User talk:Shugal

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Welcome!

Hello, Shugal, 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:

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! MHHutchins 19:13, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

2nd printing of Dying of the Light

I have your submission which wants to date this printing of Dying of the Light to 1987-07-02 based upon the date supplied by Amazon. Unfortunately, Amazon's dating is tied solely to the ISBN, not the printing. The first Timescape printing of this title had the same ISBN and a July 1982 printing (date corroborated by a listing in Locus magazine). Pocket Books (publisher of the Timescape imprint) rarely dated their second printings, giving only the month of the first printing, and a number line indicating the printing. In this case, it is best to leave the pub record with the unknown date (0000-00-00) (per ISFDB policy). I will hold the submission for awhile in case you disagree with the above or have further evidence of the actual publication date. Thanks.
You noted that the record appears to be a duplicate when in fact the record you cite is probably the first Timescape printing. I've updated that record to include the cover artist. Again, thanks for contributing. MHHutchins 19:28, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing out the potential incorrectness of amazon.com dates - I'll no longer rely on them. I did not know that even the different print runs of the same book are to be entered - that's why I (still) think it's a duplicate of the initial Timescape entry, but I'll follow your rules, of course. :-) Shugal 19:40, 11 November 2009 (UTC)
Yes, we try to be as complete as possible (everyone with an OCD, raise your hand!) We record not only new editions, but new printings, because often cover art, price, catalog and/or ISBNs will change when reprinted. I'll reject the submission. Thanks. MHHutchins 20:53, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

Bantam Spectra edition of Windhaven

I changed the price of this printing to $6.99 based on the listings for the 2003 printing in Locus magazine. You can find these listings for the years 1984-2006 in this online index (the source we refer to as Locus1). Thanks. MHHutchins 19:40, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

I also changed the page count from Amazon's 416 to 400 based on the Locus listing and the OCLC record. Amazon's page count is invariably wrong. It's based on the publisher's pre-publication estimate. Thanks. MHHutchins 19:43, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

Help:Screen:NewPub

Thanks for correcting Help:Screen:NewPub. If a help page includes, say {{TitleFields:EntryType}} you can edit the relevant text by simply editing Template:TitleFields:EntryType. When you edit a wiki page, a list of links to templates included is shown below the edit window and summery window. The list may not appear if only one section is edited, but will appear if the whole page is edited. -DES Talk 21:33, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

Graphic novels and/or comics

I have your submission to add the graphic novel adaptation of George R. R. Martin's "Sandkings". Currently, it is ISFDB policy not to include graphic novels (see Rules of Acquisition). Exceptions have been made, including major influential works (Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns) and those written by major writers (e.g. Neil Gaiman). The work you were attempting to enter was adapted by someone other than Martin, so I can see no reason to bend the rules in this case. We're trying to avoid the slippery slope that would allow comic books and other graphic works into the database, as there are other databases that more effectively handle such work. Thanks. Mhhutchins 16:48, 20 August 2010 (UTC)

Windhaven

The question you posed in the "Note to Moderator" field of a submission to update this record would have better been asked on one of the community pages. If you need help in creating and changing publication records go to the ISFDB:Help desk. General questions about current records can be asked on the ISFDB:Community Portal. To get the attention of the moderators, post a message on the ISFDB:Moderator noticeboard.

Now about back to your question about Windhaven: Publications do not have a dedicated field to provide the language of the publication. That data is stored in its title record. If you click on the Title Reference link of any publication record, you go to the title record of the work. This record contains title-specific information while the publication record contains publication-specific information. Here is the title record for the French translation of Windhaven. You'll see that it is a variant title and linked to the parent title record of the original language. At one point English was the only language in the database. Now it is the default language. So you'll find many early records that don't specify the language. Those are fixed when they are found. The unusual situation with this work is that the title didn't change when it was translated so a user/editor has to make sure which record a publication has been placed. Although it isn't mandatory, it's good if an editor records the translator in the publication record. Even better if they record it as, for example, "Translated into French by John Smith". Nothing in the standards require the editor to do that, because non-English publications are relatively new to the database (less than five years). If you have any more questions about this specific title or this situation, please feel free to post them here. Thanks. Mhhutchins 17:42, 12 February 2014 (UTC)

Author credit order

Concerning your submission to re-arrange the author credit of this publication: The database software is not designed to recognize the order of author credit for publications which are co-authored. Each co-author is given equal credit, and the order as it appears in the publication record can't be changed once the record is in the database. I don't know the logic used by the software when displaying multi-author records, but it may be based on how the work was originally entered into the db, or maybe alphabetical (although I doubt the latter because I've seen records that aren't.) Unfortunately, the only way to record the order of the credit is in the "Note" field. When noting this, be sure to use the title page and not the front cover or dustjacket. Thanks. Mhhutchins 17:49, 12 February 2014 (UTC)

The Devil's Nebula

I changed the publisher to remove the parent company of the imprint from being named, because no other Abaddon books do so.--Vasha 15:13, 30 March 2017 (UTC)

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