User talk:Thomas conneely

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: I hope you enjoy editing here! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~&#126;); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out the community portal, or ask me on my talk page. Again, welcome! Ahasuerus 16:16, 3 Jan 2007 (CST)
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Trade paperbacks
Hello again and thanks for the submissions! One quick note to the effect that trade paperbacks are entered into the ISFDB as "tp", not "tpb". I have already corrected the data, so it's just a heads up for future reference :) Thanks! Ahasuerus 16:36, 4 Jan 2007 (CST)

The Female Man and Pocket Essentail Cyberpunk
The data for the 1985 reprint of Russ's The Female Man that you submitted looks good, but you probably want to do it as a new Publication (edition) under the existing title rather than as a modification of the current 1994 trade paperback reprint. The latter comes from the Locus Index, which is generally quite reliable since they usually only lists editions that they have seen. Also, the detailed information that it provides seems to suggest that the 1994 reprint does exist even though the identical ISBN does make it look a little fishy. I have created a new Publication with the submitted data and rejected the submission so that the 1994 tp reprint data is preserved.


 * Apologies over this, you are correct, I had entered this in error.Thomas conneely 18:12, 8 Jan 2007 (CST)

Re: Pocket Essentail (typo?) Cyberpunk, I see 3 submissions in the queue, one as by "Andrew M Butler and Paul Duncan" and the other two as by Butler alone. Did you mean to submit all three or was there some kind of glitch? Also, please note that the year should be entered as "2000-00-00", not "00-00-2000". Thanks! Ahasuerus 17:36, 4 Jan 2007 (CST)


 * Yes, ( again) Hopefully mark it down to beginner's errors. Hopefully my typo count will decrease as well Thomas conneely 18:12, 8 Jan 2007 (CST)


 * Thanks for the clarification, I'll clean it up! Ahasuerus 18:32, 8 Jan 2007 (CST)

The British Pound
The reason why some records use "L" for the pound sign is that at one point the ISFDB didn't have Unicode support and "L" was as close as we could make it. At this point, there is no reason to use it any more since the ISFDB now supports Unicode. At some point we will need to run a database conversion and change all "L" to the proper character. Ahasuerus 18:32, 8 Jan 2007 (CST)


 * Just noticed this again in passing... there IS one reason to continue using the "L" - the "£" sign means we don't get a link to Amazon.CO.UK for British pubs, but we do for "L" ones. It's presumably an easy code fix, but we don't have an easily available coder at the moment. :-/
 * I do get a bit worried about it as I've posted nearly 400 cover-art images to the UK site, mostly so I can use them here, and would like to be able to point out that they get almost as many links back as we use images, so a pretty fair deal all round, if they ever ask about us using their bandwidth. There's a bit of an overlap with the 150 I've added to the US/.com site though, so maybe I can fend them off with those examples in the meantime if they ever set the heavies on us. BLongley 17:45, 31 Jul 2007 (CDT)

A couple of notes
Thomas, just a couple of notes on some recent submissions. You've used a couple of variations of format for old British prices; the standard is just to use "3/6" -- no need to mark the shillings and pence with 3s/6d as you have done on a couple. I've approved them, but if you could use the standard format that would be great.

The other note was about publisher numbers -- you entered a Penguin serial number in the ISBN/catalog number field, as "Penguin number 1138". I think it's unnecessary to add the prefix -- just "1138" would do, since it's pretty clear that's what the field must mean.

Thanks for your submissions! Mike Christie (talk) 21:40, 8 Jan 2007 (CST)

A couple more notes
I've approved your recent submissions but please note
 * Use "hc" and not "hb" for hardcover publications. I have fixed http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?111011

Apologies, we tend to use hardback as a word here more than hardcover, so its just force of habit, I will rectify this from now on ditto as above! will do, patch seems like a good idea as well though Thomas conneely 16:12, 11 Jan 2007 (CST)
 * Use the $ prefix for USA prices, even when it's under $1.00. I have fixed http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?111021
 * Use an upper case X at the end of the ISBN and not the lower case x. I have fixed http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?111031 but also put in a feature request for the software to handle this one automatically.

Thank you for the submissions! Marc Kupper 15:03, 11 Jan 2007 (CST)


 * > Apologies, we tend to use hardback as a word here more than hardcover
 * That brings up a good point and I've updated an existing feature request to make the binding a drop-down list. Marc Kupper 23:32, 12 Jan 2007 (CST)

Remove Title for The Quiet Woman
Thomas, I rejected the remove-title for The Quiet Woman (NOVEL) because all of the publications of this novel look ok. Could you please explain why you wanted to do the remove-title as maybe you saw something that I missed. Thank you. Marc Kupper 15:21, 15 Jan 2007 (CST)

Marc, as i see it the title The Quiet Woman with QTWMN1990 and BKTG13931 are the same title, and the details for BKTG13931 are correct. There was only 1 hc publication in 1990 from Bloomsbury, ( i have it here), and while it may have been reprinted by them, the isbn and other details remained the same. UK pb rights went to abacus, as listed -the third item listed. It just looked like a duplicated listing for the Uk hc edition to me, so that was why i thought it should be removed.Thomas conneely 16:50, 15 Jan 2007 (CST)

Once Upon a Galaxy
Thomas, I approved the sub on this title, but I went ahead and regularized the capitalization. Take a look at Help:Screen:NewPub, at the section on title case, and you'll see the standard. We do this to avoid multiple variant titles that differ only in capitalization. Thanks Mike Christie (talk) 17:41, 15 Jan 2007 (CST)

Aldiss/Non-Stop
Thomas, I approved your sub of the Millennium edition of "Non-Stop", but I wondered if you would do me a favour and check that the title page does include the "W." initial. The cover does not show it; this is by no means a guarantee, of course, so I wanted to check. I've been working a bit on Aldiss's biblio and noticed that the existing entries aren't very consistent in whether they record "Brian Aldiss" or "Brian W. Aldiss"; I think in a lot of cases people used "Brian W. Aldiss" even when the middle initial was not present on the title page, since they know it's the canonical version of his name. Mike Christie (talk) 13:40, 17 Jan 2007 (CST)

Mike, I have checked and there are no references at all to W on either the cover, copyright page, brief bio page, etc etc. I always try and put in the author exactly as it appears on the individual book. ( Similar case on the pb original of Supertoys last all Summer Long, as well) I had a similar case last week with a Kurt Vonnegut title - Orion had omitted the middle initial there as well, but they always seem to put it in for P K Dick and Arthur C. Clarke - admittedly they are probably only known in that manner. I will be adding a few Aldiss 1960's Faber hardcovers soon, and I note they all use the middle initial. Do you reckon I should use the middle initial as a matter of course ? Thomas conneely 15:03, 17 Jan 2007 (CST)


 * No, not at all -- you are quite right to enter exactly what is on the book. However, your entry does have the "W" so I was thinking that might be a data entry error on your part?  More likely, you may have done "Add Pub to this Title", which prefills the title and author field, so you may not have noticed it put the W in.  It is there, though, which is why I asked.


 * In fact there needs to be a whole new title record for this publication. Take a look at this pub, which Marc Kupper entered recently.  I could have sworn he'd entered a variant title for "Non-Stop, by Brian Aldiss" at one point, but it's not there now.  Anyway, what needs to happen is to do "New Novel", and enter the data for the Millennium edition, without the W in the author.  This will create a title under author="Brian Aldiss" and title="Non-Stop".  Then displaying that title and choosing MakeVariant, and putting in 123 as the parent title id, will make that a variant title of "Brian W. Aldiss" "Non-Stop".  Then when you display the biblio for Brian W. Aldiss it will show another variant title record for "Non-Stop" as by "Brian Aldiss".


 * Does that make sense? This is quite a confusing situation, so ask if you would look more clarification.  Alternatively I am happy to do the clean-up for you, if you're not clear what needs to be done.  Just let me know.  Mike Christie (talk) 15:21, 17 Jan 2007 (CST)

Yes, despite myself - "Add Pub to this Title" was exactly what I did. DOh! I will try this out and see how I get on - the more practice I get at entering titles accurately the better!. 17:26, 18 Jan 2007 (CST)
 * Thomas, I've approved your subs, but it looks to me as if you may have duplicated the submissions. In any case, take a look at the Aldiss biblio page and you'll see both of them. Mike Christie (talk) 20:50, 18 Jan 2007 (CST)


 * Thomas, looks like you're using "Remove Title" to get rid of one of the Non-Stops? I think what you probably need to do is a Delete Pub on the publication, then a Delete Title.  Remove Title is meant for getting rid of content records; I didn't even know you could use it on publication titles in this way.  I'll experiment with it later today to see whether it has any side-effects, but I know you're going to need to do the "Delete Pub" anyway, so let's go that route for now. Mike Christie (talk) 07:16, 19 Jan 2007 (CST)

2001: A Space Odyssey – introduction(s)
I approved your addition of 2001: A Space Odyssey but am thinking that as the note says this edition includes an introduction by Clarke, as well as by Stephen Baxter that this should be added as essays in the Contents section. Assuming the Introductions are just called “Introduction” you’d add them as “Introduction (2001: A Space Odyssey).” Note that it’s also not 100% clear from the note if it’s a single introduction written by Clarke/Baxter jointly or two separate essays. I get the impression there are two separate introductions but assume you have the book and can check this. Marc Kupper (talk) 16:48, 20 Jan 2007 (CST)

Yes, there are two seperate introductions, I will correct this. Thomas conneely 16:54, 20 Jan 2007 (CST)

Artists and illustrators
Does anyone have any definite rule as to the correct procedure when listing books with a company only listed as the designer of the cover or cover art? And what if the bookjacket is a photograph or historical artwork ( altered or not?). Could a seperate option be included at some stage to 'Add Photographer/ Designer' or similar nomenclature? Thomas conneely 14:58, 21 Jan 2007 (CST)


 * If it's a company that did the cover then just list the company as a cover artist. For example, yesterday I added a book where the cover art was credited to "G-Force Design."
 * If it's just the cover design, photographer, etc. then you can either add a comment in the notes or you could add an INTERIORART record ([add-title]). Let's say the title is A Way Home and so you would do
 * [Add-Title]
 * Page: cv
 * Title: A Way Home (Cover Design)
 * Type: INTERIORART
 * Author: credit whoever did the cover design
 * That will allow the contributors to get created and linked up both for the publication and on the contributor's page. Marc Kupper 16:19, 21 Jan 2007 (CST)

The Promise of Space - ISBN
Could you please check the ISBN on The Promise of Space which you just added? Thank you. Marc Kupper 16:24, 21 Jan 2007 (CST)

Collected Stories Arthur C. Clarke
Thomas, I saw you just did a huge update for the content of the Clarke; that was one big submission. I approved it, but I wondered if you realized something that would have made it just a little bit quicker for you -- you don't need to go to trouble to enter the dates. That's because almost every story (perhaps every one) is going to have to be merged anyway, since it's new content, and when you merge, you can pick up the dates from the other stories.

Having said that, I see you're putting in month dates too, which aren't there for most stories yet, so your approach is definitely adding more data. However, I just wanted to be sure you were aware that generally you will pick up some data from the merge that follows the new data entry.

Thanks -- Mike Christie (talk) 19:26, 23 Jan 2007 (CST)

mike, I was aware of this but I thought as I was taking the month dates ( where available)from the listings in the collection ( most of which are for pulp magazines) it was as easy to just enter it as it was. Also, i noticed one or two that were not listed as they were collected for the first time ( in book form) in this particular collection. Thomas conneely 16:26, 25 Jan 2007 (CST)

Trouble With the Natives
Thomas, just noticed your submission for a variant title on "Trouble with the Natives" -- can you explain what the intent is here? I don't see any difference between the titles. Were you intending to merge these? Mike Christie (talk) 19:42, 23 Jan 2007 (CST)


 * Thomas, I just realized that there is a difference in capitalization -- this should actually be a merge if the other record existed, since "With" is always capitalized. However, you entered the variant title in directly rather than referenced an existing record, so I'm still not sure what your intention is here.  Couldn't you just update the title record with this information directly?  Mike Christie (talk) 05:01, 31 Jan 2007 (CST)

Children of Dune
Thomas, the update you did for Children of Dune isn't quite the best way to deal with that problem. There is a title record in the database for the correct form of the title: that's title 2247. The title you updated, title 27734, exists because someone entered this publication, with author "unknown". What is needed is to update the publication, and then merge the titles. When you merge, you can discard the incorrect data on one title, so there is actually no need to update the title at all. (It doesn't hurt, but it's not necessary.)

mike, i just came across this title when doing a search and thought I should correct the author ( which was entered as unknown. I will merge them. Thanks Thomas conneely 13:00, 4 Feb 2007 (CST)

Let me know if you would like me to clean this up, or if you plan to do it; I'll leave the submission on hold till I hear from you.

By the way, I haven't heard back from you about "The Trouble With Natives" (see the note just above). Let me know about that too, when you get a chance. Thanks -- Mike Christie (talk) 12:30, 4 Feb 2007 (CST)

mike, according to the Collected Clarke SS, the title was originally published with the title  'Three Men in a Flying Saucer'  in Lilliput magazine, Feb 1951. Not sure what I am doing wrong here as I meant to enter the variant title ( and thought I had) Thomas conneely 13:00, 4 Feb 2007 (CST)


 * Aha -- that explains it. Take a look at your pending edit for this (via the "My Pending Edits" link in the navbar on the left) and you'll see that what you did was create a variant title that is the same as the original, and mention the variant title in the notes.  What is needed is to create a variant title that has the title "Three Men in a Flying Saucer".  Otherwise, everything looks good -- though you could also make the date 1951-02-00, instead of 1951-00-00, since you know the date of the magazine publication.  I'll leave this in the queue till I hear from you.  Thanks -- Mike Christie (talk) 13:22, 4 Feb 2007 (CST)

Orbitsville Judgement
I'd not seen this before - can you drop me a note on my talk page and tell me what it is? I thought there were only two Orbistville books... BLongley 16:39, 4 Feb 2007 (CST)

John Scalzi's "The Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies 1"
Thomas, could you please clarify what you were trying to change in this record? The submission as it came through had no changes. I have made some cosmetic changes to the publication data and also added the table of contents to the Title record, so perhaps what you tried to accomplish is already incorporated into the ISFDB? Thanks! Ahasuerus 20:07, 4 Feb 2007 (CST)


 * Sorry, i was just doing a tidy up ( as I thought!) on price, etc.

the main point was that the number 1 does not appear anywhere - the book was not as far as I am aware part of a projected series. methinks i hit the wrong keys, apologies Thomas conneely


 * Ah, I see! No problem, it happens :) Actually, the book was a part of Scalzi's series of non-fiction "Rough Guides", which are pretty obscure. Ahasuerus 18:33, 5 Feb 2007 (CST)

Adding content to a magazine, collection, or anthology
Thomas, I just approved your update to Seven Stars. One comment is you need to be careful about making changes to the Contents section. With Seven Stars you overwrote the first title which is for the publication's parent title (Seven Stars) with the data for the short story Angel Down, Sussex. After approving your update I edited the publication editted the record for Angel Down, Sussex back to the data for the Seven Stars title and then did an [Add Title] to add the data for Angel Down, Sussex. Marc Kupper (talk) 23:00, 4 Feb 2007 (CST)

Islands in the Sky
I approved the addition of Islands in the Sky but am wondering about The reason i noted this is that I know the artist to be Peter Quinn,( by information elsewhere and by the style which is distinct and was used on other UK Clarke editions) but he is not physically named/credited in the book or on the dustjacket.Thomas conneely 17:08, 5 Feb 2007 (CST) The first edition in the Uk was undated ( on the title page) but was published in 1952. I am 100% that the edition here is the first UK edition, ( which was preceded by ( or was near simultaneous with)the first US Winston edition)but that edition did not state the year. I understand the reasoning behind using 0000-00-00 and will gladly change it to this if you advise to do so.Thomas conneely 17:08, 5 Feb 2007 (CST) see aboveThomas conneely 17:08, 5 Feb 2007 (CST) Marc Kupper (talk) 16:54, 5 Feb 2007 (CST)
 * The note says "Artist is uncredited" and yet you stated that the artist is Peter Quinn. Ideally, the note should explain why and how this contradiction exists. Generally we enter the artist name exactly as it's stated in the book.
 * The note says "Book is undated." and yet you stated a date of 1952-00-00. Again, the note should explain why and how this contradiction exists.  Generally if the date is not stated we use 0000-00-00.
 * The note says "First UK hc edition." but does not give a source. Is this something that's stated in the publication?

Baxter's Conqueror
Thomas, thanks for submitting "Conqueror"! I have approved the submission, but please keep in mind that the ISBN field in the submission form doesn't handle ISBN-13s at this time. It expects an ISBN-10 and then an ISBN-13 is generated by the software behind the scenes. Could you please change the ISBN value for this edition to ISBN-10? Thanks! Ahasuerus 18:20, 5 Feb 2007 (CST)


 * no problem, already done. Thomas conneely 06:02, 6 Feb 2007 (CST)


 * Thanks! :) Also, just a reminder to to alway try to add the "£" and "$" signs to prices. It's not a big deal most of the time, but it can be important in certain cases, e.g. when a book is published simultaneously in more than one country or if the country was in the process of switching over from one currency to another, e.g. the Euro. Ahasuerus 11:49, 6 Feb 2007 (CST)

Joe Hill
Thomas, please keep in mind that the "Legal name" field expects the "Lastname, Firstname" format. Also, Birthdates are expected to be in the YYYY-MM-DD format, not the DD-MM-YYYY format. Thanks! Ahasuerus 18:22, 5 Feb 2007 (CST)


 * Okay, thanks for this, it was the first author edit I had done, so duly noted. thanks! Thomas conneely 06:04, 6 Feb 2007 (CST)

Dolphin Island
Thomas, I'm at work and unable to spend time processing the submission list right now, but I did notice you'd changed "Dolphin Island" to NONGENRE. I have to say I think of it as sf -- it's not very sf, but it's there. It's set in the future; there are giant freight hovercraft traversing the world; dolphins are more intelligent that we thought. Doesn't that qualify? Mike Christie (talk) 08:38, 6 Feb 2007 (CST)


 * hmm, on reflection, you are of course correct:) I was confusing it with some of his other non genre books - the various diving books, juvenile titles etc, which i am currently working through Thomas conneely 09:57, 6 Feb 2007 (CST)


 * OK -- I'll go ahead and reject it. Thanks.  Mike Christie (talk) 10:10, 6 Feb 2007 (CST)

Stranger in a Strange Land
Thomas, you have submitted the 24th impression of Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land". The original edition date was indeed 1987, which I have confirmed using the Locus Index and the OCLC catalog. However, it's not clear when the 24th impression was printed. You wrote that it "appears to coincide with the film release of Starship Troopers (1997)", but the price is $7.99, which didn't become the US mass market paperback standard until a couple of years ago. I will update the 1987 edition record that we currently have in the database with the Locus data and then add your data as a separate Publication. Thanks! Ahasuerus 18:00, 8 Feb 2007 (CST)

Changing Planes
Thomas, you verified this edition of Changing Planes; I was going through Locus1 do some Le Guin verification and I noticed that they give the pagination as "i+214". This is a little odd, as it ought to mean there is exactly one Roman numeral page. I figured it might be a mistake on their part, but since you have a physical copy, could you take a look for me? Thanks. Mike Christie (talk) 22:14, 8 Feb 2007 (CST)


 * Mike, there is indeed a one page (6 line)'Author's note' at the start, it is actually numbered as page vii but the rest of the pages are either contents pages,previous publications, etc or blank, so i suppose just stating 'i' is accurate. Thomas conneely 12:49, 9 Feb 2007 (CST)

Also, I just realized that when you verified it, there were no contents entered for it. I've now entered the stories; if you get a chance, would you enter the page numbers? Thanks. Mike Christie (talk) 22:25, 8 Feb 2007 (CST)


 * Will do, thanks. Thomas conneely 12:49, 9 Feb 2007 (CST)

The Nonborn King
Thomas, you have submitted a price change for the Pan edition of Julian May's The Nonborn King from £4.99 to £1.75. As far as I can tell by looking up Locus and OCLC records, Pan used the same ISBN on both the 1983 and the March 1993 printings of the book. Locus lists the latter as priced at £4.99. Could you please check your copy and see if it's the 1983 version or the 1993 version? Thanks! Ahasuerus 17:20, 14 Feb 2007 (CST)


 * Fairly sure it's the 1983 version. Publishers ads at rear also list Many-Coloured Land and Golden Torc at 1.75. No mention of reprint/impressions, states a Pan original, 1983. Thomas conneely 16:09, 15 Feb 2007 (CST)


 * Ah, I see! The problem then was that you were trying to apply the data from the 1983 edition to the 1993 record currently in file. I will simply Clone the 1993 record and adjust the resulting clone's data. Thanks! Ahasuerus 22:22, 15 Feb 2007 (CST)


 * Update: I have added your edition to the list, which looks OK now except that it has another printing of the book with a higher price (£1.95 vs. £1.75). I wonder if the publisher jacked up the price later in 1983 or if somebody misread the price? Ahasuerus 22:29, 15 Feb 2007 (CST)


 * My guess is that the publisher upped the price, inflation was pretty rife in the early 80's;) Thomas conneely 18:27, 17 Feb 2007 (CST)


 * All righty, we'll let it be for now then. Eventually, a vast majority of Publication records in the ISFDB will be (hopefully) Verified and then we can decide what to do about the unverified ones. Ahasuerus 20:12, 17 Feb 2007 (CST)

Finis by Frank Lillie Pollock
Thomas, a short while ago you submitted a merge of two versions of Finis, one by "Frank Lillie Pollock" and the other by "Frank L. Pollack". I clicked "Approve" without realizing all the implications and then began thinking. It looks like the story has been traditionally reprinted as by "Frank Lillie Pollock" or at least that's what Contento and The Locus Index claim. On the other hand, more recent reprints (or at least one of them) have apparently published the story as by "Frank L. Pollack". We will need to record this discrepancy and create a Variant Title so that our users could find all editions/versions of the story readily.

For now, I have reverted the Title record to "Frank Lillie Pollock" since that's what most editions apparently use, but we will need to do physical Verification of all affected anthologies before we can be sure which ones use which spelling of the author's name. I will post something to that effect on the Community Portal later today. Thanks! Ahasuerus 15:54, 26 Feb 2007 (CST)

Date format
Just a reminder that ISFDB dates are in YYYY-MM-DD format :) Ahasuerus 19:08, 5 Mar 2007 (CST)

The Thief of Time
Thomas, I see that you have submitted "gray318" as the artist for John Boyne's The Thief of Time. Just checking to see that it's not a typo :) Ahasuerus 00:59, 6 Mar 2007 (CST)


 * yes, i thought this was odd myself, but i assume its the name of the design company. It's definitely as listed . Also, it's in lowercase on the jacket. Thomas conneely 10:21, 6 Mar 2007 (CST)


 * Thanks, I have approved the submission and added a note to that effect :) Ahasuerus 10:27, 6 Mar 2007 (CST)

Can Neighbors be Neighbours?
Please see ISFDB:Community_Portal

In this case I approved your update to Best Science Fiction Stories of Clifford D. Simak but then immediately followed it with a second update where I changed Neighbour back to Neighbor. This will get all of your other changes added to the database but you should then do the add/remove title thing to get Neighbour added. Plus I see that spelling has not been used before meaning the new title record will need to be marked as a variant title of Neighbor. Marc Kupper (talk) 13:04, 6 Mar 2007 (CST)

Reality Dust
Just wondering if the removal of the series number (6) for Reality Dust was an accident or if it was done on purpose. Is it because this Title is a novella and not a novel? Thanks! Ahasuerus 17:55, 13 Mar 2007 (CDT)


 * This was accidental, but Reality Dust dosen't really have a set place within the series ( as the series jumps back and forth so much). It was originally published by Ps publishing as a standalone novella/(with added guest intro), both pb and hb, and later incorporated into Resplendent, a collection (or more correctly a fix up?)of all the then remaining uncollected Xeelee Sequence stories.(linked into the 'Destiny's Children' books, which are themselves an offshoot of the original Xeelee sequence. It appears to be unrevised in the later collection. However, i feel it is not exactly a full numbered book in the sequence, such as say, 'Raft' is. However, as always, open to correction or wiser counsel! Thomas conneely 19:49, 14 Mar 2007 (CDT)


 * No worries! There are many (way too many, really) series where the "proper" order is subject to debate and interpretation. There is publication order, internal chronological order, "author's preferred order", etc. There were some rather passionate arguments among ISFDB editors over the "right" order od some series entries when the database was open to editing in the 1990s, but thankfully things have been much calmer so far.


 * Substantively, I don't have an opinion one way or the other since I am yet to try the Xeleee sequence. I see that you have already restored the series number, so I will just copy your explanation to this series' Wiki page. Thanks! :) Ahasuerus 01:32, 15 Mar 2007 (CDT)

Alfred Bester
Do you have a copy of Virtual Unrealities? There are a couple of stories listed in that entry which could be variant titles or could be entry errors. There's "Will You Wait", which is elsewhere listed with a terminal question mark; and "Why They Don't Make Life Like They Used To", which elsewhere is listed without the "Why". WimLewis 21:34, 16 Mar 2007 (CDT)

Okay, 'They Don't make Life as They Used To' in this edition definitely omits the 'Why' at the start in both the contents page and on the story title page. It does not state in the original story publication details at back of book if it was originally published with the Why, although I assume it may have been. Although the book purports to be a definitive collection of his shorter fiction, it does not state if any amendments have been made to text, corrections, etc. 'Will you Wait?', however, does have a terminal question mark on both pages. Hope this is of assistance. Thomas conneely

The Cull
Thomas, with regard to the deletion of "The Cull"; from this page I gather this eventually was published as "The Extremes". Given the dates, it seems possible that this is really a publication of "The Extremes" -- or do you think this is just vapourware? Mike Christie (talk) 12:41, 25 Mar 2007 (CDT) Yes, it was published as The Extremes, but my feeling is the listing is vapourware, it may have appeared on an advance listing by the publisher at some stage. Amazon UK gives publication date of Extremes as 3 August 1998 ( not totally reliable though, but indicative). It is unlikely that a pb editon priced at £6.99 would have appeared until sometime in 1999 at the earliest. Thomas conneely 13:09, 25 Mar 2007 (CDT)


 * OK, I'm approving the deletion. Thanks.  Mike Christie (talk) 13:14, 25 Mar 2007 (CDT)

Locus reviews
Thomas, I have approved the last Locus submission, but I was wondering about the review on page 49 that didn't have a "reviewer". Did the book review itself :) or was the reviewer uncredited? Ahasuerus 17:24, 2 Apr 2007 (CDT)
 * Indeed! Those 'self reviewing' books are very handy, think of all the glowing blurbs this would create. I will rectify this asap, thanks! Thomas conneely 16:51, 3 Apr 2007 (CDT)


 * Thanks, looks much better now :) Ahasuerus 19:21, 3 Apr 2007 (CDT)

13 digit ISBNs
Thomas, just a reminder that our software doesn't recognize 13 digit ISBNs when they are entered directly in the ISBN field. Please continue entering the old fashioned 10 digit ISBNs, which the software recognizes and then converts to the 13 digit format for display purposes. Thanks! Ahasuerus 14:09, 11 Apr 2007 (CDT)


 * Most new 2007 publications I have seen only have the 13 digit ISBN format listed, which I can convert back to 10 digit format if you wish. Should I do this or leave it to the moderator? Thomas conneely 03:52, 24 Apr 2007 (CDT)


 * Hm, this is going to be more and more of a problem then :( I will leave a note for our programmer, Al, and see if he can add code to parse 13 digit ISBNs sooner rather than later. Thanks! Ahasuerus 11:01, 24 Apr 2007 (CDT)


 * Well, I have left Al a message, but he seems to be on hiatus at the moment, so it may take a bit to have this fixed. For now, could you please change the ISBNs to the 10 digit format at data entry time? Moderators may not always catch 13 digit ones and some may not know how to fix them off the top of their heads. Thanks! Ahasuerus 14:34, 24 Apr 2007 (CDT)


 * It looks fairly urgent, apparently ISBN-10 has been officially obsolete for months now. :-/ Not that I buy many brand-new books - the few that I do are the paperback edition of the trade-paperback edition of the hardcover, which probably had ISBNs planned a year ago or more. I can feel a major swap-shop coming on though, the piles of books I've verified and thought "Why do I keep this rubbish?" are taking over my sofa. :-/ They'll probably get exchanged for older ones though. BLongley 16:25, 24 Apr 2007 (CDT)

Stephen Baxter's The H-Bomb Girl
Is the price for this correct or should it be trade paperback instead of hardcover? Thanks. Mhhutchins 15:43, 25 Apr 2007 (CDT)

Same question for the Jan Morris book. Mhhutchins 15:45, 25 Apr 2007 (CDT)

Both as listed in the new faber catalogue which i got last week. The Baxter title is young adult/crossover title,(classed under YA) it's definitely only listed as hardcover. The Morris book is broadly aimed at the same audience (YA) far as I can see, so this is probably the reason for the lower than average price for a hardback. Thomas conneely 15:56, 25 Apr 2007 (CDT)


 * Thanks for the response. Both submissions accepted. Mhhutchins 16:01, 25 Apr 2007 (CDT)

"Paul J McCauley"?
You've verified 's collection as containing short story Residuals cowritten with "Paul J McCauley". I suppose that this is yours, and not the publishers', typo for ? If so, it should be merged into 71981. --JVjr 04:54, 7 May 2007 (CDT)

Apologies, it was my mistake, I have merged them as you asked. Thomas conneely 13:15, 8 May 2007 (CDT)

Darren O'Shaughnessy / Darren Shan
You've trying to make Darren Shan a pseudonym of Darren O'Shaughnessy which makes sense, but it looks as though Darren Shan should be his canonical name. So it should be the other the way around. His official site is http://www.darrenshan.com for instance. --Unapersson 08:21, 7 May 2007 (CDT)
 * Thomas, I've put this one through in the end, having realised it was a more minor change than I thought. The records are now linked correctly. --Unapersson 03:12, 17 Jun 2007 (CDT)

ISBN-10 vs. ISBN-13
Re: the ISBN-10 vs. ISBN-13 discussion above, there is a handy online ISBN converter that lets you quickly convert from ISBN-13 to ISBN-10 and back. Ahasuerus 15:52, 11 May 2007 (CDT)


 * Which I've just used for your submission for this book - can I take it this problem is going to get bigger? BLongley 14:20, 21 Jun 2007 (CDT)

Priest's The Affirmation
You submitted an edit removing this novel from the series. I've read the book and can attest to the fact that much of the novel takes place in the Dream Archipelago (whether that setting is reality or in dreams is debatable.) Mhhutchins 17:58, 11 May 2007 (CDT)

Heinlein's Between Planets
In your original submission of this publication, you gave both the cover artist and the interior artist in the field for the cover artist. (You explained in your notes what each artist did.) Only the artist credited with the cover should go into that field. Credit for the interior artist is given in the Content area of the submission form. Just click "Add Title". Page number is blank (unless there is only one work on a numbered page); title would be the name of the book; date is blank (unless you know that the work was previously published and know the year, otherwise it's automatically supplied by the system from the date of publication); entry type is INTERIORART; length is blank; and author1 would be the artist's name. I've gone ahead and corrected the submission from the info you provided. Thanks. Mhhutchins 18:08, 8 Jun 2007 (CDT)

Brian Aldiss's Earthworks
I accepted your edit of this edition of the Aldiss novel, but changed the date back to 1966. According to Tuck, OCLC and the official Aldiss website the book was published by Doubleday in 1966 (although copyrighted 1965 for its British publication). Thanks. Mhhutchins 17:06, 31 Jul 2007 (CDT)

User page protected
Thomas, I have protected your user page from editing as it's a spam target for the "NvkVvi" account. What this means is that you will not be able to make updates to it. I suspect this is ok as you have not made changes since June. Hopefully this is a temporary measure until Al gets back on line in a couple of weeks and can make updates to ISFDB to give us better tools for blocking the spammers.

If you would like to leave the user page open for writing and/or to make changes to it then please drop a note on any moderator's talk page. Thank you. 23:37, 19 Aug 2007 (CDT)

Last Orders by Aldiss
I'm holding your submission that updates this pub, because you changed the titles of six stories. By changing the titles in this pub, you are also changing the titles in every pub in which these stories appear (which may actually be variant spellings of the titles that you wish to change.) There's a procedure of changing titles of contents that must be followed in order to avoid this. Go here for instructions on how to do this. Thanks. Mhhutchins 17:29, 27 Aug 2007 (CDT)
 * As I've not heard back from you, I will reject the submission and ask that you resubmit following the suggested guidelines. I hate to do this because you added some new information, but it would take a lot of work to straighten out the pub records of those titles that your submission would have changed.  Please resubmit when you get a chance.  Thanks. Mhhutchins 21:20, 31 Aug 2007 (CDT)

Publishers and Imprints
Hi Thomas, welcome back! I haven't seen you around for a while so maybe you missed the announcements about Publisher changes. You can search for Publishers (and ISBNs) from the main page now - advanced search is still rather broken, but the new basic search works well. Try it out!

What it has shown us, however, is that we record the same publisher in many different ways, and as one of the new bonus features is that we can see all publications by a publisher in given years, there's a move towards regularization of some publishers. And a counter-move to restore useful imprint information to pubs that Amazon has lumped under the current owner of the ISBN range - even if it didn't actually exist at the time of the publication (e.g. a lot of TSR Books are listed as from "Wizards of the Coast" even if they came out long before the takeover). Why am I telling you this? Well, it's because you're one of the Editors that notes imprints quite closely - e.g. I see you want to change "Orion Publishing" to "Gollancz, an imprint of the Orion Publishing Group" on one edit today. This is fine, but you may not have noticed we currently have:

Gollancz (Orion publishing group) Gollancz (Orion) Gollancz - an imprint of Orion Publishing Group Gollancz, an imprint of Orion Gollancz, an imprint of Orion Publishing Gollancz, an imprint of Orion Publishing Group (London) Gollancz, an imprint of Orion Publishing Group (UK) Gollancz, an imprint of the Orion Group Gollancz, an imprint of the Orion Publishing Group Gollancz/Orion Orion / Gollancz Orion/Gollancz Victor Gollancz - an imprint of Orion Victor Gollancz - an imprint of Orion Books Victor Gollancz - an imprint of Orion Publishing Group Victor Gollancz, an imprint of Orion Books

Most of these lead to one or two odd titles, but we'll never be able to find all "Gollancz" publications from when it was an "Orion" imprint unless we regularize a bit. I'm NOT going to tell you what version to use - that's all up for discussion (as is whether we even WANT to record the Orion ownership on the publication or just in the new Publisher Wiki pages), but rounding these up into something a bit more consistent for now, and telling Al what the final version should be, will make it easier in the long run.

I can show you some stats on the most popular variations now:

232 Orion/Gollancz 67 Gollancz, an imprint of the Orion Group 13 Victor Gollancz - an imprint of Orion Books 11 Gollancz, an imprint of the Orion Publishing Group

So your choice is currently WELL behind the leader, but it DOESN'T mean we should change all of them to "Orion/Gollancz" permanently - it might be easier to do that TEMPORARILY and then do one big update. I've dumped some thoughts here and would appreciate some comments - feel free to just take a topic of interest and tackle that wherever you feel most appropriate. (I didn't want to dump all of it in "Rules and Standards" just yet, there's a LOT to think about! But feel free to address any of them there, or add your own. BLongley 20:31, 13 April 2008 (UTC)


 * ...and I have now put the submission on hold, but only to prevent other moderators from accidentally approving it before Thomas had a chance to respond, so please feel free to abuse it any which you want, Bill :) Ahasuerus 13:39, 14 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Approved - it was also an example of a minor Moderator screen display bug concerning "£", but that's sorted now. I'm sure I can find plenty of examples if I need them. BLongley 21:51, 14 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Maybe it's the bookseller in me but I find imprints and publisher variants intersting to trace over the years and Gollancz has hasd more than most...I reckon I will continue to list them exactly as they appear, but I fully understand the need for a more uniform approach. However, I feel anything is better than Orion/Gollancz - It fails to tell the full story


 * Personally i think that "X an imprint of Y" is truly awful, and I will normally regularize it to "X / Y" particularly if we already have that variant. Unless we add a separate imprint field (which has both pluses and minuses) I rather suspect we will standardize on X / Y in many cases. (this is, however, still very much up for discussion, and I am merely giving my personal views here.) I am inclined to prefer "Imprint / Publisher", but would be willing to see "Publisher / Imprint". Differences over time in the name of either imprint or publisher are another matter, nd in many cases worth preserving, when they actually show history. (However, there is IMO no point in preserving any difference between "Baen" and "Baen Books", as this does not show history, merely input practices over time. Tor is a similar case, and I think so is Ace.) -DES Talk 20:19, 24 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes, I agree with much of what you are saying, with a few provisos,- I think it very important to record in some way publishers who have a global presence in imprints now- for example Tor UK have a list and imprint that differs greatly from it's better known and longer extablished US namesake. Similarly Orbit now have a US list, I think it very useful to have some way of differentiating between them. Maybe the Imprint field idea has merits in the future? Imprint is probalbly more important to 'genre' fiction ( whatever that constitutes) than most. Plus, as an anorak like me, It's one of the things that makes it interesting in some ways. However, recognised standards are obviously key to the whole process, but somehow Orion/Gollancz dosent do it for me - thay are now part of the vast Hachette group, so in one sense the Gollancz/Victor Gollancz/ VGSF name ( or whatever it is this week!) is the remaining 'trademark' ( yellow jackets of the 70's and all that). And to me, that's the important part.
 * I agree with retaining country designators like (UK) and (US), at least in those cases where the publisher has a separate catalog. My personal prefernce is for "Gollancz / Orion" (for the relevant time period) or perhaps "Victor Gollancz / Orion". See my recent comments over on Talk:Publishers‎ for more on this. -DES Talk 20:49, 24 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Welcome back AGAIN, Thomas! And DES, thanks for adding to the Publisher discussions - I probably can't read/reply to them all till the weekend, but there's good points in there. I'm finding the imprint and publisher both added to the same field a bit annoying, but in some cases it's because it's over-fussy (a unique imprint that doesn't need any other details), or sometimes because both are useful but we haven't agreed which way round they should go, or sometimes it misses a detail out of the hierarchy (e.g. Lions might be Armada Lions or Hamlyn Lions, but either were mostly Collins in the end. Might even be HarperCollins at times.) VGSF looks worthy of separation, but Amazon have poisoned a lot of our data already. Still, more discussions are good! BLongley 22:14, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Celebrations
A couple of quick questions about Celebrations when you have a moment. Is "Peculiar Bone, Unimaginable Key" attributed to "Brian Aldiss" or "Brian W. Aldiss"? Was there something special about Brian Stableford's "Next to Godliness" which made its date appear as "0000" (unknown) as opposed to "2008-03-00"? Are "The BSFA - An Appreciation" and "An Afterword" dated 2008-01-00 as opposed to 2008-03-00 based on signatures? Thanks! Ahasuerus 13:18, 28 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Okay, answers to above as listed in order:


 * The Aldiss shortstory is credited to Brian Aldiss ( omits W.)
 * The Stableford should read 2008 like all the rest
 * The Bsfa - an appeciation is dated individually at the end of article as Pat cadigan -January 2008, as is the Ian Whates, - Afterword'
 * Thanks, thomas.


 * Thanks for the response! I have changed the Stableford story from 0000-00-00 to 2008-03-00, so that's taken care of. As far as the appreciation and the afterword go, the dates at the end of the text usually indicate when it was written as opposed to when it was first published, so I have changed them to 2008-03-00 and added a comment to the Notes field. Thanks for editing! Ahasuerus 22:59, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

The Separation
The note in your verified Gollancz edition of Christopher Priest's The Separation currently says "This HC edition was published by Gollancz following the title winning the Arthur C Clarke Award 1993". Surely it won in 2003? Ahasuerus 00:11, 10 May 2008 (UTC)


 * oops....Yes of course it did.


 * Thanks, fixed! Ahasuerus 02:45, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Last Entry by Thomas conneely to This Page
So no one else hast to look for it, I thought I'd put it into a nice convenient place.


 * "Thomas conneely 13:15, 8 May 2007 (CDT)"--CoachPaul 18:43, 2 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Now now, no need for such tones ! Apolgies, I will try and monitor this more from now on....


 * I am sure it was nothing personal; Paul were merely warning other editors who were about to leave messages on this page not to be surprised if there is no response for a while :) Ahasuerus 02:43, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

The Steel Remains
There were some questionable ISBNs on the updates to Morgan's upcoming book. The hardcover had an ISBN-13 of 9780572891507, which generated a bad checksum, and the paperback had an ISBN-13 of 9780752891514 which is actually Scott Bakker's Neuropath. I've put in the ISBNs found at the Amazon UK site for now. Alvonruff 11:56, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Bob Shaw's Amphitheater/Amphitheatre (Changing titles of contents)
When confronted with a differently spelled title of a content record, you can not change the spelling of the title record without changing ALL records in the database to that new spelling. Every title contained in a pub (whether it be anthology, collection, or magazine) has its own record which is the same record regardless of how many times it may appear in different publications. It's the only way to show all of the publications of a particular story (or essay, artwork, etc) on one page. Here's the steps necessary to change the spelling of a content record:
 * 1) Choose "Edit This Pub" from the editing tools menu
 * 2) Click "Add Title" at the bottom of the contents listing, add the correctly spelled title as a new content to the pub, then "Submit Data"
 * 3) After approval, go back to the pub record and choose "Remove Title From This Pub" in the menu
 * 4) You'll see a list of all of the pub's contents. Check the box of the incorrectly titled content and "Submit Data"

You may have to go back and merge this newly created title record with any existing title. In this case there's already a variant spelling of Shaw's story, so you'll have to merge the two records. MHHutchins 12:32, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Understood, I was merely trying to reflect the UK spelling variant of the title, in the interests of being thorough. Apologies. Thomas

The Name of the Wind
You verified The Name of the Wind but I'm wondering if your copy's cover has the Donato painting or the composite of two photographs? You can see the two dust jackets at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/075640407X/ref=dp_otherviews_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&img=1

The ISFDB record you verified has the photograph cover and so I cloned it and created a new publication that has the painting. In looking at the record you verified I realized the cover shown is for the paperback edition as DAW never puts their logo with the book number on the front cover of hardcover editions. If you have the Donato painting version then I'll just copy/paste some of the additional notes added to the record you verified and will delete my record.

I'm also moderately puzzled by the comment "Issued with two different dustjacket states." Where is it stated that there were two different dust jackets?

FWIW - the paperback edition I spotted in a store today has the photograph cover. Marc Kupper (talk) 04:02, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

Okay, here's what I have. When I purchased the book in the USA ( at Hudson Booksellers at JFK International!)on 21 April 2007 there were 2 versions of the hardcover art - the one I have is the one  with the detail of the doorknocker/ gargoyle type figure with leaves flying past - used as a detail on the other cover art version ( also by Donato, obviously). The edition I have is a first, with full numberline, Daw books edition. I can get an image of it easily by googling name of the wind (under Images). The other image - with the redhaired protagonist - is the other cover art version - so there were two versions of the 1st edition DJ.

Hope this is of help, feel free to add any other query about this title below, thanks

Thomas conneely 11:11, 9 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Thank you - that clears up some mystery, particulary as I had not thought of doing a Google image search. There are three covers
 * You have the doorknocker/ gargoyle and it's a 1st.
 * There is also this one which must be the full painting with the doorknocker/ gargoyle being part of the image. When I googled up images the first hit was someone commenting on the size of the guy's anatomy. I'm wondering if that's why we are seeing two first hardcover printing with 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10.
 * I saw this on a paperback and it's credited as a composite of two photographs.
 * One question - Does your copy state "Issued with two different dustjackets"? If so, where is this stated?  Amazon has the full painting version for their search inside and there's no statement about two dust jackets on either the jacket nor copyright page.


 * I have updated your to use the cover you have, added a note and link to the other cover, and also added an INTERIORART credit to Nathan Taylor for the maps. Marc Kupper (talk) 21:44, 11 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Yes, and to further complicate matters the UK edition has completely different artwork as well, although both hardcover and paperback editions have the same jacket art. And no, nowhere does it state on the book that two different states of the jacket exist, I must admit I prefer the one of the door detail - I've seen those comments too about the jacket art - 'Slash from Guns n' Roses crossed with a carrot' or similar...

Thomas conneely 16:37, 12 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Oops - more questions
 * Is that a UK edition from DAW or someone else?,
 * No, the 1st UK edition is from Gollancz, they did a hardcover and paperback edition, both with the same cover art, I will check and update it on database as soon as possible
 * Does your publication jacket have this on the back?

No, Jacket has author image on insaide back flap, plus 5 advance praise blurbs on rear dustjacket. The image above appears nowhere on this ed.
 * Does your spine have a triangular "Fantasy DAW" logo?
 * yes, it has
 * Is the address at the bottom of the title page "Donald A. Wollheim, Founder / 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014 / Elizabeth R. Wollheim / Sheila E. Gilbert / Publishers / http://www.dawbooks.com"?
 * yes, listed as above
 * You left the date as 2007-03-27 on the publication reord. Does the publication state "First Hardcover printing, April 2007" or March 2007?  18:57, 12 October 2008 (UTC)
 * It states first hardcover printing, April 2007, it states on recto 'Daw Books Collectors No 1396, if that's useful. Was reluctant to change publication date as I had no other information to update it with.
 * Thank you Thomas for the other replies. If a publication states "first hardcover printing, April 2007" and is a first printing per the number line then we would use 2007-04-00 as the printing date. If it's a second or later printing then we don't know the date and would use 0000-00-00. I went ahead and updated your publication. -Marc Kupper|talk 21:10, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

The Affinity Bridge
What's the source for the data about  which you just added? I'm assuming it's not the publication itself meaning the notes should explain where the data came from. I've added a note to the publication record explaining the source is unknown. Could you please edit the publication note to document the source? Thank you. Marc Kupper (talk) 16:34, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Past Magic by Ian R. MacLeod and Jack Dann
You list as a co-author of your verified publication, although in the detailed contents Dann is credited only with the aintroduction. Our usual practice is not to credit an introduction writer as a co-author, unless possibly he was also the collction editor (and even then it is debatable). Since this is a verified listing, i don't want to change it without checking. Is there a reason i might have missed for listing Dann as a co-author here? -DES Talk 00:14, 27 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I have this book as well and Dann just wrote the introduction (not credited with anything else, though he may have signed the 200 slip-cased hardcovers; he definitely did not sign the 500 trade hardcovers, which is what I have and which is the edition listed).--Bluesman 18:16, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

Brisingr by Paolini
You submitted a new publication of 870706. You specified the pages field as "748 + 14". What were the 14 separately indicated pages? This pub is onl hold pending your response. -DES Talk 20:55, 2 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Yes, I was wondering how best to include that - the other pages are as follows - A section titled 'On the origin of Names' - a guide to pronuciation, information on names in a glossary format, etc (to page 759), and then 761-763, are three pages of acknowledments by the author, dated September 20 2008. Thomas conneely 10:55, 9 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Such sections may be added to the contents list, with page numbers, but need not be. That is a judgment call. But they are not listed separately in the page count. i will approve this and re-edit to 762 pages. Feel free to add entries for the various essays (which is how guides, glossaries, and the like are listed). We usually do not list acknowledgments or "about the author" sections, unless there is significant content there which seems worth indexing. This is again a judgment call.
 * The X+Y form for page count should be used only where there are actually separate series of page numbers. The most common example are roman-numbered pages, usually at the front of a book. The next most common is Ace Doubles and similar books that have two complete sets of page numbers, so that there would be, say, two different "page 100"s in the physical book. Other situations calling for X+Y page counts are quite rare. -DES Talk 19:12, 9 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Approved and re-edited, the result is . Please check it and edit further as needed. -DES Talk 19:25, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

Whole Wide World
, verified by you has the author as Paul J. McAuley. I also have this book and there is no" J." I did not edit the publication data.--Bluesman 18:07, 8 October 2008 (UTC)


 * You are correct, apologies, this is from a title I submitted a good while ago, before I became aware of the intricacies of middle names and nomenclature procedures on the site - Thomas conneely 10:52, 9 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Attribution adjusted, variant title set up. Thanks! Ahasuerus 03:45, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

Shadow of the Hegemon
Based on your notes, I approved changes to Shadow of the Hegemon earlier today and created a new Essay for Card's "Afterword" on page 358. Hope the title of the essay is really "Afterword"! :) Ahasuerus 02:01, 31 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Yes indeed, it is simply titled 'Afterword'. Thomas conneely


 * Thanks, "Lisa Flakenstern" has been set up as a pseudonym for "Lisa Falkenstern". Ahasuerus 21:15, 5 November 2008 (UTC)

The Silver Locusts
Please see Please see ISFDB:Help desk. -Marc Kupper|talk 15:33, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Marc, added info on original page. Also, this Hart Davis copy has no introductory /prefaratory note, ( or anything else, apart from a dedication to the author's wife) Any other questions,  please let me know...Thomas conneely 20:14, 5 November 2008 (UTC)

Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer
I approved the update to but wondering about the artist which you set to "John Wilkes & Photonica Agency". I know that Photonica Agency is a stock photo house and I see that publication cover looks like a photo. Is John Wilkes the photographer? I suspect the best thing would be to credit just John Wilkes as the artist (assuming he's the photographer) and the notes would state exactly how the cover is credited. -Marc Kupper|talk 00:30, 7 November 2008 (UTC) Thomas conneely
 * Mark, the dj states as follows 'Cover photograph by John Wilkes, courtesy of Photonica, Cover Design by Nick Castle'. I can amend if necessary, just let me know. Thanks,


 * I'd credit just John Wilkes and if you want to add a note about "Cover photograph by John Wilkes, courtesy of Photonica, Cover Design by Nick Castle" that would be great. Thank you. --Marc Kupper|talk 03:25, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

"The Interrogator"
I see that you want to change the date of this from "1969-00-00" to "1968-01-00". While i have no strong objection, a note on your source would be nice.

More significantly, you want to change the length from nt (novelette) to sf (unspecified shortfiction). This is data loss unless you have good reason to think that the previous length value was incorrect, but no evidence what the correct value is. Contento lists this as a novelette, and lists only a 1969 publication -- the same New Writings in SF 15 that we currently list.

I have placed the edit on hold, pending your response. -DES Talk 22:28, 10 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Apologies, i've just checked the book's afterword and the version listed 1968-01 is an earlier shorter version of the same story as was published in New Worlds in 1969, so the version published in Ersatz Wines repreents an earlier verion, published in the new book for the first time. Therefore, to merge them would be incorrect.

Thomas conneely 10:59, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Very well, i will reject the edit. Thanks for checking. -DES Talk 22:36, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

Perseids & Other Stories
Just did a transient verification on your verified pub and have a question. My edition, a first, matches the pub record in every way except the publisher. There is no indication of "Orb" anywhere, just TOR. Could you check yours, please? Perhaps it was issued differently in Ireland? If so I will enter it as a new pub and retract the transient verification. Cheers! ~Bill, --Bluesman 19:45, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

++++ Apologies, yes, only Tor mentioned, not Orb Thomas conneely 13:36, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Darwinia
Added the cover image to --Bluesman 18:05, 30 January 2009 (UTC)

Exultant
Added a cover image and some notes to --Bluesman 22:11, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

H-Bomb Girl
Added some notes to --Bluesman 22:21, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Moonseed
Added a cover image and some notes to --Bluesman 22:51, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Ring
Added some notes to, alas, no cover image to be found... --Bluesman 00:29, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Vacuum Diagrams
Added a cover image, month of publication and edition notes to --Bluesman 01:26, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Past Magic [2]
Added a cover image and some notes to --Bluesman 20:29, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Whole Wide World [2]
Added a cover image, month of publication (from LOCUS) and notes to --Bluesman 19:45, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

The Prefect
Added a cover image to --Bluesman 15:49, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Mayflower II
Added a cover image to and adjusted the publication date to match the copyright page. This image is correct for the hardcover, but sometimes PS did the TP editions in B&W. --Bluesman 23:11, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Last Orders
Added a cover image to [] --Bluesman 15:43, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Worldwar: Upsetting the Balance
I added cover art, and some notes to your verified pub. Thanks - Kevin 06:01, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

The Wheels of If, and Other Science Fiction
I added a cover image to your verified pub. Thanks --Rtrace 09:36, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Virtual Unrealities - The Short Fiction of Alfred Bester
I added a cover image to your verified pub. Thanks --Rtrace 20:14, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Shadow of the Hegemon-- added cover/Canadian pricing/ start novel page
Morning! This. . I dumped a cover image, novel start page number and Canadian pricing onto your ver when it matched my copy. Thanks, Harry. --Dragoondelight 13:58, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Viriconium
I wanted to add some detail to your verified pub. I wanted to add the page numbers and the short story content. I'm not sure I think that the collection Viriconium Nights should be included. The constituent stories are not presented in the same order as VN and in fact they are interspersed around the novels. Would it perhaps be better just to include the stories? Thanks. --Rtrace 01:34, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Childhood's End
I added a cover image and notes to your verified pub. Thanks --Rtrace 17:42, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

Rendezvous with Rama
Added cover scan to verified pub. -- Phileas 09:03, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

Imperial Earth
Added cover scan to verified pub. -- Phileas 09:10, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

The Road to Dune
I added "Paul & Jessica" to the contents of your verified pub, and changed the pagenumber of "Introduction: Short Stories" from 415 to 405, to match my copy. Thanks Willem H. 20:22, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

The Green Mile #3: Coffey's Hands
I added an OCLC number and a note about the interior art OCLC says is present to I also converted it from a NOVEL to a CHAPTERRBOOK, now that chapterbooks are properly supported. -DES Talk 20:56, 9 July 2009 (UTC)

I did much the same to your verified pub of part 2, specifically adding coverart, and OCLC number, and converting from novel to chapterbook. -DES Talk 23:35, 13 July 2009 (UTC)

Viriconium
I added a few notes, and completed the contents of your verified pub to match my copy. Thanks Willem H. 20:05, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

Dates in Author Data
Birth and death dates in the author data fields must follow the same format as used throughout the db: YYYY-MM-DD. I've corrected the submission updating the dates for Joseph O'Neill. As entered, they showed up as unknown. Thanks. MHHutchins 12:56, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Cover
Added cover images to your verified pubs:, , --Phileas 08:18, 24 September 2009 (UTC)

God Emperor of Dune
I corrected the coverartist of this verified pub from Chris Pennington to Bruce Pennington. Also added a note. Thanks Willem H. 18:40, 4 October 2009 (UTC)

Heretics of Dune
Added the publication month and a note to this verified pub. Thanks Willem H. 18:46, 4 October 2009 (UTC)

The Dreams Our Stuff is Made Of
I added to this verified pub. Thanks, Willem H. 19:03, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

The Four-Dimensional Nightmare
I added to this verified pub. Thanks, Willem H. 15:06, 8 October 2009 (UTC)

God Emperor of Dune
I added to this verified pub. Thanks, Willem H. 13:12, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke
I added a cover image to your verified pub. -- Phileas 14:55, 25 October 2009 (UTC)

Stephen Baxter - Space
You verified this pub. The title is currently Manifold: Space. I have this book to, but the Cover just states Space and the title page adds the tag line Manifold 1 making this rather Space: Manifold 1 or just Space instead of Manifold: Space. Would you agree on changing the title of this pub? Thanks. -- Phileas 15:18, 25 October 2009 (UTC)

I've updated the title (to "Space"), publisher and the notes for that pub. Please let me know if you don't agree on that. Thank you. -- Phileas 17:55, 26 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Phileas has replaced the cover image from Amazon with this image (looks the same to me) and added the OCLC number to the notes. While reviewing that, I noticed the notes said, in part, "Cover title: 'Time'".  This appeared to be a cut-and-paste error from the notes in the Stephen Baxter publication by that title, so I changed "Time" to "Space".  --MartyD 11:20, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

Mostly Harmless
I changed the publisher for this verified pub from "William Heinemann, an imprint of Random House" to "Heinemann", and added some notes to match my copy. Thanks, Willem H. 15:49, 28 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Also added this cover scan. Willem H. 15:41, 4 November 2009 (UTC)

The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke
Updated your verified pub:. Page count, notes and a better cover scan. Thanks. --Phileas 18:14, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

Century Rain
Updated your verified pub: to match my copy. Page count, notes and content. Thanks. --Phileas 11:50, 4 November 2009 (UTC)

Dreamsongs: GRRM: A RRetrospective
I added this image to your verified, and Willem H. added content to it. --MartyD 12:12, 4 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Also corrected the publication date and added a note about this. Willem H. 14:36, 4 December 2009 (UTC)

The Naked God
I've added a cover to The Naked God--ErnestoVeg 17:49, 10 December 2009 (UTC)

Hell's Horizon updates
I added this image to your verified and supplied "02" as the publication month from Locus1, also adding a note to that source of the date. --MartyD 00:05, 12 December 2009 (UTC)

The Star Fraction
I added cover a month to: The Star Fraction--ErnestoVeg 12:17, 13 December 2009 (UTC)

cover for Otherland - City of Golden Shadow
I added this image to your verified. --MartyD 11:03, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

The Separation
I added to this verified pub. Thanks, Willem H. 20:17, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

The Dream Archipelago
I added to this verified pub. Thanks, Willem H. 20:20, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Sixty Days and Counting
I added to this verified pub. Thanks, Willem H. 15:42, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

Baxter
Replaced the (broken) amazon scan on your verified here, added notes and changed illustrator, Ghost being the designer only, also for your verified here, and Flood, and for Navigator where Ghost is just the designer, replaced the amazon image and added note on your verified Resplendent. Hauck 12:19, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

Time's eye
Replaced the amazon scan on your verified herre, aded note and modified the number of pages to match with my copy (263 vs. 244). Hauck 12:49, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Berserker's Planet
I added to this verified pub. Thanks, --Willem 16:12, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Priciples of Angels
Added a cover scan and note for your verified here. Hauck 09:41, 5 April 2010 (UTC)

The Naked God
Replaced the amazon scan on your verified here, added note. Hauck 14:27, 14 April 2010 (UTC)

Ken Mac Leod
Replaced the amazon scan on your verified here, added note, also here and here. Hauck 14:36, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

Understanding Space and Time
Added cover to your verified here. Hauck 16:51, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

Seven Stars
Added cover and note to your verified here. Hauck 17:10, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

The Female Man
Added cover image and some notes for. --Marc Kupper|talk 22:11, 19 June 2010 (UTC)

Meet Me at Infinity
I added contents and notes to this verified pub. Also changed the price from $15,95 (probably from Locus1) to $16.95 to match my copy, and changed the title from "Meet Me at Infinity: The Uncollected Tiptree: Fiction and Nonfiction" to "Meet Me at Infinity" as it is on the titlepage. Thanks, --Willem H. 21:13, 21 June 2010 (UTC)

Alastair Reynolds HCs
Replaced the amazon scan on your verified here and added note, also for here, and here and here and here and here and here and Adam Robert's here and Robinson's Blue Mars. Hauck 16:04, 23 June 2010 (UTC)

Childhood's End
I added publication series data to your verified pub. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 13:17, 27 June 2010 (UTC)
 * I also just noticed that my copy has a price of £14.99 whereas the record has £9.99. The copyright page seems to indicate the same printing.  Could you double check your copy.  I didn't think any of the SF Masterworks were reprinted in hardcover, but I could be mistaken.  Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 13:22, 27 June 2010 (UTC)

Cities in Flight
I added publisher series data to your verified pub. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 14:06, 27 June 2010 (UTC)

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
I added publisher series data to your verified pub. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 14:13, 27 June 2010 (UTC)

SF Masterworks
I added publisher series data to. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 14:20, 27 June 2010 (UTC)

Also. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 14:25, 27 June 2010 (UTC)

Also. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 14:28, 27 June 2010 (UTC)

Also. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 14:59, 27 June 2010 (UTC)

Also. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 18:18, 27 June 2010 (UTC)

Also. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 18:24, 27 June 2010 (UTC)

Also. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 18:30, 27 June 2010 (UTC)

Also. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 18:33, 27 June 2010 (UTC)

Also. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 18:42, 27 June 2010 (UTC)

Also. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 20:30, 27 June 2010 (UTC)

Also. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 20:40, 27 June 2010 (UTC)

Also. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 20:43, 27 June 2010 (UTC)

Also. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 20:50, 27 June 2010 (UTC)

Also. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 20:53, 27 June 2010 (UTC)

Fantasy Masterworks
I added publisher series data to. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 22:18, 27 June 2010 (UTC)

Also. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 02:33, 28 June 2010 (UTC)

Celebrations
I have four questions on your verified version of : Thanks! --JLaTondre 13:06, 15 August 2010 (UTC)
 * 1) There is of this publication that lists a subtitle. Before I made that a variant of your record, I wanted to ensure that your version also did not have the subtitle. Can you double check the title page?
 * 2) The Ian Watson story Having theTime of His Life is missing a space between the and Time where the record from the other publication has it. Can you double check that how it really is in the book before I make a variant record for the story?
 * 3) The Martin Sketchley story Decidious Trees misspells "Deciduous" where the record from the other publication has doesn't. Can you double check that how it really is in the book before I make a variant record for the story?
 * 4) Amazon shows the same cover art for the hardcover as the paperback. Can you check that this is correct before I add the cover art to your record? Sometimes Amazon isn't right.

Earth Abides Gollancz edition
I just submitted a correction to the 1950 Gollancz published book Earth Abides, which you did primary verification. I found copies of both the 1st edition (1949) and the 2nd edition (1950) online and added the 1949 version. The cover for the 1st edition was found here:. I had the 2nd edition on my blog from some years ago, the photo of the jacket is here:. Since you are the primary verifier, I thought I'd run this by you. Jacqke 05:17, 4 January 2011 (UTC)

The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of
For German publication the individual chapters of this book by Thomas M. Disch were divided into several essays for 'Das Science Fiction Jahr' (see here, for one of those). Since you can read it as collection of essays, each of them on a different theme, I added the titles of the chapters/essays. Stonecreek 18:26, 8 February 2011 (UTC)
 * And I added notes to the pub. --Willem H. 19:58, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

"Unforgivable Stories, by Kim Newman
I added a cover image, from Amazon, to your verified edition of this book. Chavey 13:42, 6 June 2011 (UTC)

Changing Planes, by Ursula K. Le Guin
I added a cover image, from Amazon, for your verified copy of this book. Chavey 16:38, 11 June 2011 (UTC)

"Deciduous Trees" by Martin Sketchley
Just a note that the spelling of "Decidious Trees" by has been changed to "Deciduous Trees" in Celebration. Ahasuerus 02:03, 1 August 2011 (UTC)

Greybeard
Hi, I've added a price and coverscan for. I also changed the publisher from Panther Books - imprint of Granada (only used twice in the whole of isfdb) to the more common Panther / Granada, and I added notes. --Dirk P Broer 00:16, 13 August 2011 (UTC)

The Boys from Brazil
Hello. I have submited a cover for this pub. I hope it is the right one. I think we have the same edition. Regards, Waldstein 18:37, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Voyages by Starlight
I expanded the notes to MacLeod's Voyages by Starlight. Thanks. --Ron ~ RtraceTalk 13:58, 19 December 2011 (UTC)

Christopher Priest: The Interaction
Just made some minor edits adding details to your verified publication Christopher Priest: The Interaction, which will bring it into the list of 'Foundation Studies in Science Fiction' as it appears here. Thanks. PeteYoung 06:20, 20 December 2011 (UTC)

Rendezvous with Rama
Hi, I have added a cover scan to this pub you verified. --Pips55 23:14, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

Worldwar: Upsetting the Balance
I have the actual mmpb cover (the one with the Del Rey logo and the ISBN at lower left) of this pub you verified. If it is Ok for you, I will update the cover and edit the note accordingly. --Pips55 18:19, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Paladin of Souls image added and jacket designer corrected
I have submitted my cover scan of Paladin of Souls. I also submitted a correction of the jacket designer's name in the note, from "Servino" to "Serrano" from the dust jacket's back flap. Thanks. Jmaloney 22:06, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

Iron Council Mieville 2004
Hi, I have submitted the scanned cover for this pub. --Pips55 23:44, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

The Pesthouse
Going through Jim Crace's biblio, I stumbled on the Picador cover art credits for The Pesthouse, which is credited to Aykan Ozener. My hc states only "The Arcangel Images Picture Library". I've not removed the artist credit to Ozener, but have made the edit adding the Picture Library credit in the Note field. Just checking: does this photographer's name come from another Picador edition, or would it be an erroneous credit? Thanks. PeteYoung 05:18, 13 May 2012 (UTC)

Binding
Hi, changed format pb -> tp for three verified pubs: 1, 2, and 3. Cheers, P-Brane 00:14, 28 May 2012 (UTC).


 * Approved based on WorldCat's records. Ahasuerus 02:53, 28 May 2012 (UTC)

Elemental
I made a tiny change, just adding the Canadian price, to. Ofearna 09:01, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

Earthlight
Hi! Added cover artist (Gerard Quinn) to this verified pub based on data in this book. Cheers, P-Brane 07:50, 18 July 2012 (UTC).

Sixty Days and Counting
Added a pub not to the UK hardcover printing. Albinoflea 23:38, 19 August 2012 (UTC)

The Time Ships
I've added your verified pub to the Voyager Classics publication series, and changed the publisher from "Voyager Classics" to "Voyager Classics / HarperCollins" as with all other pubs in the series. PeteYoung 14:19, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

Icehenge
I've replaced the inaccurate Amazon cover scan for your verified pub Icehenge, also changed the page count to 287, added a Canadian price to the note and added the cover artist John Harris. Thanks. PeteYoung 23:20, 18 September 2012 (UTC)

Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang
Have replaced the cover scan for your verified pub Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang with a scan that has truer colour and includes the cover blurb. Thanks. PeteYoung 06:33, 27 September 2012 (UTC)

Joe Hill's Gunpowder
Added a cover image to your verified pub. PeteYoung 04:23, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

Heart-Shaped Box: A Novel by Joe Hill
I added a cover image to your verified pub. -- Dgeiser13 15:04, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

The Sparrow
Added a cover image to your verified pub. Thanks. PeteYoung 17:09, 6 January 2013 (UTC)

Pet Sematary - King
Added notes and links to http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/edit/editpub.cgi?25949. SFJuggler 06:18, 12 May 2013 (UTC)

Lord of Light
I've uploaded an improved cover scan of Lord of Light to replace the Amazon image, and updated the note. PeteYoung 03:20, 27 September 2013 (UTC)

Fugue for a Darkening Island
I've replaced the cover scan for your verified pub with one that does not show a yellow caste to the background white colour. Thanks. PeteYoung 10:27, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

Earth Abides
I've replaced the Amazon image for our verified Earth Abides with the correct cover already in the db that's used for other printings of this edition. Amazon seems to have updated the image to SF Masterworks (II) series cover. PeteYoung 04:11, 29 November 2013 (UTC)

Waterstone's Guide to Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror
I made some changes to this pub, most to reflect what's on the titlepages of the essays. Please take a look when you get the chance. Thanks, --Willem H. 20:51, 1 December 2013 (UTC)