternate non-overseas edition in which case you might want to create a new record for it. EDIT: The synopsis in the title record for the collection Beyond Lies the Wub should really be in the story's title record, I think. --Username (talk) 19:30, 17 September 2023 (EDT)

Canonical name change Richard Magahiz from Rich Magahiz

Any objections to making Richard Magahiz the canonical name and Rich Magahiz the alternate?

• 55 titles credited to Richard Magahiz.
• 29 titles credited to Rich Magahiz.
• 01 title has publications credited to each.

SFPA bios (Star*Line, Eye to the Telescope, Dwarf Stars, Rhysling), LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest all use Richard Magahiz. Only site I see using Rich Magahiz is Flickr. Ill add these links to the canonical name. John Scifibones 13:46, 18 September 2023 (EDT)

Sounds like a good plan to me. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 20:27, 18 September 2023 (EDT)

Yep, go ahead. Especially considering that most if not all new titles use Richard. Annie (talk) 13:57, 19 September 2023 (EDT)

changed, John Scifibones 14:08, 20 September 2023 (EDT)

Azzurra

I was doing something related to Thundercats books and one of those titles isn't on Archive.org but this similarly-titled thing is, https://archive.org/search?query=princess-azzurra&sort=-addeddate, in case anyone thinks it qualifies to be here and wants to enter it. --Username (talk) 19:24, 18 September 2023 (EDT)

Noyes, Platt

I let a mod know they misspelled Alfred Noyes' first name in a note which has now been fixed but while checking to see if there were any others I came across a note about this publisher, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?57420. There are 6 copies of the Bangs book from 5 different libraries on Archive.org, https://archive.org/search?query=noyes-platt&sort=title, in case anyone wants to add links assuming they're the same printing as the one entered on ISFDB. Also, while other books are art-related there is one possible genre book, Mother Goose's Menagerie. It is not in Wells' ISFDB record. --Username (talk) 19:47, 18 September 2023 (EDT)

William Relling Collections

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?655; Tragic suicide; also tragic is that both of his collections are very rare. The Infinite Man was previewed in a 1989 200-copy convention edition but never released in a trade edition. As for Along the Midway..., a site I mentioned a while back, Anna's Archive, has both the individual story of that title and what is supposedly the collection; story was in Omni and that seems to be public domain these days (it can be read at williamflew.com) but Anna's is the only place I've seen that claims to have a copy of the book. I was at a public library today and figured, what the hell, I'll download it. After changing the .epub to a .pdf I opened it and saw the cover, the next page which has a thumbnail of the cover, and then...the collection Glimpses by Rick Hautala. It's the WRONG BOOK 😠. The review on this page, http://www.dondammassa.com/2002r3.htm, mentions 2 stories so those and the title story can be imported, at least. I made a couple of edits to it last year according to edit history. RTrace did a whole bunch of secondary verifications for Infinite Man a few months ago; is it possible someone here owns one of those convention editions (online info is unreliable; an actual copy would be great)? On the plus side, even though Glimpses came out 10 years ago nobody ever entered the contents here so if anyone cares to they can do that; Amazon has a preview which includes the contents. --Username (talk) 17:56, 20 September 2023 (EDT)

Canonical name change Jay Sturner from Jason Sturner

Any objections to making Jay Sturner the canonical name and Jason Sturner an alternate?

• 23 titles credited to Jay Sturner.
• 08 titles credited to Jason Sturner
• 17 titles have publications credited to both.
• 01 title credited to Jason E. Schlismann.

The author's website (the url does use jasonsturner), Goodreads and Amazon all use Jay Sturner. SFPA Rhysling bio uses Jason Sturner (2014 & 2015 anthologies). John Scifibones 08:45, 21 September 2023 (EDT)

And Jay is the one currently in use - I'd say it is time to switch them around indeed. Annie (talk) 12:36, 21 September 2023 (EDT)

Changed, John Scifibones 20:32, 22 September 2023 (EDT)

Michel Faber - Over a Certain Threshold?

I am working on the collection Some Rain Must Fall and Other Stories. This contains a mixture of spec-fic (6 stories) and non-genre (9 stories). Could someone please advise whether the author Michel Faber is considered to be over a certain threshold so that I can deal with the non-genre stories appropriately. Teallach (talk) 13:21, 21 September 2023 (EDT)

As there has been no reply for more than two weeks, I shall proceed on the assumption that the author is above threshold. Teallach (talk) 18:14, 6 October 2023 (EDT)

Thackery T. Lambshead

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?156126; I left a message with Paulotecario about making variants of the Portuguese edition's titles but while looking up G. J. Couzens / Gary Couzens it turned out after checking Archive.org that while Gary is used elsewhere the name at the end of the "story" is G. J. so the Portuguese editor is the only one who entered it correctly here. 1st edition on ISFDB has 1 active PV, 1 non-active for a long time who seems to be semi-active now, 1 non-active but still checks in, and 1 who I think is completely gone. So at least one of them should consult with this editor about the names and making sure the English ones are correct before he makes any variants. --Username (talk) 11:52, 22 September 2023 (EDT)

Irish Odyssey

While looking on Paul Pinn's archived site for a story he co-wrote with D. F. Lewis (couldn't find it) I discovered that Pinn had several pages offering some of his short stories (some very filthy including one that is on ISFDB only as by "uncredited" that nearly caused the zine it appeared in to go out of business). I added links but the last one, https://web.archive.org/web/20011024002257/http://www.paulpinn.com/morestories/, is from an Odyssey magazine that is not one of these, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=odyssey+m&type=Magazine. The editor has a page here, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?31614, with no mention of the zine. Cold Tonnage has some covers, https://www.coldtonnage.com/quicksearch/all/odyssey%20lecky, and there were at least 7 issues. Pinn's story title appears nowhere in a search on Google (the only mention of the title is a song by the 70's UK rock band Slack Alice which translates as "Soldier of the World") so I'm guessing this is a very obscure zine; if anyone can find more info a lot of new stories can probably be entered here. EDIT: Pinn died back in 2016 so I added that and other stuff to his record here. EDIT: Some of his stories are by Paul E. Pinn so if anyone knows what the E stands for his legal name can be entered. --Username (talk) 14:19, 23 September 2023 (EDT)

Irma Chilton

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?223006; Chilton doesn't seem to have any English-language books on Archive.org but many of her books were translated into Welsh and one of them on this page, https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL500489A/Irma_Chilton?mode=ebooks&sort=old, has a vampire on the cover and so is likely a genre book, in case anyone here is familiar with that language and wants to enter it or any others that qualify. --Username (talk) 10:21, 24 September 2023 (EDT)

From Time To Time

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?436; I added OL ID to original Scribner HC some time ago and today I added the Archive.org link, also added link to 1996 Scribner paperback, last page is picture credits with no page number, only one person actually entered the numbers as 303+[1], should other 304 page counts be changed to that, too, or should that be changed to 304, also should Schuck be removed from cover artists since she did design only? --Username (talk) 12:24, 25 September 2023 (EDT)

The Berserkers

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?34563; One of those uploaders that provide completely searchable copies just uploaded the USA Pocket edition of Elwood's anthology which is hard to find these days. Ex-PV Bluesman who had a problem with dates, many of which have needed fixing by me or others, seems to have confused some info on the Canadian edition's copyright page and entered the cover art as April instead of June. If someone could read the notes and decide whether it should be June then it needs fixing. Also, the HC, which I somehow never added a link to until now even though it's been there for more than 2 years, had cover artist entered as Stanislaw even though someone wrote in the note that it said Stanislow but they just decided to "fix" it, so is the rule here to enter it as is? Also, note says he's credited on back flap but there's no info like that in the archived copy (bad framing?) but there is in this badly-shot photo from eBay, [15]. EDIT: A similar Trident HC/Pocket PB case here, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?282516, where Bluesman wrote the same kind of note but in this case decided to make the month the same as the USA edition (?). I wonder how many more of these there are out there. EDIT: While looking into all this I stumbled on a recently uploaded (jacketless puke-green) copy of Joseph Elder's other anthology The Farthest Reaches so I added a link in case anyone was searching for that book. --Username (talk) 00:58, 26 September 2023 (EDT)

Continuum 3

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?34539; IF US PB artist was taken from HC why is his last name spelled differently? --Username (talk) 10:53, 26 September 2023 (EDT)

Dream Science Fiction

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?27851; One of my D. F. Lewis story links was just approved and it originally appeared in the above-linked magazine so mod RTrace standardized issue titles as he usually does but I discovered that Luminist has most of the issues as PDF files. While adding links and replacing broken images I discovered that the last issue which was called Winter here was actually published in July! While fixing dates I also found that a story by Andy M. Smith was actually by Andy Smith and that a story by him in another issue says Andy M. on ISFDB, Andy on Contents page, but it's A. M. on story title page. I fixed these things which should be approved soon but I'm sure there's other stuff people can find that I missed. EDIT: Also, if anyone is going to link all those Smiths together I doubt the cover art credit by Andy Smith is the same as the one who wrote those stories 20 years earlier and it's also unlikely that the recent horror anthology edited by A. M. Smith is by the same guy, either, so there might be 3 variants of the SF writer's name plus 2 separate authors. --Username (talk) 11:28, 26 September 2023 (EDT)

Luminist Update

Related to my previous message, Luminist has recently updated their zine list, http://readitfree.org/FZ/FZ_updates.htm, in case anyone is looking for any of those issues. --Username (talk) 11:40, 26 September 2023 (EDT)

Mondourania

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubseries.cgi?2237; https://fantlab.ru/series8593; Cover images broken but FantLab has them if they need replacing; is that Italian site dead? --Username (talk) 19:23, 26 September 2023 (EDT)

Sci Fi Wire/ SyFy Wire - webzine or website?

I recently rejected an edit to change the type of the container title of this publication from NONFICTION to ESSAY. The editor, who I believe is the author of the piece, questioned me about the rejection. I stand by the rejection as the edit would have put the publication into an invalid state. However, in looking further into the record, I'm not certain whether the publication should have been added in the first place. The essay in question is a review of a television show that was posted on the Sci Fi Wire site. Our ROA specifically exclude "Works published in a web-based publication and available exclusively as a Web page" unless they are explicitly included. The two exceptions under inclusions that may apply here are: "Webzines, which are defined as online periodicals with distinct issues (note that online periodicals without distinct issues are not considered webzines)." and "Online publications available exclusively as a Web page, but only if: published by a market which makes the author eligible for SFWA membership". Unfortunately, the link to SFWAs list of markets doesn't give an easy way to determine whether Sci Fi Wire was a market back in 2009 when the piece was published. They do not appear in the current list of markets. The archived link in the publication record does show a date for the item, and appears similar to how tor.com is presented in that respect. I don't follow the SyFy site, so I'd like to ask the community whether we want to consider Sci Fi Wire/SyFy Wire to be a webzine or a website? If the former, I think the publication in question can be converted to a magazine and the essay added. If it's a website, it appears to fall outside the ROA and should be deleted. Thoughts? Thanks. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 19:29, 26 September 2023 (EDT)

Since it appears to be an essay about the television show Fringe, it shouldn't be included as NONFICTION. I would consider Paul Levinson to be "above the threshold", so it could be included as an ESSAY if it's part of a distinct issue of the Sci Fi Wire. As far as I can tell (and remember), Sci Fi Wire was a blog-like news and information site about speculative fiction topics (books, TV, movies, etc.), and it never had distinct issues. Therefore, I don't think it should be included here unless it's part of a book or something that's reprinting it. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:51, 26 September 2023 (EDT)

Thanks for opening this discussion. I can give the following info about Sci Fi Wire: It was a continually updated news site about science fiction related matters. It published news, reviews, etc about science fiction movies and TV shows, and (in case this is relevant), it was a paying market. According to SFWA rules (I was President of the organization from 1998-2001, and am a Lifetime Member), a sale like I made to Sci Fi Wire would have counted as a professional nonfiction sale, and satisfied a criterion for admission to SFWA as an Affiliate Member. Hope this helps, and it's fine with me whatever is decided about this publication for ISFDB PaulLev (talk) 01:15, 27 September 2023 (EDT)

Watchers Out of Time

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5777341; Cover mentioned in original note has a $6.95 Canadian price so it is a later one but both it and the OL cover I added which is the same as the archived copy's cover say USA price is $4.95. If anyone can show a cover with $4.50 I'd be surprised because none online say that so I'll chalk it up to a book entered long ago with faulty info. Also, Derleth isn't credited on title page as mentioned in the note; does that change anything as to how the book is credited here? --Username (talk) 09:05, 27 September 2023 (EDT)

The $4.50 price is from Locus1. I'd suggest double checking with the verifier of the second printing, which has a $4.95 price to determine whether second printing is explicitly stated in the book. My recollection is that Carroll & Graf is sometimes sloppy about printing history. It may be that the scan you're adding is of the second printing. Regardless of that outcome, your edit doesn't deal with the author credit. You'll need to remove Derleth from the publication record for each of the C&G publications, coordinating with the verifier. You can then unmerge the C&G title records, re-merge them with each other and make them into a new variant of the current parent title. Further, the date of the existing variant should be adjusted to 2008-10-14. You'll also need to remove the contents from each C&G record and replace them with the titles as by Lovecraft only. Finally, each of those will need to be varianted to the original titles by Lovecraft and Derleth. As I've noted before, it's helpful to the moderators to indicate in the moderator notes that you're doing a multi step process and that you intend to complete the edit with the next steps. Hope that helps. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 09:44, 27 September 2023 (EDT)

Gay Mormon Collections

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?135658; I randomly came across Zombies for Jesus and added Archive.org link + corrected page count; no contents entered, no stories in his record, descriptions on back cover make it sound like not all the stories are genre (he has a lot of "literary" credits), https://archive.org/search?query=townsend-johnny&sort=-addeddate&and%5B%5D=mediatype%3A%22texts%22 and https://archive.org/search?query=johnny-townsend&sort=-addeddate&and%5B%5D=mediatype%3A%22texts%22 reveal that he has at least 3 other archived collections plus there are a few others that sound promising on his OL page, https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL7587355A/Johnny_Townsend?sort=old, so if anyone actually wants to read them at least some of the stories probably belong here. --Username (talk) 15:12, 27 September 2023 (EDT)

Gollancz - 10 new series titles

I had a Douglas Adams moment when I edited one of my books in the Gollancz SF series - 14 titles in a series of 10.

Well, one thing led to another and now, after reviewing over 1,300 Gollancz publications in the years 1928 to 2000, I'm proposing some new series titles.

I've only dealt with publications where a cover image is available, and have dispensed with 'Gollancz' from 'Gollancz SF', to reduce clutter.

• SF Series 1 - single zig-zag line border. example
• SF Series 2 - two zig-zag lines across top. example
• SF Series 3 - SF in black top. example
• SF Series 4 - SF in shield. example
• SF Series 5 - Gollancz SF in square box, various colours. example
• SF Series 6 - this would be the current 'Gollancz SF' series (with rounded corners) re-named. example

• Gollancz Anthology - in different genres, 2 border lines with author names/ themes within. example
• Gollancz Detection example
• Gollancz Suspense example
• Gollancz Originals example

Comments please. Kev. BanjoKev (talk) 18:06, 28 September 2023 (EDT)

This sounds good to me. If possible, I'd include the years for each in the notes for each series, possibly in the title of the series. Perhaps "Gollancz SF (1928-1935)" (the years are just an example as I have no idea the years covered by each). That will make it easier to place volumes into the appropriate series. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:48, 4 October 2023 (EDT)

Thanks for your input Joe. I had considered including dates in the series titles but concluded it isn't practicable. The main reason is that the series overlap considerably. As these are are arbitrarily separated out series we don't have any firm start/finish dates - our only guidance is the dating (and some are undated) for the publications we have in the database. If subsequent editions are found which fall out of range of any existing stated criteria this may be confusing/exclusionary.

On reflection, I think it might be better, as you imply, to include "Gollancz" in the titling; to read, for instance "Gollancz SF Series 1".

As can be seen from the examples, these are only serialised according to their cover layouts; I had collectors in mind whilst thinking about the whole thing. In the title containers, I would be adding notes explaining qualifying criteria (so often missing), with a link to a 'prime' example, and also something about the date range(s) for the ones we have on record. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 22:28, 6 October 2023 (EDT)

Then I suggest using similar disambiguation as used with authors or titles: "Gollancz SF Series" for the first one, then "Gollancz SF Series (2)" or "Gollancz SF Series (II)", "Gollancz SF Series (3)" or "Gollancz SF Series (III)", and so on, where the description of how to identify the series is given on the series page. I agree with the four lower series naming except for the anthology one. The example you provided doesn't show "Gollancz Anthology" (unlike the others, which show the suggested titles). ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 18:09, 9 October 2023 (EDT)

I take your point about "Gollancz Anthology". I was looking for commonality - there are 14 publications with the cover layout like that, and they are all anthologies. To be consistent, it would be better to use the "Gollancz SF Series (n)" construction and the fact that they are anthologies would be recorded in the series title notes. Thanks for the thought. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 13:46, 18 October 2023 (EDT)

H. R. Giger's Necronomicon

https://archive.org/details/hr-giger-necronomicon; https://archive.org/details/hr-giger-necronomicon-1977_202309; Strangely enough this is not on ISFDB (#2 is) in case anyone fluent wants to enter it (I think later copy was just ripped from original uploader because they look the same). Language is, um, German, I think? --Username (talk) 10:28, 29 September 2023 (EDT)

C$ Tolkien

[16]; [17]; I added links to 2 of these Canadian editions today and some editors entered publisher normally and others entered it with (Canada), most are PV so a consensus should be reached about whether they belong with parent publisher names or really should be separated. --Username (talk) 12:26, 29 September 2023 (EDT)

Nouveau Space Opera

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1987278; I'd like to add a link to this book but there are 2 records that seem like they're the same. One should probably be deleted or merged and, once done, I'll add the link. Earlier one was entered by Hauck (hates ISFDB now so I don't think they'd care much if their record was gone) while the other was entered much later. EDIT: The one with 667 pages is correct because last page is unnumbered; price is also correct. Also, Hauck may not have entered the other one, he just made an edit and approved a couple of others. Must have been one of those early edits before records were kept. --Username (talk) 09:53, 30 September 2023 (EDT)

Fantascienza

I was looking for something by using the term "della fantascienza" and didn't find it but these, https://archive.org/search?query=%22della+fantascienza%22&sort=-addeddate&and%5B%5D=mediatype%3A%22texts%22, came up in case any can prove useful to anyone; the Robot magazine, in particular, looks promising. --Username (talk) 10:54, 30 September 2023 (EDT)

This World Is Taboo

This World Is Taboo is currently listed as a novel with a title record note of "first appeared as 'Pariah Planet' in Amazing, July 1961". A word count of the Project Gutenberg edition (which is a transcription of the Ace Book edition) shows it to be 35,932 words (so a novella and not a novel). A comparison of the Amazing Stories, July 1961 Internet Archive scan shows the text of Pariah Planet to match that of "This World Is Taboo". So "This World Is Taboo" should be converted to a novella and varianted to "Pariah Planet". This would also require converting The Med Series from an omnibus to a collection as all contents would then be short fiction.

I will be notifying all the active verifiers of pubs containing "This World Is Taboo" and pointing them to this centralized conversation. If there are no objections, I will convert the novel to a novella in a few days. -- JLaTondre (talk) 06:42, 1 October 2023 (EDT)

No objections to converting. Thanks. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 08:30, 1 October 2023 (EDT)

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5780069. --Username (talk) 08:35, 1 October 2023 (EDT)

Works for me as well. The Project Gutenberg version of "Pariah Planet" contains 35,002 words, but the difference may be due to the extensive footers and headers (copyright statements etc) that PG tends to add. Ahasuerus (talk) 08:44, 1 October 2023 (EDT)

Imported the story text of both PG versions (excluding headers, footers, page numbers) into Word and did a compare. Pariah has 34,041 words and Taboo has 35,932 words. There has been some editing between the two versions including a scattering of an additional explanatory sentence here and there. All in all, it's close enough to consider the same work. I will add an explanatory note to both title records when varianting. -- JLaTondre (talk) 09:48, 1 October 2023 (EDT)

Ok with me. --Glenn (talk) 15:30, 1 October 2023 (EDT)

Support the change.15:58, 1 October 2023 (EDT)

Works for me, thanks. PeteYoung (talk) 23:25, 2 October 2023 (EDT)

Ok with me too. --Dirk P Broer (talk) 11:16, 4 October 2023 (EDT)

Sounds good to me. Definitely include the above information in the note for the TITLE record. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:45, 4 October 2023 (EDT)

Changes made as discussed. Thanks all. -- JLaTondre (talk) 19:37, 7 October 2023 (EDT)

More than one edition?

Hi. I just heard of this at Capclave this weekend. Looked up my one published (so far) novel, 11,000 Years.

Problem: the original publisher, the late Eric Flint's Ring of Fire Press, was shut down after his death. The novel is now *republished* by another publisher. I don't see "other editions", or any obvious reasonable way to add this info (which is important to me, since it *is* now back in print.

Thanks in advance. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Whitroth (talk • contribs) . 08:18, 2 October 2023‎ (EDT)

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?3054628. --Username (talk) 11:59, 2 October 2023 (EDT)

Since the new editions will have different ISBNs and publishers, they are just a new publication under the same title. You can certainly add notes to both the title and publication records as well. It looks like the tp edition was added by Fixer back in August but the ebook is yet to be added. Phil (talk) 12:35, 3 October 2023 (EDT)

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubs_not_in_series.cgi?13521; If you enter anything I think the publisher should be changed in some way to differ it from the one that did magazines 50 years ago. --Username (talk) 14:27, 3 October 2023 (EDT)

Cute, Amazon. Per the Look-inside views, the publisher is actually Novus Mundi Publishing. If you want me to do the edits and clone for the ebook, I can but you can do it yourself. Phil (talk) 17:09, 3 October 2023 (EDT)

Fosses d'Iverson

https://archive.org/search?query=dan+simmons+fosses; I was doing a bunch of Dan Simmons edits and came across that French edition where they packaged his story "Iverson's Pits" into its own separate book; in case anyone here who's fluent wants to enter it. --Username (talk) 19:15, 2 October 2023 (EDT)

Beyond the Doors of Death

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5781424; Title date is different than date of both editions, intro is entered with one of those dates while Broderick's original story is entered with the other date, what should the real date be for all of these? --Username (talk) 19:55, 2 October 2023 (EDT)

Complete Cthulhu Mythos Tales

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5781813; I'm not sure which of those 3 page counts is correct. Last numbered page is 593 but there's an "About the Artist" page following it which probably shouldn't count but the editor of the Sterling edition here entered 594 and also has the Roman numerals one higher than the Fall River edition, so maybe Sterling added an extra page to the book and the last numbered page really is 594. If anyone owns Fall River, B&N first printing or Sterling all that can be checked and fixed as needed. Also, does ISFDB software know not to import titles already there? Because I think it removed intro automatically which someone added to all 3 editions. --Username (talk) 11:02, 3 October 2023 (EDT)

Jane Gaskell Sphere Editions

https://archive.org/search?query=jane+gaskell+sphere&sort=-addeddate&and%5B%5D=year%3A%221967%22; Those books have prices and dates which are the same as what's on ISFDB but the covers are totally different; anybody who knows the history of these UK paperbacks where they change covers and nothing else may know what year these are really from and would like to enter them here. --Username (talk) 10:50, 4 October 2023 (EDT)

Who Is N. Dalby?

https://richarddalbyslibrary.com/products/all-hallows-3-1991-the-journal-of-the-ghost-story-society-barbara-roden-christopher-roden-ash-tree-press-4; I suspect the N. Dalby credited on p. 13 is actually Richard Dalby; does anyone own this issue who can look for a signature on the artwork if there is one? --Username (talk) 19:17, 4 October 2023 (EDT)

Late Victorian Gothic Tales

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?448651; I added an archived 2009 edition (7th printing) just now and was nearly fooled into cut-and-pasting the page count from the 2009 edition already on ISFDB until my usual paranoia caused me to check the copy itself only to discover count is much higher, 282 pages. Does anyone own the first printing who can check and fix count if needed? There's no edit history; I'm sure all printings are 282 and the wrong info is from Amazon or some other unreliable site. --Username (talk) 19:44, 4 October 2023 (EDT)

Balzac

Looking for the year of publication by P. F. Collier & Son New York For The First Complete Translation into English Honore de Balzac in Twenty-Five volumes? There is not ISBN number. The covers are green with gold lettering and HB is embossed on the cover and binder side. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Tina.adams (talk • contribs) .

I have this edition in my collection, but it's currently boxed and I can't get to it. Luckily, you can view and/or download individual volumes of this edition from Google Books, e.g. Volume 25. There is "MCM" at the bottom of the title page, which is Roman numerals for "1900". Ahasuerus (talk) 13:12, 5 October 2023 (EDT)

I too have this collection which is why I was enquiring. I inherited it along with a collection of Robert Louis Stevenson published in New York by Charles Scriberner's Sons from 1905. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Tina.adams (talk • contribs) .

https://archive.org/search?query=%22+p.+f.+collier%22+balzac+volumes&sort=title. --Username (talk) 18:35, 5 October 2023 (EDT)

Nick Smith

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?41231; The Smith who wrote the 4 novels is from England and born in 1972 (I've been adding stuff to Luath Press books and his bio is on their site) so is not the same Smith who did everything else on the page. --Username (talk) 00:15, 7 October 2023 (EDT)

Novelist has been separated out. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:40, 7 October 2023 (EDT)

Alexander Forbes

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?127476; A copy of Radio Gunner was uploaded earlier this year so I have an edit pending with a link, either the story is by some youngster or they reprinted something by the older guy, also FantLab has someone with a similar name who illustrated an old book that seems to be about fairies judging by some of the scanned photos (Blue Fairy, maybe?), https://fantlab.ru/art9514, but his dates don't match the novelist so probably a different Forbes, if anyone can translate maybe they can decide whether the fairy book belongs here. --Username (talk) 13:56, 7 October 2023 (EDT)

Canonical name change Xan van Rooyen from Suzanne van Rooyen

Any objections to making Xan van Rooyen the canonical name and Suzanne van Rooyen an alternate?

• 15 titles credited to Xan van Rooyen.
• 14 titles credited to Suzanne van Rooyen.

The about section on the author's website (the url does use suzannevanrooyen) is titled Xan van Rooyen and the author explicitly asks to be called Xan. All titles since 2020 are credited to Xan van Rooyen. John Scifibones 16:32, 7 October 2023 (EDT)

Sounds good to me. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 18:03, 9 October 2023 (EDT)

Hearing no objections, the relationship has been reversed. John Scifibones 15:07, 13 October 2023 (EDT)

ESFS

While searching for something I came across this, https://fantlab.ru/award30; I don't see that award on ISFDB so maybe this can be something useful to enter for someone. There's a few mentions of it in notes, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/note_search_results.cgi?OPERATOR=contains&NOTE_VALUE=esfs. --Username (talk) 13:14, 8 October 2023 (EDT)

Falcons

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5785847; I entered Book of Lyonne here nearly 2 years ago; today I came across 2 eBay listings with 12 photos each. I see the reason I didn't enter the price back then is because FantLab has a price-clipped photo but eBay copies are not clipped. I think all 8 Peake drawings are viewable; I see the lion on the frontispiece, a weird hybrid creature with an umbrella, a little man-beast smoking a cigar, the lion with a Japanese lady, a tiptoeing elephant, a couple of ducks, a monkey diving at a bird, and a group shot of a bunch of animals following the lion around a tree. I also want to clear up the Falcon Press mess which I believe I asked about a long time ago without success. Per the note the UK publisher used both Falcon Press and The Falcon Press; I suppose it's possible that the UK Frazetta book published more than 20 years after the others is by the same publisher but I doubt it. Then there's Wilson's 2 US books and a much later reprint of a Robert W. Chambers book. So we've got 1, possibly 2, UK and 1, possibly 2, US Falcons. If anyone's interested and can provide more info I'm sure we can separate all of them. --Username (talk) 19:30, 8 October 2023 (EDT)

Elizabeth Davis

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?210874; Someone recently entered Old Woman and I followed up with a PENDING edit fixing/adding stuff; the story & poem almost certainly belong to one of the other Davises but they're both contemporary so it's hard to say which. I would guess it's (I) but her webpage isn't found online and typing the titles of the story and poem together on Google gets nothing so no online bibliography, it seems. EDIT: Davis (I) webpage, https://www.elizabethdavis.mercierdavis.com/, is found if you type it directly into the URL bar but her bibliography ends in 2021; both story and poem are 2022. The search goes on. --Username (talk) 20:57, 8 October 2023 (EDT)

Smashwords Author Images

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5786282; Coming across that awful author photo annoyed me so much I tried to replace it but Amazon seems to no longer have that one and now has 2 that are equally worthless; one is an "S" image that ISFDB doesn't like and the other isn't actually a photo but some kind of cartoon drawing. I resorted to looking at the old ISFDB "image linking permissions" page and decided to try Smashwords, found his photo, checked to see how the image is supposed to be entered, and to my great surprise it worked. Then I decided to do an advanced author search for images containing either "cloudfront" or "smashwords" and got nothing. So is it possible that this will be the only Smashwords photo on ISFDB? Anyway, anyone looking for images on Amazon who can't find any or only bad ones, try Smashwords. --Username (talk) 11:13, 9 October 2023 (EDT)

230 publications use smashword images as of 13:43, 9 October 2023. John Scifibones 13:43, 9 October 2023 (EDT)

Authors is what I was referring to. Book covers are usually uploaded on many sites but photos are often unique. I searched this page, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/adv_search_selection.cgi?author, for "Author Image contains smashwords" and got nothing. --Username (talk) 17:08, 9 October 2023 (EDT)

I approved the submission, but then uploaded the image from their Amazon author page as it wasn't blurry like the Smashwords image. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 18:01, 9 October 2023 (EDT)

Mary M.

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?60641; A mod just entered a 1984 novel with a jacket credit by Mary Mietzelfeld that I added plus other stuff, usual paranoia caused me to search for similar names and I got the link above, I imported cover credit into '85 US and Canada and changed the date, there's also a 16th printing that has the cover credit but no cover, lots of PV for various editions so they may want to look into this and figure out where the credit came from since notes imply there's no credit in the book for some or all of the editions. Only other credit on Google I can find for "Mary Meitzelfeld" is a 1970's Mario Puzo book so I'd think Mietzelfeld is the correct spelling. --Username (talk) 18:06, 9 October 2023 (EDT)

2nd Utopia Awards

I asked a few months ago if the Utopia Awards for Utopian/Climate fiction could be added, and I was told it would be better to wait for for it to have at least a second year. Since the second edition was awarded this week, could it be added to the database now? The award is connected to the Climate Fiction Conference, which was held yesterday, and it appeared on Locus Magazine, so it has some grounding. My apologies if the request is inadequate.

Thanks for the update! When we create a new Award Type, we populate the following fields:

• Short Name, e.g. "World Fantasy"
• Full Name, e. g. "World Fantasy Award"
• Awarded For, e.g. "Fantasy and horror"
• Awarded By, e.g. "Panel of judges chosen by the World Fantasy Awards Administration"
• Poll (Yes/No)
• Covers more than just SF (Yes/No)

I am trying to find information that we would need to populate these fields. So far I have had limited success. This Android Press page seems to suggest that nominees are chosen by Android Press and the winners are determined by online voters, but it's not clear. Is there an online description of the award sponsors, nominee qualifications, award categories and the award selection process? Ahasuerus (talk) 11:16, 10 October 2023 (EDT)

The nomination was also open to the public, though online voters, so both the nominees and the winners were chosen by the public. This link had the rules of the qualifications during the voting process, but it's no longer visible since it was a Google formulary (like the British SF awards), from what I recall when I voted, the focus was on speculative stories (both sci fi and fantasy) about climate fiction or with an utopian/positive bent published in the previous year. You can see the categories here. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Alittlebook (talk • contribs) .

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdHgetVmOb28bWcU-W3pUIFc3d6IP5GH5V6Z620bjhyTGAygg/viewform. --Username (talk) 09:37, 11 October 2023 (EDT)

Thanks to User:Alittlebook for the clarifications and to User:Username for the link to the 2023 nomination form.

The form says that the award is given to "works ... that exemplify hopeful, utopian fiction (science fiction, fantasy, climate fiction...)", which we can use to populate the "Awarded For" field.

The one outstanding question is the name of the body that administers the award, which we need for the "Awarded By" field. It would appear that it is Android Press, whose first major project was Solarpunk Magazine (2022-) and which is associated with (sponsors?) annual Climate Fiction Conferences. Is there a statement explaining the relationship between these bodies/organizations and which one(s) administer the Utopia Awards? Ahasuerus (talk) 10:43, 11 October 2023 (EDT)

From what I gathered, Solarpunk Magazine is a project done by Android Press, who created/hosted the Utopia Awards and the Climate Fiction Conference. They held a Kickstarter to fund it last year. From the description of the fundraiser, the inaugural award had their nominees chosen by an invited panel of publishing houses and magazine editors, but they shifted for public voting this year. Also, my apologies for not signing my earlier posts, I had forgotten how to, lol Alittlebook (talk) 14:06, 11 October 2023 (EDT)

Thanks, the Kickstarter link is very useful. So basically the core organization behind the award is Android Press, which has 8 editors. They organize annual "Climate Fiction Conferences" and administer the Utopia Award.

We have come across publisher-administered "awards" which were actually ploys to promote the publisher's books, but in this case I don't think it's a concern. The fact that their Kickstarter was successfully funded to the tune of $5,000 is pretty convincing evidence that it's a genuine "subgenre award".

Any objections to creating a new Award Type for this award? Ahasuerus (talk) 18:57, 11 October 2023 (EDT)

Oh yeah, out of 47 nominees this year, only 2 are connected to one of their branches (a poem and a single short story from the Solarpunk Magazine; the authors of both works campaigned a lot during the voting, so it didn't felt like a sketchy result, and neither of them won). I followed their proccess because I'm interested in climate fiction/solarpunk and it seemed like a genuine push for the subgenre's visibility. Alittlebook (talk) 20:09, 11 October 2023 (EDT)

Outcome of the "Utopia Awards" discussion

Hearing no objection, I have created a new Award Type for "Utopia Award" as well as 9 award categories. Everything should be ready for "Add Award" submissions to be created. Ahasuerus (talk) 17:38, 14 October 2023 (EDT)

Thanks! I'm adding the awards little by little, just a question: the winner of the Anthology category this year was a special issue of Omenana, a magazine. It seems like I can't add awards to magazine issues, what should I do about it? Alittlebook (talk) 16:20, 15 October 2023 (EDT)

According to this list, the award was given to the July, 2022 issue aka "Issue #22" aka "Positive Visions of Democracy". As per Help:Screen:AddAward:

ISFDB supports two different types of awards. Although they are entered and modified using the same Web pages, they are quite different and it's important to understand the difference before you start entering or editing awards. The two award types are as follows:

• Title-based Awards (including Cover Art): Most awards are given to individual ISFDB titles, e.g. novels, non-fiction, short stories, cover art and so on. Note that these titles MUST already exist in ISFDB before you can add awards to them. If you want to add an award to a title that is not in ISFDB, then you have to enter that title first, wait for the submission to be approved and then enter the title's award(s).
• Other awards: ISFDB also supports awards given to individuals beyond their specific works, e.g. Lifetime Achievement awards. In addition, it supports awards given to publishers, editors, title series, and non-ISFDB items such as web sites, movies, graphic novels, and never-published stories (such as runner-ups in various "new story" awards). These awards are referred to as "Untitled Awards" because they are not associated with ISFDB title records.

In this case we are dealing with an award given to a magazine issue, which is a publication as opposed to a title. However, each MAGAZINE (or FANZINE) publication has an EDITOR title associated with it. It's displayed next to the words "Editor Title" right above the "Contents" line. If you follow the link to the EDITOR title, you will see the "Add an Award to This Title" option under "Editing Tool".

Keep in mind that an EDITOR title like "Omenana - 2022" can be shared by multiple magazine issues if they all have the same editor(s) and year of publication. Adding awards/nominations can get tricky if only one of the issues associated with the same EDITOR title is nominated. However, in this case this EDITOR title is associated with a single magazine issue, so it shouldn't be a problem.Ahasuerus (talk) 11:14, 15 October 2023 (EDT)

Got it. Just did like you said, thanks! Alittlebook (talk) 16:20, 15 October 2023 (EDT)

Vorzimer

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=vorzi&type=Name; Who should be parent? They're about even. --Username (talk) 17:42, 10 October 2023 (EDT)

Peter Vorzimer was the way he was credited in the fanzine that he edited (Abstract) while Peter J. Vorzimer was the way he was credited when writing letters to Richard E. Geis's Science Fiction Review (1st Series). Since "EDITOR" generally has more weight than "ESSAY" for the purposes of "best known within the genre", I made Peter Vorzimer the canonical name and Peter J. Vorzimer its alternate. Thanks. Ahasuerus (talk) 10:56, 11 October 2023 (EDT)

Thanks. I wonder if his disappearance after a few years had anything to do with this, https://latimes.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-woman-struck-by-au/127127953/, assuming it's the same guy; the zine WAS published in California. --Username (talk) 11:21, 11 October 2023 (EDT)

Page 1 of the first issue of Abstract lists the publisher's address: 1311 N. Laurel Ave., W. Hollywood 46, Calif. The linked LA Times article has the same address, so it's the same person. I have added the middle name to the "legal name" field.

That said, the accident happened on March 17, 1954, but he continued to publish the fanzine until 1955, so it's not clear what the fallout of the accident was. Ahasuerus (talk) 12:55, 11 October 2023 (EDT)

Amazon URL

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5787245; It happens now and then where a URL will be different but image looks the same and is the same size. Is there no benefit to replacing or is it better to have a newer URL? Why does this happen? --Username (talk) 13:32, 11 October 2023 (EDT)

The sizes are actually slightly different, so the images are presumably also different, although the differences are imperceptible to the naked eye. As to why Amazon has two almost identical images, it's hard to tell. Their images come from different sources and we don't know what they are, so it may be any number of things. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:57, 11 October 2023 (EDT)

EDIT: Also, my spell check doesn't like the editor's note "mis-numbers" and has a red line under the mis part; it's a legit word so I wonder if anyone else sees that, too? I did a note search and that's the only use of that word on all of ISFDB with or without the dash; editor must have been hooked on phonics that day. --Username (talk) 13:32, 11 October 2023 (EDT)

Spellchecking is handled by your browser as opposed to the ISFDB server. These days most browsers come with built-in spellcheckers and they usually let you add new words like "mis-numbers" to the list of recognized words. You can also install a custom browser add-on to handle spellchecking and grammar validation if you want a more sophisticated tool. There are a number of popular ones like LanguageTool. I am not sure how useful they would be since our Notes tend to use a lot of abbreviated sentences, but there is no harm in giving them a try. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:57, 11 October 2023 (EDT)

Plant Rage

https://fantlab.ru/edition388900; I was adding a link explaining the history of Stephen King's rare The Plant and came across that weird FantLab page where it seems a Russian publisher combined both Plant and King's hard-to-find 1977 Richard Bachman novel Rage which he hasn't allowed to be reprinted as a standalone novel in the USA because it concerns school shootings. So anyone fluent in Russian may want to add that book here since it contains 2 King works that haven't been reprinted endlessly. --Username (talk) 23:00, 12 October 2023 (EDT)

By by

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?692274; OL-only archived copy, unusual for such a recent book, so I added a link and page numbers and corrected page count. I happened to notice that O'Regan's story was missing the word by at the end so I added that but I capitalized it in opposition to what this page says, https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/Template:AllFields:Case, because it has a different meaning in this title rather than being "by" someone. I looked at these, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=passed+by&type=Fiction+Titles, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=passes+by&type=Fiction+Titles, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=passing+by&type=Fiction+Titles, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=pass+by&type=Fiction+Titles. Most are like O'Regan's title as I entered it with the majority being capitalized but a few aren't; also, I think Tarzia's poem in the last link is the only one that uses it in the possessive so that is probably a legitimate use of the small b. What does anyone else think? Some will need to be changed to make everything standard. --Username (talk) 13:48, 13 October 2023 (EDT)

Best of the Midwest's SFFH

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?348698; I made some edits for this book a long time ago and today found that the story by Douglas Graham is actually by D. Douglas Graham who has another story in the book by that name; I fixed that in a pending edit but while doing that I noticed that the stories are illustrated with the artists' names listed on the contents page but the search function on Google Books is not great and it's hard to find anything specific with accuracy. I see some pretty big names like Marge Simon, David Transue (who did Volume II's cover), etc. So if anyone knows how to get a look at the full copy a lot of artist credits can be entered; there seems to be no preview of Volume II but I'm guessing that's probably illustrated, too. These are rare books; the second one was recalled due to cover problems. --Username (talk) 10:37, 14 October 2023 (EDT)

Hobgoblin

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?337356; I did a lot of John Coyne edits some time ago, doing more today, a lot of his HC editions on Archive.org are book club editions which aren't on ISFDB, I'm ignoring those but this one, https://archive.org/search?query=+hobgoblin00coyn&sort=-addeddate, is interesting, it says book club on front flap but, unlike other club editions, it's much longer, 307 pages, than what's on ISFDB. Library of Congress says 304 pages. So if anyone knows what non-club edition's count is, let us know. I'd like to add a link to the archived copy somewhere. --Username (talk) 11:59, 14 October 2023 (EDT)

Maiden, Matron, Crone

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?168059; I added archived link to $7.50 edition in a PENDING edit; should the other edition be deleted? --Username (talk) 13:43, 14 October 2023 (EDT)

Duplicate deleted. -- JLaTondre (talk) 14:33, 14 October 2023 (EDT)

Christina Sng

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5790172; I've added full contents but there's a problem with the last 2 poems. Her website's bibliography says 9/02 for this (Sng's title is not seen because contents are incomplete), https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?439266, and it turns out it says "September" clearly on the cover so I don't know why it was entered here as October; do all dates need changing? Also, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?310470, where her site says "Turtle Shell" appeared in this issue but it says "The Scarecrow" here; I noticed the next poem by another author is "Scarecrow" so I have a feeling 2 poems got mixed up and Sng's title should be changed. However, that would require someone looking at an actual copy of this rare zine; can anyone help? --Username (talk) 19:39, 15 October 2023 (EDT)

Captain Shark

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?25623; Recent upload of Jaws, added a link and cover credit for famed artist Hector Garrido, none of the copies on eBay for By Pirate's Blood show copyright page, likely same artist judging by style but can't be positive, anyone own a copy? --Username (talk) 20:14, 15 October 2023 (EDT)

Puleo

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?184633; http://www.bewilderingstories.com/bios/puleo_bio.html; I came across this randomly and thought I'd start adding bios from that site for obscure people who don't have bios elsewhere online but I may have picked a very bad one to start with. There are numerous online newspaper sites from Kentucky, where the bio linked above says Puleo lives, detailing the arrest on child pornography charges of a Carl Puleo/Carl A. Puleo/Carl Anthony Puleo. I don't want to link to any of those sites but many of them include his picture (as do sites like therapist.com since that was his job before he was arrested) which show him to be a middle-aged white male, sometimes with a beard and sometimes not. Care must be taken not to associate the Puleo on ISFDB with the other one unless some proof can be found that they're one and the same. It's very unlikely that the issue of Vampire Dan's where his poem appeared can be found but his bio mentions Anotherealm, an online site which which has only been spottily entered here and which, on Archive.org, doesn't have any mention of the name Puleo in a URL search. I did add a note a long time ago to Edward E. Kramer's record here detailing the reason why his genre work ended in 2000 was because of similar charges but in that case his crimes are well-documented on his Wikipedia page and it's clearly the same person. So if anyone can find definitively that author Puleo is the same as criminal Puleo then I will add details to his record (and also his middle name, Anthony). --Username (talk) 13:21, 17 October 2023 (EDT)

Please come participate...

...in this discussion on page numbering questions. Thanks! ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:09, 17 October 2023 (EDT)

Lawrence the Artist

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?27810; https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5791436; Photo was probably taken in the mid-20th century but doesn't look much better than the one taken of Jack the Ripper's last victim in 1888; also, he bears a disturbing resemblance to a certain German dictator. More to the point, FantLab says birth year is 1884 as do some other sites online; is 1886 accurate? Also, FantLab just says he died in 1960 with no day or month so the accuracy of those entered here may not be right, either. Clouding this whole issue is this, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/187880368/lawrence-sterne-stevens, which seems to be the same guy judging by the picture but says 1885; headstone says the same (and 1960) but provides no days or months. Wow; messy. --Username (talk) 20:37, 17 October 2023 (EDT)

Micromania

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?482014; https://picclick.com/?q=micromania+langford; I recently uploaded the cover, it was just approved, format says TP but cover looks like HC to me, Sphere PB has totally different ISBN (and cover), so either format should be changed to HC or there is a TP edition (but there's no proof of that online). Not sure what "adapted for the UK" on Langford's site means; did Platt have an American edition first? --Username (talk) 10:18, 18 October 2023 (EDT)

AbeBooks Links

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5786883; About this rejection, it's not correct that sale links aren't accepted because there's a whole bunch of them that were, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/webpages_search_results.cgi?OPERATOR=contains&WEBPAGE_VALUE=abebooks (the first one on that page doesn't count, it's Julie Abe's Facebook site), with at least the last one being entered by me last year and accepted with no problem, so can someone suggest how I can get that link accepted? Is there a mod here who doesn't have a problem with accepting them? Most of the AbeBooks links entered on ISFDB are still working and even when the product is sold many of the listings still remain on PicClick, Google Cache, Archive.org (https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition*), etc. --Username (talk) 11:36, 18 October 2023 (EDT)

Bioshock: Rapture

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?397958; I added archived TP link in PENDING edit, nearly got fooled into "fixing" page count to 427, usual paranoia caused me to check archived PB, it's 430, so either ex-library TP is ragged and last few pages fell out/got ripped out or Tor printers messed up. Does anyone own the TP who can verify that it ends on 430 and not 427? --Username (talk) 12:44, 18 October 2023 (EDT)

Ladies of Horror Fiction Award

Hello earthlings, I come forward with another micro award I found.

The Ladies of Horror Fiction Awards (short form: LOHF Award) was horror award given to woman authors in 2020 (for works from 2019), 2021 (for works from 2020) and 2022 (for works from 2021) by a self-proclaimed grasshoots organization aimed at uplifting women authors. From what I saw, they worked mostly as a website posting reviews and the award itself, and later changed to HorrorSpotlight and seem to have dropped the award entirely after the name change. Here's the Locus Magazine post about the winners from 2020, 2021 and 2022. From what I gathered, they were juri-based (chosen by the people who mantained the Ladies of Horror Fiction website/organization), and besides the typical categories of Novel, YA, MG, Debut, Collection, Poetry Collection. Novella and Short Fiction, they also had a special category in their last year called Readers Choice, which was open for the public to vote. From what I understood from the Locus Magazine post about the Readers Choice category, they worked as honorary mentions for the 2022 LOFT Awards, since they listed ten different works with no specific sole winner. Their 2020 award also listed short fiction under honorable mentions, with no specific winners. Alittlebook (talk) 14:11, 18 October 2023 (EDT)

Our main concern with minor awards is separating legitimate awards from promotional "awards" given by publishers to their own authors as well as "awards" given by individuals to their friends. Given the fact that the Facebook page run by "Ladies of Horror Fiction" has 1.7K followers I think it's a reasonably safe bet that this falls on the "legitimate award" side and therefore eligible for inclusion. Ahasuerus (talk) 15:16, 1 November 2023 (EDT)

Good to know! I've been taking notes on awards who aren't in the database already and slowly gathering info about them, if LOHF is added I'll work on adding the winners/nominees for it after finishing Argos. Alittlebook (talk) 00:32, 2 November 2023 (EDT)

Bear's Lost Souls

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?211621; I added archived links in PENDING edits to 3 editions of Greg Bear's Psychlone and noticed the edition re-titled Lost Souls had a small dark cover uploaded by, um, me in 2022. Oops. It's better than the raggedy creased cover uploaded by someone else way back in 2010 but the problem is that almost every cover currently online is the same as the one I uploaded, gregbear.com, FantLab, Open Library, etc.; the creased cover image seems to have totally disappeared (except on the Wiki page here, of course) or maybe it was someone's personal copy. The one eBay copy has a far-away tiny photo with a cracked spine and someone's bookcase in the background. Then I had a vague memory that there was a site devoted to Ace Books (not Bookscans because they end in 1980 and this edition is 1982); I found a page, http://people.uncw.edu/smithms/Ace_5N4.html, but ominously clicking the book's cover link does absolutely nothing. That sparked a memory that while editing some time ago I noticed that images from that site are broken so I assume the server where the images were kept is dead. No problem, I thought, I'll go for the archived image; only problem is I got this, [18]. Here's a list of books with an image URL from that site, [19], most are PV and a few that aren't are non-fiction books that don't really belong here, although there are a few non-PV books that do belong so I'll see if I can replace those. PV of all the others should probably replace theirs, too. As for Lost Souls, chime in if you can find a good cover. --Username (talk) 18:21, 18 October 2023 (EDT)

Here is correct link for the cover image file. Unfortunately, it is spoiled by a watermark in the lower right corner. --Zlogorek (talk) 03:23, 30 October 2023 (EDT)

Censored Breast

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?27207; I left a note to PV Stoecker about the last book in Ladd's record (which I've added an Archive.org link to, not approved yet) letting him know the artist stopped doing cover art in the mid-80s so that 1994 cover is likely re-used from somewhere else. While doing this I noticed the first book in Ladd's record, which has a collage on the cover, uses the girl from 1980's The Northern Girl but this book came out in 1978. Also, the US covers are censored; the 1978 book shows full nipple as do the 3 foreign editions of Northern Girl but the 3 US editions have an added lock of hair covering one of the breasts. I believe MagicUnk and Willem H. PV the 1978 book so they may want to variant or something similar to Northern Girl's cover, PV of US editions may want to add a note about the censorship, etc. --Username (talk) 11:25, 19 October 2023 (EDT)

A. Smothers

[20]; same person, 2 different websites. --Username (talk) 12:13, 19 October 2023 (EDT)

The artist's name is shown the same way (Alexa "Dok" Smothers) in both on-line pubs. It appears PeteYoung normalized the one occurrence and not the other when verifying. I will ping him. -- JLaTondre (talk) 11:58, 22 October 2023 (EDT)

Mondolithic

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=mondoli&type=Name; I just fixed Harry Potter cover for the second artist linked above, should that and the other cover under "Inc." have "Inc." removed so they fall under the same artist as all the others? --Username (talk) 09:54, 20 October 2023 (EDT)

Again, Dangerous Visions

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5793462; The 2 Sallis titles under the heading Tissue, "At the Fitting Shop" and "53rd American Dream", are only on ISFDB in the original Doubleday edition and a 2012 Gateway e-book. Are the umbrella titles for B. Wolfe, G. Wolfe and Sallis really separate fiction of their own? This is like the Oliver Onions issue where a couple of his stories were known as "Two Trifles" but each had its own title, Ether-Hogs and Mortal, and nobody ever agreed how they should be entered so some collections have the umbrella title entered and some the individual titles. Problem is that most of Ellison's books are PV so deciding how these 3 problematic authors' stories should be entered might be a problem. Certainly at least the Sallis should be entered because as it is now it looks like they only appeared in 2 widely separated editions when they probably appeared in all of them. Also, the cover by the Dillons was used on a lot (all?) of these E-Reads editions; I remember mentioning this a long time ago but I don't think I got an answer so if anyone knows what the first use of it was then I guess all the others will need to be made a variant of it, right? --Username (talk) 19:20, 20 October 2023 (EDT)

Giant Bones

[21]; https://archive.org/search?query=beagle+giant-bones&sort=-addeddate&and%5B%5D=mediatype%3A%22texts%22; I added a link in a PENDING edit for the uploaded-in-2011 copy on Archive.org but the 2023 one has a different back cover with an ISBN that only shows up in the Google search linked above in 2 places, Archive.org and Amazon.de (with no real info except "library binding" but no such edition is mentioned on the copyright page). So if anyone knows what that copy really is, book club or something else, reply here. --Username (talk) 20:09, 21 October 2023 (EDT)

Fantasy Worlds of Peter

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?28517; Note for Del Rey original edition says S. in author name isn't on title page so it (and possibly the later Del Rey edition) shouldn't be a variant but merged. --Username (talk) 20:54, 21 October 2023 (EDT)

The pub author for the verified 1979 Del Rey was already Peter Beagle. It was under the wrong title record. I unmerged it and merged it with the correct one. There is an additional problem that, while these pubs are credited to Peter Beagle, the interior contents are credited to Peter S. Beagle. Unless the contents had separate title records that had the middle initial, the contents should also be without the initial. I will ping the verifiers and point them to this discussion. Once they chime in, I will make any necessary changes. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:59, 22 October 2023 (EDT)

Agreed. We should drop the middle initial for the contents. Tom (talk) 09:40, 22 October 2023 (EDT)

Yes, I see where the initial should be dropped. Thanks. gzuckier (talk) 22:30, 22 October 2023 (EDT)

Publications' contents have been updated to be by Peter Beagle as per standards. -- JLaTondre (talk) 19:33, 30 October 2023 (EDT)

Server downtime -- 2023-10-22 at noon EDT

The ISFDB server will be taken down for maintenance at 12pm server time (EDT). It should be back up within 15-20 minutes. Ahasuerus (talk) 11:03, 22 October 2023 (EDT)

The server is back up. Ahasuerus (talk) 12:20, 22 October 2023 (EDT)

Irene Adler series by Carole Nelson Douglas

I was adding ebooks to the titles in the Irene Adler series by Carole Nelson Douglas and am surprised that they are NOT marked as non-genre. They are definitely mysteries but on the face of it, I don't see any elements in them that would make them be included as genre titles, save perhaps the short story "Dracula on the Rocks". Would there be any objection to my changing the other titles to non-genre? Phil (talk) 13:57, 22 October 2023 (EDT)

Checking the record number of the first edition pub, I see that it's very low. It means that the data was entered during the ISFDB 1.0 era, before we had the "non-genre" flag. I think it's safe to change the titles to non-genre.

I am more curious about Fair Wind, Fiery Star, which says "Non-genre", but the synopsis mentions a "mysterious Dutchman, a mystical sea captain". Ahasuerus (talk) 14:20, 22 October 2023 (EDT)

P.S. I have checked the last page of Fair Wind, Fiery Star, which mentions the "mysterious Dutchman". He is described ambiguously before he disappears. It's not clear whether he is real or a figment of the protagonist's imagination. Ahasuerus (talk) 14:28, 22 October 2023 (EDT)

P.P.S. I have updated the Fair Wind, Fiery Star title record, added the first (abridged) edition and changed the non-genre flag to 'No' until we can find more details. Ahasuerus (talk) 14:43, 22 October 2023 (EDT)

I have changed the titles to non-genre. Phil (talk) 15:39, 22 October 2023 (EDT)

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5794782. --Username (talk) 18:11, 22 October 2023 (EDT)

Approved, thanks. Ahasuerus (talk) 18:22, 22 October 2023 (EDT)

Farnol's Shadow

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5795005; If anyone wants to read Great Quietude in the 1970 reprint and decide whether it counts to be here then the rest of the stories can be deleted; he wrote a lot of pirate-related stuff and is one of those authors, like W. W. Jacobs, who stuck a few of his horror stories in between their "serious" fiction. --Username (talk) 20:34, 22 October 2023 (EDT)

Mary Elizabeth Braddon

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?78925; https://archive.org/search?query=%22Benyon%27s+Entanglement%22; After adding a link in a PENDING edit to a Vault of Evil review where it's mentioned that Braddon's story "Colonel Benyon's Entanglement" seems to be missing the ending in its reprint in a recent British anthology I looked on Archive.org to see if anyone had uploaded the original magazine serial and didn't see anything but did find that it is included in those two collections linked above (it's on pp. 291-337 in Meeting Her Fate and is spread across both volumes of The Dreaded Guest) and neither of which is on ISFDB although the story "The Dreaded Guest" is in another collection. So if anyone has the anthology and wants to compare the endings to see if it is really missing or if anyone wants to enter those 2 collections and possibly variant the story titles to one of the dozen names she was published under, please do. --Username (talk) 11:39, 23 October 2023 (EDT)

Midnight Tales Discussion

https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/User_talk:Rosab618#Midnight_Tales; I think I got this figured out correctly, right? EDIT: See also https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/User_talk:Boskar#Cockburn. --Username (talk) 17:03, 23 October 2023 (EDT)

Fantastic Fiction Images

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5796104; I get a scary error page when I right-click and open the old image. Anyone else? --Username (talk) 01:41, 24 October 2023 (EDT)

When I try to access , I get the following error:

• 403 ERROR
• The request could not be satisfied.
• Bad request. We can't connect to the server for this app or website at this time. There might be too much traffic or a configuration error. Try again later, or contact the app or website owner. If you provide content to customers through CloudFront, you can find steps to troubleshoot and help prevent this error by reviewing the CloudFront documentation.
• Generated by cloudfront (CloudFront)
• Request ID: [variable request ID]

The key word in this message is "CloudFront" -- see this Wikipedia article for a somewhat technical summary of what it does. At the most basic level, it's an Amazon service that serves as a front end for many Web sites, in this case Fantastic Fiction.

Normally I would expect CloudFront to redirect "http" links to their "https" counterparts automatically. The fact that it doesn't do it suggests that it isn't configured that way, either due to a human error or to technical issues that CloudFront or Fantastic Fiction may be experiencing this week. Since we need to change all FF-hosted "http" images to "https", it shouldn't be a big deal. Ahasuerus (talk) 14:07, 24 October 2023 (EDT)

I believe I have changed all FF-hosted author images from "http" to "https". Ahasuerus (talk) 14:14, 24 October 2023 (EDT)

Argos Award / Prêmio Argos

I have another award suggestion for the Award Directory. I had another suggestion a few posts above (I believe it got lost among the other submissions), but I think this one should be added because it's the oldest/most traditional award given to speculative fiction in Brazil. I collected the necessary information below, including their links (their website is having problems, but it can be seen here). The award is organized and voted by the members of CLFC, a Brazilian association of readers and writers of speculative fiction. It started in 2000 and is still ongoing.

• Short Name: Argos
• Full Name: Prêmio Argos / Argos Award
• Awarded For: Speculative fiction originally published in Portuguese.
• Awarded By: Clube de Leitores de Ficção Científica, a Brazilian association of readers and writers of speculative fiction.
• Poll: Yes
• Covers more than just SF: No
• Website: Website, Twitter
• Categories: Melhor Romance (Best Novel/Novella), Melhor Coletânea/Antologia (Best Anthology/Collected Works), Melhor Conto (Best Short Story/Novelette)

The category Romance (not to be confused with the genre; its how novels and novellas are called as a format in Portuguese), as mentioned above, includes both novels and novellas, while Conto includes both short stories and novelettes. Alittlebook (talk) 16:29, 24 October 2023 (EDT)

It looks like a pretty solid candidate. Twitter warns that their Web site is currently unsafe, but the Wayback Machine version appears to be comprehensive, so we should be able to recreate nominee lists. (They also have a Facebook page, but, apparently, it hasn't been updated since 2019.) I am not sure how many nominated titles the ISFDB database may be missing, but it should be doable. Ahasuerus (talk) 18:42, 24 October 2023 (EDT)

Their website has been wonky for a while, so they mostly publish their results on Twitter and on their closed group, but I'm confident I can find most of the nominated works. Thanks! Alittlebook (talk) 18:56, 24 October 2023 (EDT)

If the award type is created, just a heads up that I mistranslated one of the categories (I originally spelled it "Collected words", but its "Collected works"), but already fixed it. Alittlebook (talk) 22:59, 28 October 2023 (EDT)

If there are no objections by the end of the weekend, I will create a new award type on Monday. Ahasuerus (talk) 23:24, 28 October 2023 (EDT)

Great! I'm already working on adding at least the winners who aren't already on the Database, and slowly the rest. Alittlebook (talk) 11:32, 30 October 2023 (EDT)

All done. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:52, 30 October 2023 (EDT)

Thanks! Just a question: I'm already adding the award to titles ISFDB already have, and doing so I realized Argos is really erratic with the nature of their finalists: some years they release it like the Hugos, with first, second, third place and such, but others they just release the winner and the finalists, with no tiers among the finalists. How should I approach this? In the years they don't release the tiers, should I just put "1" for the winner, and "finalists" for the finalists? Alittlebook (talk) 16:10, 30 October 2023 (EDT)

Yes, that's how we usually handle inconsistent "poll" awards -- see this list of "John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer / Astounding Award for the Best New Science Fiction Writer" nominees for 1973-2023 for an example. FR 1086, "Change the award year field to a drop-down list", if implemented, may help in this area, but for now it's our best bet. Thanks for working on these awards! Ahasuerus (talk) 17:30, 30 October 2023 (EDT)

Perfect, thanks, I'm already on it! Just a heads up, I suggested another award a little above (Ladies of Horror Fiction, a week or so before I mentioned Argos), could you check if that one is worth cataloging here? Alittlebook (talk) 00:45, 31 October 2023 (EDT)

Done. Sorry about the delay: the first and last days of each months are usually very busy on my end as I run monthly backups, enter new light novels, etc. Ahasuerus (talk) 15:17, 1 November 2023 (EDT)

No problem! Thank you for the hard work. :) Alittlebook (talk) 00:28, 2 November 2023 (EDT)

Adventure House

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?3836; Should the 1936 item be under an alternate publisher name? --Username (talk) 18:51, 24 October 2023 (EDT)

It's very likely a carryover from the 2006 facsimile reprint edition, which has been primary verified by one of our editors. I have left a note on his Talk page to see if the reprint includes a page with the name of the original publisher. Thanks. Ahasuerus (talk) 19:30, 24 October 2023 (EDT)

The record has been updated based on what we currently know. Ahasuerus (talk) 22:41, 24 October 2023 (EDT)

Odyssey Publications

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubs_not_in_series.cgi?26323; I have PENDING edits adding archived links to the first 5 on that list. URL for the item missing ID suggests it should be #4 (PV just forgot?) and ID for #9 was entered without a space between letters and number like the others; which is correct? --Username (talk) 23:51, 24 October 2023 (EDT)

Remember the Alamo!

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5797826; I added an archived link in a PENDING edit, someone's note mentions partial signature, it's more visible here, https://www.ebay.com/itm/364244986997, it could be one of a few Charter artists already on ISFDB or maybe someone else entirely, anyone recognize it? --Username (talk) 20:19, 25 October 2023 (EDT)

Arbor House Treasury of Nobel Prize Winners

Does anyone own the TP of the above anthology? Because the HC on Archive.org has Charles G. Waugh on title page, not Charles Waugh. Price, page numbers for stories entered and decision on whether other stories qualify, entering of preface, better cover, etc. also needed. TP seems unfindable online (wow, unfindable is a word, I thought spell-check would red-line that). --Username (talk) 19:06, 26 October 2023 (EDT)

I could ask Charles if he still has a copy of the trade paperback if no one else has it. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:59, 26 October 2023 (EDT)

OK. I have a PENDING edit adding the HC. --Username (talk) 20:46, 26 October 2023 (EDT)

The Diploids

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?37801; Open Library has a record for the Gregg edition of K. Maclean's collection but the link is for a copy of the 1953 novella. I added the link to that novella just for the heck of it but noticed there's some discrepancy with titles among various editions; note in Gregg says it's a reprint of Avon but 1 story in Avon is titled "The Pyramid in the Desert" while in Gregg it's the alternate title, "And Be Merry...". Also, Manor has an alternate alternate title, "And Be Merry". So does anyone own the Gregg who can verify what it says? --Username (talk) 12:15, 27 October 2023 (EDT)

Season of the Witch

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5799039; I entered the 1985 printing of Jack Martin's (really Dennis Etchison) novelization of the 3rd Halloween movie last year and today came across the 1984 one hiding on Archive.org so I entered it. They used the same ISBN for 1982 and 1983 but the last 2 are different from it and each other. If anyone owns a copy, please check because this may have had printings well after 1985. EDIT: I remembered that I entered a later edition of #2 last year, too, https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?868156, so that may also have other printings. --Username (talk) 16:58, 27 October 2023 (EDT)

The Executioner

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?950765; This is on eBay, www.ebay.com/itm/324711912241, but there's also an archived copy, https://archive.org/search?query=%22Paradine%27s+Gauntlet%22, which has the same copyright page but price is $2.50 on front cover and in barcode on back cover. How can you tell what printings these books are? Is there a gutter code or something? --Username (talk) 18:09, 27 October 2023 (EDT)

Darkening Island Cover Artist

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?251927; I added archived link to 1972 HC of this book in a PENDING edit and noticed someone entered PB cover artist with one name but wrote another name in the note. I blew up the image but it's so blurry and the signature so crappy it could be either one. I searched for "Manor Books" and book title and got 1 hit...ISFDB. So if anyone can see a copy and verify what the signature really is one of those names will need fixing. There's no Friere here and several Freire but very unlikely that any of them could be this Freire. --Username (talk) 19:10, 27 October 2023 (EDT)

All the Traps of Earth

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?283283; I added archived link in PENDING edit; it does not say "and Other Stories" on title page. Active PV AliHarlow, Willem, Dirk: the title may need changing. --Username (talk) 23:42, 27 October 2023 (EDT)

Condors

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pubs_not_in_series.cgi?19977; I added cover image for Rotunda in a PENDING edit; it's the only Condor PB without a price and I didn't see one anywhere in the archived copy so if anyone knows what it is, reply here. Also, the Roquard items are clearly by a different publisher which should be differentiated in some way. EDIT: Never mind, I got it, $2.25; Open Library cover, which is the same as Archive.org cover, is very scratchy but has bold colors; problem is it isn't framed well and the price info is off the left side. Bookscans has a clear cover with slightly less bold colors and some kind of weird lens flare on the left side but I could barely make out the price through the blinding light. --Username (talk) 00:41, 28 October 2023 (EDT)

NL Psychoville

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?536129; Doing some more edits today for the recently deceased Christopher Fowler, couple of wrong covers, some other minor stuff, but the edition of Psychoville linked above only has this awful image, https://boekenbalie.nl/psychoville/463400609, online as far as I can see. If anyone can find a better one please upload it. --Username (talk) 17:46, 29 October 2023 (EDT)

Roofworld Editions

https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/ISFDB:Community_Portal/Archive/Archive54#Roofworld_Arrow_Edition; I added archived link to non-PV edition in a PENDING edit so I think PV edition could be deleted now. --Username (talk) 21:52, 29 October 2023 (EDT)

I would think that given duplicates where one has a primary verification, we'd want to preserve that verification. Especially when the verifier has been active within the last six months. My recollection is also that Unapersson has taken extended breaks in the past and returned. Hopefully, she will do so again. Chris J who has a secondary verification on the other record and is active, can easily move the Locus1 verification. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 06:54, 30 October 2023 (EDT)

Authorship of Dune's map

While adding a new publication to the Dune title, I noticed that there's only one pub record here that has Matt Griffin as map artist (which is in and of itself doubtful as I couldn't find conclusive evidence that he indeed was the artist), instead of Dorothy deFointaine. Comparing the map in the Ace edition (see video where it says it's 'a redesigned world map of Dune') with the original map of Dorothy deFontaine, there's almost no discernible difference between both. Since the statement 'a redesigned world map' is highly exaggerated, I'm thinking to attribute the unsigned map in the Ace edition to Dorothy deFontaine (and not to Matt Griffin) - what do you think? How should we treat these two map records? Any other way to treat these two art records? Suggestions? MagicUnk (talk) 07:47, 30 October 2023 (EDT)

It's definitely redesigned, but not redrawn. The design of the map is quite different for the new one as it uses a lot of shading not found in the original, different labeling/fonts, and placement of somethings is a little different. That said, the copyright page credits the map like this: "Map by Matt Griffin, inspired by the original by Dorothy de Fontaine". Based on that, I think the new one should be credited to both of them, especially due to the many similarities. A not could be placed on the map title page explaining all that. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 16:46, 2 November 2023 (EDT)

Thanks! Updated accordingly. MagicUnk (talk) 08:34, 3 November 2023 (EDT)

B. Farthing

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5800896; The warning message "Proposed..." doesn't show up on Google when I search for it. Should I have rejected my edit or is it correct and I should do it again and ignore the warning or should Ben be the variant of Benjamin? I already have an edit making Benjamin an alternate name of Ben. --Username (talk) 12:40, 30 October 2023 (EDT)

Benjamin should be the variant of Ben, and then the title date for the variant should be changed to match its parent (since the variant is the name of the author). ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 16:49, 2 November 2023 (EDT)

Done (I think). --Username (talk) 12:31, 3 November 2023 (EDT)

PVR

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=rosenkr&type=Name; Palie von is actually Palle von per contents page photo online, novel is not genre from what I can gather online, Palle Rosenkrantz story is not genre per online reviews, neither really belong here, didn't notice this until I'd already entered bio info for Rosenkrantz, cancelled my edit, I think both names should be deleted, probably other contents from 1960 omnibus and Martin Edwards anthology are not genre and should be removed, too (there's a note in the anthology's record mentioning this). --Username (talk) 14:30, 2 November 2023 (EDT)

Rageot

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=rageot&type=Publisher; I have a PENDING edit fixing/adding stuff re: someone else's recent edit for a book published by Rageot and I noticed ISFDB has records for that name which was on the title page and the longer name, Rageot-Éditeur, which was on the copyright page. So really all books should probably be merged under one name. --Username (talk) 12:30, 3 November 2023 (EDT)

Science Fictional Solar System

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?32159; The UK HC & book club editions say Martin H. Greenberg on their cover, 2 eBay copies of book club don't show title page, does anyone own either edition who can verify what his name is on title page? --Username (talk) 22:28, 4 November 2023 (EDT)

Brad Steiger Stories

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5805263; I didn't change the dates of Steiger's stories but I think they're both wrong. "Detroit", being a variant title, should have the date of this anthology, I think, and "Huntsman" should have a 1966 date as copyright page says. Am I right? --Username (talk) 10:01, 5 November 2023 (EST)

Yes, titles are dated per first appearance of that form of the title. Updates made. -- JLaTondre (talk) 11:51, 5 November 2023 (EST)

Amazon WEBP Images

[22]; After I replaced one a few days ago and another one today I did a search and it seems most (all?) of the images with the weird URL Amazon switched to for a while are now broken. Is there a batch fix or will they have to be changed one by one (there's several hundred)? Most are not PV. --Username (talk) 17:09, 5 November 2023 (EST)

I see what you mean. There are 806 affected publication records, 30 of them primary-verified. I could create a script to change the URLs of the unverified pubs, then we could ask the primary verifiers to check their pubs. Ahasuerus (talk) 17:25, 5 November 2023 (EST)

I'm sure you've already got something that could be repurposed for this, but if not:

https://github.com/JohnSmithDev/ISFDB-Tools/blob/master/tools/submit_edits_via_api.py

You would need to update get_bad_pub_records() to pick up the affected records - plus any additional check to not pick up verified pubs - and the regex to fix them in the first line of generate_pubdate_imagefix()

Then 'uncomment' the PUB_COVER_EDITS code in the __main__ section. ErsatzCulture (talk) 05:01, 6 November 2023 (EST)