User talk:JohnMarks

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Welcome!

Hello, JohnMarks, 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:

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! MHHutchins 05:18, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

Your recent set of submissions

Your submissions adding stories to the database are being held to determine if they qualify as ebooks. From the links you supplied, it appears that these are web-based publications, and have not actually been published as ebooks. Are they available for downloads from a publisher and have ISBNs been assigned to each story? Or have they been published on a webzine (downloadable or not) that is an SFWA-qualified publication? If not, they may not qualify for inclusion in the ISFDB. Awaiting your response. MHHutchins 13:47, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

The stories in question were all initially published on USENET. They have since been published on the author's web site, which is an archive of stories, and not a "webzine" in any real sense. Each story is an individually downloadable html file, with HTML markup being used only for things links a larger font for the title, and occasional italics or boldface -- each is a single, self-contained text file. I have copies of all the stories I have recorded in the ISFDB so far on the hard drive of my personal computer, and could retain those even if John Benson's site were to vanish completely tomorrow. They do not, however, have ISBNs applied, as they are not sold but are distributed free-of-charge by the author. A collection of Benson's stories has been published in paper, and sold, by CF Publications. I do not own that collection, but I can get the publisher's catalog listing. I doubt that CF is considered a "SFWA-qualified publication" -- only a minority of what they publish is SF, and they do not distribute via bookstores. They do, however, pay their authors and sell printed books, pamphlets, and downloadable ebooks. They have commissioned work by at least one fairly well-known SF writer (Sharon Green), I think -- or that may have been one of their competitors, I'll have to check.
What, exactly, are the requirements for listing? I understood from your policy page that individually downloadable stories or publications that are SF qualify, no matter who published them, and that self-published works, including ones published by LuLu, which may not have ISBNs assigned, were acceptable. Is an ISBN a requirement? JohnMarks 14:32, 21 July 2009 (UTC)
Here's a link that let's you know what publications qualify for ISFDB entry. Please give more information on the CF Publications, as they may qualify if they were printed for publication. ISBN is not a requirement, but it does help in determining a work's qualification. Usenet postings do not qualify, nor does most web-based publications. It this case, "downloadable" doesn't simply mean that someone can copy and paste the source page. Self-published qualifies only if it is a printed work, which is my interpretation of the Rules of Acquisition. MHHutchins 15:08, 21 July 2009 (UTC)
Reading the rules at that link literally, I'm not sure if these qualify. They don't have ISBNs. They aren't e-zines at all, because they aren't zines -- they are individual stories, with no grouping into "issues" or "books". They can be downloaded by simply displaying them and clicking "File | Save as"; no need for cutting and pasting, although that would work too. If that doesn't make them downloadable, what does? The site has been stable since 1997. In fact, they are in format very much like the individual stories at Project Gutenberg that you list, except that they are at an individual author's site, rather than a collective site such as PG. Indeed, It looks to me as if PG ebooks don't qualify: they don't have ISBNs, they aren't part of an Ezine with an ISSN, indeed they aren't part of an Ezine at all. Benson's site does, I think have "reliably stable contents", but your rules apply that phrase only to Ezines, not to Ebooks. Indeed it appears from your rules that Ebooks without ISBNs are not acceptable at all. But that doesn't seem to be how you act.
CF has been a mail-order publisher of erotic fiction since at least 1985. Their 2009 catalog runs 142 pages -- I have a copy as a Word document. I also have the 2006 and 2007 catalogs. They sell fiction in the form of stapled pamphlets (generally from $3 to $10), Comb-bound books of 8 1/2 by 11 inches (usually $15-18), and perfect bound paperbacks (generally $25). They issued one collection of John Benson's fiction containing 22 stories and selling for $15 in 2006, I am pretty sure it would have been comb-bound. They printed and sold, in 2006, several novels by Sharon Green in her "Diana Santee, Spaceways Agent" series, which had not been published by DAW, who published the first novels in that series. I think Green has since published these on her own website. I have submitted entries for the CF publications of these, based on the CF catalogs. CF's mailing address is "CF PUBLICATIONS / Box 706 /East Setauket, NY 11733" their email address is CFPUB AT IX.NETCOM.COM, their telephone number is 631 689 6743.
I wrote, and was paid for (at 1.5 cents per word), several stories by CF in the 1990s, but none of these were SF. These stories were under a different name.
Is this sufficient information? JohnMarks 15:40, 21 July 2009 (UTC)
I think you've provided enough background info that the CF publications of books and stories of Speculative Fiction is probably in. I recommend you begin slowly as the individually published short fiction software support here at the ISFDB is in flux right now. We recently upgraded the software to better allow us to document chapbook titles that are published in paper (Usually pamphlet ph for stapled publications) and electronically as ebooks ebook. Due to the upgrade, we are still feeling our way may not have upgraded all the help pages yet. Take some time, read through the help pages, as well as poking around our wiki a bit and then submit one or two to get your feet wet. Thanks! Kevin 15:49, 21 July 2009 (UTC)
On the topic of the Sharon Green Novels, it appears that CF Publications is a fetish ebook-reprint publisher. (They have a bibliography for free download of spankings in Heinlein's works... interesting reading). The Sharon Green books are listed here and I also found them for sale elsewhere but neither location had much detail about the format... but the books are definately published, in the .... hug them and squeeze them and call them 'George' variety of electronic editions. Kevin 15:43, 21 July 2009 (UTC)
CF's original business was the mail-order distribution of original erotic fetish fiction. A significant subset of this is Science fiction or Fantasy. More recently they have also published original ebooks, and reprinted many of the original fiction they had earlier published in printed form as ebooks. Aside from a few reprints of 1960s magazines, I don't think they do any "reprint" publishing. They at least advertised the Green novels as originals. Specifically they said, in their 2006 catalog, "Now CF is happy to announce that, by arrangement with Ms. Green, it is making available three never-published Diane Santee books as described below." JohnMarks 16:03, 21 July 2009 (UTC)
I will be rejecting those submissions for stories by John Benson based on the Rules of Acquisition. If you disagree with this decision please bring it to the attention of other moderators on the Rules and Standards page. Please feel free to add the Benson collection published by CF Publications. Can I assume that this is not the same author as this John Benson? If so, please add an appendix, preferably a year of birth to the author's name, i.e. "John Benson (1965-)". Thanks. MHHutchins 02:36, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

New Sharon Green Books

I accepted your submissions for the several Sharon Green works you submitted this morning. Please double check the two Tristesse titles. We document subtitles with a colon ":" not a comma ",", and I suspect that the Book 1 and Book 2 are going to be more properly documented as "Tristesse: Book 1" etc. Also feel free to rearrange these by adding proper series information etc. It appears from Sharon's website that there is some extensive series information we may be lacking. Thanks! Kevin 15:29, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

Thank you, I copied the titles of those directly from the CF catalog (word document). I couldn't see a way to add series info to books on initial entry. Is there a way to do this? If not it would be a help to add one.
I can copy the 2-5 line summaries of these books from the CF catalog, should I do so? JohnMarks 15:43, 21 July 2009 (UTC)
A title has to be entered into the database first, then after the submission of the title is accepted... you can edit the title (not the publication) to put the title into a series. (A title can have several publications, but all of them are part of the series, since they are the same work). As to the summaries, please do not copy copyrighted text intot he database or the wiki. That said, when you are entering the series information, you will also see a 'synopsis' data entry field for each title. Feel free to put in a short description of what the book covers. This can be as simple as rephrasing the provided synopsis from "The main character escapes from the gorgon captors, steals a shuttle pod, and continues her adventures" to "Heroine escapes and continues her adventures". Kevin 15:56, 21 July 2009 (UTC)
Next step. I approved the change in title for the title from Tristesse, Book 2 to Tristesse: Book 2. Take a look at the publication. It still has the old title. WHen you change a title it needs to be changed for the novel publication as well (When you first enter a Novel, you only enter the data once, but it gets used to create two different records). Don't worry, it get's easier and more automatic what needs to be changed where, and this is an easy thing to over look. Kevin 16:15, 21 July 2009 (UTC)
Thank you, I will do so. JohnMarks 16:17, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

Sex, Spells, and Spankings

I am approving your submission of Sex, Spells, and Spankings, but I am making one change that you can make yourself next time when you submit another similar book.

  • comb isn't one of our normal binding types. I would consider this a "lightly bound publication", and have changed the publication format to "ph" for Pamphlet. Please take some time and review Help:Screen:NewPub. It has all the normal entries for publication types on it. If you feel that we truly need to add comb as a binding/publication format, please bring it up on the Rules_and_standards_discussions page.

I am also going to recommend that you do go back and put 'Comb Binding' or something similar in the publication notes, and that you put a short note on the wiki page (That you can link to from the new authors page John Benson (Usenet Author)) briefly describing that his works were originally posted freely and distributed on Usenet in the past and have now been collected and distributed through other means. This will help explain the disambiguation text.

Lastly, one 'surprise' task you will get from me accepting this submission is the John Benson's author record will show Author) as his last name. I will let you take the task of also updating the new author record to show the correct last name of Benson. Also, If you can inquire perhaps and get a birth year of this particular John Benson, then we can also change him over to the better disambiguation method of entering him in the database like "John Benson (1968-)". Thanks for your efforts! Kevin 02:41, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

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