User talk:Phileas

Welcome!
Hello,, 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:
 * Help pages
 * What the ISFDB Wiki is for
 * ISFDB FAQ
 * Help:Screen:EditPub - Warning and a note on how to update a publication's contents
 * Wiki editing help - Tips on how to use the wiki-specific features when editing wiki pages.

I hope you enjoy editing here! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~&#126;); 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! MHHutchins 16:36, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Interplanetary Flight, Second Edition by Clarke
Thanks for adding this new pub. I had to remove the link to the cover because that website doesn't permit "deep-linking". If you have a copy of the image file you can upload it to our server. Just follow these instructions. Once it's been uploaded to the ISFDB, you can link it to the pub record. Thanks again and welcome. MHHutchins 16:39, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

The Snows of Olympus
I accepted the submission for this new pub, but had to make some changes to conform to ISFDB standards (please see the help pages about entry standards.) "Trade paperback" was changed to "tp", and the cover link was removed per discussion above. Thanks. MHHutchins 16:42, 18 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I was looking for this help entry. If I got some time to spare I'll scan and upload some covers. I'm shocked by the way that I haven't found this page earlier. Great project. Phileas Apr. 25, 17:49:03 UTC
 * Don't be shocked. At least you found it within a week or so.  We've had editors who have never found it! MHHutchins 18:06, 25 April 2009 (UTC)

Prelude to Space
I'm holding your submission that changes the publisher of this pub from "World Editions, Inc." to "World Editions, Inc. / Galaxy Publishing Corp.". Are both publishers listed in this edition? Thanks. MHHutchins 16:50, 18 April 2009 (UTC)
 * A fellow editor has a copy of this and says that "Galaxy Publishing Corp." isn't show as the publisher, only "World Editions, Inc." Thanks. MHHutchins 21:17, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

2061 - Odyssey III
A couple of comments re: your recent submissions:


 * 1) As per Template:PublicationFields:ISBN: "If there is no ISBN specified ... then enter the catalog ID provided by the publisher and prefix it with # as in #UQ1064", so I added the "#" prefix to book club editions.
 * 2) I have changed the wording of a couple of Notes in your recent submissions, but nothing major or substantive.
 * 3) Keep in mind that the Notes field ignores carriage returns when displaying its text. It supports HTML formatting, but if you decide to use it, please be careful since malformed HTML can make a submission "unapprovable".

Thanks! Ahasuerus 14:18, 1 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks for correcting my bad silly English (as we call this in Germany) I always try to learn from that - and hopefully save you that extra work in future. ;) Phileas 14:37, 1 May 2009 (UTC)


 * No worries, Notes get changed/massaged/clarified all the time! (Unfortunately, languages can take a while to master -- not all of us can be like Max Hayward, who famously taught himself Hungarian (!) in 6 weeks when he was in his 30s.)


 * By the way, I have checked the database and we have 11 German prices with a leading "DM" (e.g. "DM 10") and 2 with a trailing "DM" (e.g. "10 DM"). Do we want to make the leading DM version our standard? Ahasuerus 14:49, 1 May 2009 (UTC)


 * There's only one official rule I know: the currency has to be trailing in texts because that's the way you read it - and that is the most common style (invoices for example). But on books, magazines, packings etc. the currency was (and still is) almost always leading, probably influenced by foreign standards. However, because you asked me, I'd say use the leading "DM" as a standard, because most people in the world are used to read currencies that way and Germans will recognize it in both cases - well, at least those who can remember that ancient currency. ;) Phileas 15:31, 1 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Sounds good, both changed! Ahasuerus 16:04, 1 May 2009 (UTC)

Verification
I see you have verified. Thank you.

However, we really prefer that page numbers be entered for collections before/when they are verified. See Help:How to verify data Under "How to verify" it says " Are the page numbers accurate for the content?"

If you have a chance, plese enter page numbers for this and any pubs you are verifing. Thank you very much, and thanks for all your contributions so far. -DES Talk 16:45, 21 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks for reminding me. I plainly forgot that. However, it's done now. -- Phileas 17:16, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

The Hammer of God
Does Mike McQuay get co-author credit on the title page of this edition? If so, the record should reflect that. Thanks. MHHutchins 17:57, 21 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Yes, he does. After I bought the book several years ago, I tried to find out why they printed McQuay's name on the book. Till today I found no reason so I believe that's a stupid mistake made by the German publisher. I already added a note to this pub. You think it's okay the ways it is now? -- Phileas 18:24, 21 May 2009 (UTC)
 * The notes should also state that McQuay is given credit on the title page as well, but that your research has shown that it was the publisher's mistake. Thanks. MHHutchins 19:44, 21 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Doh, my memories fooled me. I just had a look into the book again. McQuay's name is not on the title page. So it's just the cover. Nevertheless, I going to make the comment more precisely. -- Phileas 20:13, 21 May 2009 (UTC)


 * That's makes it so much easier to handle. If it had been on the title page, some editors would have insisted that the record be so credited (which is what the standards call for.)  Thanks for the clarification. MHHutchins 20:38, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

Adding tags to images
I noticed some of your new images had no link back to the book so I added the newly created tags. In the future for new pubs it might be better to add the book and then you will have the new tag to use. You don't end up with the long name in the image link and you can link straight to the book to add the image.Kraang 23:41, 21 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Yeah, I was about to ask how to upload images for new pubs. If you don't mind moderating a pub twice, from now on I'm going to add the pub first and then edit it again to add the image. -- Phileas 07:56, 22 May 2009 (UTC)
 * No problem, will approve as many as it takes. Thanks!Kraang 12:20, 22 May 2009 (UTC)

Zeitschiffe (The Time Ships)
Is the cover artist for this pub credited as Michael or Micheal? Thanks. MHHutchins 13:55, 6 June 2009 (UTC)


 * You got sharp eyes. Yes, it was a typo. Pub updated - I was about to add a cover photo anyway. -- Phileas 18:30, 6 June 2009 (UTC)


 * The M in my user name stands for "Michael" so I'm pretty attuned to any misspellings. (Though I've seen it spelled "Micheal" as well.") MHHutchins 20:56, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Arthur C. Clarke Companion
I had to make a small change in your submission of this pub. The bibliography was changed from NONFICTION to ESSAY. The NONFICTION type is used only for book-length works (as, for example, the pub you submitted). The ESSAY type is used for nonfiction shorter-length works that are contained in a larger work (which can be NONFICTION, ANTHOLOGY, COLLECTION, or even NOVEL.) Thanks. MHHutchins 15:06, 15 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the explanation. I'll keep that in mind. -- Phileas 17:45, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Rendezvous With Rama
Thank you for spotting the duplicate title record for Rendezvous With Rama. While a delete and add to the proper title would work, it would lose the tags attached to the duplicate title record. So I have instead merged the title records, which is in many ways simpler also. See Help:How to merge titles for more details on this process.

I am going to reject your add and delete, since the work has been done via merge. -DES Talk 10:02, 22 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Okay, I've read the Howto. Next time I'll know how to handle this. -- Phileas 12:03, 22 June 2009 (UTC)


 * I'm sorry the ISFDB isn't more obvious, nor the help better organized. Thanks for bearing with us and learning the system. And thanks also for your contributions. -DES Talk 13:57, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

Author updates
I see your submitted update to 	H. Dominik adds lots of useful info, including a wikipedia link and an image. That is good. I have a couple of concerns.

The first is that this update changes the canonical name. That is usually unwise, or at least a bit risky. It will have the effect of changing the author credit of every record for this author. In this case, we only have one such credit, and that is unverified (and lacks page numbers so it either was entered from a secondary source or some time ago when our standards were lower). When (if) that magazine is reviewed and verified the author credit can be changed. So that issue is not a major one in this case, but might be for an author with more records already in the database.

The second is the image. Do we have permission to hotlink from http://www.literaturport.de/ in general? I looked at the home age via the Babelfish translator but could not find any statement of permissions or rights. See ISFDB:Image linking permissions for our policy on this subject. Some sites strongly object to hot-linking or deep-linking as it is sometimes called. Note that if the site objects (or has no stated policy) it is possible to download the image from the site and upload it here under a fair use claim (using Author Image Data or possibly PD-US if the image is old enough). So we needn't lose the image in any case.

I am holding this submission pending your response on the linking permission issue.

It is in no way required, but when you add a Wikipedia link to an author, or find an author with an existing Wikipedia link, you can chose to place Wikipedia:Template:Isfdb name on the author's Wikipedia article. This provides a link to our site from the Wikipedia article. (Also available are Wikipedia:Template:Isfdb title for titles which have Wikipedia articles, and Wikipedia:Template:Isfdb series for lining to our series displays from Wikipedia.) These templates are normally placed in an "External Links" section. Such templates help Wikipedia users to find relevant information on our site.

Thanks again for all the info you are providing that we wouldn't otherwise have. -DES Talk 14:31, 22 June 2009 (UTC)


 * I was about to add some novels and pubs of Hans Dominik. I checked whether the author is already in the database. That one wre talking about was the only one (partly) matching. So, I googled a bit and found out that contained work by Hans Dominik (1st / 2nd look at #29 in the upper half). It seems to be an essay (or probably a short story - I don't know for sure) by Dominik, but translated by someone else into English. But I believe the "H. Dominik" in the db is the Author I'm looking for. About his name: Hans Joachim Dominik is his legal name, but I've always seen him credited as "Hans Dominik".


 * I really don't know about the copyright of the photo. It's a pretty old one and I've seen it several times on the net. You're right about the linking - I found nothing on that page that (dis)allows linking. So uploading it here would be better. You could also drop the image - I'm not an expert on copyright and I'm unsure now. ;)


 * About the Wikipedia back link: I'll check it out later when the author entry in the DB is clarified. -- Phileas 15:07, 22 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks for doing the research to be sure it is the same person.
 * I'll approve your edit and then you can download and upload here, or I will if you prefer
 * It's not so much a copyright issue as an issue of using bandwidth from their site. Some sites object to this.
 * If he is mostly credited as "Hans Dominik" then that shoudl be his "canonical name" here.
 * THanks again -DES Talk 15:57, 22 June 2009 (UTC)


 * If that what I've entered (I think I used "Hans Dominik" as canonical name) is fine you can approve it and I'll take care of the photo and the other stuff. I'll have to learn it someday. ;) -- Phileas 19:20, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Approved. Please note that the "legalname" field should be in the form "LastName, First Middle" unlike the canonical name, which is "First Middle Last". -DES Talk 19:49, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

Geheimnisvolle Welten
You have submitted a new publication Geheimnisvolle Welten under the title record Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World. But this submission also makes Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World a content item of Geheimnisvolle Welten I think this would lead to a circular chain of references, and be a bad thing. I suspect this is going to have to be done somewhat differently.

To save as much wasted work as possible, here are the data from the current submisison:

I have the submisison on hold. -DES Talk 21:20, 26 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Hi David. I was afraid there would be a problem with that one. I still don't fully understand how the DB backend is organized, so it's sometimes hard to guess how to enter such data properly. Easiest solution would be to drop Clarke as an author and deal with this edition as done with the English one - leaving the note. What do you think? -- Phileas 13:10, 27 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Some remarks for your information: the book itself is a 1:1 translation of the English original (I own both). All the pictures, the typesetting and the layout in general - the German edition looks like a clone of the English one - except the language of course. Clarke as author - that's marketing I guess. Although in my opinion the German publisher wasn't that wrong at all, since this book contains more words of Clarke (foreword, intro, a conclusion after every chapter) than some books that credit him as the main author - i.e. Richter 10, where he wrote about 850 words I think ;), but that's another story. -- Phileas 13:10, 27 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes, the software can be a bit tricky. I agree thwt Clark ought to be credited as an author here.
 * Let me see if i correctly understand what you did. You went to Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World and clicked "add a publiccation to thsi titel. You then enterd the metadata, and added the Foreword, the introduction, and "Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World" as content items, is that correct? Or was the NONFICTION itme added automatically for you? -DES Talk 13:46, 27 June 2009 (UTC)


 * I cloned this pub: because the content I needed was already there. I changed title, publisher etc. and then I entered the page numbers of the content entries. But when cloning or editing the mentioned pub there's the NONFICTION content that is not displayed when viewing the pub. Now I'm guessing that the NONFICTION content should not have a page number because it represents the whole title itself (including the intro and the foreword). Am I getting closer? -- Phileas 17:04, 27 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I think i may have made a mistake in holding this, and there may be no problem. I have asked the other mods to look at the sutuation and advise me. -DES Talk 20:44, 27 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I have approved this. -DES Talk 12:52, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

Über den Himmel hinaus
This has the same problem as Geheimnisvolle Welten (see above). This, if approved, would both be a publication of The Challenge of the Spaceship, and also have The Challenge of the Spaceship as one of its content items. -DES Talk 23:06, 26 June 2009 (UTC)


 * I clearly misunderstood something here. Maybe you can help me to get this straight. When I create a pub I can't enter any content. Later I edit it to add some content - but then the title itself is already part of that content (automatically added). I can't even change that. Example: when I edit or (even more likely) clone this there are all the essays that are in this book. But there's also "Profiles of the Future" as NONFICTION content without a page number - which so far I assumed is the title itself as a whole and had been automatically added on creation of this pub. Btw there's no essay in the book that is titled "Profiles of the Future". What's my mistake? -- Phileas 13:11, 27 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Nevertheless regarding The Challenge of the Spaceship one problem remains. It's basically a collection of essays. I can't enter the content since I don't know the original titles of the essays (the English titles are not mentioned in the German copy as usual). My workaround for this is to take a verified English pub with content and "guess" which German essay title matches to which English counterpart (there was no doubt about that so far since the German titles are either literal or lyrical translations of the English titles and thus matching them is no big deal). But there's no pub for this title with contents - so I can't enter the full content anyway. So, if you reject my submission I could create a new one without any content - for now - until I get an English version to compare and clarify this. -- Phileas 13:11, 27 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I have approved this. -DES Talk 12:53, 29 June 2009 (UTC)


 * It would be best to ask Bluesman who verified one of the English language publications of this title. He can update his pub with the essay contents, then you can import them into your pub if you wish.  The database doesn't support less than book-length records for translated titles.  There should be no problem with the acceptance of your original submission as it will be listed on the title record of the English language edition. MHHutchins 21:31, 27 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Sounds good. I'll ask Bluesman and edit my pub (if accepted) or (if not) create/clone a new one with all the content. -- Phileas 12:27, 28 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Doh, another problem occurred. Bluesman entered all the content, but his book doesn't state the year for each essay (neither does mine - a long list of copyright years, but not assigned to the essays). Bluesman's pub contains now all the essays and the date of each is 1961-00-00 (automatically set?) But, I can't use them for my pub, since it's from 1960. What would happen if I entered all the essays but with different years - would these appear as different essays? Maybe we should set them all to 1959-00-00 (in Bluesman's pub and mine) since the first book pub came out that year - at least until we get more detailed information about this. -- Phileas 18:06, 29 June 2009 (UTC)
 * When an editor enters content items, if no date is specified, the date of the collection, anthology or other containing work is used by default. (It is possible to specify "0000-00-00" which means "unknown", and this is sometimes a good idea if the story or essay is obviously reprinted but no initial pub date is known -- for example a new collection of work by a long-dead author which doesn't give initial pub dates because the contents are out of copyright.) If the essays were all in English and clearly identical, the solution would be to merge them. This happens all the time when a new collection that includes reprinted stories or essays is entered. When merging the best date is chosen, which is usually the earliest date, or the most specific if they have the same year. But since these are translated essays, and have translated titles, i would be inclined to make them variant titles. While variants can have their own dates, current practice is to use the first pub date for them, so i would probably set the dates to 1959-00-00 pending further research. In any case it is known that the essays in English were published before 1961, so their dates should be changed to either 1959-00-00, or to 0000-00-00 if you seriously think 1959 is likely to be incorrect. See Help:How to record a variant title for more on variants. The English-language version should probably be the parent in these variant-title (VT) relationships. I hope this is helpful. -DES Talk 18:18, 29 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Some of the essays already had duplicate records for English-language versions, which I have merged, giving at least one a 1958 date. -DES Talk 18:28, 29 June 2009 (UTC)


 * About the German stuff: I could enter the German content and make each essay a variant title of the original, if you like. But so far I avoided this and used the German book titles (doesn't appear as variant title), but always the english original titles for the content, because the HowTo states: foreign language translations of English language books do not get their own title records; they are entered as Publications under the English language title instead. And so I thought variant titles are still own titles records, just linked to another parent title. If we enter foreign translations as variant titles each and every title could/would have at least one variant title in each language it had been translated to. This could flood the DB. Even though I'm not not native English I think this is not necessary and using existing English titles for the content is quite sufficient. --Phileas 18:57, 29 June 2009 (UTC)


 * As I mentioned before, and from your comment you understand, the database doesn't support titles of less-than-book-length translated works. If it were up to me, all non-English pubs of original English titles would not contain any contents whatsoever.  Only the book titles would be listed under their original English-language title records.  But if you want to include contents, you should include the English title only.  Thanks. MHHutchins 19:36, 29 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks. I agree. --Phileas 20:21, 29 June 2009 (UTC)


 * About the original years: The years given in my book (copyrights of the original english versions) are 1953, 54, 55, 57, 58 and 59. So it's probably best to use 1959 unless there's a dupe title with an earlier year to merge with. --Phileas 18:57, 29 June 2009 (UTC)


 * BTW, thanks for your patience. --Phileas 18:57, 29 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your patience with me, particularly with what turned out to be an unneeded hold. -DES Talk 19:49, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

(Unindent) I have now created records for the 1959 editions, based on data from OCLC (see Help:Using Worldcat data). I have copied the essay records (except for the revised 1961 preface) from Bluesman's verified 1961 pub, with a note that I had done so. I have also set the dates of all the essays to 1959, excpet for thsoe where we already have a record of an earlier pub. Some of thesew were no doubt published, probably in magazines, before 1959. But until we know when (and preferably where) there is not much more to do on the dates. If you choose to use the English titles for the essays (which is reasonable) then you have several ways to proceed. Properly carried out, the results of the three methods would be identical -- no one looking at the records could tell which method had been used. I hope that is helpful. -DES Talk 19:49, 29 June 2009 (UTC)
 * 1) You can manually add each title to your existing pub record, then manually merge them with the existing essay title records (see Help:How to merge titles).
 * 2) You can import the content with the "Import Content" function. This works, but it has a known bug -- it also imports an extra copy of the title record (which represents the whole work). The fix is a bit tedious:
 * 3) One must change the type of the title record from NONFICTION to something else, usually something obviously absurd, such as POEM.
 * 4) After that change is approved, one must use "Remove titles" to remove both copies of the "poem" from the publication.
 * 5) After that is approved, one must change the poem back to NONFICTION.
 * 6) A new item of type NONFICTION must be added to the pub
 * 7) This newly created title must be merged with the title that was removed previously.
 * While all this is going on, the other pubs of this title will be in a slightly unstable state, with their title record of type POEM. Thus it might be best to ask a mod to do these steps for you, or work with you in real-time, to avoid long delays with approvals.
 * 1) You could instead start over by cloning Bluesman's pub, and then changing the title, publisher, date, and other metadata. When the resulting pub is correct and approved you would delete your duplicate pub without contents. This might be the easiest method, but the choice is up to you.


 * Yes, that's helpful. I'll go for method number 3 - but not before tomorrow, because it's bed time on "my" side of the planet. ;) I don't think it was an unneeded hold. After all we cleared some things up, I gained some understanding and hopefully further contributions by me will be easier to moderate. Thanks and good night. --Phileas 20:21, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

The Bandit of Hell's Bend
In your update to, I am curious, what is the source of the cover artist credit? -DES Talk 16:48, 29 June 2009 (UTC)


 * I found it here while I was looking for cover scans - on this page to be precisely. -- Phileas 17:06, 29 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I've added a reference link to the pub record. -DES Talk 17:13, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

Prelude to Space [2]
Great image for [this] and a really cool website, as well. Question is, do we have permission to link to the site? I can't seem to find the Wiki page that lists the sites we have permission for (there are times when HELP is anything but....). Since the site seems intended for bibliographic use, the 'owner' shouldn't mind. There is a sample letter on here (somewhere). I used it to get permission from Bookscans.com and MartyD got permission from ACE Image Library. I'm sure one of the Mods can help with the process?¿? ~Bill, --Bluesman 01:21, 3 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Both the list and the sample letter are at ISFDB:Image linking permissions. This is linked to from ISFDB:Policy, from Help:How to upload images to the ISFDB wiki, from Help:Getting Started:Enter a Novel, and from Help:Screen:NewPub, Help:Screen:EditPub, and Help:Screen:NewNovel. Where else should a pointer be placed? Where in the help did you look? -DES Talk 04:10, 3 July 2009 (UTC)

Hi. It wasn't me who added the image link. Actually I was planning to replace this (and some others) with own scans of higher quality someday. --Phileas 07:41, 3 July 2009 (UTC)

Prelude to Space [3]
Added the OCLC # to [this]. To find this I searched using Prelude Space Sidgwick, then chose a Sidgwick publication that had a link for View all editions and formats which brought up the '53 edition. Also added a Currey note. Cheers! ~Bill, --Bluesman 01:32, 3 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Hi. Thanks for the tip. I'm wondering why this entry doesn't show up after a regular search, even if the pattern matches?!? --Phileas 07:54, 3 July 2009 (UTC)

Clarke & Kube-Mcdowell's "The Trigger"
Could you please check your verified pub and. I have a US SFBC Edition, and there is no 'P' middle initial in Kube McDowells credit on the title page, cover, or spine. I suspect that this book was never published with the 'P' listed, and I'm trying to confirm. Thanks Kevin 19:25, 5 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Yes, you're right. Just checked these. The "P" isn't used anywhere in both books. I haven't noticed that when verifying. Thanks for the catch. --Phileas 20:15, 5 July 2009 (UTC)


 * I updated all the copies. Between your copy, mine, and Bluemans's, combined with all the covers online leaving out the P., I'm confident this was never published with the P.  Thanks Kevin 00:09, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

Removing the frame around Amazon-hosted images
Look at the URL for the image linked to this pub, and you'll see the characters "_SS500_" between the dots. If you remove these characters and leave one dot before the "jpg" it will remove the frame around the image. MHHutchins 20:30, 5 July 2009 (UTC) Same thing for the image linked to this pub. MHHutchins 20:31, 5 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks for pointing out. Changed. Usually I'm doing this (another thing I learned form this wiki), it must have slipped through this time. --Phileas 21:10, 5 July 2009 (UTC)

New image upload process
As an active image uploader, you may want to review this announcement :) Ahasuerus 02:49, 25 September 2009 (UTC)
 * A nice and useful enhancement. Thanks for the notice. --Phileas 06:44, 25 September 2009 (UTC)

ISFDB:Community Portal

 * See ISFDB:Community Portal -DES Talk 21:18, 30 September 2009 (UTC)

2001: A Space Odyssey
I added to this verified pub. Thanks, Willem H. 15:42, 8 October 2009 (UTC)

Iron Council by China Miéville
You submitted an new publication of a German edition of Iron Council by China Miéville. In the submisison you use the English-language title. But the cover image you include has the title as Der Eiserne Rat (which the very little German I know suggests is a translation of "The Iron Council"). In other German editions you submited and i approved, you used the German title for the publication title (while adding the pubs to the English-language title record, as is our current practice). Does this edition actually use the English title on the title page, but not on the cover?

I have this submission on hold, pending your response. -DES Talk 16:37, 12 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks for watching out. It's supposed to be Der Eiserne Rat -- it's just easy to forget because the title field is pre-filled. I don't know the moderator interface. If it would be easier for your, you could approve the wrong title an I'll change it immediately afterwards. --Phileas 16:45, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Approved and changed. The result is . Please double check it. Thanks. -DES Talk 17:16, 12 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Yep. It's fine. --17:47, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

Amazon dates
Amazon (and I suppose Amazon.de also) is notorious for adding meaningless day values to publication dates. When creating a record from amazon data, or updating one apparently based on amazon data, please change the day-of-the-month value to 00 unless there is a reliable non-amazon source for the day value. -DES Talk 16:41, 12 October 2009 (UTC)


 * You're right. So far I only changed the day from 01 to 00 because it's amazon's default - and all days for pubs older than ten years - before Amazon was there. I you want I'll ignore the days completely from now on. Except maybe recent titles. --Phileas 16:52, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Up to you. I routinely change all amazon dates, of any pubs, recent or not, to nnnn-nn-00. I understand that the amazon software requires the input of a day value when info is first received from the publisher, and that dates are often entered more or less at random. But there is no rule here at the ISFDB requiring such changes. -DES Talk 17:14, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

Cover credits - Aufbruch zu den Sternen
Hi, going by the cover scan here http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?FBRCHZDNST1982 the cover artist is "Hardy". I suspect that "Agentur Luserke" is just the name of an agency. Maybe it's the same artist as one of the English versions and we can find Hardy's full name that way. Cheers Jonschaper 02:18, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Hi, I notice there's another entry for Agentur Luserke, and some for Agentur Thomas Schlück (a net search turned up that Thomas Schluck is with a book agency that provides illustrators). I couldn't spot any credits on the cover scans so I assume that's why you credited them that way. I assume those ones should stay as is for now unless credits can be found elsewhere? Cheers Jonschaper 02:26, 14 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Hi. German publishers often credits the agency or even the a stock image provider but sometimes not the particular artist (who did the hardest part). Usually I enter anyone - person or agency (sometimes you can't even distinguish) - stated in the book or the jacket. Same as for Agentur... also goes for Atelier... by the way. --Phileas 07:57, 14 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Sometimes they credit a person that obviously just added the text (e.g. Atelier Ingrid Schütz) while the actual image is taken from the American edition, but the American artist isn't stated anywhere. More so I encountered some books that used the cover art from the American edition but give credit to someone else. Look at this: the cover art is obviously by Don Dixon, but they say the cover art is by Maria Carella (same goes for the other two Mars books). I'm also unsure about this one: . The German books states Barry Blackman as the artist. There are two verified american edition using the same cover art - one states also Barry Blackman the other Jamie S. Warren Youll. --Phileas 07:57, 14 October 2009 (UTC)


 * About that cover: In this case I haven't noticed the signature on the cover. "Hardy" seems to be David Hardy there's the same sig on several of his covers. So I guess the cover art is by him (probably previously created for some English book or magazine) and "Agentur Luserke" just made some post processing like adding the text, publishers logo etc. By the way while looking for if the image has been used before I found this: and this: . Same happened there (except that they stated the original artist) and Atelier Ingrid Schütz the the additional work. --Phileas 07:57, 14 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks for pointing this out. --Phileas 07:57, 14 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Cheers. Jonschaper 00:13, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

2010: Odyssey Two
I added to this verified pub. Thanks, Willem H. 21:00, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Against the Fall of Night date
You submitted an edit to changer the date of Against the Fall of Night by Clarke from 1953-00-00 to 1948-00-00. A ccording to our records, and the Wikipedia article, the magazine version of this was published in 1948, but the Gnome Press first book edition in 1953. As it says in Help:Use of the SERIAL type: "'There is a deep and abiding divide between the way short fiction and novel length fiction pieces are cataloged by genre (and mainstream) bibliographers. When cataloging short fiction, the date of the original publication is always used as the 'publication date' regardless of whether the original appearance was in a magazine, anthology, collection, or a chapbook (which we call 'chapterbooks' at the moment). However, when cataloging novel length fiction, the date of the original serialization is not used and the date of the first book publication is used instead. This is an old (and arguably unfortunate) bibliographic convention, and we follow it.'" Help:Screen:EditTitle and Help:Screen:EditPub contain the less clear cut statement: "'Books: If a work has been serialized in a magazine, there may be a difference in textual content between the first magazine publication and the first book publication. 'Skylark of Valeron', for example, appeared as a magazine serialization in 1933-4, but was not published in book form until 1949. In these cases, record the first book publication date. A note in the title field can record the magazine serialization date, if there is one.'"

In any case we do adhere to the "Novel title date is date of first BOOK publication" rule, so i am going to reject this submission. -DES Talk 14:20, 19 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Hi. It was a mistake. Immediately after the submission I recalled that I asked this on one of the wiki pages and I was told that the book date counts. Forgot that for a moment. Sorry. --Phileas 14:25, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * No problem. I have edited the help to be a bit clearer. I think you are thinking of ISFDB:Verification requests  where this work was discussed. -DES Talk 14:36, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

The Children of Hurin
I've accepted the update for this publication, but wonder about the "+1pp" added to the page count. Look at how it's displayed on the title record page, and you see that the "pp" is not necessary. Besides that, what is the "+1"? If it's an unpaginated page on which there is content, you can count forward to get the page count ("314"), or enter it as "313+[1]". Thanks. MHHutchins 20:12, 21 October 2009 (UTC)


 * The novel (the appendix/index in fact) ends on the last paginated page followed by a blank page and then there's a page with a Note on the map (just a few sentences) -- so it's kind of content, but not really. I just used the +1 like this does. If you count the empty page then it would be 315pp like this one . I changed it to 313+[1] for now and removed the pp which wasn't intended to be there in the first place. Thanks. --Phileas 20:53, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Das letzte Theorem
Re: "Supposed to be published in December, but verifier's copy arrived on 2009-11-04", books are commonly offered for sale 2-6 weeks prior to the stated publication date (in this case December 2009.) Unless the difference is major (i.e. more than a couple of months), we record the stated publication date rather than the date when the book was offered for sale. There are just too many possible "availability dates" (e.g. the date when the book was sent to reviewers or the date it was sold at a book fair) for us to try to determine the earliest one. If we had access to publisher records, we could conceivably go by the internal "publication date", but 99% of the time we don't know what that date was, so we just use what's stated in the book itself. Call it an easy way out :) Ahasuerus 21:28, 4 November 2009 (UTC)


 * You're right. It's not much of a difference. The reason why I included this was that the publisher says the book was published in November and that it is already available


 * Erscheinungstermin: November 2009
 * Status: Titel ist lieferbar (lieferbar == available)


 * But the book's copyright page states 12/09 - that is btw where my typo comes in ;) However in that case it's not that important at all since I'm sure there are not many German speaking people around who care about such a trifle. It's fine the way it is. Thanks for the info anyway. --Phileas 07:57, 5 November 2009 (UTC)

Other Side of the Sky
Your submission for a new pub has no catalog#. I've found two references with YS1289 (and both make note of Josh Kirby as the artist). Is this the same pub? Thanks! ~Bill, --Bluesman 17:37, 15 November 2009 (UTC)


 * Hi Bill. I don't have the book (yet) and I don't know the catalog number of this one, since it's not on the front cover. Neither do I know the artist. It's a different cover illustration than used for the later Corgi reprints. That's all I know so far. Cheers. --Phileas 18:12, 15 November 2009 (UTC)


 * Yeah, I found an image but it was awful. I'll approve the submission and add the catalog ID I found and when you do find the book you can check! There was only one OCLC record of a '63 so I'm pretty sure it's correct. Thanks! ~Bill, --Bluesman 18:25, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

The City & The City paperback pub date
I approved your submission of, but I have a question about its publication date. Where did you get that date? If the hardcover was published 2009-05-00, it seems likely the paperback would have been published later in the year. That they were published in the same month is of course quite possible, but it seems odd, so I thought I'd ask you about it. Thanks. --MartyD 11:49, 27 November 2009 (UTC)


 * Hi Marty. Especially British publishers - as it appears to me - often publish trade paperbacks the same time as the hard cover for about 2/3 of the price (take Gollancz for example - look for those £18.99 / £12.99 pairs). Basically they are often identical with the hardcover. The only difference is that the soft cover instead of hard boards. They are different than the mass market paperback that appear a year later which are smaller in size are of poorer paper quality etc. However I don't have that specific edition - I was just looking what editions there are and I found this on the UK Amazon site. It seemed quite plausible to me. Cheers --Phileas 22:41, 27 November 2009 (UTC)


 * Interesting. Thanks for the explanation.  --MartyD 02:15, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

Foreword to the paperback omnibus (LotR)
Hi Phileas. Could you please have a look at this mini-discussion. I would like to do the same (either merge or make a variant) to this title in of the LotR. Could you please check if the foreword is titled "Foreword to the paperback omnibus"? If yes I would like to make a variant, if no I would like to merge. Of course, if you have objections, please let me know as well. And by the way: Thanks for adding the appendices as titles (I noticed the discussion on the community portal only a few minutes ago), this saves me a lot of time as I would have done exactly the same as you did. Cheers, Patrick -- Herzbube Talk 13:58, 30 November 2009 (UTC)


 * Hi. I think the title is as it is stated in the book. But I'm not sure whether or not there was any reason for not merging it or making it a variant of the existing title. Maybe there was something "mass market"-specific version. I'll have a look when I'm back home. --Phileas 14:41, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

Years of the City
Scanned in an image and added notes for [this] It's a good idea to add the OCLC record # to the notes when verifying from that source. Often there are multiple records, frequently with conflicting data, so it's good to know which one is being cited. Cheers! ~Bill, --Bluesman 03:20, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Space
Hi. See this note about. --MartyD 11:24, 17 January 2010 (UTC)


 * Yeah, I mixed that copy and paste stuff up. Thanks for fixing. --Phileas 12:42, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

Gollancz edition of Clarke's The Fountains of Paradise
Does your verified copy of this title have a price? According to BLIC 010076720, it was £4.95. Thanks. Mhhutchins 06:32, 12 February 2010 (UTC)


 * My copy's jacket has been price clipped. So I can't verify that - but 4.95 sounds plausable for a 79 Gollancz hardcover. --Phileas 12:20, 16 February 2010 (UTC)


 * 4.95 seems correct. Take a look at the nopte of the BCA edition. --Phileas 12:22, 16 February 2010 (UTC)


 * I updated the pub and left a note. Thanks for pointing out. --Phileas 12:31, 16 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Looks good. Submission accepted. --Mhhutchins 14:58, 17 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Unfortunately we now know the BCA edition price is wrong... I wonder if Brin1 will ever return? BLongley 19:15, 17 February 2010 (UTC)

All My Sins Remembered
Approved [this] and then added the price from [BLIC] ~Bill, --Bluesman 14:56, 17 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks. --Phileas 10:17, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Aus einem anderen Jahrtausend
Hi, in the publication info of the book "Aus einem anderen Jahrtausend" you used the name Boros-Szikszai as name of the artist. I think we are talking two persons in this case: Boros Zoltán & Szikszai Gábor, with ISFDB canonical names: Zoltán Boros and Gábor Szikszai (if my author data edits will be approved soon). Could you please doublecheck this and update the publication with the correct names if needed, Thanks in advance! GaborLajos 14:29, 26 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Sorry. I've been on vacation and without internet service for some weeks. I'll have a look into the book when I'm back home. --Phileas 08:14, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Atelier Heinrichs
Hi, the cover art credits for this should probably be separated into two names. There are solo listings for Atelier Heinrichs, so dividing the cover credit would allow all of Heinrichs' credits to appear together on one page. Cheers Jonschaper 02:36, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

And Another Thing ...
I added the OCLC and LCCN to your verified And Another Thing .... Thanks, --Willem H. 16:30, 7 July 2010 (UTC)

Das Orakel vom Berge
User:Albinoflea has uploaded a new cover image for this verified pub I am about to approve the pub edit. --Willem H. 10:21, 26 September 2010 (UTC)

Baxter's Phase Space
Hello Phileas! It seems to me that you added a somewhat superfluous pub of Baxter's collection http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?PHSSPCE2002 and verified it (it has the same ISBN etc.). Since it doesn't mean a separate publication and has no given date of publication it should be cancelled, what do you think? You could verify it in the dated pub from August 2002. Stonecreek 20:24, 6 December 2010 (UTC)


 * Except for book club editions, each printing of a book gets it's own publication record. Since Phileas entered & verified a second printing (see the notes), this pub is completely within the rules, and should stay in the database. --Willem H. 20:41, 6 December 2010 (UTC)


 * Willem's right - we do go into that level of detail. Even when a book is ! And the book club edition exception only applies to some book clubs (the US SFBC mainly) - I've done differently for BCA titles like this for instance. (No Gutter codes to play with there.) Someday we'll have a big row about it all and might do all Book Clubs the same way, but for the moment it's safest to enter every printing separately, with notes about why it's different from any others, and maybe we'll consolidate later. BLongley 00:50, 7 December 2010 (UTC)


 * OK, my apologies, didn't catch the notes. Stonecreek 16:15, 9 December 2010 (UTC)

publisher in Die unendliche Geschichte
User:Rudam has changed the publisher in your verified from "K. Thienemanns Verlag" to "Thienemann". See also User_talk:Rudam for my question about the general removal of "Verlag" from names. I let it through, but if you feel that's inappropriate and should be changed back, please do so. Thanks. --MartyD 11:29, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Komet der Blindheit
I also own this pub Komet der Blindheit. I corrected and added some informations and deleted the two titles who wasn't translated. Rudam 17:50, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

Only one genuine artist
I removed Agentur Schlück from this pub, because John Harris is credited as artist and the other artist is only an agency. Stonecreek 20:44, 23 March 2011 (UTC)

Mars Trilogy
I'm uploading and linking new scans of the HarperCollins HB versions of the Mars Trilogy. (e.g. Red Mars)--Albinoflea 01:45, 7 April 2011 (UTC)


 * And I changed the pub. series from Heyne Science Fiction to Heyne Science Fiction & Fantasy in 'Roter Mars' and other publications by Heyne. This change seems to have taken effect from around 1985 onwards and I only found out about it after already entering several pub.s. Stonecreek 17:58, 27 June 2011 (UTC)

New prices for Clarke
I added the prices for two books by Clarke, the first is this, the other one 'Verbannt in die Zukunft', also from 1960. Stonecreek 12:41, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

Corgi SF Collector's Library
Hi, I've made this publication a part of the series Corgi SF Collector's Library.--Dirk P Broer 08:46, 6 July 2011 (UTC)

By Space Possessed
Hello. Would you mind my importing from Locus1 more info, including the contents, about this pub? I will take care of duplicate titles and the like. Thanks. Waldstein 19:54, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

Eines Greifen Ei
Hello, I just added the cover, interior art and artist to this. In addition, I changed the pub. series to Heyne Science Fiction & Fantasy. Stonecreek 20:03, 25 September 2011 (UTC)

Träumen Roboter ...?
Hello, I just added the cover image, price and artist to this. Stonecreek 17:25, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

Two German Clarke novels
Hello, Phileas! I added the prices to this and 'Rendezvous mit 31/439'; I also dropped 'Verlag' in both M. v. Schröder titles to have one publisher (not two). Stonecreek 14:51, 7 October 2011 (UTC)

And I found the artist for 'Das Lied der fernen Erde' (Heyne Allgemeine Reihe). Stonecreek 14:38, 16 June 2012 (UTC)


 * More Clarke: I added the months for the Bastei Lübbe editions 'Aufbruch zu den Sternen' and 'Erdlicht' and dropped Agentur Luserke from the first one. Stonecreek 09:49, 29 September 2012 (UTC)

Vaterland
Hello, with information obtained from Deutsche Nationalbibliothek I put your verified pub into one of Heyne's publication series ('Allgemeine Reihe') and added an assumption about being the 11th printing of this edition. Stonecreek 17:44, 23 April 2012 (UTC)

Roter Mars
Uploaded a scan and added notes for Roter Mars. Albinoflea 03:04, 11 August 2012 (UTC)


 * And take a look at this discussion to understand the change of cover artist for this book. Stonecreek 18:46, 20 August 2012 (UTC)


 * I changed the cover artist to Dixon for the other two volumes, too, and have put them into the pub. series Heyne Science Fiction & Fantasy. I also deducted the months of publication from the stated printing months. Stonecreek 09:25, 22 August 2012 (UTC)

Blauer Mars
Just added a new scan and an additional note to Blauer Mars. Albinoflea 01:30, 31 August 2012 (UTC)

Galileo's Dream
Have replaced (and deleted) the cover scan for Kim Stanley Robinson's Galileo's Dream with another file already in the database, that did not have a sticker on the cover. Thanks. PeteYoung 09:00, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

Die Herren des Kosmos
Hi, I added a scan for Die Herren des Kosmos.--Dirk P Broer 10:48, 8 November 2012 (UTC)
 * I am also making your Goldmann 1979 edition the 2nd German one, because I found a 1970 Heyne edition of the same title.--Dirk P Broer 11:13, 8 November 2012 (UTC)

Dick's Das Orakel vom Berge
Hello, I added some new content to this (and regularized the 'Vorwort' to the rules and new possibilities coming with differentiation of languages). I also based the cover image on ISFDB and put the pub. into the series 'Heyne SF & F' (based on the copyright page). Stonecreek 15:42, 9 December 2012 (UTC)

SF Hall of Fame 4
I can confirm the price. Updated the page count and publication date.SFJuggler 04:54, 20 December 2012 (UTC)

I added the other price to your verified
I added the other price to your verified.Don Erikson 21:34, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

The Silmarillion
I have been asked to start a discussion as to whether or not J. R. R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion should be considered a collection or a novel with multiple parts. I haven't read this book, I just listed a French translation of this book on this site. Still, it looks like a collection to me. Please enter this discussion here and weigh in on the subject. MLB 21:37, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

Thrilling Wonder Stories, March 1941
Just letting you know. I lifted your image from here and used it for my listing of the recent facsimile reprinting here. Just to be fair, if you still have the pulp feel free to lift the contents of my listing for the original pulp. MLB 12:17, 22 June 2013 (UTC)

Some changes to Clarke's Die Delphininsel
Hello, Phileas! Following this question I changed the cover artist for the Heyne edition and adapted the notes accordingly. I also put it into a pub. series. For the previous Boje edition I added year and price. Stonecreek 14:22, 23 June 2013 (UTC)
 * And I finally came round to verify this publication, I also put into a pub. series and added notes to. Stonecreek 13:10, 24 June 2013 (UTC)

Startling Stories, November 1948
I added data to the record for the November 1948 issue of Startling Stories. Mainly I listed the artist for interior art when the signature was present and added several letters. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 02:49, 4 July 2013 (UTC)