Project Overview
The purpose of this project is to evaluate apparent violations of the standards, as specified in the ISFDB rules, on the names used in the Publisher fields of our books. These are not particularly strict rules. For example, we do not try to use a "Canonical Name" for a particular publisher. Instead, we prefer to record the name the publisher used on a particular book, which may vary across time. However, there are certain minimal standards:
- Case should be regularized unless there is a clear reason not to. For example, a Tor book often gives the imprint name as "TOR Books"; this should be entered as "Tor Books". DAW, however, is an acronym, and so "DAW Books" is the correct form for that imprint. Publishers of magazines are often printed in uppercase -- e.g. Fantastic Universe's statement of printing shows "KING-SIZE PUBLICATIONS, INC." as the publisher; the form "King-Size Publications, Inc." should be used here.
- If you are entering both the imprint and publisher name, as in "Del Rey / Ballantine", then it should be entered as Imprint / Publisher with the imprint first, spaces around the slash, followed by the publisher name. Note, it's still ok to enter things like "Imprint, an imprint of Publisher". The things we want to avoid are the Imprint/Publisher (with no space) and Publisher / Imprint (imprint / publisher flipped around) and formats.
- Library records, and in some cases the copyright pages of books, often list publishers with a preceding city, as "London: Mammoth Books Ltd" or "New York: Giant Press inc". In such cases, list only the actual name of the publisher, not the city. (Existing records should not be changed to match this standard without considering how to avoid data loss). The city or country can be listed in the notes field of the publisher record, or on an associated wiki page, or both. Where needed to avoid confusion, a country suffix may be used, so we might have, for example, "Mammoth Books (UK)" and "Mammoth Books (Canada)".
- Science Fiction Book Club books should be entered as "Publisher / SFBC" where Publisher is the publisher name stated on the publication.
In addition, where it does not conflict with the actual statement of publisher on a book, we would prefer to merge different publisher names. This, however, is not currently an active component of this project (although various editors try to do this when they notice apparent examples).
For a more complete list of the publisher rules, or to see if the rules have changed since 2012-04-08, see Publication Fields:Publisher.
This project does not yet attempt to address rule #1 above. The publishers that may be in violation of the other rules are collected below, with the known status of evaluating them with respect to these rules.
Avoid "Imprint/Publisher" (no spaces)
Publishers whose name contains a "/" with no spaces around it are listed below. In some cases, we know that this format is justified, as indicated below. In most situations, however, this is probably not the case. Editors working to correct these publisher names should not assume that the current listing has the correct order of imprint and publisher (imprint first), but should verify which of the names included is an imprint of the other.
Avoid "Publisher / Imprint" (publisher first)
We do not yet have a listing of potential violaters of this rule.
Avoid City Names in Publisher Names
Rule #3 above asks us to avoid the use of city names (and, possibly, country names) in the publisher field. Existing publishers that have cities and countries included in their names appear to be:
| Publisher |
Status |
| Alella, Barcelona: Pleniluni Ciència-Ficció | |
| Aosta: Keltia Editrice | |
| Argentina: Fantaciencia | |
| Argentina: Muchnil | |
| Baldwin Park, CA: Camelot Pub. Co. | |
| Barcelona : Molino | |
| Barcelona : Molino D.L. | |
| Beograd: Jugoslavija | |
| Bilbao (Spain): Albia | |
| Boston: World Peace Foundation | |
| Bratislava: Mlade Leta | |
| București : Editura Nemira | |
| Bucuresti: Aldo Press | |
| Bucuresti: Tineretului | |
| Buenos Aires: Editorial Losada | |
| Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana | |
| Chatsworth, Calif.: GX: distributed by Zorro | |
| Chicago: Covici-McGee | |
| Conway, Wales: R. E. Jones & Bros., Ltd., printers | |
| Derby: The Regent Library, F. Murray | |
| East Aurora: Roycrofters | |
| Edinburgh: Patrick Geddes | |
| Fiji: Nostal'giia | |
| France: Editions de l'Aurore | |
| Gdańsk : Phantom Press | |
| Greensburg, PA: Tribune Press | |
| Hudson Publishing: Hawthorn [Australia] | |
| İstanbul : Sarmal | |
| Kaunas: Eridanas | |
| Kharkiv: Vesta | |
| Köln: Könemann | |
| La Jolla, CA: Lane & Associates | |
| London: ?? | |
| London: A. F. Bird | |
| London: Alston Rivers | |
| London: Ballantyne & Co. | |
| London: Baynes & Son | |
| London: Charles Wilson Deacon & Co. | |
| London: Collins | |
| London: Daily Telegraph | |
| London: Derek Verschoyle | |
| London: E. Benn; New York: Coward-McCann | |
| London: Elek | |
| London: Elliot Stock | |
| London: Grant Richards and H. Toulmin/Cayme Press | |
| London: Grant Richards's Colonial Library | |
| London: Gryphon Books | |
| London: J. Baker for The Richards Press | |
| London: J. Bell | |
| London: J. Bowden | |
| London: J. Dodsley | |
| London: John Lane; Boston: Roberts Brothers | |
| London: John Lehmann | |
| London: John Morphew | |
| London: Magread Limited | |
| London: Minerva Press, Lane | |
| London: Nelson's Library | |
| London: Pitman | |
| London: Primitive Press | |
| London: Reeves & Turner | |
| London: Sir I. Pitman & Sons | |
| London: Spottiswoode | |
| London: Swan Sonnenschein | |
| London: T.H. Lacy | |
| Los Angeles, CA: Unicorn & Son | |
| Los Angeles: Western Lights Publishing | |
| MA: Odyssey Publications | |
| Madrid: Siglo Veintiuno de Espana Editores | |
| Melbourne: Georgian House | |
| Melbourne: Text Publishing | |
| Mem Martins, Portugal: Publicações Europa-América | |
| Midwood / Tower, New York: | |
| Milano: Baldini E Castoldi | |
| Milano: Ponzoni | |
| Milwaukee: Raintree Publishers | |
| Mokelumne Hill, CA: Health Research | |
| Moscow: Ad Marginem | |
| Moscow: AST/Yermak | |
| Moscow: Malysh Publishers | |
| Moscow: Zakharov | |
| Moskwa: Maladaja Gwardija | |
| Munich: Langenscheidt-Longman | |
| New Delhi: Ravi Rayal Publisher | |
| New York: ? | |
| New York: Alliance Pub Co. | |
| New York: American Jewish Committee | |
| New York: AMS Press | |
| New York: Bodleian Society | |
| New York: Brentano's | |
| New York: E. Bliss | |
| New York: E. Bliss & E. White | |
| New York: Epstein & Carroll | |
| New York: Exposition Press | |
| New York: F. Tennyson Neeley | |
| New York: Grolier Club | |
| New York: Hagemann Publishing Co. | |
| New York: International Publishers | |
| New York: McCall Pub. Co. | |
| New York: Mershon Company | |
| New York: Nimmo's Popular Tales | |
| New York: R. H. Russell | |
| New York: Religious Book Club | |
| New York: Sheridan House | |
| New York: The H.K. Fly Company | |
| New York: The Macmillan company; London: Macmillan & co., ltd. | |
| New York: W. H. Freeman | |
| News Stand Library, Toronto: Export Publishing | |
| North Cheam: Young World Productions | |
| Odessa, Ukraine: Variant | |
| Oregon: Perri Press | |
| Oslo: Aschehoug | |
| Paris: Aubier-Flammarion | |
| Paris: Del Duca | |
| Paris: Denöel | |
| Paris: Ditis | |
| Paris: Dom Knigi | |
| Paris: Gallimard | |
| Paris: Librairie Hachette | |
| Paris: Librairie Nouvelle | |
| Paris: Plasma | |
| Paris: Sintaksis | |
| Portland, Oregon: Wrigley-Cross | |
| Portugal: Publicacoes Europa | |
| Prague: Cinema | |
| Praha: Detske Knihy | |
| Praha: Magnet | |
| Praha: Talpress | |
| Richmond: Reynolds & Hearn | |
| Rio de Janeiro: Record | |
| Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura | |
| Saint Louis: Concordia Pub. House | |
| San Diego: House of Fire Press | |
| San Diego: Leisure Book | |
| San Francisco: Anamnesis Press | |
| San Simeon, CA: Serendipity Systems | |
| Sandy, UT: Sunflower Publishing | |
| Shanghai: Commercial Press | |
| Shippensburg, PA: White Mane Kids | |
| Shippensburg, PA: White Mane Pub. | |
| Sofia, Bulgaria: SCC Computer | |
| Sofija: Narodna Mladiez | |
| Soul-si : Haengbokhan Ch`aek Ilki | |
| Spain: Cenit | |
| Spain: Janes | |
| Spain: Nebula | |
| St. Vital, Manitoba: Canadian Science Fiction Association | |
| Stockholm: Albert Bonnier | |
| Stockholm: Bonnier | |
| Stockholm: Fören. Sverige-kuriren | |
| Sweden: Bonnier | |
| Sweden: FA-Press | |
| Sweden: Gleerup | |
| Sweden: Nova Pocket, Scand Book | |
| Sydney, Australia: Currawong Publishing Co, | |
| Sydney: Jubilee | |
| Sydney: Judd Pub. Co. | |
| Sydney: Pan Books (Piper Fantasy imprint) | |
| Sydney: Pinnacle Books | |
| Tacoma: The Non-Profit Press | |
| Taibei Shi : Huang guan chu ban she (a.k.a. Taipei) | |
| Taibei Shi : Mao tou ying (cheng bang) (a.k.a. Taipei) | |
| Tokyo: Kinseido | |
| Tokyo: Ota Shuppan | |
| Tokyo: Shincho Sha | |
| Toronto: Ambassador | |
| Toronto: Harper & Collins | |
| Toronto: S. J. Reginald Saunders | |
| Vega: The Hungarian Fan Publishing House | |
| Warszawa: Amber | |
| Warszawa: Wydawnictwo MON | |
| Washington: ? | |
| Wellington, N.Z.: First Edition | |
| Wiesbaden: F.A. Brockhaus | |
| Windsor, Ontario: Netherlandic Press | |
Use "SFBC" for Book Club publishers