User talk:AlanMintaka

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Welcome!

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

I hope you enjoy editing here! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will insert your name and the date. If you need help, check out the community portal, or ask me on my talk page. Again, welcome! Ahasuerus 10:26, 19 Oct 2007 (CDT)

Amazing disappearing submission

Submission approved; question answered. Thanks! Ahasuerus 15:25, 30 September 2008 (UTC)

Submission of Strange Mysteries 2, 12/10/2010

I have a copy of Strange Mysteries 2 and can add a primary verification to this record once it's entered in the database. By that time I should also have a cover image ready (haven't scanned it yet but will later tonight).

Submission of Strange Mysteries 2, 12/10/2010 - Errata

The publisher's name is spelled incorrectly. In the submission, the spelling is

Whortleby Press

The spelling should be

Whortleberry Press

I'm keeping notes on this submission and will fix that error when the publication is added.

Is there a way to edit a pending submission, or should this be deferred until after the book publication is added?

You can reject a submission before it's been accepted. (Go to the "My Pending Edits" list.) Otherwise you'll have to wait until after it's been accepted to make any edits to the record. Mhhutchins 22:21, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for your time, Big Al Mintaka 21:44, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

I've accepted the submission (here's the record.) There are a few problems that need to be worked out:
  1. Short nonfiction pieces should be entered as ESSAY type instead of NONFICTION which is reserved for book-length works. You also need to disambiguate generic titles so the Preface should be titled "Preface (Strange Mysteries 2)".
  2. The binding type field entry "Paperback" needs to be changed to either "pb" (mass-market paperback) or "tp" (trade paperback).
  3. Price field should give the currency. If US dollars add "$" before the price.
  4. Does this publication have any date at all? Can we assume that all of the stories are original to this anthology? If so, they should all have the same date as the publication itself.
  5. Publication series field should be blank. This appears to be a Title series which is handled at the title level (add it to this title record).
  6. The synopsis field should not be used for promotional purposes. It should be objective data about the book's plot, and not repeat the authors or contents information which is part of the publication record.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask here. You might want to check out the links in the Welcome section above which provides help for entering pubs into the database. Thanks. Mhhutchins 22:18, 14 December 2010 (UTC)
Looking at the page on Lulu.com gives the date as March 23, 2009 (enter as 2009-03-23), and the size would indicate the binding as "tp". Mhhutchins 22:28, 14 December 2010 (UTC)
Thanks for taking the time to review the submission. I've made the suggested changes as described below, but first note that the link you provided at Lulu.Com is for Strange Mysteries, not Strange Mysteries 2. The differences can be seen in the publication dates, page counts, and prices. Per those and other differences, here is how I implemented the changes in your numbered list of suggestions:
  1. Preface title was changed to "Preface (Strange Mysteries 2)" and type was changed to ESSAY. I left the Length field "-" since I wasn't sure how those values should be used for ESSAY.
  2. Binding was changed to "tp" per your added note.
  3. Currency "$" added to price.
  4. RE publication dates of the stories: the only statement of publication date is this on the copyright page: "All contents copyright 2009". I looked through the book for individual publication dates for the stories but found none. Given the publication date on Lulu.Com, I used 2010-10-18 for the publication date of the book. Because of the date shown for "All contents" on the copyright page, I entered 2009-00-00 for each story (except the one by Poe which you provided, thanks for looking that up!).
  5. I removed the publication series info and moved it to the corresponding fields in the title record.
  6. Sorry about that synopsis. I lifted it from Amazon via an XML query for this book. You're right, what Amazon calls a "Synopsis" is really a promo. I deleted it from the title record via another submission.
  7. While I was editing the title record, I also added the publication date 2010-10-18.
  8. I fixed "Whortleberry" too.
Thanks once again for taking all that time to review this submission. I hope I haven't made matters worse with these changes; next time I add a new pub I'll be more careful along these lines. Big Al Mintaka 04:24, 16 December 2010 (UTC)
We understand fully that new editors require some time in order to learn all the intricacies of entering and updating records. It's something we've all gone through. If you continue contributing, it shouldn't take long before you feel comfortable with each submission. I've made a few more changes in the pub record, the major one changing the publication date from 2009-00-00 to 2010-10-18. The copyright year is not the publication date and, for the most part, isn't used to determine that date. If a pub doesn't state the publication date, you can use secondary sources, but make sure to give the source in the record's field notes. Thanks for contributing. Mhhutchins 05:46, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Links to uploaded images

Hi. When you upload a cover image and link to it, don't use the main page (http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/Image:BILLGH1965.jpg), but rather use the link to the image on that page. You can right-click on either the image itself or the link that appears below the image and Copy Shortcut (or Copy Link Location or Copy Image Location) to get the URL that should be used for the cover image link (http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/images/3/39/BILLGH1965.jpg). I fixed up the link for Bill: The Galactic Hero. It's a little tricky to remember that. Thanks for upload and for contributing. --MartyD 11:59, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

Sorry about that. By this note on my user page, I should get it right next time around. Thanks for your patience and have a good one. Big Al Mintaka 05:18, 29 January 2011 (UTC)
Not a problem. It's one of a collection of little quirks that take some getting used to. You are not the first person to be bitten by it, and you won't the last, so you're in good company. And no need to worry about knowing all of the quirks; that's what moderators are here for. Don't hesitate to take your best shot at entering information -- you can't damage anything -- or ask for help (see some links at the top of this page). We're always happy to see people contributing. --MartyD 11:40, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

Recent submissions/verifications for Alien Dust, by E. C. Tubb

Hi, RE recent submissions to Alien Dust, by EC Tubb, 1957 Avalon:

  1. Per MartyD's response in the Comm Portal, I've added a Clute/Nicholls verification sans any notes explaining the rationale. As MartyD pointed out, Reference:Verification_Sources shows that a missing publisher is not atypical for Clute/Nicholls. In that case, the entry for Alien Dust in Clute/Nicholls should suffice as verification since Avalon was the only US Publisher in 1957:
    "Alien Dust (1952-3 NW; 1954 Nebula; fixup 1955; expurgated 1957 US)"
    If you think a note to that effect is still necessary, let me know and I'll add it.
  2. I changed the note on price
    From: "Price from Tuck"
    To: "Price from DJ front flap".
    This is probably the default for books with DJs that have intact prices, but I wanted to explain why I had changed the Tuck reference rather than just delete it. If you'd rather see no note at all given that I verified the primary and saw the price on the DJ, feel free to axe it or let me know and I'll get rid of it.

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by AlanMintaka (talk • contribs) .

Hi. If you have questions, your best bet is to post them on ISFDB:Help_desk (for general questions) or ISFDB:Moderator_noticeboard for problems with submissions. Those pages will be watched (and by more people), which may not be true of your talk page. But no harm done, and I noticed your questions, so....
You don't need a note about Clute/Nicholls. What you did is fine. For the price (and any other details), the assumption is that the information came from the book. Information not from the book (i.e., from a secondary source or deduced somehow) should be noted. So it's normal when fixing up an entry originally constructed from secondary sources to delete notes. In your example here, there's no need to replace the Tuck price source note, you could just delete it. That said, it's always ok to supply detailed notes -- people often do, especially to document the cover artist credit (which can appear in multiple forms in multiple places in/on a book) -- if you want to. --MartyD 11:03, 31 January 2011 (UTC)
OK, thanks for the heads-up about those boards. I think I'm going to go ahead and remove the price note from Alien Dust so as to leave room for more important content that anyone else might want to post there. Have a good one, Big Al Mintaka 04:40, 1 February 2011 (UTC)
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