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Expanded archive listing

'Pending edit', submitted more than 3 months ago

. Good day Sir, Madam,

I submitted an entry on 2025-01-27, submission # 6154317, an anthology (WEIRD WINDSOR Anthology).

Two things were flagged: on the price, I put: 'Pay what you want.' (PDF or EPUB)

And was told:

More than one space character is not allowed in the price field

All right, we can put 'Free' for the price, instead.

But the second one is about the barcode on the paperbacks (15 paperback copies were printed for the collaborators.) It said that:

ISBN-10s that starts with 2 and ISBN-13s that start with 9782 are typically in French (although exceptions exist), but the submitted language of this publication's main title is English The copies were printed in the UK, so, yes, exceptions exist. The ISBN is 2370001956766.

 I can send you a clear photo of the cover and the ISBN if needed.

But maybe the ISBN section could be left blank, since there are no more printed copies sold, and now that the anthology is available online. Here’s the link, by the way:

https://payhip.com/WeirdWindsor

So, I would appreciate help concerning these two little editing issues: changing the price for: 'Free'; and either removing the yellow notification about the ISBN (which is correct, photo proof upon request) or removing the ISBN altogether since now the anthology is available in electronic format (PDF or EPUB).

Thank you very much, and wishing you, Sir, Madam, a wonderful day!

Cordially,

-Carl Lavoie —The preceding unsigned comment added by Jahrel (talk • contribs) 17:28, April 2, 2025‎

It sat so long because it required a great deal of work. Here is the verified ebook. If you need an explanation of the changes and additions, I will post on your talk page. 18:46, 2 April 2025 (EDT)

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?6214550; I made an edit that got a similar message about ISBN starting with 9782; Sarob is based in France as of a few years ago so that would explain it, right? --Username (talk) 19:52, 3 April 2025 (EDT)

The actual ebook had no ISBN. John Scifibones 20:39, 3 April 2025 (EDT)

untitled stories

I want to enter the book "Try and Stop me" by Bennett Cerf because it has a chapter called "The Trail of the Tingling Spine" which is a collection of stories that he said were told to him. most of them are ghost stories but none of them are titled. how should they be titled and disambiguated. i thought about something like "untitled [1]" etc with "The Trail of the Tingling Spine" as the series. is numbering them like that valid. Gaz Faustus (talk) 14:49, 3 April 2025 (EDT)

I tried to put a link in to the internet archive for these stories but it just showed up as ordinary text. Faustus (talk) 15:19, 3 April 2025 (EDT)

Here you go. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 17:49, 3 April 2025 (EDT)

cheers Faustus (talk) 13:16, 4 April 2025 (EDT)

There is a recent R&S discussion on this topic that has not yet been resolved. The direction in which that was heading is to use "untitled [n] (pub title)" for this case. It's an unfortunate amount of extra work, but if that scheme is used, I would encourage you to edit the title records once created and enter something in the notes to identify each story (like first line + last line or dramatis personae or whatever seems useful). --MartyD (talk) 13:14, 7 April 2025 (EDT)

righto mate i'll do it like that - I dont mind sorting it out if it neds to be changed. cheers - Gaz Faustus (talk) 13:30, 7 April 2025 (EDT)

Directory Entry transliteration

What, if any, effect does it have on the db if two authors with the same surname have their Directory entries transliterated differently? Some examples: Bäckström, Bergström, Engström, Myllylä, Nyström, Sjöberg, and one that's half-and-half Källström. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 18:53, 3 April 2025 (EDT)

The whole point of the transliterations is to make it easier to find an author (or title) because the search engine here treats accented/macroned letters (for example "ō" as opposed to "o") differently. Searching for "Engström" will not find "Engstrom" (and vice-versa). So, for accented characters, the non-accented version should be included as a transliteration, and any reasonable transliterations should be included (such as "Engstrom" and "Engstroem", in this case). I don't see any issues with any of the ones you linked. This also applies to Romanizations of non-Latin-based writing systems such as Japanese, Cyrillic, and so on. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:08, 3 April 2025 (EDT)

Directory Entry is a bit of a dealer's choice because we can only pick one - either value is correct when multiple transliterations are possible. I tend to prefer the "strip all special parts and use the straight letters" option except for German names where the standard is to have "e" added replacing the umlauts. But I do not change this one if another transliteration is chosen instead. So even if the directory name for the two Nyström is different, the search by name will find it for both spellings because they carry the transliterations (which is why I do not search by Directory name and only look at it when I look at the author directory where only the first 2 letters matter anyway. The DB (and anything else on the site) really does not care - this field is only used if you do specific search for it and for that table. Annie (talk) 19:18, 3 April 2025 (EDT)

Thanks for those quick answers, now I know there's nothing to see here :) Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 19:40, 3 April 2025 (EDT)

Adding a new German translation of an English Anthology

Hello, I am preparing to enter a German translation of an anthology. I already searched in the frequently asked questions, in help, but still have questions left and need the community. The title: A Dragon-Lover's Treasury of the Fantastic (Editor Margaret Weis): https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?513 There are about 20 stories to enter. At the end of each story the original English title is given and also the name of the translator. The date of the German publication: 1995-05-00 1) Date for the German translations: Is it 1995-05-00 or do I check if there is a German translation of a story already on the database and use this date? 2) Translators: How can I enter the name of the translator of a story? 3) Varianting: Do I variant each story separately? Is there a way to variant all the stories in one submission? Thank you! SciFanta (talk) 18:01, 9 April 2025 (EDT)

Hello! I hope the following does help a bit.

Ad 1): Please do check if there's the same German translation (using the exact same title) already in the database: for example for Stepsons of Terra there are two different German translations (both using the same title proper). If there does exist this exact title, there are two possible ways to proceed: a) enter the title (and merge with the existing one after the publication was moderated), or b) import the existing title (s) after the publication was moderated. The second way is preferable, because we won't have doublette titles at any given point in time.

Ad 2): The translator is to be added in editing the notes of a title when this does exist, like here. Please use the Template:Tr template.

Ad 3): The individual titles have to be varianted separately: every one has to be varianted to a different title. If you can rely on already existing titles it's possible to import them in one submission step, though [see b) under Ad 1)]. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 02:48, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

Thank you Christian, your information helps! As I found neither the German title "Drachen füttern verboten" nor the ISBN in the database I going to start the process Greetings! SciFanta (talk) 03:32, 10 April 2025 (EDT).

Great! Just be sure to also add the publication series. I also hope there are credits for the respective translators: this publisher sometimes (foremost in the 1980s and 1990s) was sloppy with regards to this point (and some others also). In those cases the only thing left was to add a note like to this title. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 04:18, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

Collections with different contents

Theres a collection with 12 stories. A later collection (different publisher) has the same title but only has 5 stories (they are all in the earlier one). Seperate titles or varianting? cheers - Gaz Faustus (talk) 13:28, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

Gaz, I've come across this before and asked the same question. My post received one reply expressing an opinion but no definitive answer.

The thread is here: Collections with Abridged or Expanded Contents.

As you can see from my examples, there does not appear to be a consistent policy for this situation.

This ought to be resolved. Teallach (talk) 14:14, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

cheers mate do you know if they can be varianted if they have the same title and author? I think I'll do the 5er as a seperate title with notes and see what the reviewer says. - Gaz Faustus (talk) 15:07, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

No, don't variant them. Variants are for same work with different title or author. I suggest you wait a bit to see if a moderator contributes to this thread. If not, go with your own proposal: "seperate title with notes". Teallach (talk) 18:29, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

In general terms, we treat collections like any other content type. If the differences are minor, we consider it the same work. If the differences are large, we consider it a new work. Same as with a story that has been edited, it becomes a judgement call when enough changes are enough to call it a new work. If it is just a single work difference, you will likely find the editions have been combined with a title note stating differences. If it is a larger difference, you will likely find the editions are separate with title notes on both stating the differences and not to merge. In this case, I would treat as different since it's such a large difference. They would be treated as separate works so not varianted to each other. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:05, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

cheers i'll do that - Gaz Faustus (talk) 09:29, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

JLaTondre: Thanks for the clarification. Now that I know it's a judgement call, all is fine. I can work with that. Teallach (talk) 18:31, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?36238

this one sprang to mind that i pved a bit back. the Sphere edition is missing 4 stories, 4 poems and the afterword that are in the american books so not a minor difference but it wouldnt seem right to unvariant them. (anthology not a collection but similar problem) Gaz Faustus (talk) 19:15, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

For that one, I would definitely split it into its own title, after verifying that the contents really aren't there in the American release. That's too much of a difference. They basically left out around 50 or so pages of content. That's too much of a difference to be a variant. Notes should be placed on both titles, though, pointing to the other and saying they shouldn't be merged. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:16, 14 April 2025 (EDT)

well i owned both books when i wrote that note, its the american one thats got the extra stuff which is why i bought it and then offloaded the uk version to the British Heart Foundation. Willem H and stonecreek are pvs for the 2 versions so you should give them a shout for extra confirmation. I'll let you sort it out as i'm happy the way it is. - Gaz Faustus (talk) 17:07, 14 April 2025 (EDT)

They've been split now: Best SF: 1973 and The Year's Best Science Fiction No. 7. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 17:48, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

still needs to be varianted to the canonical author and put it in the series (No.7) - Gaz Faustus (talk) 19:52, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

Done. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 20:01, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

they show up nicely together when theyre in a numbered series like this one but if they're not in a series and have different names they could end up at opposite ends of a list of anthologies or collections and you wouldnt know theyre related just from the list. is threr any way of grouping them other than varianting or series so they show up together? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 20:22, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

Not really. They each have links to the other, so that should be good enough. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 21:00, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

Bulgakov's name

In all the editions of Cuore di cane published by De Donato (one already in the db, one just submitted) the author name is spelled Michaíl (accented "í"), but when I submitted the new book, or tried to correct the one already present, the system replaced it with a normal "i". Can somebody fix it? thanks! --Fantagufo (talk) 18:45, 15 April 2025 (EDT)

Fixed. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 17:51, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

thanks Joe! --Fantagufo (talk) 22:17, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

Tonelli's name

The artist Etonelli (Elio Tonelli) is not actually credited with this name in the two publications he has in the DB. He is identified only by his signature, which is sometimes clearly "E.Tonelli", sometimes "ETonelli". I think that the canonical name should be changed to "E. Tonelli" or "Elio Tonelli". What do you think? --Fantagufo (talk) 16:08, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

When there is no explicit credit, we generally credit using their canonical name since signatures can vary wildly (initials, abbreviated, symbols, etc.). ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 17:49, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

I know and agree. What I'm saying is that there is no reason to have a misleading "Etonelli" as canonical name, just because it was never explicitly credited. --Fantagufo (talk) 22:08, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

Updated. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:58, 17 April 2025 (EDT)

Author: Kate Moretti

Kate Moretti is the author of the short story "Blink" in the first Brave New Girls anthology. However, in Kate's author page, her surname is misspelled as Maretti. I have an e-book copy of the anthology, and the correct spelling their is MORETTI. Her biographical note their also confirms she is the same Kate Moretti that is listed at Amazon.

I don't have permission to change the spelling of her name on her author page. Would someone please help. Thanks! Michael Main 14:50, 22 April 2025 (EDT)

The way you can fix this is to go to the "Blink" title page and edit the title there, changing the author to "Kate Moretti". That will create a new author page for that name, and the old one will be deleted (automatically, I think, although perhaps we'll have to go do that manually -- I forget). This specific case is simple because it is used in only two versions of one publication, and we can easily confirm that the correct spelling is present in the sources for each. And the author page itself does not have any info we want to preserve, so making a new page and deleting the old one is fine. --MartyD (talk) 17:15, 22 April 2025 (EDT)

That's right, "orphaned" author records are deleted automatically. Ahasuerus (talk) 17:30, 22 April 2025 (EDT)

Many thanks for the instructions. I have submitted the change from Maretti to Moretti in the story's title page. Thanks again. --Michael Main 20:27, 22 April 2025 (EDT)

reading this, I understand that I could have done the same for H. J. Edouard Evenpoel, but in the meanwhile I had already submitted an AuthorUpdate request... should I cancel it? --Fantagufo (talk) 19:40, 23 April 2025 (EDT)

Nope. All fixed. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 21:38, 23 April 2025 (EDT)

Thank you!! --Fantagufo (talk) 14:53, 24 April 2025 (EDT)

Organizing more Murderbot Diaries Collections

Hello! I am re-reviving this 2022 discussion about organizing collections of the Murderbot Diaries series. To recap: The Murderbot Diaries as of 2025 contains roughly nine "main" titles: five novellas (1, 2, 3, 4, 6); two short stories (0, 4.1); and two novels (5, 7). Because the series is mostly short fiction, international publishers translating the series often choose to publish the novellas and short stories collected together in various combinations. Last time, we decided to make organizing easier by moving the Murderbot collections into the sub-series Murderbot Collections and variant the collections to dummy parent titles depending on their short fiction contents: The Murderbot Diaries 1-2 (1-2), The Murderbot Diaries 3-4 (3-4), and The Murderbot Diaries (1, 2, 3, 4). Now another collection title needs figuring out.

In 2024 the translated Chinese collection title 厭世機器人Ⅳ：系統崩潰風險評估 was published containing 6-7 (Fugitive Telemetry & System Collapse), which are respectively a novella and a novel. In 2025 Tor has published a new English collection, title The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 3, also containing 6-7. For extra confusion, the Chinese title has Roman numeral 4 in its name and the English title has number 3 in its name, but both books have the same contents. For MAXIMUM confusion, Tor published this English collection in a new group of 3 paperback collections (contents in parentheses), with the names The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 1 (1-2), The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 2 (3-4), and The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 3 (6-7)--omitting a novel (5 / Network Effect) in the middle of the series. This is already proving confusing to new readers picking up the new paperback Murderbot books for the first time while not realizing that they're accidentally skipping an entire novel. I don't want to increase potential confusion by organizing the new 6-7 collections weirdly or against ISFDB policy.

So my questions about these books containing Murderbot 6-7 / Fugitive Telemetry & System Collapse: Since the title contains a novel and a novella, should it be a collection or an omnibus? Should 厭世機器人Ⅳ：系統崩潰風險評估 be the parent title because it was published first, or should The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 3 be the parent title because it was the first English publication? Or should both books be variants of a dummy parent title like The Murderbot Diaries 1-2 and The Murderbot Diaries 3-4? If we opt for a dummy parent title, what should the dummy title(s) be named or re-named to indicate the book contents while avoiding being confused with Tor's The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 1-3 & beyond? Thanks. Morebooks (talk) 23:28, 29 April 2025 (EDT)

Clarification?

After posting a comment here Orbit 1, I realized I found the statement in the 3rd bullet slightly confusing; Do not use brackets for unnumbered pages which fall within a range of numbered pages. (See the first bullet under this subsection.), leaving me wondering whether the page should be [7] or 7. Clarification please? Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 15:50, 1 May 2025 (EDT)

It would be helpful if I could see the publication in question Orbit 1 before supplying advice. At the beginning of the Orbit 1 thread on Markwood's talk page, Username advised that he has added an archived link. However, this link is not yet on the pub record so I guess his edit is still awaiting processing. I will ask him for the archived link and then get back to you here. Teallach (talk) 08:41, 2 May 2025 (EDT)

Thanks for picking up on this. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 10:33, 2 May 2025 (EDT)

The edit has been approved, so the archived link is now on that page. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:14, 2 May 2025 (EDT)

Nihonjoe: Thanks.

Kev: The Internet Archive copy has "Borrow Unavailable" status so is of limited use. The ToC is visible on the IA scan and it does list the Introduction on page vii. Markwood's first sentence in this thread is "No page has a Roman numeral page number.". This situation has been discussed before: Numbering of pages numbered in the ToC but not numbered themselves. The discussion is extremely long and petered out with no consensus reached by the community. As things currently stand, there is no clear rule on how to deal with the situation where no Roman numerals page numbers are explicitly printed on the pages themselves but the ToC references a Roman numeral page number. Currently, it is just left to the discretion of individual editors. So, as Markwood is the first PV, it's his call as to how the Pages and Contents Start Page fields are specified. So, from the information I can see, the pub record is acceptable as it currently stands. I would strongly recommend adding a pub note along these lines: "Although no Roman Numerals are printed on any pages, the Table of Contents page lists the Introduction beginning on page vii". Teallach (talk) 19:07, 2 May 2025 (EDT)

I second this advice, even though this situation was never settled. The "Don't use the ToC" rule/guidance is mostly because the ToC's numbering may be incorrect (e.g., typos aside, a ToC reprinted from an edition with different pagination) or may not line up with the ISFDB's rules for which page is the beginning of the content. Here, you have: no number printed on the page, a number in the ToC, and a number in the ToC consistent with the page count and quantitatively consistent with the first numbered page (it is the fourth page before the one numbered "11"). So I would treat it as numbered and "vii" and enter it that way. In other words, I agree with the choices made in the current record. This is my personal opinion, and other moderators may disagree. I think a strict constructionist interpretation of the current rules, however, supports using "7". The actual numbering situation should be documented in the notes, though, regardless of which number is assigned. The page count "192" is unaffected since the vii/7 falls within the set of pages spanned by counting backward from numbered p. 11. --MartyD (talk) 08:23, 3 May 2025 (EDT)

As for your original request for clarification, this situation falls under the first bullet, not the third. Because there is a numbered page 11, the preceding ten pages fall within a range of numbered pages (this is where a strict interpretation would yield "7"). If that eleventh page had been numbered "1", however, then the first ten pages would be a range of unnumbered pages, and the third bullet would apply (and you would use "[7]" and also add [10]+ or [7]+ to the page count). --MartyD (talk) 08:35, 3 May 2025 (EDT)

Thanks to you both for your clarification - I've amended my post on Markwood's page. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 01:04, 7 May 2025 (EDT)

Adding the Graphic Novel Hardcover Edition of Snowpiercer as a novel or collection or an omnibus

Hello, I’m asking for advice how to enter a hardcover edition of the graphic novel series Snowpiercer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowpiercer_(graphic_novel_series). The publisher Egmont Comic Collection (www.egmont-comic-collection.de ) published the series in this German translation in two volumes: Snowpiercer: Snowpiercer (01) (2021) (ISBN 9783770401239, 280 pages), which includes the volumes 1 The Escape, 2 The Explorers, 3 The Crossing of the series. Snowpiercer: Terminus (02) (2022) (978-3-7704-0190-1, 232 pages) is the second book and includes volume 4 Terminus of the series. Thank you (SciFanta (talk) 17:31, 9 May 2025 (EDT))

Graphic novels and comics are outside the scope of ISFDB and not eligible for inclusion (see Exclusions under Contents/Project Scope Policy). The only exception would be for prominent genre authors. That exception would not seem to apply here as based on Lob's Wikipedia article, he seems to be a notable comic creator and not a written speculative fiction author (as how ISFDB defines it). The ISFDB made the decision to exclude comics and graphic novels as there are other sites that deal with those and there is more then enough written speculative fiction to keep us busy. -- JLaTondre (talk) 18:01, 9 May 2025 (EDT)

Thank you for your clarification. Actually, I got interested in this pub, as I have just seen the science fiction film Snowpiercer, directed by Bong Joon (he also directed Mickey 17, 2025). Learning, that the film is based on this pub, I borrowed it from my library and finally decided to ask about a submission. Thanks again! (SciFanta (talk) 18:05, 12 May 2025 (EDT))

Dashes in titles

Got a story which has a short dash on here but a long dash in the book itself. The long dash title is on here as a variant but with alternate author name so would need to make a new variant if it needs to be changed. thought i'd check before firing off to the umpteen pvers. cheers - Gaz Faustus (talk) 17:37, 13 May 2025 (EDT)

unnumbered pages before page 1 (chorus of groans)

sorry but i'd like a bit of clarification on the unnumbered content 1st bullet point. My book has a total of ten unnmubered pages before page 1 with the recordable content starting on the fifth of these so i take it as [10]+whatever and the page number for the content [5]. the book has been pved and theyve put [6]+ in the pages field and the content on [1]. that's not right is it? its a bit ambiguous cos it says "There is no need to record these unnumbered pages if they contain no content that needs to be recorded." - Gaz Faustus (talk) 18:08, 13 May 2025 (EDT)

Can you please provide a link to the publication. Teallach (talk) 13:29, 17 May 2025 (EDT)

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?694490

it looks like Markwood has intepreted the rule to include only the unnumbered pages as far back as the 1st recordable content - Gaz Faustus (talk) 13:50, 17 May 2025 (EDT)

You are correct. The Pages field of Voices should be [10]+364 and the three Content items before page 1 should have Start Pages of [5] and [7] and [9]. I agree that the Help wording is ambiguous. What the first bullet point under Unnumbered Content should say is something like:

"... There is no need to record these unnumbered pages if they contain no content that needs to be recorded but if they do contain recordable content then count all pages from the start of the book. ..."

I agree with you that it looks as though Markwood has interpreted the rule to include only the unnumbered pages as far back as the start of the recordable content and I wouldn't blame him or anyone for this interpretation given the existing wording. However, what I have said is the accepted practice.

As an aside, the Start Pages should also be piped (for example, [5]|0.5 and [7]|0.7 and [9]|0.9) so that they are correctly sorted before the novel on page 1.

As another aside, there is a PV'd second printing which has the Pages and Start Pages specified correctly (although it omits the poem and also needs the Start Pages piped). Teallach (talk) 18:39, 17 May 2025 (EDT)

that ammendment you suggest does the trick for me. If it gets changed to that then i'll jump in and ask the pvers for cases like this if theyre happy to change it but for now i'll just let it lie. cheers - Gaz Faustus (talk) 19:38, 17 May 2025 (EDT)

Ellipsis followed by question mark

i was just about to merge 2 titles when I noticed that one had a space between an ellipsis and a question mark and the other didnt. the rule says put a space between the ellipsis and the following word but does that apply to question marks as well? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 13:59, 23 May 2025 (EDT)

and while were at it the story has 3 variants with ellipsis and all of them have a space before the ellipsis. the book in hand does not have a space before the ellipsis. Nothing in the help page about this scenario either. New variant or not? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 21:12, 23 May 2025 (EDT)

Not a moderator, but I can add something to your first question. The Associated Press Stylebook says to treat an ellipsis as a word and put spaces before and after, for what that's worth. Sfmvnterry (talk) 22:56, 30 May 2025 (EDT)

cheers mate but the title i was lookin at in my book had no spaces before or after the ellipsis and you have to enter them as they are in the book unless theres a rule here saying otherwise. I sent it in as it is in the book with a mod note and it was signed off. Gaz Faustus (talk) 07:04, 31 May 2025 (EDT)

Penguin Classic?

I'm not sure I have the correct publication series for this printing. The copyright page states this is the 16th printing of a 2011 Pocket Penguin Classic 2011, but this book doesn't seem to fit in with the publications here. Advice please. Thanks, Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 16:50, 26 May 2025 (EDT)

I don't have a definitive answer, but I think I may have found a clue. First, pull up your pub on Amazon UK and click "Read sample". The second displayed page is a selection of 5 other covers in the series. One of them (left column, second row) is for Tarzan of the Apes. Second, look at the covers of our publication series "Penguin Pocket Classics". See The Return of Tarzan at the bottom of the page? The art and the design are similar to the Tarzan of the Apes cover in your pub and is completely different from the other "Penguin Pocket Classics" covers on the same ISFDB page.

Based on the above, it would appear that there are two different Penguin publication series with similar titles. Either that or at some point the publisher decided to revamp the way covers were done for the series. Ahasuerus (talk) 14:44, 28 May 2025 (EDT)

Thanks for your time looking into this! With more research I find that there were indeed two series with similar names. I'll be creating a new series "Pocket Penguin Classics"; this was started shortly after the "Penguin Red Classics" series (as shown in my printing linked at the top here), but before (our listed) existing "Penguin Pocket Classics" series, and providing what documentation I can to each of these. We probably have records which are incorrectly allocated to the 'catch-all' "Penguin Classics" series (also, the outlier "Tarzan of the Apes" is certainly incorrect as allocated to the "Penguin Pocket Classics" series. With Penguin's churning of these titles under many different series names, it feels like the door to another rabbit hole :). Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 15:29, 30 May 2025 (EDT)

publication edit in limbo?

I submitted publication edit https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?6222325 (for Naomi Novik's Spinning Silver) on April 10th and have gotten no response. During that period I've submitted a couple other edits and have had them accepted. I'm wondering whether this one has found a crack to fall through, as a month and a half on the queue far exceeds anything I've previously encountered. Glenn.Skinner (talk) 15:52, 27 May 2025 (EDT)

Approved. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:06, 27 May 2025 (EDT)

Thanks! Glenn.Skinner (talk) 23:10, 27 May 2025 (EDT)

chapbook conversions of translations

I am doing one of Tove Janssons Moomin books which is down as a novel. i've got the English translation in hand and its obviously not novel length and kobo says 29k so i changed it to shortfiction prepping for chapbook conversions. I asked kobo what the Finnish title is and it says 26k. Should i assume that all the other translations into umpteen languages are all novellas as well and convert them? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 08:04, 29 May 2025 (EDT)

We don't have the ability to variant by length. Therefore, translations always mirror the length of the canonical. John Scifibones 08:20, 29 May 2025 (EDT)

cheers, have sent them all in now (step 2) - Gaz Faustus (talk) 16:46, 30 May 2025 (EDT)

I approved all your publication conversions, then merged the chapbook title records as appropriate while adding the correct language. You still need to add the translator template to the chapbook titles and variant to Trollkarlens hatt. John Scifibones 18:25, 30 May 2025 (EDT)

cheers mate, theres still 2 chapbook titles for "Il cappello del gran Bau". they've bothgot the same translators so should they have been merged as well? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 08:01, 31 May 2025 (EDT)

Clearly. I approved your variant submissions. Make sure everything looks correct while adding the translator templates. John Scifibones 08:51, 31 May 2025 (EDT)

done the tr notes - it looked shipshape and Bristol fashion. Gaz Faustus (talk) 12:15, 31 May 2025 (EDT)

You need to update the note here. The new note should include the approximate word count and source (not everyone will look in the note to moderator). Thanks, John Scifibones 17:07, 31 May 2025 (EDT)

Done! a bit more to it than i thought but what the hell - bring on the rest of the series I'm up for it!

How to add a review of two graphic novels

I've been adding reviews to the issues of ParSec magazine that don't have them. I'm not sure how to handle a review in the Spring 2023 issue. It's a review in one essay of two graphic novels based on stories by Cixin Liu. The magazine presents it as:

"Cixin Liu’s | The Butterfly: A Graphic Novel | adapted and illustrated by Dan Panasian | The Devourer: A Graphic Novel | adapted by JD Morvan and illustrated by Weilin Yang | A double review by Nick Hubble"

The edit form lets me add extra authors and reviewers to a review, but not an extra title. Also, do I present all the names for a graphic novel, Liu and the adapter/illustrator, as the authors, or just Liu? Sfmvnterry (talk) 22:44, 30 May 2025 (EDT)

I think the best you can do is enter two reviews, one for each work. I suppose you could treat it as a review "column" and enter both an ESSAY and then REVIEWs for each. You can put them on the same page with a piped number to sort them in the order they're discussed. E.g., "30|30.1" and "30|30.2" if the review is on p. 30. Assuming the text is revised for the adaptation, we would treat Liu and the adapter as co-authors, and the illustrator as artist (an adapter who also did the illustrations would get two credits). --MartyD (talk) 22:25, 5 June 2025 (EDT)

I second this: I always enter a review of multiple works as individual reviews for each so they show up on each of the works being reviewed. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:42, 6 June 2025 (EDT)

Good advice. Thanks to you both. Sfmvnterry (talk) 00:06, 8 June 2025 (EDT)

Account Corrections

How would one go about making a correction to one's user name? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Molly.pinn (talk • contribs) .

The ability to change an existing user name to something else was added to the standard Wiki software in MediaWiki version 1.40. Unfortunately, we are running version 1.35, so our software doesn't support this functionality.

Since you haven't edited the Wiki or the database as "Molly.pinn", I would suggest simply creating another user name and taking it from there. Ahasuerus (talk) 16:14, 8 June 2025 (EDT)

For v1.35, you can install the RenameUser extension. This was absorbed into the main wiki installation in version 1.40. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 16:10, 9 June 2025 (EDT)

A problem in cloning.

I recently tried to add a clone of this record and I kept getting this. What am I doing wrong?. MLB (talk) 23:23, 8 June 2025 (EDT)

My best guess is that you tried the cloning after one of this merges, where the title for the May issue likely was dropped. I tried to clone it, and there was no error message. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 05:29, 9 June 2025 (EDT)

H. R. F. Keating / Harold F. Keating

● According to his Wiki page Henry Reymond Fitzwalter Keating (1926-2011), otherwise known as H. R. F. Keating had a nickname of “Harry”. I suspect he was also Harold F. Keating. H. R. F. Keating turned to being a professional mystery writer during the sixties. His Wiki page doesn’t mention if he was a soldier, although that would tally with the last letter by (Harold) Keating in 1941. I think they are the same, but … MLB (talk) 20:57, 14 June 2025 (EDT)

H. R. F. Keating was an English author. From the IA scans of the magazines, all the Harold F. Keating letters state he is from Quincy, Massachusetts, USA (I added that info to the author record). That seems like they would not be the same person. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:35, 15 June 2025 (EDT)

Okay, thanks. MLB (talk) 22:47, 23 June 2025 (EDT)

COBISS.SR & COBISS.BR templates

My use of this template in this submission is not successful in pointing to this COBISS page.

Investigating, I couldn't find any links that do work in this search. Looks like they've restructured. I'd appreciate any help, thanks. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 07:13, 16 June 2025 (EDT)

It looks like there are two separate issues here.

The first issue is that the COBISS page that you linked is for COBISS.SI, the Slovenian version of the COBISS catalog. If you check the main COBISS Web site, you'll see that the COBISS software is used by 8 different jurisdictions in the Balkans, but each jurisdiction has a separate catalog. We currently support External IDs and templates for the Bulgarian catalog (COBISS.BG) and the Serbian catalog (COBISS.SR), but the Slovenian catalog, COBISS.SI, is a separate database which we do not support at this time.

The second issue is that COBISS.SR and COBISS.BG have apparently changed their URL structures. For example, our template for COBISS.BG is configured as "https://plus.bg.cobiss.net/opac7/bib/[catalog ID]#full", but the current URL is "https://plus.cobiss.net/cobiss/bg/en/bib/[catalog ID]#full".

Let me see if I can update our COBISS templates and External ID definitions. Thanks for reporting the problem! Ahasuerus (talk) 11:39, 16 June 2025 (EDT)

The two templates and their matching External ID definitions have been updated. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:09, 16 June 2025 (EDT)

All problems resolved. Thanks for your help! Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 04:15, 17 June 2025 (EDT)

Great! Ahasuerus (talk) 08:46, 17 June 2025 (EDT)

Candlin as canonical

I've edited this record 398527, adding a note and making it an alternate name for 402402. Now both names show up as being canonical: here and here. What am I missing? Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 18:39, 21 June 2025 (EDT)

Look again. S. A. C. Candlin, R. A. F. is an alternate name for Candlin as called for in the standards. Your edits are correct. The directory entries are the same so they are grouped together in the Author Directory John Scifibones 21:01, 21 June 2025 (EDT)

Thanks for checking John, maybe I didn't make it clear what I was referring to: I don't understand why "S. A. C. Candlin, R. A. F." shows up in the Canonical Name field in the edit screen of this record. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 21:17, 21 June 2025 (EDT)

There is only one edit/editauth.cgi?. It doesn't matter whether the author record belongs to an alternate or a canonical name. You just never noticed. Check any alternate name in the database. John Scifibones 21:24, 21 June 2025 (EDT)

Ahhh, light. Thanks very much!

lol, you're welcome. John Scifibones 21:30, 21 June 2025 (EDT)

(unindent) I have more questions... All of the above stems from the entry for " S. A. C. Candlin, R. A. F.", #7 in this report.

• I've edited the names, #s 3 to 18 in the report, but they are still showing. I presume that when the report regenerates nightly it only adds new entries, and doesn't remove any processed entries (with other reports I've edited, the entries have disappeared immediately after the edits). Why are they still showing?
• An entry for "Cherokee Indians, North America" is at #2, the only "North America" suffix listed. However, in the two publications listed under this title record, there are other "[Indians' name, North America]" contents that don't appear in the Unrecognized Suffix report (above). Why not?

Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 11:09, 22 June 2025 (EDT)

Bob Hoskins / Robert Hoskins

Here’s another question about fifties letter writers. Does anyone other than me think that Bob Hoskins is the same author as Robert Hoskins? They both started writing letters to the same magazines at the same time. MLB (talk) 00:40, 24 June 2025 (EDT)

Yes; I'd also think so! Christian Stonecreek (talk) 01:25, 24 June 2025 (EDT)

I found while researching some John Smiths that often the magazines include some sort of location (City, State/Country) with the attribution. If you can find scans or PVs with copies, you could check if that information is available for both forms of the name. --MartyD (talk) 08:19, 24 June 2025 (EDT)

Probably but there are other Bob Hoskins, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Hoskins_(disambiguation). Unlikely based on birth dates that it could be the actor or the footballer but the missionary could have been a teenage SF fan although the SF guy Robert Hoskins was also old enough to write letters in the 50s so it could be him or both of them. While looking into this I made variants for W. B. (Wild Bill) Hoskins/W. B. Hoskins and Hoskins/Winfield Scott Hoskins (also updated the latter's record with birth/death dates and birth place). --Username (talk) 18:09, 24 June 2025 (EDT)

Okay, I have nothing from Robert Hoskins (letterwise, that is), but from the April 1952 issue of Startling Stories "Bob Hoskins"'s address is 1 Thurlow Terrace/Albany 3/New York. I hope that helps. MLB (talk) 04:41, 25 June 2025 (EDT)

Both are New Yorkers. MLB (talk) 04:44, 25 June 2025 (EDT)

Why is this author "unknown"...

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2280068

...when all the publications have the author as Robert Wallace? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 19:00, 1 July 2025 (EDT)

Robert Wallace is a house pseudonym that was used by multiple authors. For a house pseudonym, if there is a work where we don't know the actual author, it gets varianted to unknown. Now whether all the titles under this author record are from the house pseudonym is debatable. The house pseudonym seems to be for the Phantom Detective series, but not all titles with Robert Wallace as the author are part of that series (for example, the one you link to above is not). It's possible there needs to be some further disambiguation of this name. -- JLaTondre (talk) 22:10, 1 July 2025 (EDT)

cheers - Merril says he was a staff writer for Life magazine. This looks like him - Gaz Faustus (talk) 22:34, 1 July 2025 (EDT)

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Wallace-26591

I changed A Living Doll to be by Robert Wallace (II). I added the info from Merril to the author notes with a statement it might be the person in the WikiTree article. -- JLaTondre (talk) 19:15, 2 July 2025 (EDT)

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?6297522; There's a bio at the end of the story. --Username (talk) 19:27, 2 July 2025 (EDT)

Thanks. It matches the WikiTree article so I have updated our entry's biographical info. -- JLaTondre (talk) 19:33, 2 July 2025 (EDT)

OK. Also, Google search for author and "Blue Groper" found 1 mention in PDF of an issue of Metaphysical Review which reviewed the anthology it appeared in; that Wallace is this guy, https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4473118.Robert_Wallace, and it's a pseudonym in case you want to use that info to fix anything. --Username (talk) 20:00, 2 July 2025 (EDT)

The poem "The Gottle" is by this Robert Wallace, https://clevelandartsprize.org/artists/robert-wallace/. --Username (talk) 11:55, 9 November 2025 (EST)

How do I post a review of a book (multiple books)

Hello,

I have been through the Help and various instructions and, it's probably me, but I find no information on how to post a published review for several different titles - Fleet of Worlds by Niven, Tunnel in the Sky by Heinlein, Settling Accounts: In At the Death by Turtledove, Space Cadet by Heinlein, Space Vulture by Wolf & Myers, Cloud Cuckoo Land by Sivell (asll published on the SFReader website a while ago.

I see instructions on accessing the entry for the title, but once there, I see nothing regarding adding a review.

Thanks for your help.

(Yes, when logged in)

Steve —The preceding unsigned comment added by Steve davidson (talk • contribs) 11:04, July 2, 2025‎

Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~). You already asked this question on the moderator noticeboard. Try to keep threads together. Blog posts are not eligible for inclusion. Only reviews included in an eligible publication. The rules of acquisition are here. John Scifibones 11:25, 2 July 2025 (EDT)

book with 2 "Authors"

The book i'm doing has 2 authors on the title page and everywhere else and nothing anywhere in the book that says they have different roles. Its an illustrated book so i thought one is the artist and sure enough amazon confirms it but if the book doesnt say that should they be both go down as the authors? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 19:32, 8 July 2025 (EDT)

I'd say: Yes, both should be credited as authors, and likely the artist should also enjoy a credit for the additional illustrational work.

When there's no other hard proof that the roles were strictly different (one only the author, the other only the artist; for example this could be stated in a note within the book) we go by that which is stated within the publication. It does happen from time to time that the story was done by both, though that's more common in the world of comic books. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 01:39, 9 July 2025 (EDT)

cheers i think i'll do it the way you say - Gaz Faustus (talk) 09:06, 9 July 2025 (EDT)

Identifying Canadian publications

I've moved this discussion to Rules and standards discussions as it seems more appropriate. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 16:17, 19 July 2025 (EDT)

Wrong title record listed as collection title for a publication

For the publication record Reisen von Zeit zu Zeit, a collection within the publication (Die ersten Zeitreisen) is listed as the collection title record instead of the actual record (Reisen von Zeit zu Zeit ). In fact, the actual record does not seem to be displayed anywhere on the publication page. Any ideas why this happening and how to fix it? Thanks! - Riselka (talk) 17:24, 15 July 2025 (EDT)

I think this is a bug. If you go to Remove Titles on it, that shows both the publication's (collection) title and the other collection title are present in the contents. So the publication view seems to be confused by two container titles with the same author/editor credits. (Maybe it's picking the first such title in alphabetical order.) --MartyD (talk) 20:40, 15 July 2025 (EDT)

I am afraid the ISFDB software doesn't support multiple container titles with the same title type within the same publication. For example, an OMNIBUS publication can include multiple ANTHOLOGY or COLLECTION titles, but it can't include multiple OMNIBUS titles. If the software finds multiple OMNIBUS titles in an OMNIBUS publication or multiple COLLECTION titles in a COLLECTION publication, its behavior becomes unpredictable, including displaying the wrong "reference" title at the top of the Contents section and/or removing some OMNIBUS titles' page numbers during editing.

I don't think we have a cleanup report for this scenario. In the short term, we could create one. Long term, it may be possible to add a way to tell the software which container title is the reference title within each publication, but I expect that it will require a fair amount of work. Ahasuerus (talk) 09:42, 16 July 2025 (EDT)

For these scenarios, does it make sense for a publication to contain multiple titles of the same type? I can see why someone might list a collection within another collection, but it's not clear to me that this should be allowed. If this shouldn't be supported, a cleanup report seems sufficient. This issue feels related to that of variant collections having different contents (e.g., Collections_with_different_contents) since this work feels like an expansion of a previous collection. That said, I think this work should be its own independent work rather than a variant.

For this particular case, does it make sense to (a) remove Die ersten Zeitreisen from the publication's contents or (b) convert the publication (and title) record from a COLLECTION to an OMNIBUS? I'm leaning towards the former option, but could see a case for the latter. Thanks! - Riselka (talk) 11:01, 16 July 2025 (EDT)

It looks like option (a) should work. Since this publication has been primary-verified, I would suggest asking the primary verifier to review this discussion to make sure that we are all on the same page before we make any changes. Ahasuerus (talk) 12:20, 16 July 2025 (EDT)

Linking pen name to parent

Hello, everyone. In a dictionary of pseudonyms I'm reading, Christine Dewees is listed as a pseudonym of Lynn Abbey. The compiler says this info was provided by the author. Should I make the former a variant of the latter? Thanks. --Rosab618 (talk) 00:34, 16 July 2025 (EDT)

Which dictionary of pseudonyms is it, please? The reason I am asking is that, as per ISFDB:Policy, we use "publicly available sources" to set up pseudonyms and alternate names. If the dictionary is publicly available, then we should be able to use it as long as we credit it as the source.

Also, Robert Lynn Asprin's "The Making of the Thieves' World" talks about "Christine DeWees" in a way that hints that she may be a pseudonym:

• I point out that there are only two weeks remaining before the deadlin. [Ace editor Jim Baen] concedes that with such a limited time-frame, I probably won't be able to get a story from a "name" author. He'll let me work with an "unknown", but the story had better be good!

• Christine DeWees is a kindly, white-haired grandmother who rides a Harley and wants to be a writer. Lynn and I have been criticizing her efforts for some time and have repeatedly encouraged her to submit something to an editor. So far, she has resisted our proddings, insisting that she would be embarrassed to show her work to a professional editor. I decide to kill two birds with one stone.

Asprin's account is compatible with the notion that "Christine DeWees" was a Lynn Abbey pseudonym. Presumably Abbey and Asprin, the creators of the series, were running out of time and needed another story for the first Thieves' World anthology. Abbey wrote one ("Myrtis"), but, since she already had a story ("The Face of Chaos") in the book, she used a pseudonym for "Myrtis". Ahasuerus (talk) 10:20, 16 July 2025 (EDT)

It is Hawk's Authors' Pseudonyms III: Comprehensive Reference of Modern Author's Pseudonyms. Thanks for the backstory! —Rosab618 (talk) 11:59, 16 July 2025 (EDT)

Looks legit. I'll notify Galactic Central and SFE. Thanks for finding the connection! Ahasuerus (talk) 12:27, 16 July 2025 (EDT)

Add alternate name

Author "Ally Wilkes" https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?328455 has published at least one work under the name "A.V. Wilkes". She lists both names on her social media pages.

I added her 2023 book "Jamie Hallow and the End of the World", now pending, under the A.V. name, as published, but could not see any way to link it to the Ally name.

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?6311441 & https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?6311447

--AlanHK (talk) 22:24, 16 July 2025 (EDT)

Thanks for identifying the pseudonym and creating the two submissions! I have approved them and made the following changes:

• Changed the title and publication types from NOVEL to SHORTFICTION/novella because the word count is 34K, which is below the ISFDB's 40K threshold for novels.
• Changed the format of the paperback edition from "pb" to "tp" since the length is 9", which is below the 7.25" threshold for "pb" -- see Template:PublicationFields:Format for details.
• Changed the publication date of the paperback edition and the title date from 2023-07-11 to 2023-07-06 since it was published in the US first.
• Clarified that the submitted synopsis came from the publisher.
• Changed the prices from pounds to dollars since the publisher is based in the US; documented Amazon UK's prices in Notes.
• Merged the pairs of CHAPBOOK, SHORTFICTION and COVERART title records created by these submissions.
• Turned the merged CHAPBOOK and SHORTFICTION title records into variant titles with their parent titles using the name "Ally Wilkes". Moved their synopsis data, the series information and the 2 links to third-party sites to the new parent titles.
• Turned "A. V. Wilkes" into an alternate name of "Ally Wilkes". Added a note to the "A. V. Wilkes" record explaining why we believe that they are the same person.

I think this covers everything. Thanks again and don't hesitate to ask for help -- there are a lot of rules (and exceptions)! Ahasuerus (talk) 18:38, 17 July 2025 (EDT)

Thanks. Doubt if I could work that out myself. --AlanHK (talk) 05:28, 18 July 2025 (EDT)

Queries (website publications etc.)

I've been examining the official website for the Old Kingdom series (http://oldkingdom.com.au/; the series on ISFDB 37593); the website has several short stories posted under the "Bonus Material" section. All of these, I believe, have print publication of some form (as extra material for one or more of the main books). I'm still inexperienced in adding info to the site so I have some queries:

• How does one record such a publication, if at all? The titles all have entries already except for one (see below) due to the aforementioned print publications, but I'm not sure if I'm reading the bits about web-based publication on ISFDB:Policy correctly.
• "An Extract of the Journal of Idrach the Lesser Necromancer" 982081 appears to have a variant title here ("The Nine Gates of Death", if I'm reading the rules on titles correctly), and an older version of the website had it under the heading "The gates and precincts of Death". Not sure how to handle this.
• "Doctor Crake Crosses the Wall" is also troublesome. Currently it doesn't have a title entry; according to Wikipedia the story was published in the Australian edition of Goldenhand, which does not have an entry on ISFDB (Worldcat says it was published by Allen & Unwin, 2016, ISBN 978-1-74175-863-4) and which I don't have access to at the moment. What do we do here?

Any help would be appreciated. Arcorann (talk) 09:05, 17 July 2025 (EDT)

I've added that edition of Goldenhand here, based on info from Abebooks. So, once the above gets sorted out, that story can be added to that publication. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:07, 17 July 2025 (EDT)

Non Genre stories by under the threshold authors

Should they be removed from pubs, deleted and notes added if approrpiate? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 09:02, 23 July 2025 (EDT)

Please provide examples. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:09, 23 July 2025 (EDT)

mate theres thousands of examples out there across the spectrum, i come across them every day so you must do as well - loads of stuff seems to get entered in anthologies and collections without the editor checking or caring if its genre and later somebody comes along and says that some are non-genre. do you as a mod ever dump these when you see them? maybe as a mod whos been here for donkeys years you could pop out a few general guidelines or parameters that might help for us medium pace pie throwers. maybe hypothetical cases where you definitely would or wouldnt delete. the threshold concept is a thorny issue but assume that theres no doubt that theyre under it. as an example I did one a few days ago looking at an old collection which can be read online which had three stories all genre.2 of the stories when i looked at them them had to be labelled as non genre. in the past i would just have left it at that but i thought soddit i'll try and remove and delete them and let the reviewer decide and it was accepted but maybe another mod would have taken a different view, i don't know as there dont seem to be any guidelines. Gaz Faustus (talk) 22:00, 23 July 2025 (EDT)

One general reminder - if they are in a GENRE magazine, they are eligible to be included regardless of who wrote them. The full contents of a genre magazine is always eligible. Thus the need for an example or 3 because not all of these need to be deleted even if it looks so at first glance. That does not make non-eligible books eligible just because the stories are already in but genre magazines are indexed in their entirety (that's the difference between how we handle genre and non-genre periodicals and why it is important to decide what you enter one as). Annie (talk) 11:38, 24 July 2025 (EDT)

cheers for the reminder about the genre mags i'd heard that before but forgot it. The one which prompted the question was this chappie. 3 stories all non genre in 3 anthologies. i'd be happy to put a few bob on saying that a fair number of the "genre" stories in 2 of those anthologies are non-genre as well although some of the authors are no doubt over the threshold. Gaz Faustus (talk) 17:35, 24 July 2025 (EDT)

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?20134

None of these are eligible under the current rules technically so removing them and adding a note in the pub notes that they are also there is the usual solution. We have a LOT of them - especially in older publications - sometimes added because someone was helpfully transcribing the contents table, sometimes added because noone realized they are not genre. And we have even more in those mixed anthologies which are not even marked.

We may want to have another discussion over in R&S at some point about non-periodicals and contents. These days the line between a magazine and anthology is so blurred that having different contents rules make less and less sense. These records don't harm anyone and as long as the anthology is majorly ours, keeping them actually makes our records look better. But that would be a rule change (or rule alignment - most of us had been caught doing that for anthologies anyway - sometimes simply because we do not know if a story is genre or not and sometimes because most of the non-genre ones sneak in under the threshold rule anyway).

So to make this short: under the current rules, they are not eligible. However, I have the feeling that under the current practice, they actually are part of the pattern of how we add these majorly genre anthologies... We cannot even look at the data properly because for every story marked as non-genre, there are at least 2 that are as non-genre as it but whoever added the contents and approved did not realize that (or it was before the flag existed). Annie (talk) 18:53, 24 July 2025 (EDT)

cheers annie i'll keep that "majourly ours" in mind. The one that had the removal signed off was a collecction with 3 stories in totla all originally marked as genre but 2 of them weren't so those 2 were taken out and dumped. that's jogged the memory bank about a collection recently and it had (something like) 9 stories and the publisher flagged up on their site 5 that were supernatural and the other 4 were non genre. I didnt put those 4 in the contents and just said in the notes that there are another 4 stories not listed but if majourly ours means >50% then should all the stories have been put in the contents? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 21:04, 24 July 2025 (EDT)

Nope. Even if the practice leans there occasionally, the rules still says no. A story (or 3 in bigger books) is usually what I'd add. Think more 90% than 50% :) That close to 50%? Nope. In such cases I'd usually mark the whole anthology/collection non-genre and add only the stories that in scope (and add the titles/authors of the other 4 in the notes). But the setting of the flag probably varies a bit between editors when the numbers are that close. What you did was the correct approach (only record the stories that are ours). :) Annie (talk) 21:29, 24 July 2025 (EDT)

so in a nutshell if a anthology has 90% genre stories its labelled as "genre" and the non-genre stuff goes in the contents but if its 60% genre its labelled as "non-genre" and the non genre stuff isnt supposed to go in the contents and you remove them if already there (and put in the notes)? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 12:53, 25 July 2025 (EDT)

If you will. Under the written rules, the non-genre stories in both cases are out. But in the 90% cases, it is a lot less likely for someone to make a problem of it and the practice seems to be to tolerate them. An R&S discussion may be in order. Annie (talk) 12:57, 25 July 2025 (EDT)

it would be quicker to wait for the singularty and let the AIs sort it out. personally I'd like to get rid of all non genre even by the megastars (with the possible exception of Rev Lionel Fanthorpe). If we have to have over the threshold stuff then there should be a list of who they are. Gaz Faustus (talk) 13:15, 25 July 2025 (EDT)

"The Publisher"

The author name The Publisher 38731 is attributed to 5 different publishers: T. Becket, Richard Bentley, Kassel Books (Kassel Classics), David Bell, and King-Size Publications, Inc. for 197915, 198023, 197933, 197955. I'm asking how should these be differentiated, if at all? Thanks, Kev. BanjoKev (talk) 18:45, 23 July 2025 (EDT)

Well, there are two ways to handle that:

• Variants - make "The Publisher" a pseudonym to all of these authors and then variant as usual. Think of house names in the early days of pulps - same principle. Won't work very well for the King-Size case though as it really need to be on the publisher, not the writer
• Differentiate with the name of the author in brackets "The Publisher (Richard Bentley)" for example.

Or we can even mix and match... I lean towards differentiation quite honestly but either way works. Annie (talk) 11:43, 24 July 2025 (EDT)

Thanks Annie. Yes, I'm currently working through house names, and I'm leaning with you… Differentiation is simpler and more straightforward in every way that I can think of so I'll implement this method. Kev. BanjoKev (talk) 10:23, 25 July 2025 (EDT)

A benefit of the differentiation approach is that you can use it even when the actual writer's identity is unknown (as in the Kassel Books and King-Size Publications cases). You can use the publisher's or publication's name instead. --MartyD (talk) 12:16, 25 July 2025 (EDT)

Thanks Marty, quite correct! Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 15:14, 25 July 2025 (EDT)

Double Novel

Not sure what publication type to enter this; People's Choice Literature: The Most Wanted and Unwanted Novels
"The book comprises two novels, The Most Wanted Novel, which is a thriller designed to emulate the secret sauce of airport bestsellers and The Most Unwanted Novel, a wildly angular mashup of sci-fi, tennis, and Christmas." ― The Brooklyn Rail
two novels by the same guy, neither of which has been published before. (Only one appears to be SF.) Collection, although they're novels and not short fiction?
Thanks. --gzuckier (talk) 23:19, 24 July 2025 (EDT)

Omnibus. If the author is above threshold, you add both novels inside. If not, just the one that is ours and add a publication note that only the speculative contents is added. :) Annie (talk) 00:15, 25 July 2025 (EDT)

OK, thanks gzuckier (talk) 17:46, 25 July 2025 (EDT)

Lists of characters in novels - Essay or Shortfiction?

searched for "list of characters" and got 16 hits - 4 shortfictions and 12 essays. - Gaz Faustus (talk) 18:30, 7 August 2025 (EDT)

A character list would normally be fact, not fiction. --MartyD (talk) 22:26, 7 August 2025 (EDT)

Yeah, lists of characters would be considered ESSAYs. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 11:35, 8 August 2025 (EDT)

2-0 both gaffers thats good enough for me - cheers Gaz Faustus (talk) 19:21, 8 August 2025 (EDT)

BTW, that applies equally to titles containing "Dramatis Personae". :) Phil (talk) 22:08, 8 August 2025 (EDT)

Number line confusion

https://www.ebay.com/itm/197129903196

the copyright page scan on this listing says "First Printing" but the number line says otherwise. Publisher's cock up or is something else going off? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 08:00, 9 August 2025 (EDT)

Its alright i've just seen the notes for our entry that mentions it. Gaz Faustus (talk) 08:04, 9 August 2025 (EDT)

Pending edits, how long

I submitted my best shot of Analog (July/august 2025) almost a month ago (6307235). I am sure there are things that need to be fixed, but wondered, how long will it take for someone to review it? I check my talk page, but nothing shows up. I need to do this more often, but I seldom get a copy of a magazine very early (this was an author's copy) Bob —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Wallet55 (talk • contribs) . 15:33, 9 August 2025‎ (EDT)

As all mods are volunteers, some edits can take a while to be approved. In this case, it looks like it was waiting because there were a number of things that would have required editing in order to fix the submission:

• The issue title for magazines should always have the issue number or date in it. In this case, it should have been entered as "Analog Science Fiction and Fact, July-August 2025".
• Always use the masthead title (usually on the copyright page or the page where they list all of the contents and/or staff. In this case, "Analog Science Fiction and Fact" instead of "Analog Science Fiction & Fact".
• The date for the issue should always be the month of issue on the cover (or the first month, in cases such as this where the issue covers multiple months). You entered this correctly for the issue date, but then you manually entered a generic "2025-00-00" for all the content. Always leave the content dates blank as they will be automatically filled in using the date of the issue.
• Generally don't include the source site for cover artist name. In this case, "GrandeDuc" instead of "GrandeDuc via shutterstock.com". We don't need the information on where they got the art.
• Don't enter generic/base website URLs in the Pub Web Page and Web Pages fields. The generic "https://analogsf.com" belongs only on the series page.

All-in-all, you did a pretty good job for being new to the site. There's a steep learning curve here. The best suggestion I have is to carefully study how previous issues have been entered so you can learn how to enter them. You had a lot of correct information in your submission, but it looks like the issue was entered into the system before your submission was approved, so I rejected it as a duplicate. Please let me know if you have any questions. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:26, 11 August 2025 (EDT)

Different Artwork on Boards and Dust Jacket

I am working on Terry Pratchett / Raising Steam - Waterstones Edition. This version has the dust jacket artwork from the regular version printed on the boards and different dust jacket artwork by the same artist. This is explained in the pub notes but I feel it should also be reflected in the contents records. However, I'm not sure of the best way to proceed.
Option 1) Treat both of these artworks as cover art. I'm not wildly enthusiastic about this idea because the pub record would look odd. Both entries in the Cover field would appear identical.
Option 2) Make the artwork on the boards interior art (varianted to cover art). I'm not wildly enthusiastic about this idea because a book issued without dust jacket would have artwork on the boards designated as cover art.
Are there any other options? Advice appreciated please.
I asked the existing PV (who is also a moderator) about this issue here but have received no reply for three weeks, hence this post. Teallach (talk) 18:40, 10 August 2025 (EDT)

It would be a bit of abuse, but I suppose an approach you could take is to make the boards INTERIORART and give them page numbers of "fc" and "bc". If that idea appeals, it might be (although I won't hold my breath) a quick R&S discussion to change the help wording for those two page designators to make this one of the official use cases for them (e.g., --> "... cover of a magazine or board of a dust-jacketed hardcover that isn't included in the pagination.") --MartyD (talk) 14:30, 11 August 2025 (EDT)

"Omnibus" containing only one novel

Hello, all. On NooSFere, I came across Les Chroniques de Tornor - 2 by Elizabeth Lynn, which apparently contains only La fille du Nord, a translation of The Northern Girl (1980). The previous French omnibus, Le Chroniques de Tornor - 1, contained the first two novels of the series. How should I enter the second volume? Thanks! --Rosab618 (talk) 13:22, 15 August 2025 (EDT)

If it's just the one novel in it, enter it as a novel. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:34, 15 August 2025 (EDT)

But the novel inside has a different title. Should I make Les Chroniques de Tornor - 2 a variant of The Northern Girl, but put La fille du Nord inside it? --Rosab618 (talk) 14:01, 15 August 2025 (EDT)

Even though it's listed there as an omnibus, don't enter it as one here. Do you have access to an actual copy so you can see the title page? If not, enter it as Les Chroniques de Tornor: Tome Deuxieme as a NOVEL and variant that to The Northern Girl. Be sure to include a note explaining why it's entered this way. It may be good to include a note on Les chroniques de Tornor: Tome 1, too, and change that title to "Les Chroniques de Tornor: Tome Premier" since that's what's on the cover (unless you can see something different on the title page, if you have access to it). ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:32, 15 August 2025 (EDT)

Two issues I need help on

There are two issues I need help on. First, is there a way to edit/fix issues on an edit after you submit them. I am looking at a new magazine issue I submitted, and I forgot the $ in the price, and one author is appearing as new, even though it looks exactly the same as her entry for all her other works in ISFDB.

The second is, how do you check to see if someone else has not already added a magazine and it is pending? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Wallet55 (talk • contribs) .

Unfortunately, there is not a way to edit a submission. You have to wait for the submission to be approved and then edit the record once it is created. I also don't believe there is a way for non-moderators to view the submission queue. -- JLaTondre (talk) 06:52, 17 August 2025 (EDT)

If the submission has not been published, go to your "My pending edits" list and you can open it. You can't edit it, but you can copy the info to a new submission, correct it, submit the new one, then click "Cancel submission" for the first one on your pending list. If you realise immediately after submitting there is an error, you can go back a page in your history to pre-submission, correct it and submit again, then cancel the first one as above. AlanHK (talk) 23:51, 22 August 2025 (EDT)

Problem with The Dresden Files Collection 1-6

When I used Add a New Omnibus to create a title record for The Dresden Files Collection 1-6, something went wrong with the records for the novels contained in the omnibus. I don’t know why it happened, nor do I know how to fix it. I’m hoping somebody can explain how things went awry and how to fix the mess.

The problem is that the submission created references to new title records for the novels contained in the omnibus, rather than references to the existing title records. E.g., the HTML link in the Contents section of The Dresden Files Collection 1-6 for Storm Front leads to (newly created) title record 3497597 rather than to record 21523 as it should.

When I filled in the title entries in the New Omnibus form, I cut and pasted the author and title information for each entry from the corresponding extant title record. Should I have done something else? If so, what? And what needs to be done to correct the errant links in the publication record (1067710)?

Glenn.Skinner (talk) 00:27, 17 August 2025 (EDT)

When you type titles and authors into the contents section when creating or editing a pub record, the software will create new title records for each of the items you entered in the contents section. It will not automatically combine identical author/title records (as there many cases where authors reuse titles, etc.). If you are entering a collection or omnibus where the contents are already in the database, the best approach is to enter the publication without the already existing contents, and then when the publication has been created, use the "Import Content" option on the publication record to import the existing contents into the publication. To solve cases where duplicate records were created, you need to merge the duplicates. The easiest way to do that in this case, is to go to the publication record and use the "Check for Duplicate Titles" option. From there you can select the duplicates and merge them. -- JLaTondre (talk) 06:46, 17 August 2025 (EDT)

Thnks for the explanation. I've submitted merge requests following the procedure you desccribed. After doing so, I went back to the help page for new publications and found the procedure described there in the Content Information subsection. I've probably read that section a dozen times, but it apparently flowed into one ear and out the other. I expect to do better next time... Glenn.Skinner (talk) 15:07, 17 August 2025 (EDT)

Cover replacement failed (?)

Hello... I need assistance to understand what went bad. A few days ago I uploaded a new scan for the cover of Prigione senza sbarre this way: 1. from the pub page, click "upload new cover scan"; 2. Select the file and click "upload file" 3. Select "Ignore warning and save file" on the following page, where there was the warning "A file with this name exists already". The image in the pub record did not change; if I go to the cover page, the image is still the old one, although the thumbnails section below shows my scan as "current" and the resolution and file size reported under the image are those of the new scan. clcking on the thumbails only shows the old one. What should I have done instead (or in addition)? thank you! --Fantagufo (talk) 13:43, 17 August 2025 (EDT)

I looked at it and your update took effect. When you upload a new version of an existing file, you may have to clear your browser cookies to see it immediately. Otherwise it might be several days before the existing cached image and cookie is cleared. Hope this explains it sufficiently. Phil (talk) 14:17, 17 August 2025 (EDT)

Another method, if you don't want to clear your cache, is to perform a hard page refresh. This forces your browser to download everything on a web page from the server. Go to the pub record and perform a hard page refresh. How you do that depends on your operating system and browser. For some browsers running on Windows, hold down the Ctrl key and press F5. If that doesn't work you will need to search on the internet to find how to do a hard page refresh for your configuration. Hope that works for you. Teallach (talk) 16:55, 17 August 2025 (EDT)

Thank you Teallach, I'll try to remember your advice for the next occurrence... I cannot try it on this one because today I see the right cover... guess the cache expired as Philfreund said. Thanks again to both! --Fantagufo (talk) 07:55, 18 August 2025 (EDT)

Luca, When you wish to replace a previously uploaded image, don't use "upload new cover scan" in the publication record. Go to the wiki page, in this case, here. In the file history section you will find the link "Upload a new version of this file". This will avoid the duplicate warning message. When you are satisfied with the new image, post a request on the Moderator Noticeboard to delete the old image. I have taken care of this one. As previously noted, clearing the cache is necessary to see the change. John Scifibones 16:38, 18 August 2025 (EDT)

Thank you John, I (hope that...) I will remember this process. Shouldn't it be explained in the Help page for uploading covers? I did what I did because I didn't find instructions to replace them. --Fantagufo (talk) 20:09, 18 August 2025 (EDT)

That's the first time I have ever seen this process described or have it stated that it's how duplicates should be handled. There shouldn't be a button that allows us to go ahead and upload anyway if it's always the wrong thing to do and the correct process needs to be put into the Help documentation. Phil (talk) 22:00, 18 August 2025 (EDT)

I haven't looked into the software behind the Wiki upload page (and the matching "Upload" link on Publication pages) in over 10 years. It's possible that the ability to "Upload a new version of this file" did not exist in the version of the MediaWiki software that we were using in the early 2010s when I added the current "Upload" link to Publication pages. Either way, if all moderators agree that what is described above is the preferred image replacement process, then we probably need to update our software to automate this functionality. A cursory review suggests that it shouldn't be too hard to do. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:47, 19 August 2025 (EDT)

How to add Psychopomp short stories

The website Psychopomp has a bunch of short fiction under the "Psychopomp fiction" headline that's not part of any publication.

Most of these stories are not on ISFDB. A few do:

• Joanna's Bodies is categorizes under a publication titled Psychopomp, July 1, 2024.
• What Any Dead Thing Wants (ISFDB), was reprinted in an anthology, and doesn't have a "Psychopomp, DATE" publication.

The other stories on the website don't have a date associated with them, so I don't know how to add them:

• https://psychopomp.com/not-lost-never-lost/
• https://psychopomp.com/we-who-will-not-die/
• https://psychopomp.com/update-the-buildings-are-hungry/

--Salty-horse (talk) 05:12, 21 August 2025 (EDT)

If stories aren't published in a proper publication (as defined here, under Rules of Acquisition) they are unfortunately not eligible. Allowed electronic publications include webzines, ebooks, downloadable files, and others, but stories that are just put as a stand-alone into the web are not taken into consideration. Hope that helps. Stonecreek (talk) 06:42, 21 August 2025 (EDT)

With the only exception to the above being "Online publications available exclusively as a Web page, but only if published by a market which makes the author eligible for SFWA membership (listed here), OR shortlisted for a major award". So if the magazine or the work meets either of the two exceptions, then they could be listed. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:14, 21 August 2025 (EDT)

These Psychopomp "issues" are most likely a made-up publications, that only contain one story each. So I shouldn't create similar ones for the other stories? --Salty-horse (talk) 12:54, 22 August 2025 (EDT)

Those were made to handle stories posted on psychopomp.com that are eligible due to being "shortlisted for a major award". You can see this one has the note While not a true webzine by ISFDB standards, this "issue" is included as the story was nominated for a 2025 Ignyte Award. (in reference to We Who Will Not Die). This one unfortunately has no note (and probably should), but Joanna's Bodies was nominated for several awards. So if there are more stories originally published on the site and eligible for inclusion under that awards exception, you could follow precedent and make more "issues" to represent the original publication. --MartyD (talk) 09:20, 30 August 2025 (EDT)

Manufacturing Defects

This thread has been prompted by this discussion: Isaac Asimov (ed) / Tomorrow's Children.
One copy of a pub has been identified with a significant manufacturing defect. It has been bound with (at least) 23 pages missing at the end of the book. Is this worth mentioning in the pub notes? My slight inclination is "No". I suspect that these defects occur on too small a proportion of copies to be worth a mention. However, a counter argument is that if a significant minority of copies have this defect then a pub note could be useful as something to watch out for by someone intending to buy a copy.
Personally, I don't feel strongly about this. Does anyone know if there are any precedents or undocumented practices in the ISFDb for how to deal with this? If so then I'll go with the flow for sake of consistency. Teallach (talk) 18:42, 28 August 2025 (EDT)

The only way we would know if it was a problem affecting an entire batch would be if more copies turned up with the same defect. If it did affect many copies, that would be of general interest. So my recommendation is to note that your verifier's copy has the defect you describe. You can use the PV template to identify yourself as the verifier with the defective copy. --MartyD (talk) 08:35, 30 August 2025 (EDT)

Will do. Thanks for your input. Edit submitted. Teallach (talk) 18:12, 30 August 2025 (EDT)

New author showing up without any titles

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?6341713

I did this edit of this anthology. this story variant was only in this pub but the author had to be changed to a new alt name not used on any other titles so i changed it in the publication. when i click on the the story title it shows the new author name but when i click on the author it shows up without any titles. why isnt it showing the story on the author page? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 11:32, 30 August 2025 (EDT)

I assume you are referring to Nikolai Poushkin, right? The reason that no titles are displayed on his Summary page is that the only title associated with the name is already set up as a variant. The reason the Summary page doesn't show that "Nikolai Poushkin" is an alternate name of Александр Пушкин is that we haven't created an Alternate/Parent name association yet. It can be done by clicking "Make/Remove Alternate Name" on the alternate name's Summary page. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:22, 30 August 2025 (EDT)

cheers mate i think i understand. that story had already been varianted under the old author name and thats still there with the new name but the new name doesnt keep the alt name status of the old name so has to be joined seperately? Gaz Faustus (talk) 15:12, 30 August 2025 (EDT)

Sorry about the delayed response -- I am currently very busy with the Fixer migration, which has to be completed by late October 2025.

To answer your question, the software has two separate -- but related -- ways to link ISFDB records:

• The "Variant Title" mechanism links variant titles to their parent titles
• "Alternate Names" link authors'/editors'/artists' alternate names to their "canonical" names

For everything to work properly, you have to make sure that we have a variant title relationship between two titles as well as the correct "alternate name" relationship between their authors (if there is one).

The reason these two mechanisms are separate is that there are many different "alternate name" scenarios:

• Joint pseudonyms like Ilona Andrews
• Ghostwriters -- see William Shatner's Summary page, specifically "Man O'War", "Quest for Tomorrow" and "TekWar"
• house names
• Sometimes a personal pseudonym becomes a "house name", e.g. see Alexander Blade
• Other times a joint pseudonym becomes a personal pseudonym, e.g. see Eando Binder
• Odd scenarios like Empire, which was originally written by John W. Campbell, Jr., then rewritten by Clifford D. Simak, then published as by Simak alone.

Each scenario has to be evaluated individually to determine whether we need an "alternate name" relationship.

Hope this makes sense! Ahasuerus (talk) 12:26, 2 September 2025 (EDT)

cheers mate just seen your reply - thanks for calrifying. this was the first time for me where the author name for the variant was wrong but it only showed up in 1 pub so could change the name in the contents and so varianting not needed unlike other cases where ive had to add the new variant and take out the old one and then varianting and alt authoring both to be done. Gaz Faustus (talk) 13:54, 8 September 2025 (EDT)

Missing Clarkesworld magazines - any automation available?

About 40 Clarkesworld issues, both historical and recent, are missing from ISFDB.

Does ISFDB have an automated API that I can use to add them programmatically?

Alternatively, if I automate the regular submission form, where can I post the program, so others can use it in the future? --Salty-horse (talk) 06:13, 2 September 2025 (EDT)

Yes, we do have an API, which lets you retrieve (certain types of) data and create automated submissions. The Main Page links to the Web API page, which has all of the gory details. Ahasuerus (talk) 12:08, 2 September 2025 (EDT)

Thanks! A few questions:

1. The publication metadata has fields to enter a list of web links, but it's not documented in XML:NewPub - any chance it exists?
2. I assume that if an item in the magazine is part of the series (like the Editor's Desk), it has to be added separately, with a TitleUpdate request - does that update have to wait for moderator approval of the publication?
3. Is there a way to test things before making an actual submission? I guess I can submit something and immediately cancel the submission if there's a problem.

--Salty-horse (talk) 15:57, 2 September 2025 (EDT)

Let me try to answer the questions in the order they were asked:

1. As per Web API#submission.cgi, "The format of the XML data is identical to that used for local submissions, with the exception that the user's license key must be inserted after the Submitter tag." Back when we added the ability to submit External IDs and Web pages, we updated Web API#Publication Lookups, but XML:NewPub and related Wiki pages haven't been updated since 2014. Thanks for identifying the problem -- I'll add it to my list of things to do. In the meantime, you can determine which XML tags take External ID and Web page values if you configure a local ISFDB database on your development server -- see ISFDB Downloads#Installation and Setup for details -- then create test submissions locally.
2. That's right, if you want to add Content-level titles, you will need to wait for your NewPub submission(s) to be approved, then edit them manually.
3. As mentioned above, you can set up a local copy of the ISFDB database and use it for testing submissions. Also, please note that, as per Web API#License Keys, you will need to have your user name added to a special list of authorized users before you can create submissions via the API: "the submitting user's name must be added to the whitelist of authorized submitters maintained via a bureaucrat-only menu option. Post on the ISFDB Moderator Noticeboard to request access."

HTH! Ahasuerus (talk) 18:26, 2 September 2025 (EDT)

I'd strongly recommend to submit one issue only, see what changes are done during moderation and then submit the rest with the changes incorporated into the next submissions. There are some oddities in how we record magazines and submitting a lot of records with the same issues in them is going to delay their approval. Annie (talk) 18:58, 2 September 2025 (EDT)

An excellent point! Ahasuerus (talk) 19:43, 2 September 2025 (EDT)

Problem with dates in submissions

Ahasuerus, I've run into a problem with the API. XML:NewPub says "Year" is "The Year of publication. Uses the YYYY-MM-DD format.". When I pass "YYYY-MM-DD", I get a crash when approving it as a moderator in pa_new's UpdatePubColumn(merge, 'Year', 'pub_year', Record), which expects just "YYYY". But when I send "YYYY-MM-DD", it crashes when viewing the pending edit, in mod/viewers's table.Add1MetadataRow('Pub Date', 'Year', 'pub_date'), which expects "YYYY-MM-DD". --Salty-horse (talk) 11:48, 9 September 2025 (EDT)

Could you please clarify why you believe that UpdatePubColumn(merge, 'Year', 'pub_year', Record), expects "YYYY"? The field "pub_year" (table "pubs") is defined as a "date", so it should be expecting YYYY-MM-DD. Does "describe pubs" show a different field type for you? Our robot, Fixer, uses the Web API for automated submissions and it sends YYYY-MM-DD dates, e.g. see the XML payload of this submission, so something is not right. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:28, 9 September 2025 (EDT)

This is my test submission (still needs some unrelated improvements): (taken from "view raw XML" in the pending edits page) https://pastebin.com/0MHLm0s6, and this is the error I get when approving it as a moderator: https://pastebin.com/7L9wve9p . I'm probably missing something if it's supposed to work missing something. --Salty-horse (talk) 13:35, 9 September 2025 (EDT)

Thanks for clarifying! It sounds like your MySQL server doesn't support "YYYY-MM-00" dates and, perhaps, "0000-00-00" dates. How they are handled is controlled by NO_ZERO_DATE and NO_ZERO_IN_DATE in your MySQL server configuration file; it's possible that the default settings of your version are different from what's expected by our Wiki-based installation instruction and they need to be updated.

What do you see when you run:

• SELECT @@GLOBAL.sql_mode global, @@SESSION.sql_mode session

? My development server shows STRICT_TRANS_TABLES,NO_AUTO_CREATE_USER,NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION for both values. Ahasuerus (talk) 17:02, 9 September 2025 (EDT)

Yeah I have NO_ZERO_IN_DATE,NO_ZERO_DATE. I removed them and now it works. Thanks! :D --Salty-horse (talk) 17:24, 9 September 2025 (EDT)

Excellent! Ahasuerus (talk) 17:30, 9 September 2025 (EDT)

P.S. I have updated ISFDB:MySQL Only Setup‎‎ to clarify that NO_ZERO_DATE and NO_ZERO_IN_DATE should not be defined in the INI file. Ahasuerus (talk) 17:40, 9 September 2025 (EDT)

More-or-less working script

The script seems to be working as intended now. Here's the Github Gist, but I can put it in a proper repository if people want to contribute or modify it, or maybe add support for new magazines.

As for my submissions, I just realized there's an alternative Clarkesworld (print issue) series, and together with the webzine one, they cover all issues. So there's no need to submit any new issues in bulk, just to duplicate existing print ones to become webzines and ebooks...?

Should I just automate a duplication, then? Or are there other tools to do that? --Salty-horse (talk) 13:26, 15 September 2025 (EDT)

Have you had a chance to review Help:Screen:ClonePub and Help:Screen:ImportContent? Depending on what's already in the database, either one or the other may be the fastest way to add the data. Ahasuerus (talk) 16:45, 15 September 2025 (EDT)

Some of those print issues don't have any contents (e.g., Clarkesworld, June 2020), so I'll check each one and submit a webzine with all the data. --Salty-horse (talk) 14:52, 15 September 2025 (EDT)

Help merge author/stories - M. L. Clark

I submitted a novel and short story collection for M. L. Clark.

All of the stories in the collection were previously published (even though they have all been "refined" according to the author) and appear under an alternate name for the author.

How can the stories be linked to their old edition, so that when you click on a story, you can see both its original publication, and the short story collection? (I assumed that would be done automatically since the author name is the same) --Salty-horse (talk) 03:41, 3 September 2025 (EDT)

New titles are not automatically merged with their pre-existing versions because they do not always contain the same text. For example, Robert Silverberg's 1966 collection Needle in a Timestack was significantly revised in 1979. Yet another version appeared as Needle in a Timestack and Other Stories in 2019 and was reprinted as Needle in a Timestack in 2021. It's even worse with translations, e.g. we have 6 different translations (3 French and 3 Portuguese) of H. P. Lovecraft's 1922 story "Azathoth", not to mention the eponymous English poem from 1931.

Please see Help:How to record a variant title for a detailed description of how to merge titles and/or how to set up "variant title" relationships between newly entered title records and pre-existing records. You can also import existing title records into publications -- please see Help:Screen:ImportContent for details. Ahasuerus (talk) 11:09, 3 September 2025 (EDT)

The problem is, I don't know the extent of the changes for each story. Should I consider them all to be worthy of being a variant rather than a merge, and update their publication dates to the collection's publication date? And how do I decide which one is "canonical"? The newer ones are certainly the author's "preferred text", but might not be what most readers of the work are familiar with, since the collection is self-published. --Salty-horse (talk) 12:43, 3 September 2025 (EDT)

That's one of the trickier scenarios that we have to deal with. The best I have been able to find is the following statement on Amazon.com, presumably provided by the publisher/author:

• Some of these pieces were first published in Analog, Clarkesworld, and F&SF, among other SF magazines. All have been refined

Since it says "refined", I think it would be reasonable to assume that the changes were not fundamental in nature. I would merge the ones that use the same name, set up any new titles that use a different name as variants, then add a note to each title record explaining that, as per the author, the text was refined when the story was reprinted in 2023. Ahasuerus (talk) 15:47, 3 September 2025 (EDT)

I'm sorry, I need more assistance. I managed to merge Saying the Names. Then, it somehow moved to the top of the collection, so I updated the internal order. So far so good. Now, I want to merge the other titles, but they all appear as "variant titles" (not of the original stories - they are still linked to the collection, and I'm not sure why that's happening - did I accidentally cause those variants to be created? What should I merge exactly? (Example: Advanced Search for Hydroponics 101) --Salty-horse (talk) 13:19, 5 September 2025 (EDT)

No worries, that's what this Wiki page is for -- figuring things out!

Looking at submission history, I think the issue was that you used "Option 2" (as opposed to "option 1") on the "Make Variant Title" Web page. "Option 1" lets you turn the currently selected title record into a variant of another (existing) title record. If you had used it, it would have linked the new "M. L. Clark" titles into variants of existing "Maggie Clark" titles. Since you used "Option 2", new title records were created for "Maggie Clark".

I believe I was able to fix everything by merging the new "Maggie Clark" records with the pre-existing ones. Please take a look at the Maggie Clark page to make sure that everything is OK. Once the Summary page looks right, we can post on the Community Portal and propose that the "canonical name - alternate name" relationship be reversed since "M. L. Clark" is the better known name now. Thanks! Ahasuerus (talk) 13:53, 5 September 2025 (EDT)

I never visited a "Make variant title" page, which is why I'm confused.

Re-checking submissions in Edit History -- like this one -- I see that the varianting was done by User:BanjoKev, who may have found them on one of our cleanup reports. Sorry about the confusion! Ahasuerus (talk) 18:09, 5 September 2025 (EDT)

When I click on title on the collection, I still don't see most of them as merged - I guess it's pending moderation? I'll wait for tomorrow. --Salty-horse (talk) 16:00, 5 September 2025 (EDT)

Let me make sure that we are on the same page. When you say "When I click on title on the collection", which Web page are you referring to? Is it the Publication page of the collection? All of the stories appear "as by M. L. Clark". Isn't it the expected outcome? Ahasuerus (talk) 18:09, 5 September 2025 (EDT)

OK I think I understand now. When I go to Saying the Names, which I merged myself, I see the Lightspeed publications, and the A Tower for the Coming World collection - this I think is the desired outcome. But A Plague of Zhe (3506196) is listed differently, as a "variant title of" A Plague of Zhe (1449201), which does list all publications. Would the next step of asking for an author rename fix that distinction? It's not really a "variant title". —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Salty-horse (talk • contribs) .

A "variant title record" differs from its parent (or "canonical") title record in at least one of the following ways:

• A different title, e.g. "1984" vs. "Nineteen Eighty-Four" vs. "Vuonna 1984"
• A different author credit, e.g. "George Orwell" vs. "Džorž Orvel" or "Megan Lindholm" vs. "Robin Hobb"
• A different text, e.g. a German translation of "1984" vs. a French translation of "1984" or two different German translations of "1984" (this includes different translations of "1984" done by the same translator)

In the case of A Plague of Zhe (3506196) the author credit is "M. L. Clark" while the author credit of its parent record is "Maggie Clark". It can get even more complicated when joint pseudonyms, ghostwrites, etc are involved, e.g note the number of variants listed under "Other Titles" on this Web page. That's why all variant title pages have "[may list more publications, awards, reviews, votes and covers]" displayed next to the link to the parent/canonical line.

Does this make sense? Ahasuerus (talk) 10:21, 6 September 2025 (EDT)

The explanation makes sense, thanks. I don't agree with the how the canonical entry is hard to find in the UI when I want to navigate from the collection TOC to where a story was published. --Salty-horse (talk) 18:45, 6 September 2025 (EDT)

An interesting point. If memory serves, we changed the UI not to display identical canonical titles on Publication pages around 2010. The underlying idea was that displaying something like:

• Leave-Taking • (2020) • novelette by M. L. Clark [variant of Leave-Taking by Maggie Clark]

would mean duplicating the displayed data for no good reason. However, as you point out, it made getting to the canonical title record more difficult. Food for thought... 21:14, 6 September 2025 (EDT)

As far as the canonical name goes, it looks like this author has been using "M. L. Clark" consistently since 2019, with older stories getting reprinted as by "M. L. Clark". I would suggest proposing a canonical name change on the Community Portal. Ahasuerus (talk) 15:47, 3 September 2025 (EDT)

Also, maybe the author's main entry should list the current name they use for their publications? Most of the items there are credited with "only as by M. L. Clark" --Salty-horse (talk) 03:41, 3 September 2025 (EDT)

To quote Template:AuthorFields:CanonicalName:

• Canonical Name - The canonical name is the name under which a particular author's bibliography is organized. For authors who publish under multiple names, the canonical name is the most recognized name for that author within the genre. The canonical name may be a pseudonym, for instance Cordwainer Smith (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?Cordwainer_Smith).

It's entirely possible for "the most recognized name for that author within the genre" to change over time. Template:AuthorFields:CanonicalName gives an example: "Megan Lindholm has had a successful career writing under her own name, and an even more successful career writing as "Robin Hobb". Originally we had "Megan Lindholm" set up as the canonical name, but we changed it to "Robin Hobb" once she became much better known as Hobb.

Once the titles that you submitted are merged/linked as per above, we can review the Summary page and see if we need to reverse the "canonical name -- alternate name" relationship. Ahasuerus (talk) 11:19, 3 September 2025 (EDT)

Charnel House

Please split this title into 2 with a note that these are different publishers.

The first is represented by the interval 1984-1988 is a fan booklets with different addresses.

• North Caroline, Mount Olive ([1])
• Montclair, New Jersey ([2])
• Lenox Hill Station, N.Y. ([3])

the second is a more or less standard publishing house, created in 1989 ([4]) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Satampra Zeiros (talk • contribs) . 13:35, 4 September 2025‎ (EDT)

Okay, this has been split into Charnel House (Lin Carter) and Charnel House. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 20:11, 4 September 2025 (EDT)

How to submit Clarkesworld magazine entries

I'm looking at current ISFDB entries for Clarkesworld, and I'm not sure if and how to mimic them with a new submission.

For example, let's look at issue 209 from February 2024:

1. If I click "edit", under "Regular Titles" I see a title with type "EDITOR". Is that something that ISFDB adds automatically? It doesn't appear in the edit history, even when I view the raw XML.
2. Covers art in Clarkesworld usually has a name (for issue 209 it's "Harvesters", but in ISFDB they are always listed with the name of the issue. Why? Should this trend continue?
3. Sometimes dates are recorded with a day value of "YYYY-MM-00" and sometimes it's "YYYY-MM-01" - which should be used?
4. Some titles have translators credited - I couldn't find anything in the API about them - I assume it has to be entered separately, and not part of a "new publication" submission?
5. Should audio versions of stories be recorded? Nowadays, Clarkesworld usually offers audio for all stories during the month.

Thanks! --Salty-horse (talk) 11:54, 7 September 2025 (EDT)

Some short answers:

1) Yep, you're right: it's entered automatically.

2) These are also automatically assigned; titles can be named in the artwork's title note section.

3) Usually it's the first; we assign the value of the month an issue was considered to have been published in: that is, the (first) month stated on the cover, the masthead or the copyright section.

4) Yes, translators should be named in a title's note section, please use the translator template Template:Tr, described in this help section.

5) I don't think so: they are considered as separate publications (and could be entered separately, if they are donwloadable or otherwise available.

Hope that helps, Christian Stonecreek (talk) 04:39, 8 September 2025 (EDT)

Just to add a few notes:

• For monthly magazines such as this one, the date is always YYYY-MM-00. The ones with -01 needs fixing... :)
• One note - magazines tend to have a few post-approval steps such as putting the records into the yearly EDITOR for example (the Magazine - YYYY naming). Ignore that part, it cannot be done with the "New Magazine" submission and is always a later step - just submit the magazine with its proper title ("Magazine Name, January 2022" for example). Annie (talk) 10:35, 8 September 2025 (EDT)

Annie (talk) 10:35, 8 September 2025 (EDT)

Stonecreek, using the API in a test on my own instance of ISFDB, I managed to submit and approve a custom cover art name, and it was not replaced with the magazine name. --Salty-horse (talk) 17:28, 9 September 2025 (EDT)

Here's my pending submission with the cover art title: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?6358766 --Salty-horse (talk) 02:39, 10 September 2025 (EDT)

Two Possible Alternate Names

Hello, Moderators!

I just submitted the artists for the anthology [Tales of Girls Who Tech and Tinker], and I am unclear whether I handled those credits correctly:

1. The artist T. A. Hernandez (three times): Based on this website [[5]], I believe that should be Hernandez's canonical name, and that is the name I used in the submission. However, in the anthology, they are credited as TA Hernandez. Should TA Hernandez be used as an alternate name in this case?

1. The artist Sean Eddingfield (six times): Based on this website [[6]], I believe that should be Eddingfield's canonical name, and that is the name I used in the submission. However, in the anthology, they are credited as Sean "MunkyWrench" Eddingfield (including the quotation marks and capital W). Should Sean "MunkyWrench" Eddingfield be used as an alternate name in this case?

If either of these credits need to be changed to the alternate name, how can I go about making that change?

Many thanks,

Michael Main (talk) 10:47, 8 September 2025 (EDT)

ISFDB policy used to be to always use periods when an author's name had initials. It was changed to allow not using periods when it's clear that it's the author's choice to not use periods (instead of a publisher's stylistic decision). This means that not all of our records are consistent. In this case, since Hernandez's website uses periods, I would agree with you to use them.

In Eddingfield's case, however, our standard is to credit as per the publication. So his name should be entered as Sean "MunkyWrench" Eddingfield and that made an alternate. -- JLaTondre (talk) 19:33, 10 September 2025 (EDT)

And in the case of double (or triple) initials, if the canonical ISFDB name uses them, it's a good idea to put the name without them in a transliteration field. That way, people can more easily find them when searching for an author. For example, the canonical name T. A. Hernandez should have "TA Hernandez" and "T A Hernandez" in the transliteration fields (they will show up when you hover over the "?" at the end of their name on that page). ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:38, 10 September 2025 (EDT)

Thanks, 日本穣, for adding the transliteration field to TA Hernandez's record. And thanks to JLaTondre, too. I will submit one of the credit changes for Eddingfield now, in order to get the pseudonym into the database. Once that is completed, I will submit the same change for the artist's other six pieces in this same publication. -- Michael Main (talk) 10:50, 11 September 2025 (EDT)

Dragonsdawn by Anne McCaffrey, 1988

Hello,

Recently came across this website, and find it helpful for research.

I have a Russian edition of this book. I picked it up through an Amazon Seller in 2011.

I noticed on your page for this title- this edition is not included.

I would like to add it, as I intend to send it to another soon.

2005 edition. ISBN 5-699-09175-0

The cover is dark, with a portion of Michael Whelan's coverart.

Description note from the Seller- limited to 5100 copies.

Seller- Old Book and Coin Palm Harbor, Florida —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Robert4 (talk • contribs) .

Welcome to ISFDB! Is this your book? If so - you can try to add it on your own (start with "New Novel") or if you are not comfortable with Russian, I can add it as well. Annie (talk) 14:46, 8 September 2025 (EDT)

vs.

Just checking - do we regularise this to Vs. ? Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 15:06, 8 September 2025 (EDT)

We do not have it on the list and we do not have a known exception for it so... yes. How often it slips through the cracks is a different story... Annie (talk) 15:16, 8 September 2025 (EDT)

Thanks Annie for the confirmation! Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 21:49, 8 September 2025 (EDT)

Pendulum Press

Hello!

Please split Pendulum Press into 2 publishers

Please split this topic into 2 publishers: the early one from London and the later one from West Haven, Connecticut

[[7]]

Thank you in advance! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Satampra Zeiros (talk • contribs) .

Done. I will take a look at the rest of the Pendulums as well because there more issues around these... Thanks for pointing this one out! Annie (talk) 12:54, 9 September 2025 (EDT)

"Retold by" or "Rewritten by"

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?1064963

I'm having second thoughts about this one and some others that are books of Aesop's Fables where they are not translations as such but are said to be "Retold by...". for this book "Retold by Fiona Waters" i made Waters the author for each story and then varianted them to the parent title by Aesop. i now think i should unvariant them and just put them in the "Aesop's Fables" series with the same series number as the parent title with a title note saying its a retelling by the listed author. Is that right? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 14:57, 9 September 2025 (EDT)

Don't put them in the same series please - start a new series for the retellings and put them in there and make the new series a child of the main series. And yes - if they are retold as opposed to "translated", then they are separate stories. Annie (talk) 15:04, 9 September 2025 (EDT)

righto i'll do that - cheers Gaz Faustus (talk) 15:14, 9 September 2025 (EDT)

Work Published as Single and Multiple Volumes

How do we treat a work that is published as both a single volume (usually a fat hardcover) and also as multiple volumes (usually later split into two paperbacks)?
This question is prompted because I have started to work on Harlan Ellison (ED) / Again, Dangerous Visions.
The Pan pb's are linked to variant titles whereas the Signet pb's are not.
Examples:
Method 1): Pan pb: Again, Dangerous Visions, Book 1 has title: Again, Dangerous Visions, Book 1 which is a variant of title: Again, Dangerous Visions
Method 2): Signet pb: Again, Dangerous Visions I has title: Again, Dangerous Visions
Which method is correct? Or are both acceptable? Teallach (talk) 18:33, 9 September 2025 (EDT)

We have been doing Method 1 in various places where this occurs. The pubs have the specific book-portion/volume titles, and those titles are then made variants of the original, full/single-volume title. We typically see this with certain language translations, but we apply it in non-translation cases as well. Here is a clean-looking example. --MartyD (talk) 09:50, 15 September 2025 (EDT)

You have confirmed my suspicion. However, what caused me uncertainty is that, if Method 1 is correct, why does "Again, Dangerous Visions I" not appear in the cleanup report: Publication Title-Reference Title Mismatches? I realise this report only lists 1000 records but it seems to be sorted alphabetically. Teallach (talk) 19:06, 15 September 2025 (EDT)

I don't know. It looks like a bug in the report. You'd have to ask Ahasuerus about it. --MartyD (talk) 08:37, 16 September 2025 (EDT)

The report is limited to 1000 records. Selection is not alphabetical, but by record number. "Again, Dangerous Visions I" is #113661, not in the first 1000. --Willem (talk) 08:58, 16 September 2025 (EDT)

MartyD and Willem: thank you for your replies. I have some of the Signet pb's of Again, Dangerous Visions I & II and will be editing / PVing them in the near future. While doing so, I will clean up all the Signet pb pub records so that they conform to Method 1. Teallach (talk) 18:44, 17 September 2025 (EDT)

Sean "MunkyWrench" Eddingfield

Hello, again. I am trying to add a new pseudonym for the artist Sean Eddingfield, who uses the pseudonym for seven pieces of art in the same publication. The pseudonym includes quotation marks and an odd capital W in the middle of a nickname, like this:

• Sean "MunkyWrench" Eddingfield

However, when I type this into the Author 1 field of the interior art, the submission process changes the double quote marks to single quote marks, so this is what appears on the submission page:

• Sean 'MunkyWrench' Eddingfield

Is there something that I can type into the Author 1 field of the edit screen for the INTERIORART title that will remain as "MunkyWrench" rather than changing to 'MunkyWrench'? I noticed that I may type the HTML character entity string for a double quote (i.e., ") into the Author 1 field, like this:

• Sean "MunkyWrench" Eddingfield.

This then shows up as an ASCII double quote on the submission page. Is that the correct approach, or will that adversely affect name searches or some other aspect of the ISFDB?

Many thanks -- Michael Main (talk) 11:33, 11 September 2025 (EDT)

This is done on purpose as part of our semi-regularization of author names (and because most books use the two kinds of quotes interchangeably and keeping track of what one used is mostly a losing game). So just add a publication note explaining the exact credit (that it uses double quotes) and let the software use the single note.Annie (talk) 13:06, 11 September 2025 (EDT)

Many thanks, Annie, for this and your other recent help. I have submitted a change of the credit in the publication (including a note as you suggested). When that is approved, I will submit a request to connect the pseudonym to the canonical name. -- Michael Main (talk) 14:03, 11 September 2025 (EDT)

As there are no other credits remaining anywhere, this IS his canonical name for now. :) Annie (talk) 15:45, 11 September 2025 (EDT)

Ah, thanks, Annie! I will have a look around cyberspace to see whether I can find any other genre work under his legal name, and if I find something, I'll add it and set up the canonical/alternate relationship between the two names. Many thanks again! -- Michael Main (talk) 16:53, 11 September 2025 (EDT)

We will go by the numbers then - it is not a problem for this to be the canonical - see this one for example. Advocating that the actual name is better than the one with the quotes will be silly, right? So don't worry about it - the point of the canonical name is not "this is his real name" - that's what Legal name is for. This is the "that's the name he had used in our field the most, usually in the author's working language alphabet" field. :) Annie (talk) 17:59, 11 September 2025 (EDT)

Thanks again, Annie! -- Michael Main (talk) 18:14, 11 September 2025 (EDT)

Is the abridger a co-author

Ive got an edition of Conan Doyle's The Lost World and on the title page it says "A shortened version, edited...by Kenneth Pinnock, B.A.". Does this get a new title with the scholarly and learned Mr Pinnock as co-author? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 14:00, 16 September 2025 (EDT)

It gets a new title in every case (abridged versions ALWAYS get new title records and never get varianted up to the originals). As for the co-author... dealer's choice. Go by the title page - with "edited by" I usually won't make him a coauthor (and just add him in the notes) but an argument may be made that this editing is indeed a co-authoring. Annie (talk) 14:07, 16 September 2025 (EDT)

In my experience, if the abridgement is so significant that it clearly creates a separate work, then the abridger is usually credited as a co-author. For example, consider Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare, a series of stories based on William Shakespeare's plays turned into children's stories by E. Nesbit.

On the other hand, less drastic abridgements typically credit the abridger in Notes, e.g. see the Notes field of the Popular Library edition of Two Planets. Ahasuerus (talk) 14:18, 16 September 2025 (EDT)

Its been done for youngsters in the publishers series "The School Library of Famous Books". in the forewrod Ken says "In preparing this shortened edition of The Lost World, the aim has been to present an unbroken story using throughout the text of the original book. Apart from the deletions, therefore, the only changes that have been made are very occasisional alterations of wording or tense to secure continuity". not a scooby how big the deletions are not having read this or the original. Gaz Faustus (talk) 14:36, 16 September 2025 (EDT)

So dealer's choice :) If I were adding the book, I'd probably add him as a second author (if not for other reason then to make sure the title stays separate and is easy to recognize and do not require an (abridged) or something else as a differentiator. But up to you. Annie (talk) 16:05, 16 September 2025 (EDT)

Yeah, I like to think of it in terms of who created the content in the work. Simply removing parts of it produces a new work, but the work's contents are still the original author's (just like cropped artwork). I would not include the abridger as co-author for that case. Replacing many of the words with other words to make it shorter or suitable for a different audience means contributing content not created by the original author. I would include the abridger as co-author in that case. Your case falls in the gray area where some words are changed, but the changes are relatively minor (such as the wording/tense tweaks for continuity of the retained pieces) or few. There, as Annie says, it's up to your judgement, much like the problem we have with whether a work with minor revisions of a previous work is another appearance of the same work or is an appearance of a new work. Is the scope of the content not present in the original work large enough to warrant co-authorship credit? --MartyD (talk) 17:27, 16 September 2025 (EDT)

Yes, there is a difference between creating a non-continuous extract and editing the work which results in a change in the text. But in either case, I would base it on the title page. For abridgements that change the text, if the title page only lists the author and the abridger is credited on the copyright page, etc., then the content record should be the author only and then varianted to a parent record that is author and abridger. If the title page credits both, then the content record should have both. -- JLaTondre (talk) 17:34, 16 September 2025 (EDT)

cheers for the replies but i think you deserve a 24h sin bin for asking me to use my "judgement". I'm going to give old Kenny a author credit and put that quote in the notes. Gaz Faustus (talk) 18:00, 16 September 2025 (EDT)

Should I Fix This Title to Match the Title Page?

Hello. I am indexing a story, with a current canonical title of "Future Scouts: Lost Time". Its only publications are in the paperback and ebook editions of Adventures of Gals and Gizmos. In both these publications, the story is listed in the table of contents using that canonical title. The canonical title is also used in a note that follows the story. However, the title page (which is a full page drawing) gives the shorter title of "Future Scouts".

Does this title need to be fixed in the ISFDB? Thanks!

-- Michael Main (talk) 23:34, 19 September 2025 (EDT)

Yes. Title page ALWAYS wins. Add a note in the publication note for both books on the discrepancy. I use something like "The contents page uses the title "XXX", the story's title page shows "YYY"" Annie (talk) 23:54, 19 September 2025 (EDT)

Thanks, Annie! I'll do that! -- Michael Main (talk) 10:54, 20 September 2025 (EDT)

Dates for Jane S. Fancher Publications

Closed Circle Publications offers versions of most of Jane S. Fancher’s titles. Unfortunately, it doesn’t provide publication dates for its editions, which presents a problem for constructing Publication entries for them.

For example, the current Publication record for the Closed Circle edition of Ring of Lightning lists 2013-11-20 as its publication date. However, this date is wrong, as I have an email purchase receipt from the publisher dated 2010-02-06 for that publication. But there’s no reason to believe that this date is correct; it’s merely an upper bound for the proper value (as publication must have occurred no later than the date on which I bought my copy). It’s also possible to establish a lower bound, as one can infer that the publication date must be later than that of the edition from its previous publisher.

But the resulting span pf possible publication dates covers several years, so there’s no accurate value possible to list as the publication date other than the vacuous 0000-00-00.

How should this sort of situation be handled? I propose listing the publication date as the upper bound (in this case 2010-02-06), accompanying it with a note stating that the actual date is unknown, but can be no later than the date stated. Provenance for the stated date should also be be part of the note. Glenn.Skinner (talk) 19:59, 20 September 2025 (EDT)

IMO it should be listed as 0000-00-00 and the lower and upper bounds discussed in the notes. 0000-00-00 means the date is unknown which is what is the case baring further more definitive data. -- JLaTondre (talk) 12:22, 21 September 2025 (EDT)

Need verification removed

Two dos-a-dos publications by Ursula K. Le Guin each has two entries, one more expensive than the other. These are the two Capra Press editions of The Visionary/Wonders Hidden issued at $7.50/$25.00 and King Dog/Dostoevsky issued at $9.50/$25.00. I do not have all four copies, but comparing my two I can see that the more expensive versions had four sheets bound at the centre of the book between the two texts; these are signed and numbered by the respective authors. Reviewing examples of these on Abebooks shows that the $25.00 special editions still have $7.50/$9.50 printed on the covers, and there is no new ISBN. The help I need is to remove my verification for this record because the copy I have is the special version with the inserted pages. Can someone remove my verification for me or tell me how I can do it myself (if that is possible)? Evertype (talk) 08:52, 23 September 2025 (EDT)

Use the "Verify This Pub" option like you would to verify it. For verified pubs, there will be a "No verification" option that you can use to unverify it. You can also switch verification type (permanent to transient and vice versa) that way. -- JLaTondre (talk) 09:09, 23 September 2025 (EDT)

Underlined

https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/extr.1971.13.1.48

I have just come across a couple of titles in magazines that have some underlined words (example above) - is that how they should be entered here cos at the moment they aren't? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 13:24, 23 September 2025 (EDT)

Use publication notes to specify special formatting - bolding, underlying, special fonts and so on. Annie (talk) 14:44, 23 September 2025 (EDT)

Τέρατα και Μηχανές

Hoo boy, do I know I missed some vital information when I added Τέρατα και Μηχανές. The cover image clearly shows Justin Richards name in Greek and that needs to be corrected. Does anybody know Greek, and could they look at this entry? MLB (talk) 22:25, 25 September 2025 (EDT)

Knowing Greek is a stretch but I can read/write the script and understand enough to parse a page about a book so I guess I will do for now. :) Author name and publisher name updated and I also added transliterations on the titles. And looking at the publisher, I need to fix a few more books there... Annie (talk) 11:00, 26 September 2025 (EDT)

Thank you. MLB (talk) 17:17, 1 October 2025 (EDT)

Belgravia - 1871

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?26622

I cant suss out whats happened here. We've got the 1871 editor title by Mary Elizabeth Braddon [only as by M. E. Braddon} which is right but the variant is also showing up as a seperate title underneath it. Gaz Faustus (talk) 09:37, 27 September 2025 (EDT)

The variant had the series name entered also. The software doesn't allow adding series to a variant and will remove it when a variant is created, but there are still some cases (I think depending on order of edits) where series can end up on a variant. I edited and removed it. -- JLaTondre (talk) 11:09, 27 September 2025 (EDT)

cheers - Gaz Faustus (talk) 12:50, 27 September 2025 (EDT)

pseudonyms and doubles

Hello!

I have accumulated a small pile of cancelled submissions due to the specific character of the admin who carries out my requests.

Please take them into consideration.

1)

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?146308

She was born as Violet Ann Dodge https://spectrelibrary.wordpress.com/2025/09/02/violet-van-der-elst-and-her-8-horror-booklets-from-hell/

Here is the submission in question. It would have changed Violet Van Der Elst's legal name from "Van Der Elst, Violet" to "Violet Ann Dodge". As per Help:Screen:AuthorData:

• Legal Name - This field should contain the most recent legal name for the author.

This biography says that she was born "Violet Anne Dodge", married Henry Arthur Nathan (d. 1927) in 1903, then married Jean Julien Romain Van der Elst. "Violet Van Der Elst" was her "most recent legal name", so that's what the Legal Name should contain. We can add "Born Violet Anne Dodge, changed the last name to Van der Elst after marrying Jean Julien Romain Van der Elst, her second husband." to the Notes field.

Also, please note that the linked Help page says:

• Use the format "Lastname, Firstname Middlenames", with all names being given in full. The reason for this format are names like "Patrick Nielsen Hayden" where you can't readily tell whether the last name is "Hayden" or "Nielsen Hayden."

Ahasuerus (talk) 13:43, 29 September 2025 (EDT)

2)

We need to combine the author into one

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?163770

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?17043

https://tellersofweirdtales.blogspot.com/2013/11/stafford-aylmer-1907-1965.html

I have created an alternate name relationship. You can do this yourself when needed by going to the alternate name and selecting "Make/Remove Alternate Name" and then in the "Parent Name" field, enter the name of the canonical record. You would then also variant the title records to the canonical name. We do not place biographical data on the alternate name record, it only goes on the canonical name. Also, please do not enter instructions for changes in the notes field that will be displayed in the database (which is why your submission was rejected). If you need help with doing something, please post questions here, not in the submissions. Thanks. -- JLaTondre (talk) 17:35, 30 September 2025 (EDT)

3)

French title is " La Népenthe " translated in The Sovereign Magazine December 1925 as "Suzanne".

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1739491

http://www.philsp.com/homeville/fmi/e00/e00595.htm#A16

I have made "Suzanne" a variant of a new La Népenthe record. Do you have any information on the original French publication? If so, please update the record. Thanks. -- JLaTondre (talk) 17:39, 30 September 2025 (EDT)

4)

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?19630

used pseudonyms Earl Kennedy & Cord Silverbird

What is the source for this? -- JLaTondre (talk) 17:40, 30 September 2025 (EDT)

There's this. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 18:24, 30 September 2025 (EDT)

Thanks. Alternate names have been created. -- JLaTondre (talk) 18:32, 30 September 2025 (EDT)

5)

Author https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?18237 and his pseudonym https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?185606

https://vaultofevil.proboards.com/thread/8123/oscar-cook-beautiful-hands-mains?page=4

I have created an alternate name relationship. -- JLaTondre (talk) 18:13, 30 September 2025 (EDT)

6)

Please make it in series instead of notes

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?55760

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?15648

I believe that John Taggart can be rightfully sent to the Fiction Series.

Thank you in advance, I believe in you. Alex —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Satampra Zeiros (talk • contribs) .

I added The Last Decision to the John Taggart series. You can add a title to a series yourself by going to the title, editing it, and putting the series name in the series field.

For "Let There Be Darkness", I cannot find a record with that name? Is that the right name or are we missing a pub?

For The Drums of Chaos, that is already part of the Simon of Gitta series and, unfortunately, the ISFDB can place a title in only one series. Since Simon of Gitta is the main character of that novel, that series is the better one as its primary. I added a title note to The Drums of Chaos explaining the relationship to the John Taggart series.

I created a Captain McTeague series.

I am not sure what you meant in your statement "I believe that John Taggart can be rightfully sent to the Fiction Series".

Thanks. -- JLaTondre (talk) 18:27, 30 September 2025 (EDT)

Image variant or not

When is an image (title) a variant of another image (title) and when is it listed as a "publication" below an image (title). I know how to do this image https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?3520219 a variant of this image https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?998462, but what I think I want to do is to make it just another publication. Is there a tool for that? or please inform me why making it a variant would be better.

Thank you, and sorry if this has been asked before. --Spacecow (talk) 13:27, 30 September 2025 (EDT)

Here is the image btw, if that would help -> Tarzan

If they are the same image but a different title (or author form or language), they will become a variant, yes. When you variant these, the publication will show up under the original parent COVERART title.

Publications listed under titles are showing up when the title is inside of the publication. As you already have the publication in the DB, there is no other publications to add anywhere. And you don't just import the cover that is with the wrong title (this is what variants are for exactly in this case). Hope this helps! Annie (talk) 14:15, 30 September 2025 (EDT)

PS: I just did the variant so you can visually see what happens. Here is the parent now. See how the publication is now on the list under the parent? Annie (talk) 14:17, 30 September 2025 (EDT)

Ok, so because the title was different in this case, making it a variant was the better option - got it.
What if the title would have been the same? What would you have done then? --Spacecow (talk) 14:54, 30 September 2025 (EDT)

Merge the two title records. You can do it via duplicate search or via Advanced search:) Same title, author name, language and image means they are the same TITLE record here so you merge them. Same logic as with stories which are the same content - if they are exactly the same, we merge them; if they differ in title, author, language, we variant.

If you look at this (the parent title with "Do not show variants and translations clicked), you see the publications that have the same title, author and language. They share the same COVERART record (and if you have more that are the same, you can import it). If you click only on one of the variants, such as this one, you see just the ones that contain that variant. Annie (talk) 15:00, 30 September 2025 (EDT)

Hmm. I do that merge thingy so seldom I keep forgetting about it. Thanks for the help Annie <3 --Spacecow (talk) 15:11, 30 September 2025 (EDT)

Ah, that explains the confusion then. And anytime:) Annie (talk) 15:43, 30 September 2025 (EDT)

Rick Raphael - shortfiction

(I'm probably doing this all wrong and in the wrong place!) Is the Short Fiction 'A Felnotas' actually a misplaced Hungarian translation of 'A Filbert is a Nut'? I understand the Hungarian means "the halfnote" - colloquialism for "dimwit". Which would match it up to 'A Filbert..'? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Xipetotec (talk • contribs) .

There's some higher likelihood in your point. But, alas, we don't know the original title of this piece yet. It was added by a Hungarian editor, who doesn't seem to be active right now - last heard of in May. You may like to place a question about it at the editor's talk page. Stonecreek (talk) 08:44, 3 October 2025 (EDT)

Confirmed here. I've connected them. Annie (talk) 11:58, 3 October 2025 (EDT)

Smart Apostrophes and Quote Marks

Hello, everyone! When I notice a that a title is already entered into our database is using smart [“curly”] apostrophes or quote marks (using Unicode), should I submit a change to straight ASCII characters? Many thanks! -- Michael Main (talk) 12:14, 4 October 2025 (EDT)

Depends. Can you post an example? Annie (talk) 12:54, 4 October 2025 (EDT)

Thanks, Annie. The example is The Alchemist's Daughter by Selenia Paz. It does display correctly (with an ASCII apostrophe), but if you go to edit the page, you'll see that our database has stored it as a curly apostrophe. Thanks again! -- Michael Main (talk) 13:09, 4 October 2025 (EDT)

As long as search finds it with a straight quote, it is fine. The software does some magic for quotes so I tend to let it do its magic as long as I can type the title in the search box and the title I expect is found. Especially because for the external world, it is shown properly. Hope this make sense.

If you really want to, submit a change (if the software even recognizes it as a change - in some of those places where we clean it up, it’s not always recognized as a change). Annie (talk) 13:42, 4 October 2025 (EDT)

Thanks, Annie. I need to submit a change to that title anyway (to mark it as juvenile), so I think I'll change it to a straight quote then. (It could be that the newest version of the submission software might make that change even if I don't.) -- Michael Main (talk) 12:14, 4 October 2025 (EDT)

Internal Capitals in Titles

A title appears in the actual publication as ShockWired with an internal capital W, but it is listed as Shockwired in our database. Should I submit a title change to include the peculiar capital letter? Thanks again! Michael Main (talk) 12:35, 4 October 2025 (EDT)

If that is intentional on the author side, then yes. We have a few titles with internal capitals in the DB. If we change it, there should be a note in both the publication and the title that the capitalization is intentional. Annie (talk) 12:57, 4 October 2025 (EDT)

Thanks, again, Annie! In looking at this particular example more closely, there is another peculiarity that I should ask about: The story appears in only one anthology, which has a paperback and ebook edition. The title is ShockWired almost everywhere:

• On the copyright page.
• In the table of contents.
• In the large text on the Kindle title page. However, this text does not appear on the paperback title page, which has only an illustrated title that I'll describe below.
• In the running header on odd-numbered pages of the paperback.
• In the illustrator's credit at the end of the story.

However, as I mentioned above, the paperback title page has only an illustration with an incorporated title of SHOCK WIRED: two words on separate lines, in all caps with lines emanating from some letters. The Kindle edition has this same illustration, but it also has the text title ShockWired beside it.

What is your inclination for this example? I have in mind what you told me earlier ("Title page always wins!"), but I am unsure how to apply that to the short story, its ebook publication (Kindle edition), and its paperback edition. I know it's a small concern, but I enjoy getting things consistent within the ISFDB, so I appreciate the time you devote to me. -- Michael Main (talk) 13:51, 4 October 2025 (EDT)

That boils down to “does the picture on the title page of the paper copy count as an actual title and if so, does the line split actually indicate a separate word or just a visual decision”. If you think that the answer is yes to these, then we are talking about variants (2 words for the paperback, one word on the kindle version with a parent of whichever is earlier or the 1 word one if they are from the same date (plus notes all over the place explaining the credits). If not, go for single word with a capital in the middle everywhere and just add notes explaining exact credits for the paperback. Words inside of pictures can be weird (artists getting creative and/or the space constraints make them a bit hard to decipher sometimes) and I would be inclined to go for option 2 here to be honest (aka keep it simple and use the single title everywhere) but it is a bit subjective so your choice. Annie (talk) 14:46, 4 October 2025 (EDT)

That's a great explanation, Annie! And it caused me to double-check the paperback: Turns out that the paperback does have a text title, but it's on the page after the illustration where the story text begins. At that spot, it is a single word in a unicase font (as are all the title-page titles in this paperback). So I will go with a single word written as ShockWired, with the capital W embedded since that seems to be the author's preference. I will add a note that the illustrator chose to split it into two words. Many, many thanks again! -- Michael Main (talk) 15:25, 4 October 2025 (EDT)

How to remove accent from author name in publication while leaving main entry alone

I have a copy of the publication 642664 which includes an map 3072715 drawn by artist Isidre Monés 26564. This is the only publication where this content is listed as appearing. I would like to provide a primary verification of this publication. However, in the publication itself, the artist's name is only ever spelled as Isidre Mones, without the accent. As per Help:How_to_verify_data and Template:TitleFields:Author, in order for the record to be considered correct, it should match entirely, including the accents. However, when I attempted to edit the record to remove the accent in submission 6387578, it automatically added the accent in the submission summary, though the XML data looks correct.

My understanding for the how the database entries should correctly be is as such:

• the map in this publication should be listed as having author Isidre Mones, without the accent, creating a separate author record
• Isidre Mones without the accent should be marked as a variant/alternate name for author Isidre Monés, with the accent
• Isidre Monés, with the accent, would continue to be the parent record listed with all the other works by this author

Is my understanding here correct? If yes, how can I submit the changes to implement this? If no, what would constitute the correct state of the database instead?

(As per Template:TitleFields:Author#Non-English characters, accents are definitely distinguished, but it also links to ISFDB:FAQ#How_does_the_ISFDB_deal_with_Unicode_and_accented_characters?, which is unclear but seems to imply that é and e are generally autocorrected to one another, which makes me think they are not distinguished(?). I am more confused after reading the FAQ which seems counter to its purposes, so perhaps it could use some clarification or perhaps it is just me having this confusion.

I also referred to the Help Desk archives, and this question is similar to #Bulgakov's name on this page, but the response there did not actually indicate what I should do, just that the issue had been resolved. Also, it appears that for that instance, the whole author record was changed, not creating a new separate author record with different accented characters than the original author record. Same for ISFDB:Help_desk/archives/archive_35#Aimee_Thurlo, where the original author record was renamed rather than creating a second separate record.) IndigoPari (talk) 8:59, 5 October 2025 (EDT)

Your understanding is technically correct. The problem is that we have a software limitation in this case (that’s what that page about accents is talking about) - we cannot have separate records for an author when the only difference is an accent. So for the time being, the best we can do is to add a publication note in the publications where the name does not match what we have as a name and one day, if/when the DB switches to Unicode, we can use these notes to fix the names for these titles. Hope that helps and welcome to ISFDB! Annie (talk) 12:02, 5 October 2025 (EDT)

Cool, thank you so much for clarifying. I will add a note to the publication/title record about the lack of accent. Also, is there a place where I should suggest that the FAQ or the Template:TitleFields:Author page be updated to clarify this a little better, or should I just make the edits myself or something else? IndigoPari (talk) 21:41, 5 October 2025 (EDT)

You are in the right place for that - but it is Sunday. Give it a few days. :) Annie (talk) 23:35, 5 October 2025 (EDT)

Thanks for identifying the ambiguity in Help! I have posted a proposal to expand/clarify the affected template on the Rules and Standards page. Ahasuerus (talk) 12:04, 6 October 2025 (EDT)

Hellebore & Rue

Hi! While I can't find any trace of this specific publication (as published by Flyleaf Press), there is one (also as of 2011) as published by Lethe Press. I would tend towards transforming the entry into a publication by the latter. (There's also no source given within the entry). Are there any objections, and can anybody find a trace of the Flyleaf Press edition? Christian Stonecreek (talk) 14:00, 6 October 2025 (EDT)

A first ebook edition by Flyleaf Press, a subsidiary of Drollerie Press is noted here and GoodReads have it here (under the parent Publisher). So feel free to add a Lethe Press one but the one we have appears to exist (albeit it needs some updates). Annie (talk) 14:35, 6 October 2025 (EDT)

Possible Problems with an Alternate Name

Hello, everyone. I'm not sure whether my latest submission caused this problem or not: The issue is with Brandon H. Bell. He has an alternate name of Brandon Bell with three possible problems:

1. Here is a search for the name Brandon. As you can see, the alternate name Brandon Bell is listed, but in the [Alternate Name?] column it says "Has pseudo. titles" instead of "Alternate Name". What does that mean?
2. If you click through to the alternate name Brandon Bell, you'll see that this alternate name has two items of interior art. These two are actually the same piece of artwork with identical records that I added to the trade paperback and ebook versions of the publications this week.
3. If you then click through to the canonical name Brandon H. Bell, neither of those two new pieces of interior art are listed. Also, you'll also see quite a few additional items that are [as by Brandon Bell] or [only as by Brandon Bell], but none of those additional items were listed back on the Brandon Bell alternate name page.

Thanks for any help you can provide. My apologies if I messed things up somehow. Perhaps it will be fixed if I merge the two pieces of interior art, but I haven't done so because I wanted to learn how to avoid this problem in the future. Thanks! -- Michael Main (talk) 23:42, 8 October 2025 (EDT)

You did nothing wrong and there is nothing wrong with these records. You just need to finish the edits. When a title is added to an alternate name (aka any form of an author name that is different from the canonical name), you need to submit a Make Variant submission after that to create a parent record which will show the title on the canonical author page. If these two that you have under the alternate author record are the same piece of art, the first step is to merge them and once approved, you can submit the variant. Let me know if you prefer someone to just do it for you or if you want to try. Annie (talk) 00:14, 9 October 2025 (EDT)

Thanks, Annie. I'd like to give this a try myself so that I can learn how to do it in the future. I'll submit the Merge now (via the Check for Duplicate Titles action), and tomorrow I'll do the second step. Thanks again! -- Michael Main (talk) 00:50, 9 October 2025 (EDT)

The merge is approved. It is possible that you may find the variant done tomorrow - we have a cleanup report for these and some people monitor all edits for sequences that need finishing (or so it feels some days). I’ll leave it alone for you to try it but please post back if you have questions or concerns. :) Annie (talk) 01:01, 9 October 2025 (EDT)

Thanks! I'm still awake, so I submitted that Make Variant request now. -- Michael Main (talk)

Approved. That’s what needs to be done every time an author uses a different name. :)Annie (talk) 01:06, 9 October 2025 (EDT)

Adding Magazine Issues

Hi. I have recently added a couple of SFX magazines to the database. But I notice magazines are normally grouped under one title for the year. In order to add September to the list with august, is it as straightforward as editing the title to that of the SFX - 2025 title details? Or is there an easier way I don't know of? I tried looking under these pages for the relevant help page but couldn't find it. If someone can provide a link to a step by step guide that would be great or let me know how I should fix this. Many thanks. ReadingMovies (talk) 09:36, 19 October 2025 (EDT)

There are several ways to do it. In this case, I would go to Darren Scott, use the "Show All Titles" option, select the "SFX - 2025" and "SFX, September 2025" records, and use the "Merge Selected Records" button. On the merge window, make sure you keep the "SFX - 2025" title and the 2025-00-00 date. I find this the easiest approach when an editor does not have a lot of other titles that will show up in the "Show All Titles" option. If it is an editor with a lot of titles, then using an advanced title search where "title starts with SFX" and "title ends with 2025" will also work to find the titles that need to be merged. -- JLaTondre (talk) 11:56, 19 October 2025 (EDT)

Merge made and submitted, I hope this checks out ok. Many thanks for taking the time to answer my basic query. I have another issue to add to the same title, is there a direct way of adding a new issue without the two-stage edit of merging? Or is this the best method? Many thanks for your help with this. |ReadingMovies (talk) 13:22, 19 October 2025 (EDT)

It is always a 2 step process. So add the magazine as usual, once approved merge (or edit if it is the first for this year) the EDITOR record. Annie (talk) 13:33, 19 October 2025 (EDT)

Thanks for letting me know. Will add the next November Issue soon. |ReadingMovies (talk) 13:39, 19 October 2025 (EDT)

Chapbook to Novel conversion

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2933278

got this book in hand kobo says 49k but my estimate is 42k so should it be converted and if so whats the protocol? Gaz Faustus (talk) 13:27, 19 October 2025 (EDT)

By either count it is over 40k so a novel by our standards. To make the change, you would edit the shortfiction record and change it to a novel (updating the notes as well). Than make separate edits to each publication to 1) remove the CHAPBOOK record from the contents; and 2) change the publication type to NOVEL. Once that is all done, the CHAPBOOK record would be deleted. So two submissions per pub and then the final delete submission. -- JLaTondre (talk) 12:24, 20 October 2025 (EDT)

have i got to wait for the first bit to be signed off before the doing the rest - Gaz Faustus (talk) 16:29, 20 October 2025 (EDT)

Yes. The other edits you can do in parallel, but the shortfiction record would need to be changed to a novel before anything else. -- JLaTondre (talk) 18:47, 20 October 2025 (EDT)

cheers i'll do it - Gaz Faustus (talk) 20:42, 20 October 2025 (EDT)

How to add a new publication for an anthology, with a new title

The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy has a new edition by Open Road Media, called The Big Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy.

I'm not sure how to add it. "Add Publication to This Title" doesn't let me change the title, and "Add a Variant to This Title" doesn't let me change the publisher.

Thanks for any assistance. --Salty-horse (talk) 02:52, 20 October 2025 (EDT)

You first need to add it as a completely new anthology. Once it exists, then make the new title a variant of the original title. To lessen the number of merges required, if the content is the same, import the content from one of the existing publications, otherwise just import the content titles. Hope this is clear. Phil (talk) 08:01, 20 October 2025 (EDT)

Interiorart for a Story with a Variant Title

Hello, everyone! I'm in the process of adding interiorart to an anthology, and I've hit a sticky situation. Please help me!

The story that causes the problem is ZIKES, which first appears in the paperback edition of Chronicles of Misses and Machines. Throughout the anthology, ZIKES is consistently formatted in either all-caps or a unicase font that does not distinguish between upper- and lowercase. Even the illustration itself includes the word ZIKES in all-caps, and there is definite other evidence that the author intended this title to be all-caps. So, I formatted the story's title in all-caps, and I intend to format the interiorart's title in all-caps, too. No problem there.

The problem occurs in the ebook edition of the anthology, where the heading on the title page of the story reads as: Zikes by Mackenzie Reide. So I have created a variant story title for the ebook edition that is formatted as Zikes. Should I also create a variant interiorart title that is formatted as Zikes? This would seem to follow the rule that the title of interior art should match the title of its associated story.

But I'm feeling conflicted because of the variant situation. Should the title of the interiorart match that of the parent story or the variant story? Does the situation change if the interiorart itself contains the uppercase title ZIKES? Does the situation change if I believe that the lowercase story title in the ebook edition was inadvertent? I'm thinking that maybe I shouldn't have created that variant story title in the first place, given that I think it's inadvertent.

Many thanks! -- Michael Main (talk) 12:27, 23 October 2025 (EDT)

Unless you can determine it's an acronym or something similar, you should normalize the case to "Zikes" for both the story and the INTERIORART since it is showing up multiple ways across multiple publications. See Help:Screen:NewPub#Case for more details. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:42, 23 October 2025 (EDT)

Thanks, 投稿. Here are my thoughts: The ISFDB help screen indicates that a title's case should be regularized "unless there is some specific evidence that the author intended certain letters to be in a specific case." For ZIKES, there is evidence that the author intended for the title to be ZIKES. Let's see if I can organize my thoughts on that evidence. It's almost as if we are in a legal thriller!

1. ZIKES is part of a series called ZOWS, which consists of six stories by Mackenzie Reide. Those stories' titles are almost always formatted as all-caps in both the paperback and ebook editions of: the author's web site, title page headings, title page illustrations, tables of contents, running headers, copyright pages, and credits for illustrators. One exception occurs the paperback title page headings, which are in a unicase font that does not distinguish between lower- and uppercase. And the second exception is the ebook formatting of Zikes in its title page heading and table of contents. To me, this suggests that the use of Zikes in the ebook was inadvertent.

2. ZIKES is the only story in the paperback anthology that appears in uppercase in its running headers, copyright, and illustrators. (The table of contents provides us with no specific information because it is in all-caps for everything. The title pages also provide us with no information since they are all in a unicase font.) To me, this suggests that the capitalization of ZIKES in the paperback anthology was intentional.

3. Admittedly, in the six ZOWS stories, only two of the titles seem to be acronyms, and ZIKES is not one of those.

I apologize for not mentioning all this initially. Given this specific evidence, would you still suggest that I regularize both the titles to Zikes? Or would it be preferable to leave the parent title as ZIKES with Zikes as a variant? Another possiblitity is to leave them separate for now, but also to contact Mackenzie to see whether she had a particular intention. I'm happy to do that if you think it would be best.

-- Michael Main (talk) 17:21, 23 October 2025 (EDT)

P.S. Because of my feeling that the uppercase was intended by Mackenzie Reide, I'll go ahead and reach out to her this morning. I'll report back here when she replies. Thanks. -- Michael Main (talk) 11:38, 24 October 2025 (EDT)

Michael here, reporting back with a response from the author, Mackenzie Reide. She says that she thinks of the titles being in all-caps, and she thought that they were always that way. I will go ahead and keep the parent titles in all caps in the ISFDB. I'll include a note about the reasoning, and I'll add a variant for the one ebook that has an inadvertent mixed-case title heading. As for the illustration that accompanies the inadvertent title heading, I shall list it as a lowercase variant, too, because that was done in the similar examples that I eventually found. Thanks for the help today and every day! -- Michael Main (talk) 15:48, 24 October 2025 (EDT)

How to edit a pending submission?

After submitting a new item, I sometimes notice errors that I want to fix (usually due to the Warnings column), but in "Pending submissions" I can only cancel it.

Is there a way to just edit a submission, instead of having to fill the form again from scratch? --Salty-horse (talk) 08:40, 25 October 2025 (EDT)

I would also like to know the best way to do this! I've noticed that immediately after submission, when the confimation page appears ("Submitting the following changes"), I can usually click the back button to get the browser back to the filled-in submission form. This allows me to fix any yellow warnings that I've seen, resubmit, and then cancel the original submission. But I'd still like to know if there is a better approach and whether there is a way to get the filled-in submission form from the pending submissions page. -- Michael Main (talk) 11:25, 25 October 2025 (EDT)

This is the best way at the moment. There is currently no better other than what you suggested. I usually open the editing on a separate tab then when submitting I can then check the warnings, and then click 'back' to amend. It is very annoying but it works.|ReadingMovies (talk) 12:12, 25 October 2025 (EDT)

Indeed, there is no way to edit a pending submission at this time. We have FR 21, "Ability to 'Edit' Proposed submission", but implementing it would require a lot of work.

Also, keep in mind that the "Back" button may function differently in different browsers. Some only support the "Back" functionality for a few minutes after the submissions. Others may not recreate the data entry page exactly after you click "Back". It's all browser-dependent and there isn't anything we can do on the ISFDB side. Ahasuerus (talk) 19:51, 25 October 2025 (EDT)

Another idea that should be easier to implement: Have a button that checks a submission without submitting it, so the user can fix any warnings. --Salty-horse (talk) 09:11, 26 October 2025 (EDT)

I am afraid it would be difficult to implement. The current "yellow warning" system is an integral part of submission review pages and decoupling them would not be easy to do. Ahasuerus (talk) 12:34, 26 October 2025 (EDT)

Log-in issues

Whatever saved log-in info I had in my browser no longer works. How do I reset my password? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Niteowljr1 (talk • contribs) .

Are you referring to the "Niteowljr1" account, which you used to post this query, or to a different user account? If it's "Niteowljr1", then you are already logged in on the Wiki side. You'll just need to log in on the database side using the same password -- see ISFDB:FAQ#Logging_In for details. You should be able to get your browser to display your current ISFDB password under browser "Settings", although the details may be browser-specific, e.g. Firefox may have a slightly different way of showing your passwords than Google Chrome.

On the other hand, if you need to regain access to a different user account, log out of the "Niteowljr1" account, go to the login page, click "Forgot your password?" and follow the instructions. If you provided an email address when you created the account, an email will be sent to you automatically. If, after an hour or so, you don't receive the email and it's not in your spam folder, please post here. Thanks. Ahasuerus (talk) 07:34, 26 October 2025 (EDT)

Collection duplicated as a Novel

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?175477

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2298687+0

i just wanted to know how to fix this which has duplicate titles as collection and novel. if you look it up its described as a collection of linked stories so i thought the novel should be cancelled. should the novel title just be changed to collection and then varianted to the original collection with the story titles imported into the variant collections? will that be all thats needed? GazFaustus (talk) 09:03, 26 October 2025 (EDT)

As the second title has no primary verifications, I think it's best to transform or merge it (and possibly import the shortfiction titles, provided they're all included). Christian Stonecreek (talk) 11:25, 26 October 2025 (EDT)

when you say transform does that mean title type from novel to collection? also how do you merge when theyve got different names? cheers - Gaz Faustus (talk) 19:25, 26 October 2025 (EDT)

2 Qs: Convoluted variant titling and dating scenario

I figured these questions, and their answers, might be generally useful, so I thought I'd pose them here. We have the following scenario:

• Title Variation 1a: Published uncredited, serialized in many parts, in 1802.
• Title Variation 2: Published uncredited, in 1837
• Title Variation 1b: Published credited in 1971.

These were originally configured to make Title Variation 2 (as by uncredited) canonical and both Title Variation 1s variants. The problem with that is Title Variation 1b did not appear in the author's bibliography due to the "uncredited" parent. The recommended solution is to make a credited canonical title that is the parent and adjust the variants accordingly.

Q1: Given the very first appearance of this title, albeit NOT in whole form, was in the Title Variation 1 form, I am inclined to make Title Variation 1b (the #1 form, plus author credit) the canonical title. This even though Title Variation 2 was used on the first whole-form publication. Does that seem appropriate and acceptable?

Q2: If the proposed treatment in Q1 should be used, then what date should be assigned to the now-canonical Title Variation 1b? Should it stay 1971, with the 1802 and 1837 appearances as variants, or should it be back-dated to either the original 1802 serialization or the 1837 first whole-form appearance (even though neither the #1b wording nor #1b credit was used in 1837)?

If the Q1 approach is not appropriate, I would make a credited form of Title Variation 2, dated 1837, have that be the parent, make all three actually-used forms be variants of that. But it seems doubly bad (i) to create a new title record never used in any publication and (ii) to have the canonical title wording be something other than the most commonly-used wording.

Any thoughts or suggestions/recommendations appreciated. --MartyD (talk) 12:11, 26 October 2025 (EDT)

Hi Marty. Could you provide a link to the titles for 1a, 2, and 1b? Thanks. --Michael Main (talk)

Sorry, RL distractions... I don't know that the actual titles matter, but here they are:

• 1a) The original serialization in 1802: Equality: A Political Romance as by uncredited
• 2) The first whole-form publication in 1837: Equality as by uncredited
• 1b) The first credited whole-form publication in 1971: Equality: A Political Romance as by James Reynolds.

I have made the last one the canonical parent (the whole goal is to have a credited title as the canonical parent), and I back-dated it to 1802 since that was the first appearance of that title text. I'm not entirely thrilled with that, so my request here for suggestions. --MartyD (talk) 18:16, 4 November 2025 (EST)

I agree with your choice here though - even if you are not thrilled. We cannot have the uncredited as an author on the parent and the title matches the serialization title anyway. And we date that way when the parent is a later occurrence in the same language as the first anyway. Annie (talk) 19:37, 5 November 2025 (EST)

I agree completely. An uncredited parent is highly undesirable considering that it results in a credited variant not appearing in the author's bibliography. Furthermore, as we are talking about a SHORTFICTION title, then yes, the parent title record should be dated as the first appearance of the serial. If it were a NOVEL then it would be dated as the first appearance in book form.

I don't like the idea of creating a title record that is never used in a publication at all. Very artificial.

I have no problem with a canonical title that is not the first appearance. It is allowed as per the Glossary:

• Canonical title. The canonical title is the title under which all publications of a particular work are listed. For stories or novels that appeared under more than one title, the canonical title is usually the first title for that work, but may be a later title if that title is much better known.

There is precedent as per this famous novel: Hothouse. Teallach (talk) 18:35, 12 November 2025 (EST)

Editorial essay incorrectly added to two magazine issues - how to delete?

From Unusual Places is listed as being in both the Clarkesworld May 2025 and June 2025 issues, but it's only in the May one. The June issue editorial is called "Editor's Desk: Wrapping Back Around to Marketing".

When I try to edit the issue, that item is in an uneditable box - how can this be fixed? --Salty-horse (talk) 14:06, 2 November 2025 (EST)

As the June issue is verified by an active verifier, please notify the verifier first by posting on their talk page. To fix it, you would:

1. Edit the Clarkesworld, June 2025 issue and add the correct essay title; and
2. Use the "Remove Titles From This Pub" option on the left menu to remove the incorrect essay title.

The two edits can be made in parallel. Let us know if that explanation is not clear enough. Thanks. -- JLaTondre (talk) 06:25, 3 November 2025 (EST)

“As by” incorrect for at least one instance but unsure about others?

Hi, folks—I’m looking at the entry for the 1960 Doubleday/SFBC edition of Pohl’s anthology Star of Stars. It says:

67 • Twin's Wail • (1959) • novelette by Elizabeth Mann Borgese [as by Elizabeth M. Borgese]

But in the book itself (which I own, and have in front of me), Borgese’s middle name is given as “Mann” (not just “M.”) in all four places where her name appears. (TOC, first page of story (twice), back cover of book.)

So I followed the link to the entry for the story, and it shows five instances of the story being published under the “M.” version of her name. But that’s listed as a variant of the story as published under the “Mann” version of her name.

I know that at least one of those five is incorrect (the SFBC one), but I don’t know whether the other ones are.

And I’m not clear on what to edit in order to change the SFBC one to list the full “Elizabeth Mann Borgese” name.

Thoughts?

--Elysdir (talk) 14:20, 2 November 2025 (EST)

As the SFBC is verified by an active verifier, please notify the verifier first by posting on their talk page. To fix the issue:

1. Use the "Import Content" option in the left menu. Use Option 1 and enter the title number (57163) for the correct version. You will be able to specify the page number on the next screen.
2. Use the "Remove Titles From This Pub" option in the left menu. Select the incorrect title to remove.

The two edits can be made in parallel. As for the other editions, some have active verifiers so I would recommend posting on their talk pages asking them to double check. -- JLaTondre (talk) 06:31, 3 November 2025 (EST)

How to get a magazine issue posted if the editor won't do it?

Hello. I am a retired astronomer and relatively new author: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?91057

I was thrilled to get a story published in one of the printed science-fiction magazines, Journ-E, in their Vernal Equinox 2025 issue.

But no matter what I have tried, I can't get that story to appear in my listing in ISFDB, because that issue has not been indexed in ISFDB. I have asked the editor to help, but he seems not to know what to do either.

s there anyone who can help?

I am happy to mail a physical copy of the magazine to anyone who can help get it on ISFDB.

Here it is on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Journ-Vernal-Equinox-2025-Whole/dp/B0F96ZMJ7L

Thank You.

Andrew Fraknoi (fraknoi@fhda.edu) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Fraknoi (talk • contribs) .

Hello Andrew,

Anyone can submit the magazine - so the easiest way is to click on "New Magazine" and just submit it to be added to the DB. If you do not have the complete contents or rather not add them, you can use the incomplete template to indicate that there are missing stories. Let me know if you need more assistance or if you need any more details. If you rather not try on your own, can you post here the contents of the magazine (as much or as little of it as you have/want to share and I can add it for you? Annie (talk) 14:47, 3 November 2025 (EST)

I've created the issue here, but I can't find a table of contents anywhere. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:37, 3 November 2025 (EST)

Uncredited author?

If a writer is only mentioned on the copyright page does it go down as uncredited with a varianting to the author? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 13:07, 6 November 2025 (EST)

We prefer to go with what is on the title page, then the cover. However, if no author is credited on the title page or cover, but they are credited on the copyright page, go ahead and enter the author and add a note to the publication explaining where the author credit came from. "Uncredited" should be reserved for instances where no one is credited anywhere in or on the publication. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:49, 6 November 2025 (EST)

got it cheers - Gaz Faustus (talk) 15:52, 6 November 2025 (EST)

Joe, please have a look at Jenny. I submitted my edition few days ago, and I did it the same way I found those already in the db: the title record is credited, but all the publications are not. Author name on copyright page is already in the Notes. Should that be changed? --Fantagufo (talk) 19:03, 7 November 2025 (EST)

Chinese Fairy Tales and Legends

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2618361

Can some kind person(s) who can get their head round stuff better than me help with this one. I've got a later printing of the hardback and i'm going to clone it and pv it. The title page has Richard Wilhelm and Frederick H. Martens as the "authors". The intro calls Wilhelm the "editor" and that Martens translated them into English. a bit of googling indicates that Wilhelm originally translated them into german and then Martens translated the german into english versions. all the story parent titles are in german and are by Wilhelm currently with no german books containing these titles. The english variants are all by "uncredited" with no translator notes. So given that the book says that Martens was the translator should the collection title be just by Wilhelm with a translator note for Martens? aand should all of the english variants of the stories be changed from "uncredited" to "Wilhelm" with tr notes by Martens? Gaz Faustus (talk) 08:15, 7 November 2025 (EST)

Print Publications with No Explicit Price on Cover or Elsewhere in the Book

Hi. This trade paperback (Tales of Girls and Gadgets) has no printed price on the cover, inside cover, or elsewhere in the publication, but our record lists a price field of $14.99 from a specific date on Amazon. Should I delete the price field and add a note of some sort? I can see from camelcamelcamel.com that the Amazon price has varied from $9.99 to $15.99 over the years, and I believe that Amazon is the only seller (through their print-on-demand program).

Also, how should I handle the price of the Kindle ebook. The indexer listed a price field of $4.99 on a specific date, and that price is still valid, but the price appears nowhere in the ebook and might have changed from time to time.

Thanks. --Michael Main 17:42, 8 November 2025 (EST)

If a book does not have a printed price, but we have a price from a secondary source, we record the price, but add a publication note stating that there is no price on the book along with the source of the price. If the price has varied over time, I would also include that in the pub notes and leave the original price. But I don't think we have a standard on that. -- JLaTondre (talk) 18:19, 8 November 2025 (EST)

Many thanks, JLaTondre! --Michael Main 20:53, 8 November 2025 (EST)

Can a fictional wolf be a canonical author?

I recently added a new kiddies book in the minecraft universe. the book has no author credit in it anywhere. the publisher , amazon and other places give the author as "Winston Wolf" which is the books lupine protagonist. i've not seen anywhere that gives the real author, so does the title by "uncredited" get varianted to "Winston Wolf"? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 18:53, 11 November 2025 (EST)

I would enter the author as it is on the title page of the book. If we don't know who the pseudonym is used by, we can leave it at that and put a note on the author page about who the character is. Once we figure out who the real author is, we can variant it to them. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 21:20, 11 November 2025 (EST)

mate i said the book has no author credit in it and has been entered as such. there's no name anywhere - zilch on the title page, cover, copyright page, spine, introduction by Harold bloom. maybe i should variant it to Harvey Keitel. Gaz Faustus (talk) 21:33, 11 November 2025 (EST)

Leave it as uncredited without a variant. If we don't know who to variant it to, there is no variant to create. We have many uncredited pubs without variants. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:06, 12 November 2025 (EST)

cheers will do - Gaz Faustus (talk) 08:45, 12 November 2025 (EST)

Missing Cover Artists

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisheryear.cgi?447+1967; I just made an edit adding cover image and cover artist Michel Gourdon to "La maison de l'esclave" which is the only 1967 book without an artist; a quick search of a few other 1960s years suggests there are none missing. Since Fleuve Noir has hundreds (thousands?) of books here is there a way to do an advanced search for those with missing artists from a major publisher like this without having to do a manual search year-by-year? --Username (talk) 09:51, 15 November 2025 (EST)

Does the presence of a Cover Artist mean there is necessarily a cover image? ../Doug H (talk) 08:25, 17 November 2025 (EST)

No! If we know about the artist, but don't have an image at hand, there'll be none displayed. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 09:11, 18 November 2025 (EST)

Display all the cover art from an artist.

Is there some way I can see all the cover art an artist has done in a similar way that you can "view covers for this year" from a publisher?

like this: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisheryear.cgi?34+1973+1 —The preceding unsigned comment was added by BookWolfen (talk • contribs) .

I think it's not possible, but there is a workaround:

1. go to isfdb.stoecker.eu that is a mirror of ISFDB whose developer created some additional functionalities;
2. search for the author name the usual way, and open their page;
3. in the section "editing tools" of the left menubar select "Search for duplicate titles";
4. at the top of the page, select "Cover mode normal" to see ALL the covers, or (I like this better) "Cover mode single" to see all the different covers (without variants).

and it's done! --Fantagufo (talk) 11:47, 17 November 2025 (EST)

I cant login to the isfdb.stoecker.eu. I even created a new login but I get the same message: "Login failed: User name not recognized" BookWolfen (talk) 04:16, 18 November 2025 (EST)

Since he also is active here, you might want to ask him about that problem on his talk page; (but maybe you haven't to login for this at all). Christian Stonecreek (talk) 09:00, 18 November 2025 (EST)

I too don't think that logging in is necessary; in anycase in a discussion on his talk page Stoecker describes his patches, and says: "You can login to this instance with your normal username and "test" as password". Just remember not to try to edit anything on that site. --Fantagufo (talk) 10:43, 18 November 2025 (EST)

Yup, tried all that with test as password. get User name not recognized allt the time. BookWolfen (talk) 03:01, 20 November 2025 (EST)

Should short "Author's Notes" be listed in collections?

I'm creating entries for a few self-published Angela Slatter ebook collections.

They open or close with very short Author's Notes of a few sentences or paragraphs. Should they be listed in the contents?

Examples:

• https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00S76NJDY
• https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00S9ITA88
• https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T256BXY
• https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08WWG5VZS - author's note and universe chronology is at the end, so not in the preview.

--Salty-horse (talk) 08:58, 19 November 2025 (EST)

ISFDB:Policy#Contents_always_included says:

• Essays: Shorter works of nonfiction (other than reviews and interviews; see below) contained in a larger work, i.e. book or magazine, are entered as ESSAY type in the "Regular Titles" section of the data entry form. These include, but are not limited to:
  • Forewords, introductions, prefaces, afterwords, endnotes, etc.: These should all be included.

Conversely, ISFDB:Policy#Contents_included_with_exceptions says:

• Story introductions/afterwords: In some cases, anthologies or collections include introductions (or, less often, afterwords) to individual works. If these are short and amount to blurbs, they should not be indexed separately. When they amount to critical essays or otherwise have significant content, they should be included. This is always a judgment call. In borderline cases, signed introductions are more worthy of inclusion than ones which would need to be attributed to "uncredited".

Since the "Author Notes" in question apply to collections as opposed to individual stories, I think the first rule should be applied and the "Author Notes" should be included. Even if we were to apply the second rule, I think we could still include them because they contain just enough non-trivial content. Ahasuerus (talk) 11:34, 19 November 2025 (EST)

How do you decide what's trivial or not? I think this note (quoted in full) is trivial: "These stories have been published previously in one form or another. I've wanted for some time to put together a few mini-collections to give new readers a taste of my work. Four Dark Tales is the first of these." --Salty-horse (talk) 11:37, 19 November 2025 (EST)

In a case like that, you could go either way. If it was me, I would mention that note in the Notes for the publication, but not include it as content. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:11, 19 November 2025 (EST)

Adding my latest novels

It's been a while since I've been here, but you've always been patient. My latest novels, Well Met by Water and Velvet of Swords, are on Amazon. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Joy V. Smith (talk • contribs) . 01:06, 24 November 2025‎ (EST)

You can see how to enter a new novel here. If you have any questions, please let us know. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:50, 24 November 2025 (EST)

I cloned this book and...

...then uploaded my cover scan and it says "A file with this name exists already...". what should I do next? it says "modify the file description" but which bit and to what? or theres the option to ignore and upload anyway.

[8]

this is the cover it shows which is the wrong one anyway [9] - Gaz Faustus (talk) 20:30, 26 November 2025 (EST)

Looks like it's because there is more than one "Mostly Harmless" with a date unknown and that publisher. Ahasuerus may have to answer this one since those filenames are automatically created. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 20:51, 26 November 2025 (EST)

The existing image is used by this pub. When I click the "Upload new cover scan" link on that pub, it gives the new file name as MSTLHRMLSK0000.jpg and not the MSTLHRMLSC0000.jpg your publication produces. I don't know why the existing image ended up at your location, but I have moved it over to the "correct" location. You can now upload your image. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:48, 27 November 2025 (EST)

cheers done it - GazFaustus (talk) 08:58, 27 November 2025 (EST)

Translator given as author

The "mag" i'm doing has a story which is a translation and gives "A. H. Wratislaw" as the author. wikisource states the author is "Ján Francisci" and gives Wratislaw as the translator. is this one of those where you use the (in error) after the name and then variant it to the real author? - GazFaustus (talk) 21:59, 27 November 2025 (EST)

have just found the story on here under another author name with a variant of that name on the story title page so i think I've got this one sussed. Gaz Faustus (talk) 12:39, 28 November 2025 (EST)

Oral Folk stories

I am trying to get my head round some of these in the Folklore journal. the latest one says this before the story which is in english.

"The following story was narrated by John Williams ... to Mr. Llyrarch Reynolds ... Mr. David Lewis ... and myself (E. Sidney Hartland). It was told in Welsh, and copious notes were taken on the spot by Mr. Lewis, who afterwards read them over again to me. Mr. Lewis has also kindly compared the following (which was written the next morning from memory), with the notes in question, and corrected it by them."

So is this a story with John Williams as the author in welsh with the englsh version a variant with Hartland (and Lewis?) as the translators? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 14:13, 30 November 2025 (EST)

Sorta kinda cloning a publication

I published a new version of The Collected Feghoot. It has all of the content of the 1992 version, but adds a new foreword by Dean Smith and some new illustrations to supplement the ones Tim Kirk did. So I'd like to clone it and add the new stuff. Problem is that the title is different: The new version is called Through Time and Space with Ferdinand Feghoot. If I choose to clone the Pulphouse version, I can't edit the title. Is there any way to partially clone the old version, or do I have to enter everything manually? --Mphillips (talk) 22:02, 2 December 2025 (EST)

In this case it's best to add a new publication record of type COLLECTION (with the new title), already entering the new stuff (i.e. titles), and after that's approved to import the titles already in the database. Hope that helps, Christian Stonecreek (talk) 01:25, 3 December 2025 (EST)

OK, thanks for the advice. I'll do that. --Mphillips (talk) 09:29, 3 December 2025 (EST)

Thanks for publishing this new edition of The Collected Feghoot! I received my copy yesterday. Unfortunately the contents need to be entered as new titles and varianted to the existing parent, because the previous editions were as by Grendel Briarton. I'll start with this now, and maybe finish tomorrow. --Willem (talk) 16:21, 7 December 2025 (EST)

I should have kept it as Grendel Briarton! Sorry to make the extra work. --Mphillips (talk) 21:24, 8 December 2025 (EST)

No problem, just takes some more time. Any plans to publish more Reginald Bretnor books? They are very hard to find (and expensive). --Willem (talk) 04:22, 9 December 2025 (EST)

John Betancourt at Wildside Press owns Bretnor's stuff. He says he's planning to release some Bretnor books, but it wasn't a priority. --Mphillips (talk) 10:41, 9 December 2025 (EST)

I see. So there's hope. The Collected Feghoot should be complete now, please check and, if necessary, correct things. Thanks! --Willem (talk) 10:48, 9 December 2025 (EST)

Incorrect publications listed under Year's Best SF: 22nd Annual Collection

I'm reporting this but can't really fix this myself, so I thank any kind souls who wish to do the work.

The title The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Second Annual Collection includes several entries, some of them of the actual collection, and the other is several entries of "The Mammoth Book of Best New Science Fiction: 18th Annual Collection", "The Year's Best Science Fiction (vol. IV)", and "The Year's Best Science Fiction (vol. III)"

The Mammoth book are listed as having the same contents as the Year's Best, but this is probably wrong. The cover of the Mammoth book mentions authors that are not in the TOC. (I have no access to the book itself so couldn't verify).

The two volumes of "The Year's Best Science Fiction" are completely different in contents.

They should all be separated, and the Mammoth book should be corrected with the actual contents. --Salty-horse (talk) 03:12, 10 December 2025 (EST)

Maybe the Mammoth book has the same contents, and just one of the covers is incorrect (probably copying the author list from an earlier edition). 276212's cover mentions Greg Egan, but 904299's does not.

Based on images here of the first few pages (no TOC) I think it has the same contents. --Salty-horse (talk) 04:56, 10 December 2025 (EST)

Things like that do happen. The book edition of 'Mammoth' ain't primary verified, so it's possible the actual cover does differ; the ebook edition is primary verified, so it'd be best to pose questions as to the contents on the PV's talk page.

For the 'The Year's Best Science Fiction (vol. ?)' note that these are Romanian translations (and if there are problems, it's best to ask the user who added them). Hope that helps a bit. Stonecreek (talk) 07:51, 10 December 2025 (EST)

Ah, I see. The translated edition was split into two volumes, and the TOC appeared different at first glance, but I see the same stories. For the bad cover, I imagine the publisher did put it out with the incorrect text on the cover. Not worth digging into, IMO. Thanks for the clarification! --Salty-horse (talk) 10:00, 10 December 2025 (EST)

Trying to add recent novel

Just trying again to add a recent novel. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Joy V. Smith (talk • contribs) . 22:44, 15 December 2025‎ (EST)

Which novel? Have you reviewed the information found here on adding publications? ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:44, 16 December 2025 (EST)

Artist Identification for Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow (Bantam, 1952)

Hello, I would like to submit a confirmed artist credit for the Bantam 1952 paperback edition of Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow (edited by Ray Bradbury). After direct physical examination of a first-printing copy, I located the artist’s signature “Binger” on the back cover, beneath the hourglass illustration, confirming that the wraparound artwork was created by Charles Binger. This signature is printed in the original cover art and has not previously been documented in public bibliographies. Please update the ISFDB record accordingly. Best regards, Bob “The Bookman” DePino (December 2, 2025)

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?51648

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Bob.The.Bookman.DePino (talk • contribs) . 09:10, 18 December 2025‎ (EST)

It looks like you submitted an update on December 2 and it was approved on December 3. Is there something additional you wanted to do with it? ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:12, 18 December 2025 (EST)

I did add a note indicating the signature was visible on the back cover, as you wrote above. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:13, 18 December 2025 (EST)