Help:How to enter a SFBC publication

This page is a help or manual page for the ISFDB database. It describes standards or methods for entering or maintaining data in the ISFDB database, or otherwise working with the database. Other help pages may be found via the category below. To discuss what should go on this page, use the talk page. If, after exploring the Help system, you still have a question, please visit the Help desk and let us know. We probably know the answer, but we need your help to know what we left out of the help pages. If you are new to editing the ISFDB, please see Help:Getting Started. For more on this and other header templates, see Header templates.

ISFDB Entry Standards for the SFBC

The entry of Science Fiction Book Club editions presents a situation which involves the submission of data that is contradictory to many ISFDB standards. Because these editions lack so much vital bibliographic information, rules regarding the submission of data that is present within the publication itself must be overlooked. Secondary sources become virtually the only source for this data.

Please note that these standards apply to the US book club operated by Doubleday. There was a Science Fiction Book Club in the UK operated by Sidgwick & Jackson (later part of the Readers Union Group of Book Clubs.) It was formed within months of Doubleday's club, and was dissolved in 1982.

Field Entries

Date

Until fairly recently, the publication dates were never stated in SFBC editions, but there are several entry methods that can be used to avoid entering an undated edition (with date "0000-00-00"). The primary source for dates would be Things to Come, the book club's monthly announcement flyer. But there are several secondary sources as well:

1. For all publications from 1953 through 1968, there is a listing in Volume Three of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy by Donald H. Tuck. Use the month and year in which the book was the club selection. When the selection is a seasonal one, use the month immediately preceding it (e.g. for "Summer 1968" use 1968-07-00).
2. For publications after 1969, use the date stated in the monthly listings of Locus magazine. The early issues of the magazine do not supply the complete bibliographic data provided in the later issues.
3. For publications after 1983, you may also use the Locus1 website which currently lists publications up through 2006. Some care must be taken in accepting the dates from this listing, because the dates given are for the month in which Locus received the book. More than 90% of the time this would be the same as the month of the book's selection. But there are occasional divergences.

WARNING: Although it might be tempting to use the gutter code as the publication date for books published between 1959 and 1987, please be aware that these codes only record the week in which the book was printed. The publication date (date of availability to the club members) averages six weeks later.

Publisher

Only in recent years has the SFBC published titles crediting themselves as the publisher. Until then most publications of the SFBC were not identified as such within the book itself. This makes it necessary for editors to distinguish these editions from the trade editions. In most cases, adding " / SFBC" to the original publisher's name is sufficient. [Note the spaces surrounding the slash.]

WARNING: Locus, on both its website and in its hard copy listings, only credits "SFBC" as the publisher. This is, for the most part, not entirely correct, because it fails to mention the publisher as credited in the book itself. If entering data from a book-in-hand, state the publisher as printed in the book, adding " / SFBC".

Pages

Be sure that you're getting the page count from a book club edition as they are often not the same as the trade edition.

ISBN/Catalog #

The SFBC did not use ISBNs until circa 2000. If no ISBN is printed on the title verso (copyright) page, you may use the number located on the dust jacket, preceded by a pound sign (#). This number is at the bottom of the back inside flap of early editions, and on the back of the dust jacket on later editions. You may also use the catalog number printed in the book club announcement flyer, but in most instances an additional number was added to these listings. Locus also provided these catalog numbers, and for publications since 1984, in their online database. If you're not entering from a copy in hand, it might be best to leave this field blank.

WARNING: Starting in the 1990s the book club would occasionally reprint a trade edition without changing the copyright page, in essence leaving all the information of the trade edition intact. When it is obvious that this is a book club reprint, do not use the ISBN printed on the copyright page in the ISFDB record's ISBN field. Instead, enter the SFBC catalog number preceded by a pound sign. This number can usually be found printed in a white box on the back of the dustjacket. Then enter the ISBN into the record's note field. The following ISBN prefixes were used by Bookspan (owner of the SFBC) for book club editions: 1-56865- (1989-1999), 0-7394- (1999-present) and 1-58288- (2004-present). If the ISBN doesn't fall into these ranges, it is probably the ISBN of the trade edition and should not be used for the record of the SFBC edition.

Price

SFBC editions never print the club's price for several reasons: prices can be changed without reprinting dust jackets; prices can vary depending on which division of the book club is offering the selection; direct marketing of books presents a non-competitive strategy in product pricing. (Titles were generally available as book club editions from only one source. If Doubleday bought book club rights, that title would not be available through Book-of-the-Month.) Because of this awkward situation, we suggest that the price of the title's first SFBC edition be the price entered in this field. (This, of course, would not apply if there is a new edition published several years later. There have been at least three different SFBC editions of Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man: Shasta, Nelson Doubleday, and Vintage.) The same sources shown above for the Date field can also be sources for prices, especially the club's announcement flyer.

Conclusion

If you're entering data from a copy in hand, and if there's a Gutter Code printed in your edition, enter it into the Notes field. This would narrow down the printing date of your particular edition. Because a book club edition may have several printings, and each may be designated by its Gutter Code, you may be tempted to create a new pub record for each printing. Before doing so, please ask at the Moderator Noticeboard. It is the current practice to create only one record for each title, and include any Gutter Codes (if present) in the Notes field. A new record is created if the catalog number or ISBN changes, as this usually indicates a new edition of the title (as the case of The Demolished Man referenced above.)

Of course, in any instance where secondary sources are unavailable leave the field blank. Another editor may have access to more data which can be added later. If time permits, you could also link the publication to the SFBC listings in this Wiki. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask at the Help Desk.