Template:PublicationFields:PubType

• Pub Type - Identifies the type of publication. On the New Publication page, this field is not editable and the value is pre-filled based on which "New ..." menu option you previously selected. On the Edit Publication page, this is a drop down menu of the following choices:
  • ANTHOLOGY. A publication containing fiction by more than one author, not written in collaboration, should be typed as an ANTHOLOGY. For example, "Late Knight Edition" contains stories by both Damon Knight and Kate Wilhelm, individually; this is an anthology, not a collection. If a book of Conan stories contains stories which are all partly or wholly by Robert E. Howard, it is a collection; if one or more of the stories is by Lin Carter or L. Sprague de Camp, not in collaboration with Howard, then the book is an anthology.
  • CHAPBOOK. This publication type is a unique ISFDB designation for a separate publication of a single work of SHORTFICTION (q.v.), a single POEM or a single SERIAL installment of a longer work. In addition to the single SHORTFICTION, POEM or SERIAL content record, such publications may also contain one or more ESSAY and INTERIORART content records. This type covers all bindings and formats, including ebooks and audiobooks of less-than-novel length fiction.
    • Do not use this type for publications which contain a single ESSAY without a SHORTFICTION, POEM or SERIAL content. Those publications should be entered as NONFICTION.
    • Publications with more than one SHORTFICTION, POEM or SERIAL content record should be entered as ANTHOLOGY (for multiple-author publications) or COLLECTION (for single-author publications). The following types of SHORTFICTION titles are ignored when deciding whether the publication is a CHAPBOOK:
      • Supporting and incidental material such as excerpts, synopses, and fictionalized essays
      • Up to one bonus short story, poem or short serial installment, but only if the publication's title page lists only the main title and the main title's author(s)
    • Do not merge a CHAPBOOK's title record with its identically titled content record. (The "Check for Duplicate Titles" function no longer matches such records for merging consideration.)
    • CHAPBOOK title records should not contain a synopsis nor be entered into a title series. Both of those should be added to the content title record.
    • This type should not be confused with the generally accepted publishing format for pamphlets called chapbook or the term used for books intended for intermediate readers called chapter book.
  • COLLECTION. A publication containing two or more works of SHORTFICTION or POEMs by a single author or authors writing in collaboration should be typed as a COLLECTION. The typing of individual publications which contain works with various combinations of author credit should be discussed on the Community Portal on a case-by-case basis. The title page credit should be the major factor in determining the types of these kinds of publications. Excerpts from other works published after a NOVEL for promotional purposes do not make the publication into a COLLECTION.
  • FANZINE. This publication type is to be used for non-professional or amateur-published magazines.
  • MAGAZINE. This publication type is to be used for both professionally published magazines and newspapers. As a general rule, a magazine must have a common title from issue to issue and an enumeration (or dating) system of some kind. However, note that in some cases it can be difficult to determine if something should be entered as a magazine or as a book. For example, some magazines were published using a physical format which made them look like books. Conversely, some series of books were published with titles which included their publication date and included letter columns. Borderline cases such as the New Worlds Quarterly anthology series should be discussed on ISFDB:Help desk or the Community Portal.
  • NONFICTION. This publication type should be used for books that are predominantly or completely non-fiction. This includes book-length works of non-fiction or books containing essays by one or more authors. A publication that contains both non-fiction and fiction should be typed by that which is predominant. A single work of fiction in an Isaac Asimov essay collection does not make it a COLLECTION. A book of fiction (NOVEL, COLLECTION, or ANTHOLOGY) containing a generous, but not predominate, amount of non-fiction, such as introductions, essays, and other non-fiction works, should not be typed as NONFICTION. Mixtures of fiction and non-fiction are more usually found in magazines than they are in books, so the question does not often arise.
  • NOVEL. Used when the book is devoted to a single work of fiction. The addition of multiple short stories makes the book a collection, not a novel (A single story is a judgment call, see below). However, sample chapters placed at the end of a book for advertising reasons do not make a novel into a collection. If a book is packaged as a single volume work, and then republished as a multi-volume work, all the publications are novels; there is no need to classify the single volume work as an omnibus. Conversely, if a book is originally published as multiple volumes, and republished as a single volume, the latter is a novel unless the presentation within the single volume makes it clear that the works are presented as separate novels. Sometimes a novel is bound with a single short work of fiction by the same author (an example is this edition of The Misenchanted Sword). In such a case it is often preferred to class the publication as a novel with a "Bonus story" rather than a 2-item collection or omnibus. This is particularly true if the publication has the same title as the novel. It is a judgment call, however.
  • OMNIBUS. A publication may be classified as an omnibus if it contains multiple works that have previously been published independently, and at least one of them is a NOVEL, ANTHOLOGY, COLLECTION, or NONFICTION. However, generally this category should not be used unless the other categories do not seem appropriate. For example, if a publication contains stories that have previously been published independently in pamphlet form, this should be classified as an anthology. A collection such as Robert Heinlein's "The Past Through Tomorrow" should be categorized as a collection, although one of the works is a novel. "Omnibus" is appropriate for such publications as the Science Fiction Book Club's collections of three independent novels by different authors under one set of covers; or for a single-volume edition of all the Amber novels by Roger Zelazny. If none of the contents have been published before, the inclination should be to classify the publication as an anthology, rather than an omnibus, but this does not have to be an absolute rule. The distinction between "Omnibus" and the other types is somewhat subjective and may require discussion on ISFDB:Help desk or the Community Portal.
  • Boxed sets. Boxed sets which have additional data elements (ISBNs, cover art, etc) not present in the individual books that they collect should be entered as OMNIBUS publications. Boxed sets which do not have additional data elements and are merely bundlings of pre-existent books should not be entered.
  • Other Types
    • Fixups. This is a single work composed primarily of several previously published works. It should generally be typed as NOVEL. Some fixups are less coherent, consisting of largely independent stories, formed into a whole by the addition of linking material between the stories. In these cases, it is possible that the publication could be typed as either COLLECTION or NOVEL. The decision should be discussed with other verifiers or on a community page if there is any doubt. Factors that should be taken into consideration: table of contents page, title pages for the constituent parts, the publisher's marketing of the book, and the author's personal designation of the work.
    • "Split" novels. Occasionally a novel will be published as a single volume, and then republished (perhaps in another country) as two or more separate volumes. For example, Peter Hamilton's "Night's Dawn" trilogy was republished as six volumes in the US. The first book, "The Reality Dysfunction", was republished as "The Reality Dysfunction, Part One: Emergence", and "The Reality Dysfunction, Part Two: Expansion". The other two volumes were treated similarly. In these situations, the books should be treated as novels, even though they form only part of a work published as a novel. Also note that the original book is still treated as a novel; it does not become an OMNIBUS because it contains two works later republished as novels. Situations like this should be documented in the Notes field.