User talk:Astral

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Important!

This editor is no longer actively participating and is unlikely to respond to messages left here.

If this user is the sole verifier of a publication record, please:

  • post only notices on the user's talk page concerning the addition of images and notes
  • post inquiries regarding any other changes to the verified record at the Moderator noticeboard

Otherwise, please post notices and inquiries only on the talk pages of the other primary verifiers.


Welcome!

Hello, Astral, and welcome to the ISFDB Wiki! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

Note: Image uploading isn't entirely automated. You're uploading the files to the wiki which will then have to be linked to the database by editing the publication record.

Please be careful in editing publications that have been primary verified by other editors. See Help:How to verify data#Making changes to verified pubs. But if you have a copy of an unverified publication, verifying it can be quite helpful. See Help:How to verify data for detailed information.

I hope you enjoy editing here! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will insert your name and the date. If you need help, check out the community portal, or ask me on my talk page. Again, welcome! BLongley 18:53, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

Hello!

Thank you for the nice welcome. I must confess I had been a passive user for quite a long time before deciding to join in. :) Astral 23:29, 11 August 2011 (UTC) {Astral]

So Love Returns

Thanks for adding these editions. It's usually easier if you add the earliest publication first, then can you can use "Add Publication to This Title" to save yourself some typing for later editions. BLongley 19:06, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

As to reviews: we don't put the review in the publication being reviewed, we put it in the publication that contains the review. So I'll remove the review from So Love Returns and hope that someone will eventually enter contents for Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature. Thanks for editing! BLongley 19:06, 11 August 2011 (UTC)


I'll try to remember all this. Perhaps some day I'll be be ready to enter contents of Magill's :) Thanks. Astral 22:57, 11 August 2011 (UTC)Astral

The Innocent at Large

I accepted the submission adding this publication to the database, but made a few changes according to ISFDB standards. The date was blanked, but according to your note it was published in March 1954, so I gave the book that publication date. I also removed the parenthetical title. Only the actual book title should be given in that field. I'm going to create records for the original title and then make this record into a variant title. If you have the book (and it appears from your notes that you do) please do a primary verification (see here for instructions). If you don't have the book, please record the source of your data in the note field. Thanks for contributing. Mhhutchins 21:37, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

I've added a number sign before the catalog number per ISFDB standards, and linked an image of the cover. Please check to see if this is the correct image. Mhhutchins 21:46, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

I gave the book the double title according to the title page. I am going to do the primary verification some time later because now it's very late and the instruction is a long one :) 23:23, 11 August 2011 (UTC)~ [Astral]

The Kingdom That Was

I've accepted the submission adding this new publication, but made some changes to conform to ISFDB standards. The date of publication (though unstated) appears in OCLC record 561672472 as 1939, so I've updated that field giving OCLC as the source. I moved "Cherry Tree" to the publication series field and the catalog number "40" to the publication series number field. Is the height 7 inches (18cm) or less? If it's taller the binding should be "tp" (for trade paperback). I've left it as entered. Thanks. Mhhutchins 22:03, 11 August 2011 (UTC)


I wasn't sure with Cherry Tree as publication series. I guess it's better now. Besides 1939 I saw also 1945 so didn't fill in. The height of the book equals with that of a standard American pbk. I know that the British sometimes used a trade pb format about the 40s but this is not the case. As for now, I don't know many things still. Your instructions are hideously long. I try them only because they concern bibliographic stuff. Generally I am allergic to them :) Astral Astral 23:14, 11 August 2011 (UTC)
Yes, those instructions are daunting. Try to take one field at a time. Even if you miss something or make an error, the moderators will assist you. We all know how difficult this can be at the beginning, but it usually doesn't take long before you're editing like a pro. It just takes time. Thanks for editing. Mhhutchins 23:43, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

Adam and Eve, Though He Knew Better

You added a Polish title record for this title, but it's in English. The title record should be in Polish. Also you asked about linking to an image on another server. We can only link to websites for which we have approval. You'll find the list here. You can also upload to our server. After you've created a pub record (or go to one already in the db) click on "Upload cover scan" and follow the directions. Then link the image file using the URL of the file you just uploaded. Mhhutchins 04:03, 13 August 2011 (UTC)

Forgot to add: you can create a publication record for this title record by clicking on "Add Publication to This Title" (but after you've changed the title of the title record to the Polish title). Thanks. Mhhutchins 04:12, 13 August 2011 (UTC)

Astral 15:49, 17 August 2011 (UTC) I hope the Polish letter will be visible now. Astral 15:49, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

The Crystal City Under the Sea

Hi, and welcome to the ranks of contributors! I approved your edits to The Crystal City Under the Sea, but I made two changes to it and one further edit. I did find plenty of corroboration that it should be "under", not "and". I could not find any evidence that it was a paperback (vs. hard cover), so I removed the binding. We need some form of evidence for the various data elements, and without it we don't guess. By the way, for trade paperback, use "tp", not "tpb". I noticed while doing that you had inserted blank lines in the notes. These don't render afterward (the browsers condense all of the white space). To get blank lines you need to insert HTML: <BR> (a "break" instruction). I put those in. You can add more if the spacing isn't to your liking. Also, based on your notes, the author credit should be Andre Laurie, not A. Laurie, so I made that change as well (we use the credit as stated in the book; here you have good evidence the full name was used). Thanks, and thanks for contributing. --MartyD 10:27, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

I also approved this one and changed the binding from "tpb" to "tp", the author to Andre Laurie per your notes, and the title to use "Under", also per your notes. And I added breaks in the notes. --MartyD 10:32, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

"I could not find any evidence that it was a paperback (vs. hard cover), so I removed the binding." -- I am terrrrribly sorry I made this mess with binding - of course you couldn't find any evidence for paperback binding -- as there wasn't such (1896) - almost surely! My fault, I was tired. By the way, Reginald notes title change of the American edition of the same year ("The Crystal City"). I am going to enter (later) a Polish pirate book edition (s) of his sf novel (published about the WWI from the 1895 magazine text) - the first French book edition 2007! Notabene the Stableford effort of publishing in English the most important French sf/f/sh classics has no French counterpart as they never republished many of these important titles by themselves... Astral 14:22, 15 August 2011 (UTC)|Astral

one "gotcha" about notes

Don't use "<" and ">" in notes, use parentheses "(" and ")" instead. Some browsers will try to interpret anything between the less than and greater than signs as HTML tags, with unexpected results. I changed these where I noticed them. If you see any notes where text is missing, try editing the publication -- even though the browser hides the text in the brackets, it should still be there. --MartyD 10:46, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

Świat nura

Świat nura by Aleksander Kościów has been approved with the following changes:

  1. The ISFDB code for "trade paperback" is "tp" rather than "tpb"
  2. There is no need to specify "ISBN-10" in the ISBN field. The software accepts both ISBN-10s and ISBN-13s and then displays both forms of the ISBN.

Otherwise everything looks good, thanks for submitting the book! Ahasuerus 15:56, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

And things like "ISBN-10: 1-57478-043-3 ISBN-13: 978-1-57478-043-7" will get truncated. Please pick one or the other, and let the software do the rest. Thanks for contributing! BLongley 20:03, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

Problems with your submissions

There are several recurring problems with most your submissions, which will have to be corrected if approved.

  1. For larger paperbacks, you should use "tp", NOT "tpb". This has been pointed out several times in the messages above, so it's obvious that you haven't read them or you would have already stopped the practice.
  2. ONLY enter ONE ISBN that is actually stated in the book, and ONLY enter it as a 13-digit or 10-digit number, nothing else should be entered into the field. If BOTH ISBN-13 and ISBN-10 is in the book, enter ONLY the ISBN-13. (Again, this has been brought up before.)

The only way we have to communicate with you is through this wiki page, your user talk page. It is important that you read the message when you see the highlighted "MY MESSAGES" link on the db pages. Thank you for contributing. Mhhutchins 00:54, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Are you sure I had "My Messages" highlighted? I've never seen them highlighted. Is this thing activated automatically or I have to initiate it? I must check this. And I have been checking the page many times throughout yesterday and found not new ones. I think they came after I went to bed (some really were sent after that). Internet sometimes belates. Really, it was not my intent to ignore the messages. Astral 12:11, 15 August 2011 (UTC)|Astral
Once you've logged into the database, there's a menu on the left sidebar under the "Logged In As" header. The fourth item on the menu is "My Messages" which is only highlighted if you've received a new message on your user talk page between the time that you last visited it and the next time you've logged in. If you click on that link you're shown the differences between your visits to the user talk page. I personally find this view distracting, because it isn't editable. I usually click on the first item under the "Other Pages" menu ("ISFDB Wiki") and once I'm in the wiki section, I click the "My talk" link. This is your user talk page. Once you go back to the database itself you'll find that the "My Messages" link is no longer highlighted, and won't light up again until the next time someone edits your user talk page. If this isn't working for you, we have to figure out why. Thanks. Mhhutchins 15:00, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Turn of the Screw

As an example of some of the problems, I've accepted your submission adding this publication. I will point out the problems and ask that you update the record to correct them.

  1. ISBN field: Should have been entered as "0-393-09669-6" or "0393096696" (the system knows how to display it correctly and also creates an ISBN-13.
  2. Binding field: "tpb" should be "tp"
  3. Page field: "x,[2],276" is not ISFDB standard for page count field. If there are 10 Roman-numbered pages and 276 numbered pages, it should be entered "x+276". Placing brackets around a number in this field indicates unnumbered pages with text, but not blank pages. We don't count blank pages.

It is important that you read this help page, which has most information that you need to know about ISFDB standards. If you have kept a record of all of the books that you've entered, I'm going to accept all of the ones you have on hold and ask that you go back and update each record. Thanks. Mhhutchins 01:06, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

I am going to check my previous enterings. Thank you wery much. [[[User:Astral|Astral]] 11:36, 15 August 2011 (UTC)|Astral]

Mount Analogue

The submission adding this publication was accepted, but there are several major problems which must be corrected:

  1. You've typed it as a COLLECTION, yet you call it a NOVEL in the notes. A novel published with much additional material (as essays, notes, etc.) is still a novel and should by typed as one.
  2. The pieces on pages 25 and 107 should be typed as ESSAY. The NONFICTION type is used for book-length works.
  3. The piece on page 110 should also be disambiguated by adding the title of the book: "Notes and fragments (Mount Analogue)".
  4. Check the spelling of the piece on page 7. Should it be "trabslator's"?

And as above noted, "tpb" should be "tp".

Mhhutchins 01:11, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

All done. I have to be more careful. Sorry for all this. [[[User:Astral|Astral]] 09:48, 15 August 2011 (UTC)|Astral]

I've accepted the changes, and I got rid of the lingering collection title. One question about Notes and fragments: I see you have used brackets ("[" and "]") in both the content record and in the notes. Does this have brackets in the book, or do you mean something else? Thanks. --MartyD 10:52, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

You see, the whole problem is that I felt obliged to name somehow this section as it has no separate title (and is a separate part of the book!) because it is placed by the editor (or by whoever else) just after Editor's Note and it is treated as part of it on the contents page of the book. This error fortunately seems quite obvious and easy to correct bibliographically. But I don't know yet about your standards in such cases. I guess that I used "[ ]" wrongly. What is your advice? Astral 13:23, 15 August 2011 (UTC)|Astral

The Terrible Twos

This publication was accepted into the database, but there are some problems which I have resolved, just to give you an example of standard ISFDB entry procedures.

  1. The ISBN field as you entered it "ISBN-10: 0-312-79199-2 ISBN-13: 978-0-312-79199-5" should have been "0-312-79199-2" (No book in 1982 had an ISBN-13.)
  2. Page count field "12+178" was changed to "178". Unnumbered pages without pertinent text are not included in the page count.
  3. Publisher field: "St. Martin’s/Marek" was changed to "St. Martin’s / Marek", note the spaces before and after the slash, the standard for entering publishers with separate imprints.

I'm assuming you have the books in hand (for all your submissions). If so, please do a primary verification (instructions here). If you don't have the book, you should place the source of your data in the record's note field.

Here's a link to the most common tasks done and instructions for doing them. Thanks. Mhhutchins 01:28, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Apologies if I sound suspicious, but does the book actually have the ISBN-13 printed on it? If so, you have a later edition/printing (as Michael says, 1982 books didn't have ISBN-13s). There's nothing wrong with entering data based on later printings, but those sources should be noted and only the physical book you're entering should have all the details and be verified. If you're working from the first publication and extrapolating the ISBN-13, don't bother - the software will do that for you. But we do need to know which printing/edition you're working from, we want them ALL. BLongley 04:04, 15 August 2011 (UTC)


I've got the first edition. And of course it has no ISBN-13... Yes, the whole thing is SO complicated and detailed that I see I am to learn much more... the verification procedure especially... "Unnumbered pages without pertinent text are not included in the page count." I see. But if the publisher includes them into the whole page numbering... then I should not interfere with it. Hm, this also must be somewhere in the instructions... And yes, I have almost all editions I entered. In case of not having a copy, I will remember to put in the source in all cases. My apologies for all the troubles... [[[User:Astral|Astral]] 09:32, 15 August 2011 (UTC)|Astral]

Asking questions

There are several ways to ask for help when entering and updating publication records. The first place to start is the Help Desk. The "Note to the Moderator" field in new book submissions should not be used to ask questions. It's there to give the moderator extra information that helps him decide whether to accept the submission. Nothing should be placed in this field that you wish to be visible on the book's database record. In reverse, if you want certain information to be part of the database record, you should record that data in the "Note Field". I have many of your submissions on hold and other than the problems I've pointed out above, many of them could be accepted. We really want to encourage new editors, especially one as enthusiastic as you in your submissions. But I think the biggest problem is that you've jumped into the deep-end without first learning how to swim. I will be going over each of the submissions with you over the next week or so, and ask that you not enter any new books until you've become more familiar with how the database works, and the various entry standards, most of which are stated on this help page. Thank you. Mhhutchins 01:40, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Now I can see clearly how much troubles I've done... I am so sorry for all this. And yes, of course - learn, learn, learn. The instructions must be carefully read and congested... and remembered... Thank you very much for your assistance. Astral 09:57, 15 August 2011 (UTC)|Astral
I think I may have come down too hard on you and want to apologize. You're not going through anything that all editors have when they're first encountering the db. The help pages contain some good guidance but can't substitute for the education you receive from just submitting and learning from the mistakes (which I admit we all make.) I'm going to start accepting the submissions and will be going over each of them individually. This may take a few days. Again, thanks for contributing. We need all the editors we can get and your contributions are really appreciated. Some of the titles that you've entered are surprising because I'd never heard of them and are happy to see them in the db. Mhhutchins 14:51, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

How nice of you - I really get sick with instructions (I have had this since very long, especially concerning radio, tv, etc.)... And I really appreciate your concern. I have been working with bibliographies, collecting books (and publishing - books and editoring sf/f magazines) for many, many years. Being crazy about fantastic literature I have, in effect, a big library and some (perhaps vast) genre knowledge. But this field is so rich that I am sure I still do not know about many interesting and curious things. Surfing the Net I almost every day find infos about new (and old) books potentially worth buying and reading and other books, interesting from other points of view. I think ISFDB is the largest (and most detailed) genre data source in the world. So I am happy I can contribute to it - with the friendly help. Astral|Astral 17:06, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Glad to hear you like us, and that we're not scaring you off. You do seem to have some interesting additions to make so I hope you'll stick around. BLongley 18:10, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

The Sacred Fount by Henry James

Is this a novel or a collection of stories? Your synopsis makes it appear to be a novel, but the submission types it as COLLECTION. Thanks. Mhhutchins 18:04, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Also, in the Note field you state: First published 1901 by Charles Scribners First published as New Directions Paperbook 790 in 1995 [This Publication Record] Published simultaneously in Canada by Penguin Books Canada Ltd. Second Printing [This Publication Record]. The second use of [This Publication Record] contradicts the first use. If the book were first published in 1995 and this is a second printing then this publication record can't be the "First published...". I personally feel that "[This Publication Record]" can be misread, so I record the statement exactly as stated in the book itself by placing quotes around them and recording where the statement appears, i.e.: "First published 1901 by Charles Scribners" (over) "First published as New Directions Paperbook 790 in 1995" (over) "Second Printing" stated on the copyright page. This method lacks ambiguity. "[This Publication Record]" was used by one editor for several hundred records in the db to mean that the statement refers to the publication that the record represents, but I personally feel its meaning could confuse the average database user. Mhhutchins 18:23, 15 August 2011 (UTC)
One more thing: if you want to start a new line for additional data in the note field, you have to enter the HTML code <BR>. Otherwise it becomes one run-on line of data. Thanks. Mhhutchins 18:29, 15 August 2011 (UTC)


"The Sacred Fount" is a novel, of course. I have to be more careful... And yes, the note should be as you precisely wrote it: "First published in 1901 by Charles Scribners" "First published as New Directions Paperbook 790 in 1995" "Second Printing" stated on the copyright page. I think it would be better if I enter less entries and be more careful... Thank you wery much for your patience. [[[User:Astral|Astral]] 19:57, 15 August 2011 (UTC)|Astral]

or rather like that: <BR>"First published in 1901 by Charles Scribners" <BR>"First published as New Directions Paperbook 790 in 1995" <BR>"Second Printing" stated on the copyright page. Astral 20:02, 15 August 2011 (UTC)|Astral

Hm, not here it works... :) Astral 20:03, 15 August 2011 (UTC)|Astral

In order to display HTML without it actually working in the Wiki environment, I had to turn it off by adding the "nowiki" commands. What was actually displayed is how it should be entered: without the nowiki commands.
I've accept the submission so you can look at the results as displayed. Here is the current record as you submitted it. I corrected the binding to "tp" and the type to NOVEL (of both the pub record and the title record). Looking at the pub record, you see how the information that you entered in the note field runs on. Let me know that you've seen this, and I'll correct it so you can see the difference in how it's displayed. Mhhutchins 21:09, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Kallocain

The record for this record was accepted, but you've encountered another eccentricity of the database. If you choose the "Add New Novel" function, you creating both a new publication record and a new title record. You should have gone to the title record already in the database here and chosen "Add Publication to This Title". You also created a content record for the novel so that now there are two title records associated with this novel. You don't have to add a content record when creating a new pub record because the system automatically creates a new title record. It's going to take several submission to get this pub back into shape. Again, I'm going to ask you to refrain from making new submissions until I can catch up with the ones you've already submitted. For this one go to the pub record and choose "Remove Titles from This Pub". You'll see there are two title records for the novel. Check the first one under "Container Titles" and then "Submit Data". (Ordinarily you wouldn't remove the container title, but this one has two and one of them can be removed.) After you've done that, I'll give you the next instruction. Thanks. Mhhutchins 21:19, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

The Note to the Moderator that you gave in this submission ("Originally published in Sweden in 1940 by Albert Bonniers Förlag AB, Stockholm.") is important data and should not have gone into this field. As I stated above, the Note to the Moderator does not become part of the record. It's only there to give the moderator additional information about the submission, not about the book itself. Thanks. Mhhutchins 21:21, 15 August 2011 (UTC)
Thank you for the message--I will see to it tomorrow, sorry. I have to end my business as for today... AstralAstral 22:07, 15 August 2011 (UTC)
The extra title record has been removed. Now you should go to Karin Boye. You'll see three titles of the same novel. Click on "Show All Titles" under the Editing Tools menus. On the next page, check all three boxes and submit (you're merging these three records into one.) The next page is to reconcile the differences between the three records. Choose the bullets to keep the synopsis, the correct date (1966), English, the Wikipedia article, and the title note. Then submit. Thanks. Mhhutchins 13:30, 16 August 2011 (UTC)

Prices

US prices should be entered in this format: $00.00 (with 0 being the numbers). They should always have the decimal point followed by two digits representing the cents, regardless of how it's stated on the book itself. So I changed a few records that you'd submitted: from $15 to $15.00 for example here. Mhhutchins 22:27, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Mr. Zowie's Soul

I've accepted the submission adding this publication and have made the following changes:

  1. Changed the title from "Mr Zowie's Soul" to "Mr. Zowie's Soul" (added a period)
  2. Changed the page count field from "6+58" to "58"
  3. Changed the binding format field from "tpb" to "tp"
  4. Changed the ISBN field from "ISBN-10: 1-86900-762-X ISBN-13: 978-1-86900-762-1" to "1-86900-762-X"
  5. Removed the note "Fantasy from Republic of South Africa." This refers to the title, not the publication (meaning this would not change even if it were reprinted by another publisher.) This should be added to the title record, once the submission has been accepted.
  6. Added a shortfiction record for the contents. This is required for CHAPTERBOOK records (99% of the time).

And since I was editing, I linked the cover image from Amazon.com. This isn't mandatory. Mhhutchins 22:45, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Wellman's The Devil's Asteroid

The submission was accepted but some changes had to be made to the record:

  1. Date was changed from "2008-00-00" to "2009-04-09", based on the Amazon listing. According to the Amazon look-inside, the book was copyright 2008. The year of copyright should not be used to determine the date of pub, and should be the last resort if no other source can be found.
  2. "tpb" was changed to "tp"
  3. "ISBN-10: 1-60459-667-8 ISBN-13: 978-1-60459-667-0" was changed to "978-1-60459-667-0"
  4. Price was added, based on Amazon's listing.
  5. The note ("This novelette is a part of a series concerning relations between Earth and Mars in the future: war-cooperation-politics.") was removed as it refers to the title and not to the publication. I've moved it to the title record's synopsis field.
  6. A note was added giving the source for data.
  7. A content record was added for the short fiction. This is required for most publications entered as CHAPTERBOOK types.
  8. A link to the Amazon image was added.

If any of these changes don't match your copy of the book, please let me know. Thanks. Mhhutchins 02:20, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

Yes, in my copy there are both ISBNs - on the title page, which happens to be giving also the copyright and the postal address of "Wilder Publications, LLC" - is LLC obligatory or not? (as it was added the Thrilling Wonder publisher in the entry of Between Worlds Worlds from 2009). Otherwise, all is OK. Astral 14:30, 17 August 2011 (UTC)
We try to use the simplest and most common name of the publisher, and try to be as consistent as possible. But sometimes that's hard. In the first case Wilder Publications is the most common form, so we drop the "LLC". In the later case, it's just the opposite. Sorry for being unable to give a more definitive answer. BTW, when responding to comments, it's a good idea to add a colon at the start of your response. And with each additional response to the same subject add another colon. This automatically indents the separate responses and makes it easier to read. (Note how this looks in the editing window and then how it looks when saved.) Thanks. Mhhutchins 15:04, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

Przeproś: przewodnik gracza by Aleksander Kościów

This book was accepted into the database (correcting the binding and ISBN), and I have a question: you've given the cover artist as "Vavoq (Wojciech Wawoczny)". Is this how the book is actually credited, parechesis and all? Thanks. Mhhutchins 02:25, 17 August 2011 (UTC) Yes, the artist line on the Copyright page is just as that: Vavoq (Wojciech Wawoczny). First the pseudonim as I assume, and after that, parentheses with his actual name. Astral 14:13, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

The Midnight Tree: A Fairy Tale of Terror by Charles Higham

This book is now in the db, but I had to make the usual corrections in the binding and ISBN. I also removed the note "First edition 1979" as this might confuse some users in believing this record is for the first edition. Do you think this book is the same as this Amazon listing? It gives a date of 2007-04-03, but it also gives the publisher as Backinprint.com which you've given as the publication series. Based on the Look-Inside, I'm more inclined to believe in your original data: iUniverse is the publisher and Backinprint.com is the series. I would personally expand the series name to "Authors Guild Backinprint.com Edition". Thanks for checking. Mhhutchins 02:34, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

Yes, my book and the one in Amazon are from the same edition of 2007 (so April 3, according to Amazon). On the cover, on the title page and on Copyright page is: "An Authors Guild Backinprint.com Edition" and on the Copyright page also: "Published by iUniverse, Inc." Is it worth mentioning in Notes that it is a POD edition, or it is obvious? And another question: Should I always, in front of the text of synopis, give: "From the back cover", or it is also obvious, because other texts (not from publishers), are copyrighted and cannot be used? Astral 14:52, 17 August 2011 (UTC)
I've accepted your submission to add a date to the record. It would be a good idea to mention that the book is a POD. And yes, you should always note the source of the synopsis if you didn't write it. Mhhutchins 15:06, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

Entering non-English language publications

Until recently, all non-English language publications of originally published English language works were entered under the English language title record. Because of recent updates, we have begun tentatively to accept these non-English language translations under their own titles and then making these titles variants of the original. Unfortunately, the Help section hasn't been updated to indicate these changes.

I'm holding several submissions of these translated works because they've been entered under the English language title record, including Nowy potop (S. Fowler Wright's Deluge), Lilith, Ewa i... (John Erskine's Adam and Eve, Though He Knew Better) (two different submissions which appear to be duplicates), and Matka chrzestna Noc (Rachel Pollack's Godmother Night) I'm going to accept those submissions, but I'll have to unmerge them from the title you've entered them under, and set them up as variant titles. I will need to know the language each of them have been translated into in order to set up the new title records. Thanks. Mhhutchins 02:45, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

I've determined that the language is Polish, so I've accepted the submissions, unmerged them from the English title records, changed the language of the new title records to Polish and then made them variants of the English title records. Thanks. Mhhutchins 08:10, 17 August 2011 (UTC)
Now it looks wonderful - to see these translations treated exactly as they should be treated. Fine decision. I can also entry Czech, French, German books (they are but a small part of my collection). I have also many Russian books... Astral 15:07, 17 August 2011 (UTC)
Before you start entering the non-English language books, there are a few more submissions of yours that I'm holding in the queue, some of which deal with issues specific to the entry of non-English language publications. Once we've cleared the queue, you can start entering those submissions. Thanks. Mhhutchins 15:10, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

Answering a question posed in a note to the moderator

You asked "Cover art by four people - should they all be listed? Often by two - art and design - are the two equally important for ISFDB? By the way, what is Storylen?"

  1. We usually only credit the artist in the Artist1 field. If there are two artists which have collaborated on the same piece of art then click the "Add Artist" button to reveal an additional field (Artist2) and record the second artist's name. If there is no artist credited because the jacket is more design than artwork, record the jacket designer's name in the Artist1 field. If both artist and designer are credited, credit the artist in the Artist1 field and the designer in the Note field.
  2. Storylen field is a designation in the title record of SHORTFICTION which gives the length (in words, approximately) of the story: novella (more than 17500 words, enter as "nv"), novelette (more than 7500 and less than 17500 words, enter as "nt"), and short story (less than 7500 words, enter as "ss"). You have the option of adding these lengths also whenever you create contents in some publication records (like collections and anthologies). Explained in detail on this help page (which I've linked to several times in previous messages.)

Mhhutchins 05:07, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. Astral 15:08, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

Another question asked in the note to the moderator

You asked: "Should short author bios (from half to two pages) be included into Content? (they are often uncredited)". It's up to the individual editor. If you find it to be substantial in either quality or length, please enter it and give the author as "uncredited" in the author field.

It would be better to ask these questions on the Help Desk page. The "Note to the Moderator" field is for the editor to give additional information about the submission that will help the moderator in determining whether the submission should be accepted. It should not be used to ask questions or to add information about the publication itself. Thanks. Mhhutchins 08:17, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

Kraina Dymów

Hi. I have your proposed edit to Kraina Dymów on hold. Would you please explain the note "published under the author's legal name, Frederick Faust"? I see you left the author credit as Max Brand, so I am not sure if you mean that credit is a mistake or if you mean that credit is accurate but a copyright or other citation in the book uses Frederick Faust. I found this reference, which makes me think the author credit should be Frederick Faust, not Max Brand. If that is true, what we would do is change the credit on this publication (and its title) to Frederick Faust, then make Frederick Faust a pseudonym of Max Brand (even though Max Brand is actually the pseudonym, we use the most common/familiar name as the main entry and treat all other names as pseudoynms of that), and make a variant title credited to Max Brand. I am happy to do those things if you confirm the credit should be Frederick Faust, or you are welcome to try to do them on your own. Thanks. --MartyD 10:54, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

The book is published as by Frederick Faust. And I think it is a very rare case - I guess that only his collections of poetry were published under the Faust byline. I proposed the most obvious corrections. The rest is too difficult to me as yet, I am afraid. Astral 15:32, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

That's ok, you're doing fine. I will make the author credit change and set up the pseudonym and variant. Thanks. --MartyD 00:35, 18 August 2011 (UTC)
I see you did the publication edit. Just so you know, the title shown in the lower, Contents, section is a view of the same database record you get to by clicking on the title when you view the publication or the author's bibliography. If you can change the information about the title in that section when you edit the publication, you do not need to go edit the title separately, too -- you have just edited it. If the title were shared by more than one publication, it would be gray in the Contents section, and you would not be able to edit it there; you would have to go to it and edit it separately. Does that make sense? It can be a little confusing until you get used to it. --MartyD 00:43, 18 August 2011 (UTC)
Thank you very much for the explanations. If I get it right, I might have credited this way "Frederick Faust" instead of Max Brand. Astral 09:52, 18 August 2011 (UTC)

The Haunting of Suzanna Blackwell by Setlowe

I'm working on the submission adding a book club edition of this title, but I'm having a hard time finding any evidence that this was an offering of the Science Fiction Book Club. Neither the Locus Database nor the rec.arts.sf.written lists provided by SFBC editor Andrew Wheeler shows that this title was a selection. I believe your copy was printed by Doubleday for its other books clubs, perhaps the Literary Guild, or the Doubleday Book Club, most likely both. I'm going to accept the submission, but change the publisher from "SFBC/Holt, Rinehart, & Winston" to "Holt, Rinehart, & Winston / BCE". This is the ISFDB standard for entering book club editions from Doubleday that weren't offered to SFBC members. Note that the BCE designation comes after the publisher (just as SFBC would have if it were a SFBC selection). I'm deleting the publication series that you gave and moving the number up to the catalog field, prefixing it with a number sign (#), also ISFDB standards for entering SFBC and BCE editions. Thanks. Here's a link to the record. Mhhutchins 17:39, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

BTW, can you check to see if there is a gutter code in your copy of the book? It should be a letter and two-digit code that is printed in the gutter or bottom of the last or near to the last page of text. It can help us determine the print date of the book. Thanks for checking. Mhhutchins 17:43, 17 August 2011 (UTC)
You are absolutely right, it is the BCE, and not SFBC (blush). Hm, I found sth like that and it looks like three digits: "018" (not "O"). Is this of any help? Astral 21:26, 17 August 2011 (UTC)
Yes, it's the letter O and the number 18, meaning the book was printed in May, 1984. (Add colons (:) before the responses, not tildes (~). Thanks.) Mhhutchins 22:32, 17 August 2011 (UTC)
Like these? No problem. And I've got another edition of this book, a pb. Astral 00:28, 18 August 2011 (UTC)
You got it right. Mhhutchins 00:31, 18 August 2011 (UTC)

The Gap in the Curtain

You added a synopsis to this title record that mentions a 1962 edition. Tuck doesn't reference such an edition, so I'm assuming you're working from it and will be adding it to the database. Thanks. Mhhutchins 17:46, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

You are right. H&S mentions also "seventh impression March 1942" (of 1932 edition) and a "new edition 1951"... I don't know if it was hc or not. Perhaps pb? Astral 21:33, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

Submissions

All but one of your submissions have been accepted. (It involves a recent change in the way we handle translated works.) Please go back and do a primary verification of the publication records that you added to the db. Once that's done you can proceed to make new submissions. Thanks for contributing. Mhhutchins 00:41, 18 August 2011 (UTC)

Between Worlds

A basic tenet of ISFDB entry is to record titles exactly as stated on the work's title page (with rare exceptions and usually just to disambiguate duplicate titles for different works). The same applies to contents within a larger work. I accepted the submission adding the introduction to this publication but want to make sure that it's exactly titled "Editor's Introduction (2009) - Spoilers Ahoy!" on its title page. Thanks for checking. Also, you should let moderators know in the "Note to Moderator" field that you're working with the pub in hand, so that we know that our acceptance of your submission is based on the actual book. After acceptance, we ask that you do a primary verification of the record. Thanks for contributing. Mhhutchins 02:27, 13 October 2011 (UTC)

Yes, this is the exact title of the introduction. AstralAstral 13:14, 14 October 2011 (UTC)

Poe's Eureka

I have the submission to remove the subtitle from the title of this book. I'm assuming you have a copy of the book and can verify that the subtitle does not appear on the book's title page. Please do a primary verification of the record after I've accepted the submission. Thanks. Mhhutchins 02:29, 13 October 2011 (UTC)

"Can it still be a chapterbook if this edition has almost 200 pages? Without all the additional materials it is a chapterbook - or does the rest make a change? Astral 13:31, 14 October 2011 (UTC)" I am very sorry. I sent the above question in "Miasto Śpiewającego Płomienia" by CAS section...

Clark Ashton Smith's Miasto Śpiewającego Płomienia

I'm holding a submission that wants the change the author credit of the last essay in this book from Clark Ashton Smith to Iwona Żółtowska. I just need to make sure that this was your intention and that the credited author of "Posłowie (Miasto Śpiewającego Płomienia)" is Iwona Żółtowska. Thanks. Mhhutchins 02:51, 13 October 2011 (UTC)

Yes, Iwona Żółtowska is the credited author of the Afterword. [Astral]Astral 13:18, 14 October 2011 (UTC)
Can it still be a chapterbook if this edition has almost 200 pages? Without all the additional materials it is a chapterbook - or does the rest make a change? Astral 13:31, 14 October 2011 (UTC)
It's a collection, not a chapterbook. Even if it contained less than 100 pages, because it has more than one piece of shortfiction by the same author, it's typed as a collection. Mhhutchins 13:42, 14 October 2011 (UTC)

The Sacred Fount by Henry James [2]

Do you have a copy of the book which is recorded in this record? This appears to be a record for the second printing, and all notes should be in regard to this specific printing. Your submission added these notes: 

 The covers of the first and second printings differ slightly in color and series logo (first printing has "A Revived
Modern Classic" in full on the cover whereas the second has only "ND Classic" logo in white letters on black") and I
think that my copy could be printed later than 1995. Nevertheless, both printings are still available as first-hand copies.

These notes may not be applicable to this specific record. If your book doesn't match this record in all specifics you should create a new record (by cloning this one) and changing all fields so that they match your copy of the book. If it's not dated, as the note seems to imply, record the date field as "0000-00-00" (which means undated). Also, the note that "my copy could be printed later than 1995. Nevertheless, both printings are still available as first-hand copies" should not become part of either record. Such information can be provided in a bibliographic comments page which you can create by clicking on "Add new Publication comment" link at the bottom of the record. Thanks. Mhhutchins 03:04, 13 October 2011 (UTC)

Note to Moderator field

You recently made several submissions that only had a message in the "Note to Moderator" field that you had a copy of the book. This note does not become a permanent part of the record, it's only to a message to the moderator to help him in the decision to accept or reject the submission that either adds a new record or updates a current record. It is better that you do a primary verification of the record. On the pub record's page, click on the link under editing tools labeled "Verify This Pub". On the next page, click on the middle bullet on the line labeled "Primary", then submit the data. This procedure is not moderated. You have indicated on the record that it has been primary verified, meaning all of the data in the field match your copy of the book. For more information read this help page. Mhhutchins 13:49, 14 October 2011 (UTC)

Erskine's Uncle Sam

I have the submission to change the title of this book from Uncle Sam in the Eyes of His Family to Uncle Sam: In the Eyes of His Family. In effect, creating a subtitle. Is this obviously a subtitle as it appears on the book's title page? Is the colon actually printed there or is there a change in print size between the first part and the latter part? Thanks for checking. Mhhutchins 15:54, 14 October 2011 (UTC)

"UNCLE SAM" (in bold print) / "In the Eyes of His Family" (second line, italics, smaller print).
No, there is no colon. The colon is visualized only in the title listed on the neighboring page ("Books by...")... {Reginald1 - they decided there is no subtitle here] Hm... In WOrldcat two variants, with colon and without... Astral 16:56, 14 October 2011 (UTC)
A colon doesn't have to be stated in order to use it in the title of an ISFDB record. It can be used to visualize the break between the main title and the subtitle. Your description of the title page makes it look like a colon is needed. I'll accept the submission. Please do a primary verification when you get a chance. Thanks. Mhhutchins 19:45, 14 October 2011 (UTC)

Dates on the ISFDB

All dating on the ISFDB, in publication records' date fields and in author birth and death fields, must be the format of YYYY-MM-DD, and all in numbers. I accepted the submission updating this author's data so that you can see the result if the given date is not in the proper format. (In this case you entered the dates as DD Month YYYY, e.g. "24 January 1885".) Please update this author when you get a chance. Thanks. Mhhutchins 04:37, 15 October 2011 (UTC)

Titles on the ISFDB

We may have discussed this before, but I may need to reiterate the point. In a note to the moderator on one submission that changed the title of a pub, you noted "Exact title given on back cover". We don't use titles on covers, either front or back. All titles must be taken from the book's title page. Is that the case of this title? Mhhutchins 04:43, 15 October 2011 (UTC)

Evelyn E. Smith Resurrected: Selected Stories of Evelyn E. Smith

This submission updating this pub was accepted but I'm not sure what was meant by the characters added to the ISBN/Catalog No. field: "978-1-935774-41-9 / RPSF-110" This field can only have one or the other, not both, otherwise the software can't parse the ISBN. If "RPSF-110" is a catalog number, you should record that in the pub's "Note" field. Another question: does the title of the story on page 245 end in an ellipsis, as the note implies, but not in the title record that was added to the contents? Mhhutchins 04:50, 15 October 2011 (UTC)

Harl Vincent's The Doomsday Planet

Another submission gave both ISBN-13 and ISBN-10 in the ISBN/Catalog No. field for this publication. (Look at the record and you can see that the software wasn't able to determine if it's an ISBN, because it had too many numbers, so it may the number into one big catalog number.) The software will automatically display both ISBNs if you enter one or the other. You should only give the number which is stated in the book. If the source of your data is Amazon, which always gives both, you should find another source to determine which one is actually stated in the book. If you can't find another source, a rough guide is this: almost no books before 2005 had the ISBN-13, (most US books before 2007 only had ISBN-10 while other countries started the use of ISBN-13 earlier), almost all books since 2007 print the ISBN-13, and during the transition printed both. So a 2003 book from a US publisher almost certainly only had the ISBN-10. OCLC records give both ISBNs, with the actual printed one given first in their records. You will need to update the ISBN in this publication. Thanks. Mhhutchins 05:00, 15 October 2011 (UTC)

Submissions on hold

I'm holding five other submissions until we can first straighten out the ones with issues that I've pointed out above. Once we've cleared those issues, I will address these other five submissions. Please do not make any further submissions to add new records or update existing ones until these have been worked. Your cooperation is appreciated (and so are your contributions!) Thanks. Mhhutchins 05:07, 15 October 2011 (UTC)

Out of the Silence

Added the price [from Tuck] and a couple of links to library records [NA and OCLC] to [this]. --~ Bill, Bluesman 04:10, 9 November 2011 (UTC)

Entering imprints and publisher info

When entering both imprint and publisher info in the publisher field, you should separate the two with a space, a slash, and a space (" / "). So I changed the publisher given in this record from "Signet/New American Library" to "Signet / New American Library". Thanks. Mhhutchins 22:55, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

Sourcing data

Please provide the source for the data when updating records or adding new pub records. If you have the book, then do a primary verification after it has been accepted into the database. Thanks. Mhhutchins 23:42, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

Consider Her Ways

A couple of corrections were made to the submission that updated this record. We only disambiguate generic titles so the parenthetical appendage to "Frederick Philip Grove: A Short Biography" was removed. And the type for "A Note on Bakka" was changed from NONFICTION to ESSAY. The first type is reserved for book-length work, why the latter type is for shorter nonfiction pieces that appear as part of a larger work. Thanks. Mhhutchins 17:02, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

Pym

Is Random House credited as the publisher on the title page of this book? If only Spiegel & Grau is given, it's best to leave it at that without adding the publisher, even if it's only the imprint. In some cases we give both, but otherwise it's best to leave it to what is stated on the title page. Thanks. Mhhutchins 17:11, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

It's been a couple of days, so I went ahead and accepted the submission, but removed Random House from the publisher credit. The Amazon "Look-Inside" credits only Spiegel & Grau on the title page. Mhhutchins 07:01, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

Mama Day

Submission adding a new publication of this title was accepted, but some changes were made for it to conform to ISFDB standards: the format was changed from "tpb" to "tp", the page count was changed from "[8], 312" to "[8]+312", and the publisher was changed from "Vintage" to "Vintage [UK]" to differentiate it from the US publisher. Mhhutchins 20:32, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, my mistake. It should be "Vintage (UK)" to align with other records for this same publisher. I've corrected the record. Mhhutchins 21:17, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

The People of the Dark

It looks like there's already a record in the database of your copy. Please look at it and if it matches, cancel your submission to update the other record, and update this one. Thanks. Mhhutchins 14:51, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, how can I cancel the submission as I can't see it? You did not approve it, I don't see it. The enry seems the same as before... (15:58, 18 February 2012 (UTC)~) Astral

Sorry for the mess, again (16:01, 18 February 2012 (UTC))
On the left side of any Bibliographic page under the section 'Logged In As' is a link for 'My Pending Edits'. if you click on that it will show all of your edits that are in the queue and gives you the option of canceling any or all of them. Cheers! --~ Bill, Bluesman 00:11, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

Screenplay

Thanks for submitting Screenplay! The submission has been approved, but I also made a couple of changes.

You indicated that this book appeared as by "MacDonald Harris" and I confirmed it by checking other online sources. When we enter new data, we generally enter the author and the title the way they appear on the title page, so I changed the author attribution to "MacDonald Harris". I then turned the newly created title record into a "variant title" under "Donald William Heiney". There is a Help page under Help:Screen:MakeVariant if you would like to review the process for doing this.

Also, I removed the following blurbs from the Synopsis field since blurbs generally do not belong in this field:

  • "Through the looking-glass to the Wonderland of early film-making, in an erotic witty cruise among the layers of art and reality." Oakley Hall
  • "Delicate and powerfully haunting, this Orpheus and Euridice story is set in the wonderworld of silver, ebony, and silence, guarded not by a looking-glass but by the movie screen. Harris brilliantly re-romances cinema romance in a glaringly lit dystopia, a Shangri-la of Shangri-las, where censored sexuality returns with all the urgency of the repressed." John Hollander.

Thanks for editing! Ahasuerus 05:28, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

My Lives and How I Lost Them

A couple of changes to My Lives and How I Lost Them:

  • Added the interior art by Nubia Owens as an INTERIORART record so that it would appear on her Summary page
  • Removed the second occurrence of the NOVEL record for "My Lives and How I Lost Them"
  • Removed a reference to Dorothy S. Strickland's introduction from the Notes field now that it has a separate record

Don't worry about these changes, it's all part of the learning curve. You are doing great; thanks for editing! Ahasuerus 06:31, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

Authorship of Herma

Hi. In your submission of the 2nd printing of Herma, you have supplied "Donald William Heiney [only as by MacDonald Harris]" as the author name. This should be only a name (that whole string will be taken as a full name). I will correct it, but in your book, which is the author credit on the title page, MacDonald Harris or Donald William Heiney? Thanks. --MartyD 12:10, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

I ended up assuming this is credited to MacDonald Harris and fixed up the entry accordingly. If there's any problem with that, let me know. Thanks. --MartyD 23:12, 4 March 2012 (UTC)

"The Sisterhood", by Florence Stevenson

I added a cover image to your verified edition of this book. Chavey 16:22, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

Notes about secondary sources

Hi. I accepted your changes to Amazing Stories of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and have a comment for you: If you update an entry that cites a secondary source (Amazon, Tuck, Locus1, etc) as the source of the data, and your data comes from the book itself, you should remove or fix up the reference to the secondary source. If everything in the entry is something you see in the book, then remove the reference to the secondary source completely. If something remains that came from the secondary source (for example, sometimes books give no publication date, while Locus1 does), adjust the note to reflect which piece(s) of information came from that source (for example "Data from Amazon ..." -> "No price on book; price from Amazon ..."). --MartyD 12:37, 12 January 2013 (UTC)

p.s. If you're back and actively doing things, remove the note at the top of this page (and welcome back). --MartyD 12:37, 12 January 2013 (UTC)

After the Golden Age

I have your change to After the Golden Age on hold. When modifying a publication that has been primary verified, you need to notify the verifier. Especially in a case like this where there is disagreement between what the primary verifier added (Publisher = Tor Fantasy) and your notes (Title page = Tor). Please coordinate with Dcarson to resolve the discrepancy. Thanks. -- JLaTondre (talk) 13:04, 12 January 2013 (UTC)

As it's been over a week without a response, I've gone ahead a rejected your proposed edit. Feel free to contact Dcarson to resolve the discrepancy and resubmit. -- JLaTondre (talk) 00:14, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

Disambiguating generic titles

I corrected the titles of the two generically-titled contents records in this record to follow the ISFDB standard of disambiguating such titles by adding the title of the work parenthetically to them. Thanks. Mhhutchins 19:41, 13 January 2013 (UTC)

I added the Canadian price to your verified

I added the Canadian price to your verified [1].Don Erikson 00:22, 17 December 2013 (UTC)

The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia

Re your 1985 Penguin Classics P358934:
I imported the now-known 1976 Introduction that is identified as content in your Pub Note. --Pwendt|talk 19:35, 29 July 2019 (EDT)

World Set Free

Finally got round to replacing the Amazon cover of this with one scanned from my own copy. --Mavmaramis 08:23, 14 November 2020 (EST)

Kraina Dymów

Addded cover scan to Kraina Dymów. MOHearn 12:44, 16 February 2021 (EST)

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