User talk:ErsatzCulture

Archived talk

• User:ErsatzCulture/Talk2019
• User:ErsatzCulture/Talk2020H1 | User:ErsatzCulture/Talk2020H2
• User:ErsatzCulture/Talk2021H1 | User:ErsatzCulture/Talk2021H2
• User:ErsatzCulture/Talk2022H1 | User:ErsatzCulture/Talk2022H2
• User:ErsatzCulture/Talk2023H1

The Tenpercent Thief again

I've added another installment to our previous discussion here, if you want to chime in. Cheers. PeteYoung (talk) 14:54, 2 July 2023 (EDT)

GB not in US

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1791329; I saw your recent message about the list of British books not published in the U.S. and clicked one at random because the title sounded interesting, Satan's Daughter, and it turns out that I entered the U.S. edition from Pocket Books back in 2021. So there may be others that don't belong on that list. --Username (talk) 12:09, 4 July 2023 (EDT)

That the list stops at 2020 might give an indication of how "recent" it was generated ;-) I've not looked at that code or even re-run it for over 3 years - I vaguely recall there are niggly things with author and title variants that could cause false positives and/or negatives, and I didn't have the motivation to try and improve that. ErsatzCulture (talk) 12:15, 4 July 2023 (EDT)

I figured it might not be an updated list. Still useful, though. On the plus side, while looking into this I discovered a fairly recent eBay listing which showed the copyright page of the U.S. edition (January) so I made an edit for that. --Username (talk) 12:28, 4 July 2023 (EDT)

List prices from UK sources

If you get bored, you may want to see if you can find the list prices of these (there will be more - so check occasionally). Fixer is ending its reconciliations so quite a lot of UK books showed up on my current sweep through 2022. For some finding the list price is easier than it is for others. I plan to take another stab at these once I am done with the complete range but if you have nothing better to do or you can fill in from your scrapping, have fun :) Annie (talk) 19:20, 5 July 2023 (EDT)

I vaguely recognize a couple of them, but I don't generally submit anything more than 30 days out, so if you and Fixer beat me to it, my tools will mark them as done, and not pick up on any missing info.

(This is one of the downsides of Fixer picking up UK pubs early, and/or you creating them when the US one comes in - if I haven't already got some data for one of the other pubs like ebook or audio, I might never see it in my upcoming/TODO pages. There are a couple of ways I could fix that, but I've been too lazy to do anything about it as yet.)

That said, most of them I don't think I've got anything at all for currently, and I wouldn't have thought American Psycho or Beloved were eligible for inclusion :-) Will try to pick them up once I've got other stuff out the way - that Chinese anthology is still half-complete, but I've had enough of all that for today... ErsatzCulture (talk) 19:29, 5 July 2023 (EDT)

These are from 2022 (some were even added them but most were added today). Finding the prices on 2023 is a lot easier - the older ones get... harder. If I need you to look at something I added as future/new, I ping you specifically but for older ones - I may as well give you the search page. :) Annie (talk) 19:34, 5 July 2023 (EDT)

This one is an export edition, and whilst Blackwell's and to a lesser extent Amazon sometimes list them, I've never found a great source for those editions that's easy-to-scrape. I did write a scraper for an Australian site, but I've almost never used it, as it turned out they pretty much only ever listed the regular UK editions. Must confess I only looked at Australian and NZ sites, maybe some mainland Europe ones might be more amenable to sourcing info from? ErsatzCulture (talk) 19:39, 5 July 2023 (EDT)

Then add a note "International edition" and leave it as is for now. I will look at these again later - I usually can find international prices (usually via AU/NZ stores) :) Some of these may be hard to solve - so don't worry about them but quite a few I added today were just the regular paperbacks. Annie (talk) 19:41, 5 July 2023 (EDT)

PS: That one is solved :) Annie (talk) 19:54, 5 July 2023 (EDT)

Asimov - Foundation

Hello, any objections to me changing the imprint / publisher for our PV'd pub to HarperVoyager / HarperCollinsPublishers, per the copyright page? (see also here) Thanks, Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 20:24, 24 July 2023 (EDT)

Hi, I am a bit wary of this change, but for slightly selfish reasons.

The UK records for Harper Voyager are a mess, with the following all being used:

- "Harper Voyager (UK)"

- "HarperVoyager"

- "HarperVoyager / HarperCollinsPublishers"

(This is from a list I manually maintain for the benefit of my own tools that do data analysis using the ISFDB backups; you can see that Gollancz, Orbit, Hodder and Tor/PanMac are much worse...)

About a year or two ago, I griped about this somewhere on the Wiki - I suspect it was either on my talk page, Annie's or Community Portal. (Will edit this response to link to it, if I can locate it.)

When I submit new books based on the data I've scraped from various places, I submit as "Harper Voyager (UK)", which on the one hand, I don't like doing, because it's inaccurate - the space between "Harper" and "Voyager" is only for the US imprint(s) - but it's the only one that clearly indicates it's a UK imprint, which I think is the most important thing that a casual visitor to the site might need/want to know.

(A minor point is that HV itself recently started sprouting child imprints - see "Magpie Books / Harper Voyager (UK)".)

None of this is your fault, or problem to solve, but if possible I'd like to use this as a brazen attempt to reopen the prior conversation, and try to get some consensus about what to use going forwards, even if cleaning up all the old-data isn't going to happen any time soon regardless.

If you make a change to the relevant pubs in the meantime, I won't revert or complain though ;-)

Cheers ErsatzCulture (talk) 13:06, 25 July 2023 (EDT)

The Pomegranate Gate

Ahem. Moved the note to where it belongs, cleared the links :) Annie (talk) 15:45, 27 July 2023 (EDT)

Does this make us even then? ;-) I was a bit surprised this seems to be a Solaris UK/Commonwealth only release, I couldn't find any evidence of a US pub. ErsatzCulture (talk) 15:49, 27 July 2023 (EDT)

EDIT: ah, I see you've just added a US pub for it, pretty sure I failed to find that when I looked. ErsatzCulture (talk) 15:51, 27 July 2023 (EDT)

Shrug - without enough details, it was unclear if it is the same one. So I left it alone until we know. Now we know and everyone is reunited. :)

PS: I was mostly pulling your leg. I was chasing down the edits to see if a moderator missed to advise a new editor on where these links go (happens a lot -- as you cannot add them when you add a first book for an author so we routinely see them on the title level from new editors) and realized it was deliberately added on that level. :) Annie (talk) 15:59, 27 July 2023 (EDT)

Gah, I have a vague recollection of recently noticing and fixing a note or link at the wrong level - title/pub probably. Will have to remember to be more careful, so that I don't get relegated to having to get someone else to approve my edits... ErsatzCulture (talk) 16:17, 27 July 2023 (EDT)

You really need to mess up a LOT more for that to happen so I would not worry. Me pulling your leg when I spot these on the other hand... that may happen ;) Annie (talk) 16:28, 27 July 2023 (EDT)

Miller - Dark Benediction

Hello, re your PV'd pub here, I'm importing the coverart title (per the paper edition) and replacing the Amazon image with an in-house one. Let me know if you're ok with that, thanks. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 00:22, 30 August 2023 (EDT)

No worries - feel free to update cover images on my PVs without contacting me, unless you think there might be some potential for differences, like the SFMW cover for Lathe of Heaven, which seems to variously have the K. or not in the author name. ErsatzCulture (talk) 16:33, 30 August 2023 (EDT)

Thanks:) I do pay a lot of attention to cover art, Gollancz, in particular, can't seem to resist making changes to their artwork - made easy, now it's all digital. Sometimes the differences are unnoticeable unless one switches between images. It might be a good idea to check your ebook - sfgateway.com show the ebook cover for Dark Benediction as having "JR" after Miller (and that's what I've submitted), whereas they show the tp as just plain Miller. Unusual. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 18:13, 30 August 2023 (EDT)

OK, I've just dug it out - the cover image credit is just "Walter M. Miller", no "JR". (The title page is indeed Walter M. Miller Jr., FWIW)

So the Amazon-sourced image currently on the pub page is wrong, as is the image on sfgateway.com - at least for the book as I downloaded it earlier this year. So it sounds like the image you uploaded is incorrect, if it has "JR"? If you want me to do a screengrab of the Kindle version, just let me know here to confirm.

(I should have known I was tempting fate with this one, as well as the Le Guins, I have a vague recollection of similar chaos on The Sirens of Titan wrt having Jr or not....) ErsatzCulture (talk) 18:39, 30 August 2023 (EDT)

No probs, leave it with me, I'll sort it - your cover has no "JR". Good that you checked! What I've started to add to my edits, where appropriate, is a heads-up to alert editors that there are variations of images. So if they're cloning (or whatever) they might be able to make better decisions. At least we can try... Thanks, Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 19:15, 30 August 2023 (EDT)

And done. Btw, here's an amusing couple of images to compare - check out the "6th printing" link in the notes. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 20:23, 30 August 2023 (EDT)

Haha, I thought I was eagle-eyed about stuff like this ;-) TBH, ebook covers are a right PITA - given how they get changed at the whim of a publisher, how the image on Amazon/Kobo etc often doesn't match the actual ebook file, etc - that I don't pay them as much attention as I maybe should. Thanks for uploading a fixed copy. ErsatzCulture (talk) 10:04, 31 August 2023 (EDT)

July-August issue of Asimov's

Good catch on the e-version the July-August issue of Asimov's. I've been wanting to see somebody do e-versions of this magazine for some time now. Hope you keep up doing it. However, I just added the cover artist. MLB (talk) 04:10, 7 September 2023 (EDT)

Thanks. As for "Hope you keep up doing it.", TBH one of the reasons I bought it - and the corresponding issue of Analog - was that the current/imminent (?) changes to Amazon's services to magazines meant that I wasn't sure if these were one of the last ones that were available, so I thought I'd grab them whilst I could. Plus they were both weirdly cheap in the UK, compared to the USD price on Amazon.com - I suspect someone hasn't updated the exchange rate prices.

I was also pleasantly surprised that they were effectively both a PDF and an EPUB - I'd heard before complaints that they were effectively just PDFs of the print version, which are nigh on unreadable on a Kindle. ErsatzCulture (talk) 14:28, 7 September 2023 (EDT)

Masterworks II

Hi, more imprint / publisher stuff... :( I've read your careful notes for these three pubs; The Space Merchants, Swastika Night, More Than Human and I'm asking if you'd be ok with me adding Orion (i.e. to Gollancz / Orion). Thanks. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 20:47, 12 September 2023 (EDT)

Sorry, only just noticed this. The Gollancz imprint changes are fine by me. ErsatzCulture (talk) 11:39, 26 September 2023 (EDT)

Many thanks - submitted. While I was there I put identical fixed images up (sorry, I forgot to ask you). When they come through, and as before, probably worth just checking the images are correct - even though they're the same as Amazon ;) Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 00:56, 29 September 2023 (EDT)

Analog, September-October 2023

I'm wondering if you added the e-version of the September-October 2023 issue of Analog. I just got my print copy, and added it to this site. If you got the e-version please feel free to pilfer what you need from my listing. I did however correct the cover image. I got the correct one from the Analog website. MLB (talk) 03:18, 26 September 2023 (EDT)

Damn, I knew I still had the contents to do, but I didn't realize I hadn't even updated the cover - thanks for fixing that. I've also got the corresponding Asimov's Sep/Oct ebook, which I'll clone and update from the physical pub that you added. ErsatzCulture (talk) 10:15, 26 September 2023 (EDT)

Arboreality and The Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction

A quick question about this submission. Did you mean to link the award record to the CHAPBOOK title or was it supposed to be linked to the novella title? On rare occasion, awards are given explicitly to CHAPBOOKs, e.g. to a notable standalone edition of a work of short fiction. However, 99% of the time short fiction awards are given to SHORTFICTION titles, so I suspect that it may have been a misclick. TIA! Ahasuerus (talk) 16:55, 17 October 2023 (EDT)

Hi, I strongly suspect that because this is an award that doesn't have categories based on title length, I wasn't paying enough attention when I added the awards to the titles. I'll fix it now. ErsatzCulture (talk) 18:00, 17 October 2023 (EDT)

Thanks! Ahasuerus (talk) 21:15, 17 October 2023 (EDT)

Dune

Concerning your PV'd 16th printing of Dune; could you double-check 1) that the map is, indeed by Matt Griffin, and not by Dorothy deFontaine (see signature in lower left corner of the 2-page map), and 2) that the title of the 'Cartographic Notes' actually reads 'Cartographic Notes for map' (or not), as my (transiently verified) 53rd printing does (albeit different ISBN)? Thanks! MagicUnk (talk) 07:15, 30 October 2023 (EDT)

I'm afraid it looks like my copy is currently in a box in a storage locker, so it'll be a few days at best before I get chance to check it. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if I come across a copy in a shop before I go back to the locker, but either way, it's on my TODO list. ErsatzCulture (talk) 08:04, 30 October 2023 (EDT)

Worldcon In Memoriam

I've ported the Worldcon In Memoriam from Twitter to BlueSky, where it can be found at wcinmemoriam.bsky.social. Shsilver (talk) 11:40, 27 January 2024 (EST)

Thanks for the heads up - I must confess I'd not done that many of the obits lately, been busy with other stuff, as possibly you have too? :-( ErsatzCulture (talk) 14:36, 27 January 2024 (EST)

Awakening

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?283172; LCCN ID links to a different book. --Username (talk) 12:54, 28 February 2024 (EST)

Thanks. Fortunately I have that still on hand, and I can see I made a data entry error; the text on the copyright page says 90-91838, so I've updated the field.

However, the LCCN link now goes to an error page on catalog.loc.gov. As I don't normally touch US books, I don't know what the problem is. The copyright page does say "Library of Congress Catalog Card Number"; is that something different from "... Control No"? Template:PublicationFields:ExternalIDs doesn't clarify matters.

I've now added that text to the pub notes, so in the worst case, the LCCN ID can be deleted, but naively I'd assume that what is on the copyright page should hopefully be correct? ErsatzCulture (talk) 14:20, 28 February 2024 (EST)

Some of the older LCCNs never made it into the LOC site so it is not uncommon for a valid number not to show there - and often they just added new numbers when digitizing instead of connecting the old numbers. Seems like that is what happened here. So I added the second number and updated the note with an explanation. Feel free to update the note. Annie (talk) 13:25, 29 February 2024 (EST)

Shouldn't 90- LCCN now be removed from the ID field and the new one entered? Also, the first line of the notes looks like a leftover where there is a half-line about the translator and then the editor forgot to erase it when they named the translator later on in the note with a full sentence. --Username (talk) 13:37, 29 February 2024 (EST)

We can keep both in the field so that when you search by LCCN, the record comes up. The notes explain that the old one is not working online - but it still belongs to the book. I'll leave the PV decide what to do with translation note. Annie (talk) 14:15, 29 February 2024 (EST)

I've cleaned up the line in the note re. the translator. Thanks both. ErsatzCulture (talk) 14:35, 29 February 2024 (EST)

Journey Planet, Issues 68 & 70

Greetings, just a reminder. The interviewee is always the canonical name, even if an alternate name appears in the title. See the help here. There are a number of titles to correct n these two issues. Thanks, John Scifibones 08:36, 13 April 2024 (EDT)

Thanks - I must confess I'd forgotten that (I don't normally touch interviews), but I see there's a cleanup report for this, so I'll sort it out. Regards ErsatzCulture (talk) 12:54, 13 April 2024 (EDT)