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Expanded archive listing

H. P. Lovecraft Wordsearch

Does H. P. Lovecraft Wordsearch: Eldritch Wordsearch Puzzles in the World of the Cthulhu mythos belong on this site? If so, how would it be listed? Just a listing of the book without the content? MLB (talk) 02:04, 3 August 2023 (EDT)

I would enter it as NONFICTION and add a Note to the effect that, in addition to the puzzles, it contains a brief Lovecraft biography and an (also brief) secondary bibliography. Ahasuerus (talk) 08:54, 3 August 2023 (EDT)

I hope this is correct. MLB (talk) 01:47, 4 August 2023 (EDT)

You noted two pieces of bibliographical nonfiction, but there is only one (an introduction) listed in that publication. I don't see any pending submissions for it, either. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 11:34, 4 August 2023 (EDT)

Fixed. MLB (talk) 05:33, 5 August 2023 (EDT)

Creating a separate page (linked) out of a publication's notes?

I'm trying to find out how to add a link in an individual publication's Notes which leads to a Wiki page where I can record a lot (5 book pages-worth) of biblio data about the pub. I'm not finding anything obvious in the template Help pages (here & here). If the answer's in the latter, I'm not seeing how to use it... Is it even possible? Advice please, Thanks. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 17:23, 4 August 2023 (EDT)

Create the wiki page, then link it as you would link any other page outside of the server - in the Web Pages field. One warning though - we have a multi-year project going on migrating data out of the wiki and into the DB (so a lot of these templates are now obsolete and the code connecting and serving them had been removed from the server) - the archiving and backups of both of them are done differently so if there is a catastrophic failure, we may not be able to restore both. Plus the public site archives do NOT contain the wiki - just covers and the DB. If you still want to create the page though, go ahead -- no template needed - it is just a regular page you then can add to the Web Pages field :) Annie (talk) 18:18, 4 August 2023 (EDT)

Technically, the automatic link between old publication-specific Wiki comments and related publication records still exists, e.g. see the following line in Reel Future:

• Bibliographic Comments: View Publication comment (RLFTRPTPHR1994)

However, it is based on the pub's "publication tag" (RLFTRPTPHR1994), which is not to be confused with title-based tags like "horror". "Publication tags" are neither visible nor editable anymore. Going forward you will want to do what Annie suggested, i.e. enter any publication-specific Wiki pages that you may decide to create within the ISFDB Wiki in the pub's "Web pages" multi-field. Ahasuerus (talk) 22:22, 4 August 2023 (EDT)

Oh, right, the publication one is still active - I know a few got killed when most of the existing data was moved. The ID is visible if you start uploading a cover - that’s what is used for the cover file title - so while not editable, they can at least be found if one needs them. However, if a page is added that way, it will just pop up in the cleanup report and someone will need to move the link to the Web Pages anyway so we may as well skip the middle step. Annie (talk) 22:32, 4 August 2023 (EDT)

Great, Web page it is then. I'll see what I can do, many thanks. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 03:57, 5 August 2023 (EDT)

Convert an anthology to omnibus

This pub and two others I will add are collected into this pub. Since all three works were published separately first, should this pub be converted to an Omnibus. If so, I assume I remove all of the contents and then import the associated three pubs. Tom (talk) 11:55, 6 August 2023 (EDT)

https://archive.org/search?query=interlyth&sort=-addeddate; You're probably already aware but there's an archived copy available. --Username (talk) 12:46, 6 August 2023 (EDT)

I added the link. I was surprised that only the omnibus was uploaded. Tom (talk) 14:57, 6 August 2023 (EDT)

Merge container

I added Dr. Jekyll as a chapbook and then realized it was a novel. I tried to convert the chapbook to a novel, but now I have a new container novel. I've been trying to merge this container with the actual variant. So far I've failed to merge this. I was about to delete it all and start over, but I'm hoping someone can help me sort it out. Tom (talk) 19:39, 6 August 2023 (EDT)

I think if you remove this title from the publication and then either delete or merge it, you should be fine. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 18:01, 6 August 2023 (EDT)

That worked. Thanks! Not sure why I didn't try that. Tom (talk) 19:39, 6 August 2023 (EDT)

Pages

I have a book with an introduction on numbered pages Roman vii to xi. The novel starts on the first numbered page Arabic 1.

Between the two sections are 3 unnumbered pages, the 2nd of which contains a map which I want to include in the regular titles (the pages either side of it are blank). Advice please. Thanks, Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 15:42, 9 August 2023 (EDT)

Pages: xi+[3]+Arabic - Page number of the map is [2]. John Scifibones 16:06, 9 August 2023 (EDT)

As I read this help template, the map would be on page xiii. For the overall pages field per this template, I would add as xi+Arabic count. It specifically states that unnumbered pages between Roman and Arabic pages can be ignored, whereas the first template states that page numbers can be extrapolated for unnumbered pages within a range of numbered pages. The only possible question is whether the page the map is on would still be considered to be within the range of the numbered pages. I would consider it so. Despite the fact that the numbering (Roman vs Arabic) changes, it's still an unnumbered pages within a range of numbered pages. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 16:22, 9 August 2023 (EDT)

Ron, thanks for the correction. Although a content title with a Roman numeral higher than that stated in the pages field seems odd. John Scifibones 17:12, 9 August 2023 (EDT)

Agreed that it's a little odd. But it's understandable within the context of the help pages. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 18:55, 9 August 2023 (EDT)

This problem doesn't occur for regular content page counts because blank page(s) beyond the last page are included in the page count. The first template also states that page numbers for unnumbered pages can be derived for Roman-numeraled pages. These points suggest that Pages: could be xii+Arabic and the map page number would be xii. ../Doug H (talk) 22:24, 9 August 2023 (EDT)

In my opinion, John has supplied the correct and best answer to this case.

Ron refers to bullet point 2 of Template:PublicationFields:Pages which states "Pages without numbers that fall between the two types of page numbering can be ignored.". However, bullet point 3 states "Sometimes a publication will have unnumbered pages before page 1. If there is any material in these pages which needs to be entered as part of the contents of the book, you may record this by entering the count in squared brackets.". Nowhere in this bullet point does it state that it does not apply if there are also Roman numeral pages in the pub. You could argue that the two bullet points are contradictory but, to be fair, this unusual case probably wasn't considered when these Help notes were written.

For me, the clincher is: What do you consider constitutes a range of pages? Ron considers that the map falls within one range of numbered pages. I think it falls between two separate ranges of numbered pages. It's not so much that the style of numbering changes (Roman to Arabic). It's more that the values of the page numbers in the first range (vii-xi translates to 7-9) is repeated in the second range (1-999 (or whatever)). To me, that's two ranges. Once you interpret it this way, John's answer makes sense, is not inconsistent with the Help notes and follows the same principles that are used for additional content on unnumbered pages at the end of a book. It also avoids the scenario of having a content title with a Roman numeral higher than that stated in the Pages field which I find very undesirable and confusing for a user.

Doug H's reply does not apply to the case that has been raised. Unnumbered pages beyond the last numbered page are only included in the page count if there is content that starts in the numbered pages and continues onwards into the unnumbered pages. If content that needs to be indexed starts after the last numbered page then its page numbers are denoted in square brackets. See bullet point 3 of Template:PublicationFields:Pages and also the 4th of the 5 examples in this How To. Teallach (talk) 18:42, 11 August 2023 (EDT)

Thanks for the comments. John's answer was the one I arrived at before I posted the question. One can look at that value and derive straight away what the layout is. Teallach, I agree with every point you make - I couldn't have set it out better. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 20:30, 11 August 2023 (EDT)

Aeon 14: Title and series issues

I need advice on how to handle a rather complex situation. M. D. Cooper and James S. Aaron have written 10 novels plus 2 omnibuses in the currently named "Sentience Wars" series (as documented on the Aeon14 website). The novels 1-5 were originally published as part of the Sentience Wars: Origins series but are now shown on the author's website as numbers 1-5 of the "Sentience Wars" series. The later four novels are simply shown as numbers 6-9 of the "Sentience Wars" series and have yet to be added to the DB. Two of the novels were originally part of the Legends of the Sentience Wars series: The Proteus Bridge and "Vesta Burning" (which has yet to be added to the DB). However, the author's website now shows "The Proteus Bridge" as book 0 of the "Sentience Wars" series. "Vesta Burning" has been renamed "Lyssa's Light" and is shown as number 6 of the "Sentience Wars" series. To add to the complexity, "Vesta Burning" was published as an ebook and an audiobook plus was included in the omnibus "Lyssa's Fire - Sentience Wars Books 4-5 Omnibus: Includes Vesta Burning". The omnibus was later republished as "Lyssa's Fire: The Sentience Wars - Books 4-6 Omnibus Edition" with "Vesta Burning" replaced by "Lyssa's Light" as the third component title.

Issue 1: "Vesta Burning" / "Lyssa's Light". Should "Lyssa's Light" be considered a variant of "Vesta Burning" or is it a different publication that needs a note referring back to the original name? The Amazon Look-inside view of "Lyssa's Light" has an editor's note at the beginning of the Foreword stating the rename and series change. The title page shows "Lyssa's Light: The Sentience Wars - Book 6". I'm leaning toward making these two separate titles with appropriate notes. Unfortunately, I can't find any information as to exactly when the rename occurred but suspect it was around the same time as "Lyssa's Fire: The Sentience Wars - Books 4-6 Omnibus Edition" was published in February 2019. Advice?

Issue 2: Series name/numbering. I would like to reorganize the series entries for these books as follows:
> Age of the Sentience Wars
>> 1 The Sentience Wars
>>> 1 Legends of the Sentience Wars
>>>> 1 The Proteus Bridge
>>>> 2 Vesta Burning
>>> 2 Sentience Wars (with a series note "Titles 1-5 were originally part of a discontinued series called 'Sentience Wars: Origins'" and a similar note on each of the title records.)
>>>> titles #1-9
Would this be acceptable?

Issue 3: Completely reorganize the Aeon 14 series to match the author's series and subseries demarcations as shown on the Aeon 14 website. I think the existing series structure is not particularly useful for a reader and this would be a better organization for this large volume of titles. The top level would remain Aeon 14 and the first level subseries would be:
1 Age of the Sentience Wars
2 Second Age of Colonization
3 Age of Terra
4 Age of the FTL Wars
5 Age of Reconstruction
6 Age of the Orion War
7 Age of the Ascension War
The existing subseries would be moved under the appropriate "Age" subseries and renumbered appropriately. Would this be acceptable?

Thanks Phil (talk) 15:35, 20 August 2023 (EDT)

The first question that comes to mind is "Were the texts changed when the series was reorganized by the author(s)?" If they were, then we could enter them as separate titles and put them in different series the way it was done with David Wingrove's Chung Kuo Universe, which was split into Chung Kuo (original) and Chung Kuo (recasting).

If the texts were not changed, then all identical texts which use different titles should be linked using the variant title system. In the case of Issue 1, "Lyssa's Light" would become a variant of "Vesta Burning".

Re: reorganizing the series structure, I don't have a preference. I remember entering some of these books, either manually or via Fixer, but I was just following what was on Amazon and/or on the author's Web page when assigning series numbers. User:Chris J also did a fair amount of work on the series, so he may be a good person to consult.

Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon occurrence. As series grow, their authors and/or publishers occasionally decide that it would be useful to change their structure and/or the recommended reading order. Sometimes they even list entries inconsistently, e.g. a prequel may be listed either as "Book 0" or as "Book 0.5" or not given a number at all. All we can do is pick the numbers/structure that make the most sense and explain the rest in Notes. Ahasuerus (talk) 08:51, 23 August 2023 (EDT)

P.S. I should also mention that, as Help:Screen:EditSeries says:

• A series can have only one name, so if two or more names are equally well known (e.g. one name is used in the UK and another in Australia), the only option is to list them all in a slash delimited format, e.g. Moon Singer / Free Trader / Moon Magic

It doesn't help much when dealing with series reorganizations (as opposed to series renamings), but it's something to keep in mind. Ahasuerus (talk) 10:56, 23 August 2023 (EDT)

g. haron davis uses lower case for their name

Like e. e. cummings, the author g. haron davis uses all lower case for their name. They do so consistently on their Harlequin author page, their HarperCollins author page, and their own website.

Is there a process for getting their canonical name fixed? — Sylvar (talk) 13:33, 22 August 2023 (EDT)

I have checked Amazon Inside's data for the anthology that we have on file and, sure enough, the author is credited as "g. haron davis". I have adjusted the canonical name.

Re: the process, some high-impact actions -- like changing an author's canonical name -- are limited to moderators. If you come across similar cases, please request assistance on ISFDB:Moderator noticeboard. Thanks for reporting the issue! Ahasuerus (talk) 08:31, 23 August 2023 (EDT)

Thread link missing

Whenever Mike posts to talk pages, and it shows up on my watchlist, a link to his posted thread is missing. Have others noticed this and does anyone know why? Thanks, Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 12:43, 26 August 2023 (EDT)

The link is missing because he is not using 'Add topic' to start a new thread. He is using 'Edit' (whole page) or 'Edit' the last thread and adding a new thread title at the bottom. Hopefully he will see this. John Scifibones 13:05, 26 August 2023 (EDT)

Thanks John, I hope that solves it. :) Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 14:54, 26 August 2023 (EDT)

Sorry, I'll correct this error. Mike (talk) 18:46, 26 August 2023 (EDT)

Moving existing publication to different variant title

Is there a process for moving an existing publication record to an existing variant title? For example, publication 339486 is an English translation of Mikhail Bulgakov's Мастер и Маргарита translated by Michael Glenny (according to its record notes) but it is linked to the variant title 10458 for English translations by "an unknown or uncredited hand" when there is a variant title for Michael Glenny's translation 2587871. I expect this process will come up a lot when cleaning up translation records. Thanks! -- Riselka (talk) 12:17, 28 August 2023 (EDT)

You have a choice of two methods, both require two submissions.

• Method One

Click on the title record. Select 'Unmerge Titles' from the 'Editing Tools' menu. Check the box for the 1974 title record. Submit.

After the submission is approved, merge the new title with this one. In the note to mod, indicate whether you will submit the merge or you rather the moderator go ahead and do it.

• Method Two

Click on the publication record.

Select 'Import Content' from the 'Editing Tools' menu. Under option 2 enter '2587871' and submit. (This is the Glenny translation title record).

Select 'Remove Titles From This Pub' from the 'Editing Tools' menu. Select the old container title and submit (This removes the Unknown hands translation and makes Glenny translation the container title).

The advantage of method 2 is that both edits can be submitted together. John Scifibones 13:15, 28 August 2023 (EDT)

Thanks! I've gone ahead and entered the submissions using Method Two for the example I shared. -- Riselka (talk) 13:33, 28 August 2023 (EDT)

Approved, John Scifibones 13:35, 28 August 2023 (EDT)

Robosoldiers / 2nd printing?

I'm second guessing my cloning to create Robosoldiers: Thank Your for Your Servos. It occurred to me that I had preordered from Amazon, and it kicked on the release date given in the 1st printing record. However, it has a number line indicating a 2nd printing. Upon thought, it seems more likely that the number line is wrong, rather than it having two printings out on the release date. There is no PV for the 1st printing PB record. Perhaps adding the number line to the 1st printing record, and noting the purchase date? Thoughts? --Glenn (talk) 15:41, 29 August 2023 (EDT)

Hmmm, not being an expert, but what I think could have happened is that the tp edition is considered 1st printing, and the pb edition considered 2nd printing. If that's the case, the printing line isn't wrong per se (this happens a lot with Dutch publications by the way). Anyway, your proposal makes sense. Keep yours, update with publication date per Amazon as of 2023-04-27, add clarifying notes per your arguments above, and delete the non-PV'd record. If it so happens that there ever is a 1st printing pb edition uncovered, it can still be added. MagicUnk (talk) 06:28, 31 August 2023 (EDT)

I had suggested editing the original (non-PV'd) record, while you're suggesting deleting it. Does it make a difference? --Glenn (talk) 15:57, 31 August 2023 (EDT)

Not really - only difference is that it would preserve your verification data when keeping your record. MagicUnk (talk) 12:26, 1 September 2023 (EDT)

Award Records - How to create new year

Hi.

I'd love to add the 2023 Sturgeon Awards to the appropriate stories, but I've been searching and I have no clue on how to add a new year for an Award, etc. I did see one online item for "Help:Screen:EditAward" but I was unable to figure out how to use it or get to the Award Editor.

Thanks. Dave888 (talk) 19:57, 5 September 2023 (EDT)

Simply add an award record to a title and enter "2023" in the year when doing that. Once the award submission is approved, it will show the new year in the award listing. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 20:15, 5 September 2023 (EDT)

Assuming that the first issue is "...unable to figure out how to use it or get to the Award Editor", then you'll want to start by pulling up the Title record that you want to add an award to, then clicking on "Add an Award to This Title" in the navigation bar on the left. Ahasuerus (talk) 20:41, 5 September 2023 (EDT)

Reversed imprint publisher record

According to the Belgrave House website here, Regency Reads is an imprint. The publisher record Belgrave House / Regency Reads is therefore reversed. I'd like to correct the record to read "Regency Reads / Belgrave House". It will only impact 3 publications. Phil (talk) 08:48, 7 September 2023 (EDT)

You might also check these. It's possible some them should also be 'Regency Reads / Belgrave House'. John Scifibones 08:59, 7 September 2023 (EDT)

I'll make the change and then check the Belgrave House pubs that I haven't already checked. Phil (talk) 11:10, 7 September 2023 (EDT)

Whoops. Looks like a moderator has to make the change. Phil (talk) 11:13, 7 September 2023 (EDT)

I made the switch for you. If you find that all of these are Regency Reads / Belgrave House, I can merge them. Otherwise, just change the pubs one by one. John Scifibones 11:22, 7 September 2023 (EDT)

Some are legitimately just Belgrave House. I have changed the ones that should have had the imprint name as well. Phil (talk) 11:36, 7 September 2023 (EDT)

Thanks Phil, John Scifibones 11:53, 7 September 2023 (EDT)

Links from Social Media

I frequently link to ISFDB as an authoritative repository of SF in print, but the links end up mangled with an equals sign at the end.

• Is this due to handling of URI addenda?
• Would a fixed rewrite to strip terminal equal signs from URI parameters solve the issue?

Example 1 (works despite itself):

• I pasted the link to the Belgariad into Facebook with <https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?704>
• Clicking on it takes me to <https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?704=>, which still works.

Example 2 (fails):

• I pasted the link to Pawn of Prophecy into Facebook with <https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?25761>
• Clicking on it takes me to <https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?25761=>, which fails.

If Facebook is doing something annoying, it may be best to treat it as a force of nature and adapt. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Gnomon (talk • contribs) .

Unfortunately, Facebook adding "stuff" to third party URLs is a known issue. We first ran into it in 2018 when Facebook started adding "&fbclid=lots-o-characters" to the end of ISFDB URLs. We addressed it in FR 1207, "Ignore Facebook tracking IDs", which has more technical details than you are probably interested in.

A single trailing "=" sign is new and may or may not confuse our software depending on what kind of Web page is being linked. Most ISFDB pages expect an ISFDB record number and optional "+"-delimited parameters specifying what kind of display format to use. Author and series pages accept both record numbers and author/series names, which may contain a "=" sign. Publication pages accept a publication record number OR an alphabetical "tag". (Publication tags are deprecated, but still supported to be backward compatible.) Finally, Advanced Search pages use a completely different format which uses "=" signs as special characters, e.g. "USE_1=author_canonical&O_1=exact". This means that "=" characters may or may not be valid depending on the type of the linked page, e.g. we have an author record for "ルイス=キャロル".

The good news is that URL processing was centralized a year or two ago, so any tweaks should be easier to implement than was the case in 2018. I'll go ahead and take a closer look. Thanks for reporting the problem! Ahasuerus (talk) 14:36, 7 September 2023 (EDT)

I have made a software change on the development server. The software now removes trailing "=" characters, but only if the rest of the parameter (i.s. the stuff after "?") is all digits. However, before I deploy it to the main server, could you please provide an example of a Facebook page that has this issue? I'd like to make sure that Facebook is doing what we think it's doing. Thanks in advance. Ahasuerus (talk) 15:32, 7 September 2023 (EDT)

I have updated the main server to strip trailing '=' signs from URLs. Thanks for reporting the issue! Ahasuerus (talk) 08:30, 11 September 2023 (EDT)

Please forgive my missing your reply. That fixed the issue. Facebook still occasionally fails to load cover art with a direct link, but I take your point about chasing Facebook's behaviors. Thank you for maintaining this resource. Gnomon 06:56, 11 March 2023 (EDT).

No worries. Thanks for confirming that the immediate issue has been been fixed! Ahasuerus (talk) 15:09, 12 March 2024 (EDT)

Author with Two Different Names Question

Hello, ISFDB. I have published work under William Gillard and Bill Gillard. Those pages are here:

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?245999 https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?197158

My most commonly used name is Bill Gillard, and I'd like that to be my "main" page. Are we able to combine my pages somehow? Thank you so very much for helping to maintain this valuable resource! Bill Gillard —The preceding unsigned comment added by Billgillard (talk • contribs) 23:08, September 8, 2023‎

Bill, thanks for bringing this to our attention. William Gillard is now an alternate name for Bill Gillard. John Scifibones 08:32, 9 September 2023 (EDT)

The American Weekly Magazine, cover and interior art and stories

Although not strictly a magazine, The Hearst Sunday supplement appeared in 20 newspapers for nearly 50 years and the artists and writers of the stories were also fantasy artists ( Virgil Findlay, Edmund Dulac, Willy Pogany, etc.). Could The American Weekly be added to the magazine list, and the front covers of these artists be listed as 'cover art' as well? Edmund Dulac alone produced 106 covers, Willy Pogany probably the same. Findlay did only one cover, but outstanding interior art, and the first book covering the American Weekly of was his work for the magazine.

Albert Seligman Editor "The American Weekly Covers of Edmund Dulac 1924-1951", Dulacebooks, 2021 —The preceding unsigned comment added by Albertcscs (talk • contribs) 11:15, September 10, 2023

It should be Virgil Finlay, not Findlay. Also, the one issue of this magazine on ISFDB misspells A. Merritt as A. Merrit in the notes. --Username (talk) 11:22, 10 September 2023 (EDT)

Thanks for identifying the typos. I have updated publication/author/series Notes, added the 1938-04-10 issue and sent a note to SFE with updated information. Ahasuerus (talk) 09:25, 11 September 2023 (EDT)

It looks like there may be two separate issues here: magazine eligibility and cover artist eligibility.

Re: magazine eligibility, Help:Entering_non-genre_periodicals states that:

• In many cases a work of speculative fiction has been published in a periodical that does not specialize in such works. In particular, many well-known (and many not so well-known) speculative fiction stories were first published in non-genre periodicals. In such cases it is desirable to record such publications in order to make the bibliography of the story complete. However, the ISFDB is not a general-fiction index and the non-speculative-fiction contents of such a periodical should not be entered.

This means that the only issues of The American Weekly Magazine that are eligible are issues with speculative fiction content. For example, "The American Weekly, April 3, 1938" included part 1 of John Hawkins's Ark of Fire, so the 1938-04-03 magazine issue is eligible. According to SFE, the serialization was completed in the April 10 issue, so we will want to create an ISFDB record for the 1938-04-10 issue as well.

Re: cover artist eligibility, in the past we didn't enter cover artists for non-genre magazine issues unless the cover illustrated a work of speculative fiction. This rule was changed in 2022 and all eligible issues of non-genre magazines can have cover artist names entered.

Hope this helps! Ahasuerus (talk) 08:56, 11 September 2023 (EDT)

Two editions with different text

I'm trying to enter a supernatural romance fantasy book which has two editions from day one, one with explicit erotic content and one without. Does this situation requires anything specific I need to do? Circeus (talk) 15:23, 10 September 2023 (EDT)

Do you happen to know how significant the differences are? If they are minor, we could create two Publication records under a single Title record and document any discrepancies in the Notes fields. If they are major, we would need to create two separate Title records with a single Publication record associated with each one. Ahasuerus (talk) 08:34, 11 September 2023 (EDT)

IIRC (I read the book last fall), there's two sex scenes that are excised from the "clean" edition. I will also clarify that the two edition have actual different titles, ISBNs and slightly different cover designs (reddish pink vs. blue), BTW --Circeus (talk) 11:31, 11 September 2023 (EDT)

What's the title? --Username (talk) 11:33, 11 September 2023 (EDT)

Oh, two different titles. In that case we will want to enter them via two separate "New Novel" submissions, then link the two titles using a "Make This Title a Variant" submission. Since the only textual difference is the presence of two sex scenes, we can document this fact in Notes. Ahasuerus (talk) 12:56, 11 September 2023 (EDT)

Turns out they may not be technically different titles, though other differences remain. I would personally treat the "blah blah edition" as part of the formal title for at least one of the versions, since that's how the author chose to do so on Amazon (they did not use "flirting with fangs edition" on the default erotica version). Circeus (talk) 14:55, 11 September 2023 (EDT)

Checking Joy Demorra's Web site, I see two works which have two separate editions: "True Love Bites", a novel, and "Crewel Intentions", a short story. Each one has a "Fluff and Fangs" edition and a "Flirting With Fangs" edition with the terms defined as follows:

• Flirting With Fangs edition: full romance, lots of kissing, and all the steamy scenes for those who want them.
• Fluff and Fangs edition: full romance, lots of kissing, and a fade to black for those who like a little more fluff with their fangs.

Checking Amazon's Look Inside, I note that "Flirting With Fangs" appears on the title page, which is what we use to determine publication title. I suspect that the best way to enter these books would be with their full titles, e.g. ""True Love Bites: Flirting With Fangs", and then to variant them. Ahasuerus (talk) 15:32, 11 September 2023 (EDT)

The Trumpet of the Last Judgment

I have a Spanish title "La trompeta del juicio Final" as it is on ISFDB, but on Spanish language sites it's given as "La trompeta del Juicio Final". How should it be for us, considering the recent agreement about sentence case for Portuguese titles, and maybe Spanish as well...? Thanks. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 09:45, 16 September 2023 (EDT)

Possible to change a title record from ESSAY to INTERVIEW

I'm in the process of adding a fanzine in a language I don't read especially well, and accidentally added one article as an ESSAY, when it should have been an INTERVIEW.

Is there a way to change the type of that title to INTERVIEW, or should I delete that erroneous ESSAY and add a new INTERVIEW title record to replace it? ErsatzCulture (talk) 15:23, 16 September 2023 (EDT)

You will need to add a new interview record and delete the old essay record. I don't believe there is a way to change types to/from interviews and reviews. -- JLaTondre (talk) 16:40, 16 September 2023 (EDT)

Thanks - given that I've been reprimanded more than once for doing a delete/(re)create, rather than an edit/merge/whatever, I thought I'd better double check first :-) ErsatzCulture (talk) 19:05, 16 September 2023 (EDT)

Steve Duffy, The Faces at Your Shoulder

I think I posted this in the wrong place so I will try here: Having read this book at the Toronto Library, I would ask a moderator to add this collection to the (original) Steve Duffy page: (not Steve Duffy (1)) Steve Duffy, The Faces at Your Shoulder (Sarob Press, 2023) 181 pages price: 38 pounds Foreword, Duffy page 1 The Oram County Whoosit (Shades of Darkness, 2008) in isfdb page 37 The Soul is a Bird (original) page 71 In the Days Before the Monsters (original) page 101 The Pyschomanteum (Crooked Houses, 2020, Egaeus Press) this is NOT an original story, the original publication is not in isfdb page 123 The Lion's Den (Cern Zoo, 2009) in isfdb page 155 Futureboro (original) page 179 Notes on the Stories (uncredited in the book, the Sarob Press website attributes this to Duffy)

One other unrelated correction: The review Jean Rhys Revisited (2001) by Alexis Lykiard should be moved from the original Ray Russell page to the R. B. Russell page (aka Ray Russell (1)) this is actually a chapter in R. B. Russell's Fifty Forgotten Books

Thank you, Roger

Crowley and Aziraphale's New Year's resolutions

The Good Omens short story "Crowley and Aziraphale's New Year's resolutions" by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman was published in 2006, apparently on the HarperCollins website; would it be eligible for addition to ISFDB? If so, how should the story's publication be added: as a webzine? a chapbook? I don't know if the story has been republished in any books or more traditional publications. But since the story was co-written by Pratchett and Gaiman, it's considered part of the "official" Good Omens book canon by both Gaiman and fansites like the Good Omens Lexicon. Morebooks (talk) 13:21, 18 September 2023 (EDT)

Cover Images

Well, I'm having problems, and that's all there is to it. I'm finding that I can no longer copy images from Amazon. Is this me, or is this something new? MLB (talk) 05:46, 20 September 2023 (EDT)

Are you referring to the latest mouseover zoom feature for the cover images? I've found that I can still right click while hovering over the zoomed image and select "Copy image address". When I paste the link address into the Image URL field, I now always have to remove the formatting info. I already miss the "See This Image" link which Amazon seems to have removed. Phil (talk) 07:49, 20 September 2023 (EDT)

Yes, this "improvement" sux!!! Plain and simple!! MLB (talk) 20:54, 20 September 2023 (EDT)

Still having trouble. Get a lot of "Image hosted by a site which we do not have permission to link to." Yet the image comes from Amazon! MLB (talk) 03:54, 21 September 2023 (EDT)

Can you provide a sample URL in this message as well as which book it is for? Also which Amazon site? Thanks. Phil (talk) 07:10, 21 September 2023 (EDT)

You can see an example here from the book on Amazon here. The URL is here, which, of course, now doesn't work. MLB (talk) 20:45, 21 September 2023 (EDT)

[1]; Try Amazon UK. When I add author images I get them from UK because since amazon.com screwed up their site last year or whenever it was their pages only show a single author photo whereas UK and many other foreign Amazon pages show the whole array of photos if there are more than one included. --Username (talk) 21:59, 21 September 2023 (EDT)

<Outdent> Since I'm not a moderator and can't see the submission review, I'm assuming that you are trying to put the cover image URL in the pub record. If I hover the mouse over the cover image and right click to bring up the action menu and then choose "Copy image address", the copied URL looks like this". Since that URL contains formatting data (which starts with "._"), you need to remove that formatting data by deleting everything from the second to last period to the last period. In this case you are deleting "._SY466_" which leaves the correct URL as this. I can't reproduce how you are getting a URL with a cloudfront.net address in it. I hope this helps. Phil (talk) 23:16, 21 September 2023 (EDT)

Image upload

I've just uploaded a new cover scan for this pub. The pub is 'date unknown' and the pub ID is |Pub=THCTNDTHSC2003. I haven't linked the uploaded image to the pub yet, but when I do, the image file will be headed as 'File:THCTNDTHSC2003.jpg' and the Description will read as 'Gollancz / Orion Unknown year tp'. To me this looks peculiar. Is this an oversight or is it an expected outcome? The first available edit in the edit history shows the date change to 0000-00-00, so maybe it was 2003 before that? Thanks, Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 20:46, 22 September 2023 (EDT)

Sorry I missed the question when it was posted. Your last guess is correct. When a new publication record is created, it gets assigned a "publication tag", in this case "THCTNDTHSC2003". The tag is a combination of the first 10 consonants in the title and the publication year. Subsequent edits do not change the "publication tag". That's why this pub's tag is still "THCTNDTHSC2003" even though the publication year has been changed to "0000-00-00".

In most cases publication tags do not matter because the ISFDB software doesn't use them any more. The only exception is the image upload mechanism, which uses publication tags to create new Wiki pages/images. Hope this answers the question! Ahasuerus (talk) 11:05, 2 October 2023 (EDT)

It does indeed, and thanks for explaining that. I'm glad it's something simple.. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 21:36, 2 October 2023 (EDT)

Serialized novels

How do I correctly record a set of serialized novels? We currently have title records for Star Trek: New Frontier novels The Returned (Part 1), The Returned (Part 2), and The Returned (Part 3). The titles match the title pages. These are three novel length portions of one novel published a month apart. Do I simply make each of the existing titles a variant of a new title named "The Return" and change the content record type for each of the three component title publications to Serial? Thanks. Phil (talk) 09:11, 29 September 2023 (EDT)

I do think it depends on the actual lengths of the portions: if they are each of shortfiction length (i. e. less than 40,000 words - the more likely case), you are right: but then the single publications would have to be transformed into CHAPBOOKs, each containing a SERIAL as content title (which you can just add).

If they are above 40,000 words (i. e. the parent novel does have more than 120,000 words [???]) you can really just do the varianting. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 10:05, 29 September 2023 (EDT)

Since they are all shown with Kindle page counts of 180 or more, I'm pretty sure they are novels. I am proceeding to do the varianting, etc. Phil (talk) 12:56, 29 September 2023 (EDT)

Sure! 120,000 sounds somewhat enormous, but seems quite regular these days. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 13:01, 29 September 2023 (EDT)

The variants are created. How do I set the content record type to Serial? I get an error when trying to do it by editing the pub records. Phil (talk) 13:17, 29 September 2023 (EDT)

The same way you convert novels to chapbooks when it is a novella- except that now it will be a serial. Add a chapbook record into the contents section, change the novel one to SERIAL and change the publication type to a chapbook. Annie (talk) 14:57, 29 September 2023 (EDT)

You also need to change the parent title date to 2015. When the work has only been published in serial form, we use just the year. John Scifibones 15:02, 29 September 2023 (EDT)

Done. Thanks for the help. Phil (talk) 15:43, 1 October 2023 (EDT)

"Top Science Fiction" -- adding author intros

Hi. I have a copy of this to hand Top Science Fiction: The Authors' Choice and I note that the ISFDB entry does not list the authors' intros. It seems like it ought to, although they're just a few paragraphs before the story starts. Could-should I add them? Frink (talk) 19:05, 3 October 2023 (EDT)

Yes, that would be great! I assume they are by Josh Pachter? ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:36, 4 October 2023 (EDT)

They're actually by the authors and aren't separated explicitly from the stories, which is why I was unsure about this. I'll go ahead and do it, and if it's undesirable it's easily reverted. Frink (talk) 21:26, 4 October 2023 (EDT)

Yes, just enter them as essays by the authors then. If they don't have explicit titles, give them the name of the story with "(introduction)" at the end. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:46, 5 October 2023 (EDT)

Done. Thank you for the help! Frink (talk) 09:48, 7 October 2023 (EDT)

Messy situation with a translated essay and author credit

I'm in the process of adding a Chinese fanzine that is mostly translated articles, and I've encountered a case that I'm not sure I've handled optimally, but I'm not sure what the correct way to go is.

This essay is credited to "洛朗蒂乌·尼斯托雷斯库 等", where the body of it is a Sinocization of Laurențiu Nistorescu with the trailing "等" indicating "et al". As such, I've credited the essay to 洛朗蒂乌·尼斯托雷斯库, added a note for the "et al", and made that author an alternate for Laurențiu Nistorescu.

The problem comes in because the original online publication doesn't clearly indicate the author(s). A footnote states "This article was a co-operative venture. Much is owed to Laurentiu Nistorescu (SF writer and journalist), Antuza Genescu and Dorin Davideanu (editor of the H. G. Wells Society zine Paradox).", but that feels like some unnamed editor assembled an English-language essay from articles by those authors, quite possibly in Romanian. As such I've added that English essay as by "uncredited", with the footnote copypasted into the note.

The problem comes in that the essay doesn't show up on the Nistorescu author page (which is understandable), nor the alternate Chinese author page. The latter seems bad for discoverability and understanding why that author record even exists.

Any thoughts on whether I should change how these essays have been recorded? A technical fix might be to not "hide" titles on the alternate author's page, if the parent title is logged against unknown/uncredited/etc, but I dunno how much work that would be, or even if it's desirable.

Thanks ErsatzCulture (talk) 12:25, 7 October 2023 (EDT)

One option:

• Credit the Chinese title to 洛朗蒂乌·尼斯托雷斯库 and uncredited
• Credit the English title to Laurentiu Nistorescu, Antuza Genescu, Dorin Davideanu, Silviu Genescu, and uncredited

A simpler option: Delete the English essay record. As entered, it does not appear in an eligible publication. We only enter webzines, not any web essay. Everything entered in that record can be moved to the Chinese title record. -- JLaTondre (talk) 13:05, 7 October 2023 (EDT)

I would also use the "A" template for Antuza Genescu, Dorin Davideanu, and Silviu Genescu since we have author records for them. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:08, 7 October 2023 (EDT)

Thanks both. I'll update the author names to use the template.

Re. the original "publication" - I appreciate the original isn't really eligible for inclusion in ISFDB, but I'm more interested in capturing the fact that the Chinese publication is a translation of an older essay, and I don't think there's any other way of recording that than creating an English (or whatever) title record to variant to? (Same as how translated webnovels get a parent title record, even though the original webnovel "publication" isn't really ISFDB-eligible.) ErsatzCulture (talk) 19:40, 8 October 2023 (EDT)

The point about "translated webnovels get[ting] a parent title record" is an interesting one. I maintain a few publishers who do exactly that, e.g.:

• Cross Infinite World: publishes English translations of Japanese light novels
• Magic Dome Books/Magic Dome Books and 1C-Publishing: mostly publishes European (mostly Russian and Ukrainian, but also some German) authors, often in translation

Some of these translated novels were originally published in book form, but many original versions are Web novels and have not been published as books. I don't think we have a standard for these types of scenarios, which results in inconsistent dating: some parent titles are enter as "8888-00-00" while others use the date of the online publication. We probably need to discuss these issues on the Rules and Standards page. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:51, 9 October 2023 (EDT)

Stuck submission?

Wondering my submission seems stuck? https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?5773933 Thanks. gzuckier (talk) 00:50, 14 October 2023 (EDT)

I suspect that the moderators who reviewed the submission were not sure whether this "future history" book was a work of fiction. I have confirmed that it is indeed fiction, approved the submission and updated the author record. Thanks! Ahasuerus (talk) 10:38, 14 October 2023 (EDT)

Thank you. gzuckier (talk) 12:19, 14 October 2023 (EDT)

Adding "Pages to Fill: A Legends & Lattes Short Story"

Greetings and felicitations. I'd like to add (or have someone else add) "Pages to Fill: A Legends & Lattes Short Story", a prequel to the novel. Besides the author's Web site, it is also available in the back of Tor's American hardcover edition (though I don't have proof of that) and apparently at the end of the audiobook (see the full Publisher Description).

Unfortunately, I can't find instructions on how to do that (for SHORTFICTION), though other comments on this page hint at it. Help, please? —DocWatson42 (talk) 00:15, 18 October 2023 (EDT)

Amazon's Look Inside let me confirm that "Pages to Fill" indeed appears at the end of the hardcover edition published by Tor. The table of contents of their ebook edition mentions an "excerpt" from "Pages to Fill", but Look Inside doesn't display it. I have updated the hardcover pub -- all I had to do was use "Edit This Pub" and add a SHORTFICTION title to the Content section. The version posted on the author's Web site has 9491 words, which makes it a novelette. Thanks! Ahasuerus (talk) 11:46, 20 October 2023 (EDT)

Thank you, and I'm sorry about the deletion of discussions here—it was not only unintentional, I did not realize that I was doing it. —DocWatson42 (talk) 03:28, 26 October 2023 (EDT)

Awards

I can't find where to add an award that is not part of the awards list. I appreciate help. Thanks. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Antunes (talk • contribs) .

Help:Screen:AwardType says:

• Award Types define the types of awards (like the Hugo award) that ISFDB currently supports. Only ISFDB bureaucrats can create new award types. Only ISFDB moderators can edit existing award types. If you would like to have a new award type added or an existing award type modified, feel free to post your request on the Community Portal.

Once a request has been posted in the Community Portal, it usually takes a few days to discuss it. If consensus is reached, then an ISFDB bureaucrat will add a new Award Type. HTH! Ahasuerus (talk) 11:22, 20 October 2023 (EDT)

Author Directory

I've logged in, yet selecting any letter in the author directory returns that advanced search is restricted? —The preceding unsigned comment added by Acb13adm (talk • contribs) 08:59, October 29, 2023‎

Are you sure you are logged into the ISFDB as well as this wiki? John Scifibones 09:24, 29 October 2023 (EDT)

Because the search function is not dependent on being logged in, the problem you are facing must be caused by something else.

I do suppose you get the response 'Regular search doesn't support single character searches for names' using the regular search: that answer is intentional, because you wouldn't get the authors whose name begins with this letter but all authors whose name contain this letter at any position in their spelling (and this can easily lead to more than 100,000 authors to be displayed).

If this ain't the problem you're facing: could you please describe more specifically what you're doing (and where), and what the exact wording of the response is? Stonecreek (talk) 06:24, 30 October 2023 (EDT)

Advanced Search requires you to be logged in. That was changed awhile back because of bots causing DB issues. So what is happening is expected behaviour if someone is not logged in. Annie (talk) 12:42, 30 October 2023 (EDT)

That's right. Let me add a warning to the "Author Directory" page. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:48, 30 October 2023 (EDT)

Done. Ahasuerus (talk) 14:46, 30 October 2023 (EDT)

S. R. Cronin not on ISFDB

Locus just announced the passing of this author.

https://locusmag.com/2023/10/sherrie-cronin-1954-2023/

As far as I can tell, this author only appears on ISFDB in this record, under a different version of her name:

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?43591

She self-published several fantasy novels in two series w/ Amazon.com Kindle delivery:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=s.+r.+cronin&i=stripbooks&crid=ZBEVKG7XIXYN&sprefix=s.+r.+cronin%2Cstripbooks%2C126&ref=nb_sb_noss

Should we index them? Mike (talk) 13:13, 31 October 2023 (EDT)

https://archive.org/details/Asimovs_v03n11_1979-11/page/n119/mode/2up?view=theater; I saw that link in a StackExchange discussion where someone couldn't remember the title of this story. --Username (talk) 13:36, 31 October 2023 (EDT)

We definitely want her self-published books. I plan to add them tomorrow morning. Ahasuerus (talk) 22:45, 2 November 2023 (EDT)

All of her books have been entered and an alternate name has been set up. Thanks for finding the obituary! Ahasuerus (talk) 14:04, 3 November 2023 (EDT)

Thanks for handling this. Cheers. Mike (talk) 17:39, 3 November 2023 (EDT)

Mafagafo Revista/Monthly issues inside a yearly folder

I hope this doesn't sounds confusing: I'm slowly adding issues of this Brazilian magazine, but how do I neatly tuck these and two (and other editions I still need to add manually) issues inside a neat early "folder" like this (i.e.: put them inside a Mafagafo - 2022 "folder")? Thanks in advance! Alittlebook (talk) 16:46, 2 November 2023 (EDT)

There is a Help page, Help:How to link a magazine to its wiki page and add it to a magazine series, that discusses this topic. The top half is actually obsolete now that the ISFDB software builds issue grids automatically; the ISFDB Wiki is no longer used for this purpose. We'll need to remove the section.

The bottom half, however, is still mostly accurate. Here are the relevant steps, edited to reflect the current state of the software:

• The EDITOR records of a magazine must first be merged by year using the steps listed below.
• Use Advanced Title Search to find the EDITOR records for issues published in a given year. The Title Search screen will list candidates for merging.
• Select the titles to be merged being careful not to select any titles that should not be merged. Only titles with the same editor(s) and year should be merged. See this example where the editor credit changed in the middle of 1953.
• Review the displayed titles, then click Complete Merge. On the next Web page, select the title record with the earliest date. Note that the spelling of the title doesn't matter because it will be modified in the next step. The Moderator will review and approve the submission.
• Bring up the merged title record for editing. For example, "Strange Stories, April 1939" should be changed to "Strange Stories - 1939" and "Strange Stories" entered in the Series field. A moderator will review and approve the submission.
• Putting EDITOR records in the same series will result in "(View All Issues)" and "(View Issue Grid)" links appearing on all Web pages displaying individual issues.

Please note the bolded statement above, i.e. "Only titles with the same editor(s) should be merged". In the case of Mafagafo, the two 2022 issues that we currently have on file have different editors, so they shouldn't be merged. HTH! Ahasuerus (talk) 22:29, 2 November 2023 (EDT)

Hm! This answers my question but raises another: Mafagafo always had the same editor-in-chief, which is Jana Bianchi (the one listed in the yearly merged links from 2018 and 2019). I think this is a lost-in-translation kind of situation, because the I've been crediting the other editions (from issue 2020 onwards) as "edited by [new person]", the "editor" in this case being the person who did the developmental edits/copyedits (the word "editor" means the both things in Portuguese), but Jana Bianchi was still the editor-in-chief. Considering how Strange Horizons is credited here (with the credited editor being only the editor-in-chief and not the fiction/developmental editors), should I go back and change all the issues to credit Jana Bianchi? Alittlebook (talk) 23:11, 2 November 2023 (EDT)

Generally, we only enter the name(s) of the Editor-in-Chief in the Author/Editor field. For example, consider the Wiki page Series:Air Wonder Stories, which says (under "Staff"):

• Hugo Gernsback, editor-in-chief.
• David Lasser, Literary editor, July 1929-February 1930, Managing editor, March-Mary 1930. Despite his title Lasser was in effect managing editor for all issues.
• M. E. Dame, Associate editor, April-May 1930.
• A. L. Fierst, Associate editor, February-May 1930.
• C. P. Mason, Associate editor, February-May 1930.

When you check the corresponding "Series" page in the database, you'll note that only Gernsback is credited.

In this case I would enter "Jana Bianchi" in the Author/Editor field and document "guest editors", "fiction editors", "developmental editors", etc in Notes. Ahasuerus (talk) 19:06, 3 November 2023 (EDT)

Ok, thanks! I'm gonna go back to those and credit Jana as the main editor, then. Alittlebook (talk) 20:11, 3 November 2023 (EDT)

Approved and ready for two "Title Merge" submissions, one for 2012 and the other one for 2022. You can either use Advanced Title Search or pull up Jana Bianchi's Summary page, then click "Show All Titles" under "Editing Tools" and select titles to merge from the displayed list. Ahasuerus (talk) 20:44, 3 November 2023 (EDT)

'Star Wars Universe' vs 'Star Wars Universe/Star Wars' series

Can anyone explain the rationale for choosing which series to place 'independent' novels into? --Glenn (talk) 16:39, 6 November 2023 (EST)

How to find magazine issue when story title is known

I am looking for the issue of the Analog or Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine containing a story titled "Gotlos". Thanks —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Dulinje (talk • contribs) .

Colin Kapp's Gottlos appeared in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, November 1969. -- JLaTondre (talk) 19:04, 21 November 2023 (EST)

And for future reference, you can find what JLaTondre found by searching for the author listing (in this case, here) using the search box at the top left side of the main site and find the story in their list of works. Clicking on the story title will take you to the entry JLaTondre provided, where you'll be able to see where that story's been published. You can also search for the story title using that same search box. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:16, 22 November 2023 (EST)

However, you need to know the correct spelling for ISFDB search to work. To find this story, I searched "Gotlos Analog or Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine" in Google and the first hit lead me to "Gottlos" and that it was in "Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, November 1969". -- JLaTondre (talk) 07:15, 23 November 2023 (EST)

Synopsis can't be edited

I can't find the information on why a synopsis can't always be edited. Example: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?3086815 LiseAndreasen (talk) 16:57, 23 November 2023 (EST)

I'd say it is because the title is for a Chapbook which is a special type of container. Instead, edit the Shortfiction title of the same name that is included in the Chapbook. For your example: here. Phil (talk) 20:07, 23 November 2023 (EST)

That's right: we wouldn't want to add a synopsis to a CHAPBOOK: the enclosed piece of shortfiction may also be published in a COLLECTION or an ANTHOLOGY, and so it's more meaningful to add this information to the fiction title (and it's in the fiction where the plot unfolds). Stonecreek (talk) 01:55, 24 November 2023 (EST)

Okaaay. Is it by design, that it's not obvious, that the text exists in 2 versions? With different nomination data? LiseAndreasen (talk) 03:19, 24 November 2023 (EST)

Chapbooks are a special case. The chapbook record is for the publication, not the text within the publication. The short fiction record is for the actual contents. Think of a chapbook as a single story collection if that helps. The award nomination should have been on the novella record and not on the chapbook record. I have fixed that. -- JLaTondre (talk) 07:18, 24 November 2023 (EST)

And we do need a special container title type, even for a single piece of shortfiction: though that is the criterion that makes out a CHAPBOOK, there can be other title types that are published along the shortfiction, essays, for example, or pieces of interior art. Stonecreek (talk) 09:58, 24 November 2023 (EST)

Thanks for all answers! LiseAndreasen (talk) 13:29, 24 November 2023 (EST)

(This just to clarify content. LiseAndreasen (talk) 22:48, 1 December 2023 (EST))

Oh. One more question. It's possible to attach different tags to a chapbook and the story in it? There's a reason for handling tags this way and synopsis another way? LiseAndreasen (talk) 14:56, 24 November 2023 (EST)

Same story, different synopsis

This story has its own synopsis, so does the "original". The reason for this? https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?64178 LiseAndreasen (talk) 14:59, 24 November 2023 (EST)

Checking Edit History, I see that you added a synopsis to the Variant Title on 2023-10-09. I will ping User:Rtrace, who approved the submission on 2023-10-17. Ahasuerus (talk) 21:30, 28 November 2023 (EST)

When I review an edit adding a synopsis, I generally approve those without much investigation. Unless one is familiar with the title, there's no way to verify that the synopsis is correct, so this is a type of edit where I tend to trust that the submitter knows what they're doing. That being said, I don't recall that I've ever drilled down into the existing title record to see if it is a variant. If having synopses on both parent and variant title is a concern I can try to do so, but we may want to add a warning that the title being edited is a variant with a link to the parent title. The converse relationship (i.e. when editing the parent) is clear when reviewing the edit, but there's nothing on the review screen showing the parent title. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 21:41, 28 November 2023 (EST)

Checking our archives, I see the following 2022-04-30 announcement:

• "Make Variant" has been updated to move "synopsis" data from the child title to the parent title. [This was FR 743, "Make This a Variant Title should move synopsis".]
• Which reminds me. Are there scenarios where a VT with a synopsis makes sense? We have 1,636 of them, but I suspect that the vast majority are titles whose synopses were not moved to the parent record when they were varianted. I guess I should create a cleanup report for "VTs with synopsis data" and then we'll see if any are legitimate. Ahasuerus 17:41, 30 April 2022 (EDT)
  • The cleanup report has been coded and deployed [this was FR 1501, "Create a cleanup report to find VTs with synopsis data."] The data will become available tomorrow morning. Ahasuerus 19:57, 30 April 2022 (EDT)

As of this morning, the cleanup report had 1546 VTs with synopsis data. If we can get a cleanup effort going, it should be possible to get all of them moved to the parent titles within a few days/weeks. If we don't come across any scenarios requiring that VTs have synopses, I could then change the software to make the Synopsis field not editable for VTs. It would be similar to the way CHAPBOOKs work. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:21, 29 November 2023 (EST)

I have cleaned up a bunch and the report is now down to 1,500 titles. It is as I suspected: most just needed the synopsis data to be moved to the parent titles; some needed two synopsis entries reconciled; a few were in error, e.g. Notes data in the Synopsis field or vice versa or non-English synopses which are explicitly not allowed in Help.

I plan to post my findings on the Community Portal tomorrow morning. I will also propose a software change to disallow entering Synopsis data for VTs. Ahasuerus (talk) 18:04, 29 November 2023 (EST)

I spotted a couple of titles on the cleanup report with which I am familiar so have submitted edits to clean them up: The Engineer ReConditioned and The Long Afternoon of Earth. Teallach (talk) 17:50, 30 November 2023 (EST)

Approved, thanks. Ahasuerus (talk) 18:13, 30 November 2023 (EST)

OLiver Whimsey

● I don't know if this subject has ever come up, but I would like to add a few coloring books, like Dark Beauty Horror Coloring Book for Adults by Oliver Whimsey. I would think these books could qualify as art books. "He" has a number of fantasy oriented coloring/art books. Still, there might be rule against these, I'm good either way. MLB (talk) 21:21, 28 November 2023 (EST)

Well, coloring books do contain art and we have a number of them on file. However, the ones that are currently in the database are generally covered by the following Rule of Acquisition:

• Included: Published non-fiction works about speculative fiction which can be plausibly linked to published (as defined above) speculative fiction.

Examples include "Terry Pratchett's Discworld Coloring Book" and "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Coloring Book".

Can Oliver Whimsey's Dark Beauty Horror Coloring Book for Adults be plausibly linked to published (as defined above) speculative fiction? Or it is standalone horror art? Ahasuerus (talk) 21:43, 28 November 2023 (EST)

They seem to be stand-alones. Nice art, but again, I'll go with the majority here. MLB (talk) 05:02, 1 December 2023 (EST)

Crown of Starlight

Recently watched a YouTube video about this fantasy and I have added it to this website. But, I'm not sure if I did it correctly. Could somebody in the know check out my listing and let me know if it was done correctly. The YouTube video on this book and it's author is attached to my listing. MLB (talk) 20:29, 26 December 2023 (EST)

TOXIN - By Robin Cook

In the book jacket it says, “Determined to be a good father to his only son, newly divorced surgeon Dr. Kim Regis takes Selden to his favorite fast food restaurant…” In the book itself, the child is a girl (daughter) named Becky. Also, the doctor’s name is spelled REGGIS- not REGIS. In the book jacket it says “…the boy dies within hours…” whereas in the text the (girl) dies in 5 days. How does this type of error happen? I’m sure thousands of copies of this book were printed. I’m just curious.

Please reply to ronlibutti@gmail.com

Thank you. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by RONLIBUTTI (talk • contribs) . 22:53, 6 January 2024‎ (EST)

We apologize for any confusion. We are not the author or the publisher, so we don't have an answer for your question. If we were to venture a guess, it's likely the story was modified slightly between the time the back cover copy was written and the book contents were finalized, and no one noticed the discrepancies. It happens here and there in the publishing world. You're welcome to contact the publisher or the author through their respective websites if you wish. This would allow them to correct it for future printings. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:11, 8 January 2024 (EST)

Excerpted only in translation

I believe that the convention for entering an excerpt is that it takes the date of excerpt publication and stands alone, not being made a variant of the work excerpted from. That's the way I've been doing them. However, I've just come up against this question: what about a translated excerpt when only the excerpt has been translated, not the entire original? Looking for the first foreign titles listed with "(excerpt)" I find Джанга с тенями (excerpt), which is dated the same as the English translation, and Мы (excerpt), which is dated 8888-00-00, or unpublished. The latter makes a lot more sense to me. I would even add a note confirming that the full original work was not translated. Possibly someone can direct me to a Rules page that clarifies this; otherwise, is there a consensus? -- Martin MOHearn (talk) 10:21, 10 January 2024 (EST)

I don't know if there's a consensus, but I do think that from the rules your assumption is more meaningful: we have the rule that titles have to bear the date of their first publication, and thus a title where we know (or can safely assume) that it was not published should be marked as such ('8888-00-00'). Christian Stonecreek (talk) 01:39, 11 January 2024 (EST)

I think I'll go ahead that way on the relevant entries in an anthology I listed a few days ago, so the story and essay excerpts in Italian show at least some sort of source. Martin MOHearn (talk) 09:43, 11 January 2024 (EST)

LInda Barrett

Well, I've done it again. Somehow I messed up the serial that can be found here, and I don't how to fix it. Can I get any help? MLB (talk) 01:15, 19 January 2024 (EST)

It looks like you made part 1 a variant of part 2. Instead, both should have been made a variant of a new title. You should be able to fix this by making part 2 a variant of a new title (use Option 2 of the Make Variant Title screen). Since the software doesn't allow variants of variants, it will automatically move part 1 to be a variant of the new title also. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:47, 19 January 2024 (EST)

Carnegie Medal

sorry if this is the wrong place for this question. The carnegies have only had a list of nominees since 2003, prior to that in many years they had two other awards as well as the winner namely "Commended" and "Highly Commended". Is It possible to have these categories added to the list of options? if not then how should they be categorised? nominee with a note to say what they actually are? cheers from Gaz Faustus (talk) 15:22, 19 January 2024 (EST)

Let me first clarify that "award categories" are for different types of awards given by the same award committee/body. For example, consider the list of categories for the International Horror Guild Award: Best Novel, Best First Novel, Best Short Story, Best Non-Fiction, Best Artist, Best Periodical, Best TV, etc.

On the other hand, what you are describing is non-standard "award levels", which are different animals. At this time, we do not have support for them. You could enter their Award Levels either:

• as "Nomination", or
• as "Special" followed by selecting "Honorable Mentions" from the drop-down list

Either way, please explain the details in the Notes field. Award Notes appear in hover-over "informational" bubbles displayed on Award pages, e.g. if you display the main page for the Carnegie Medal category, you will notice a little "i" next to the word "Win" for 1947. If you hover your cursor over it, it will display the associated award record's Note, in this case "First collection to win the award, and first time previously published works were considered." Hope this helps! Ahasuerus (talk) 21:29, 19 January 2024 (EST)

cheers mate it was award levels i meant. Just done one using honourable mentions and note with the note saying: Received the designation "Commended". I'll stick with that if youre happy. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Faustus (talk • contribs) .

Thanks, I have approved the submission -- here is the result. I also updated the Note field to indicate where the data came from. Ahasuerus (talk) 07:59, 21 January 2024 (EST)

Got it- i'll follow that format for the others. cheers - Gaz Faustus (talk) 08:40, 21 January 2024 (EST)

1 Novel + 1 Short fiction = Omnibus/Collection/Novel?

If a book consists of a novel and a shorter work both of which have previously been published seperately then what type is it?

This one is an OMNIBUS

This one is a COLLECTION

This one's a NOVEL

The Benford novelette is set in the same universe as the novel - does that have any bearing on Pub Type?

from Gaz Faustus (talk) 09:24, 25 January 2024 (EST)

It can be classified as a NOVEL or a COLLECTION. From the Publication Type help section

"NOVEL. Used when the book is devoted to a single work of fiction. The addition of multiple short stories makes the book a collection, not a novel (A single story is a judgment call, see below). However, sample chapters placed at the end of a book for advertising reasons do not make a novel into a collection. If a book is packaged as a single volume work, and then republished as a multi-volume work, all the publications are novels; there is no need to classify the single volume work as an omnibus. Conversely, if a book is originally published as multiple volumes, and republished as a single volume, the latter is a novel unless the presentation within the single volume makes it clear that the works are presented as separate novels. Sometimes a novel is bound with a single short work of fiction by the same author (an example is this edition of The Misenchanted Sword). In such a case it is often preferred to class the publication as a novel with a "Bonus story" rather than a 2-item collection or omnibus. This is particularly true if the publication has the same title as the novel. It is a judgment call, however." John Scifibones 10:00, 25 January 2024 (EST)

Thanks, i'd read the collection and omnibus bits of that help page but somehow didnt look at NOVEL. Gaz Faustus (talk) 10:23, 25 January 2024 (EST)

My typo in a canonical name

I mistyped Linda Burroughs as LInda Burroughs and now that it's been entered as a canonical name I can't correct it. I tried doing so on the title page for her one essay so far, but the software matched Linda with LInda and that edit went through without the change. Could a moderator fix that typo on the Author Record page? Thanks. MOHearn (talk) 15:52, 26 January 2024 (EST)

As requested. John Scifibones 16:25, 26 January 2024 (EST)

Thank you, John.--Martin MOHearn (talk) 17:19, 26 January 2024 (EST)

A question about variants with pseudonyms

I'm generally fine with creating variants but need some clarification for this situation. The publication is written under a pseudonym. The title page shows the author as another pseudonym "writing as". Fine so far but the existing canonical author record has the author's canonical name plus an additional author. Example: Satellite B.C. which has the canonical authors as John S. Glasby and Arthur Roberts. I added the ebook edition whose title page shows "John Glasby writing as Rand Le Page" using the Rand Le Page pseudonym. I feel like there should be a variant created but am not sure if that's true. What should I do? Thanks! Phil (talk) 10:07, 3 February 2024 (EST)

The author field help attempts to cover this:

Alternate Names. If you know that a particular author's name is an alternate name, enter that alternate name rather than changing it to the canonical name. If the title page shows both an original and a subsequent name, use the original name. For example, Isaac Asimov's "Lucky Starr" books were originally published under the pseudonym of Paul French, but later reprints were given both names: "by Isaac Asimov, writing as Paul French". In these cases you should still enter Paul French as the author and record the dual credit in the notes. If the cover shows both names but the title page shows only one name, use the name from the title page -- no matter which it is -- and record the discrepancy with the cover credit in the notes. When a book is known to be ghost-written, this should be treated as an alternate name; the ghost-writer will eventually show up as having an alternate name of the well-known author, but that data is not entered via this field. (my emphasis)

The credit should be to Rand Le Page. The variant would go to the canonical name, which is John S. Glasby. The software does not permit a variant of a variant, so there would be no intermediate record with the John Glasby credit. If we believe the work is by both Glasby and Roberts, then the variant would go to a record using two author credits for John S. Glasby and Arthur Roberts -- always to the canonical. Unless it were ever published as credited solely to "John Glasby", there will be no variant with that credit. --MartyD (talk) 15:56, 4 February 2024 (EST)

Thanks. That's how I did it but somehow didn't see the guidance in the Help to reassure me that I had done it correctly. Phil (talk) 16:53, 4 February 2024 (EST)

Restoring cancelled submission

Is there any way to easily restore/resubmit a submission I accidentally cancelled (other than reenter everything)? 5883840 if it can be done. Thanks. gzuckier (talk) 22:27, 8 February 2024 (EST)

A moderator can unreject. Which I had done. It is back to being active and in the queue. Annie (talk) 00:53, 9 February 2024 (EST)

10000 thank yous. gzuckier (talk) 23:47, 10 February 2024 (EST)

interviews jump to continuation page

When entering an interview with multiple authors interviewed in a publication, when the article starts on say page 1 and the first author is interviewed there, and the continuation of the article jumps to say page 10 and interviews more authors, is it better to just add additional authors to the interview listing with the first page number, or to add them as another interview with the second page number and the same title? I can't decide which is more logical. Thanks. gzuckier (talk) 15:12, 18 February 2024 (EST)

Adding alternate name

Colombian author Rodrigo Bastidas Pérez [2] [3] also appears to use the nameRodrigo Bastidas [4] [5] so if anybody could add it, please? Thanks. gzuckier (talk) 15:30, 18 February 2024 (EST)

The ISFDB is a publication driven database. An author record will be created the first time "Rodrigo Bastidas" is credited to a title. After creation, go to the newly created author record. Select 'Make/Remove Alternate Name' from the Editing Tools menu. Put 'Rodrigo Bastidas Pérez' in the Parent name field or 329980 in the Parent Record # field. John Scifibones 15:42, 18 February 2024 (EST)

thanks. gzuckier (talk) 15:56, 18 February 2024 (EST)

Adding web-published short fiction?

General question: https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/Help:Screen:NewPub seems to list everything except a new piece of short fiction (New Anthology, New Chapbook, New Collection, New Fanzine, New Magazine, New Nonfiction, New Novel, and New Omnibus). How does one add one?

More specifically, how would one add Andy Weir’s latest short story, “The Martian: Lost Sols” (https://galactanet.com/lostsols.pdf)?

(A more complicated issue might be whether to count it as either part of a new The Martian series, or as just a missing part of the novel.)

— FlaSheridn (talk) 19:42, 18 February 2024 (EST)

A publication of a single work of short fiction is handled in the ISFDB as a CHAPBOOK, which you should think of as a one-story COLLECTION. So you use Add New Chapbook. We would consider a PDF an "ebook". It will seem redundant, but within that new record, you would add one entry in the "Regular Titles" (content) section for the short story. See some details in the CHAPBOOK sub-bullet of Help:Screen:NewPub#Publication_Type. It is normal for both the CHAPBOOK and the SHORTFICTION records to have the same title text, but that is not required. If the story belongs in the series, add the series to the SHORTFICTION record (which will only be available after the initial submission is accepted), not to the CHAPBOOK. --MartyD (talk) 21:31, 18 February 2024 (EST)

Financial contributions

Is there a way to make a monthly financial contribution to your site? —The preceding unsigned comment added by Jeradcentipedepress.com (talk • contribs) 16:35, February 21, 2024‎

Not at the moment, but let me check with Al von Ruff who currently handles server issues. Thanks for the thought! Ahasuerus (talk) 17:36, 21 February 2024 (EST)

++

— FlaSheridn (talk) 21:07, 22 February 2024 (EST)

Not at the moment. but the site isn't particularly expensive to operate. I'll be looking into creating a 501c later this year, mostly to ensure the longevity of the site, but that would also allow for official financial contributions. Alvonruff (talk) 16:43, 11 March 2024 (EDT)

(in error) credit to cover artist / Beloved Exile

What steps should I take to fix up the cover artist for Beloved Exile? My 2nd printing has a copyright page credit and signature on the artwork crediting 'Heide Oberheide'.

It seems I should edit the 'Author 1' name in the record, but am unsure how to create the 'Tom Canty (in error)' record linkage. --Glenn (talk) 17:13, 14 March 2024 (EDT)

It's unfortunately complicated. What you'd need to do is separate the publications so that the AvoNova pub has a COVERART record of its own that is not shared with the two Bantam pubs. Then make the AvoNova's credit be "Tom Canty (in error)" instead of "Tom Canty", and make the title the two Bantam pubs share be credited to "Heide Oberheide" instead of "Tom Canty". Then both the fixed "Heide Oberheide" one and the "Tom Canty (in error)" one would need to be made variants of one credited to "Heidi Oberheide" (her canonical name), "Tom Canty (in error)" would need to be made an alternate name for Heidi Oberheide, and the lingering old parent title credited to Thomas Canty would need to be deleted. It would take quite a few submissions and a few wait-for-approval pauses. I'd be happy to do this for you, if you want, or you're welcome to try it yourself. --MartyD (talk) 18:38, 14 March 2024 (EDT)

Please do. --Glenn (talk) 20:16, 14 March 2024 (EDT)

The two Bantam editions have different credits (one "Heidi", the other "Heide") and also needed to be separated. Final result is here. --MartyD (talk) 07:19, 15 March 2024 (EDT)

Хищник

I need some help from anybody who knows Russian. I just listed Хищник. I did the best I could, but I know I must of gotten something wrong. I had to spell out the authors' names from by "Symbol" program on my word program and I'm sure I did something wrong. Could somebody check this out and let me know what I did wrong? MLB (talk) 23:09, 14 March 2024 (EDT)

All fixed :) Annie (talk) 13:54, 15 March 2024 (EDT)

Thank you very much. MLB (talk) 14:57, 15 March 2024 (EDT)

Anytime - the two author names needed fixing - Morris looked ok but the k in his first name was in Latin; Golden's first name contained characters that looked like the actual letters if you squint :) I also added more details (including the translator)from Fantlab and other Russian sources, got the publisher sorted out and got a month of publication (Goodreads can be really bad for this on Russian books). Thanks for adding it. Feel free to drop me a note when you get one of these - either after you add it as you did now or just with a link to the Goodreads book and I will be happy to fix/add it. Annie (talk) 15:06, 15 March 2024 (EDT)

@MLB, when I am not on my tablet or phone with convenient virtual keyboards and am stuck on my computer's US-standard QWERTY keyboard, I often find it easier to Google for names/titles with diacriticals or in non-Latin alphabets and copy + paste. WAY faster than trying to enter one symbol at a time.... --MartyD (talk) 08:22, 16 March 2024 (EDT)

Baen vs Baen Books publishers redux

I'm reopening the Baen vs Baen Books publishers discussion as I currently have some edits on pause [6] that attempted to add the "Baen Science Fantasy Books".

The last time this was discussed, it kind of fizzled out, and so when PVing my Baen books I ended up just following the existing patterns for which Baen publisher variant to use. (I've currently have PVed 1077 Baen publications). The addition of the little used variant would follow existing patterns, but much lower usage.

Is this the time to get this straightened out? --Glenn (talk) 16:14, 18 March 2024 (EDT)

Conceptual clarification for alternate names and “as by”?

I’m seeing some works that have a non-canonical name for their byline but that aren’t showing up on the page for the canonical name. I think I now understand that to make them show up on the page for the canonical name, I need to follow the instructions under Help:How_to_record_a_variant_title, but I feel like it might be useful to add a conceptual clarification in the introduction to that page, saying something like “There are various reasons to create a variant title record; for example, to get a work that was published under a non-canonical name to appear under the author’s canonical name, you need to create a variant title record that gives the author’s canonical name.”

I’m saying this because I recently linked a non-canonical name to a canonical name, and I expected that ISFDB would automatically create an “as by” line on the canonical-name page. When that didn’t happen, I went and searched in the wiki to try to find out more; I eventually found that how-to page, and that page gives useful instructions on what to do, and after reading a few different bits of it a few times I think I understand what to do. But I feel like that page could use a high-level conceptual description of what you’re doing, because the phrase “record a variant title” didn’t initially sound like what I wanted to do.

The wiki page for Help:How to enter works published under an alternate name also seems relevant, and I feel like that one could also use a similar high-level conceptual description. In particular, that page says to clone the existing page, but it doesn’t say what to change in the cloned version; I think it should say to change the name in the cloned version to the canonical name. --Elysdir (talk) 16:22, 18 March 2024 (EDT)

When you say ... I recently linked a non-canonical name to a canonical name, ... what was the situation you were trying to deal with, and what did you do at first? --MartyD (talk) 17:47, 18 March 2024 (EDT)

Linking books as translation

I have submitted tickets for this for several books in the Eragon series through 'Make This Title a Variant' butt nothing changed after it got approved.

See the novel section for the not linked Swedish and Italian ones https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?28380

The West-Frisian translation of The two towers is also not linked 'De twa tuorren' https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?302

Also this author translated his own book that needs to belinked to the original English one https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?376722

Noticed that now it's just the other way around. 'Het zwaard van het licht' is the translation of 'The Lady's Gift', right? If you could confirm here, I'll switch it around for you (or someone else will) :) MagicUnk (talk) 16:17, 21 March 2024 (EDT)

Flapco (talk) 14:06, 20 March 2024 (EDT)

The best way to do this is to follow these steps:

• Create the translated title as normal.
• View the new title record you made (make sure it's the title record and not the publication record).
• Open a separate window or tab with the original title to which you want to variant the translation.
• Copy the Title Record # (at the top right of the entry).
• Go back to the tab or window with the translated title record and click the Make this title a variant link in the toolbar on the left.
• Under Option 1 (don't use Option 2), paste the copied Title Record # into the Parent # field.
• Click the Link to Existing Parent button to submit the varianting for review.

Once you've done that, a moderator can review the submission and approve it. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:16, 20 March 2024 (EDT)

Just a small clarification - "Create the translated title as normal." above means "Add the book. Forget that it is a translation and just add it - add the translator in the Title note but other from that, just add the book as you would add any other book".

If you start by creating the variant and not by adding the book, the variant may be deleted overnight (we have a report looking for orphan titles). :) Annie (talk) 18:39, 20 March 2024 (EDT)

Good clarification. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:13, 20 March 2024 (EDT)