User talk:Don Erikson

From ISFDB

Jump to: navigation, search

Contents

Welcome!

Hello, Don Erikson, 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 (~~~~); 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! Ahasuerus 16:16, 11 Jun 2007 (CDT)

The Coming of the Horseclans cover artist

Welcome to the ISFDB. Can you verify the name of the cover artist for this edition of The Coming of the Horseclans? Your submission stated "Carl Lungren". Could this possibly be Carl Lundgren? If it's misspelled in the book, we can create a variant and credit it to Lundgren. Thanks for the edits. And again welcome! Mhhutchins 16:14, 11 Jun 2007 (CDT)

Also, you submitted a new pub of A Cat of Silvery Hue, but the ISBN was short (0-451-8836-0). I went ahead and accepted the submission. When you get a chance can you update it with the correct ISBN? Thanks. Mhhutchins 16:20, 11 Jun 2007 (CDT)
The correct ISBN for the above title is 0451088360. I've corrected the record. Mhhutchins 18:38, 12 Jun 2007 (CDT)
My mistake. It is Lundgren with a "d". Don Erikson 12:09, 21 Jun 2007 (CDT)

Artist "K"?

You added the cover artist for this pub as just "K". Is that how he/she's credited in the book, or is it your approximation of the signature in the art? Thanks. Mhhutchins 16:24, 11 Jun 2007 (CDT)

My fault again. When I type in "k" the macro usually fills in "Ken Kelly". But sometimes doesn't and I missed it this time. I'll watch more carefully in the future. For this cover he isn't credited nor is there a signature, but is obviously Kelly. Should I not be giving credit to unsigned & uncredited artists even though I know who they are? Don Erikson 12:17, 21 Jun 2007 (CDT)

Swords of the Horseclans ISBN

Your submission for this pub included an incorrect ISBN. Please make a correction when you get a chance. Thanks. Mhhutchins 16:27, 11 Jun 2007 (CDT)

Found the correct ISBN. Should be 0-451-09988-5. Mhhutchins 18:40, 12 Jun 2007 (CDT)
Another submission with an invalid ISBN here. Please verify whether the number is incorrectly printed on the book. Thanks. Mhhutchins 16:31, 11 Jun 2007 (CDT)
ISBN should be 0-451-11792-1. Mhhutchins 18:43, 12 Jun 2007 (CDT)
Now that my computer is up & running again I'll be able to more on top of eveybody's requests for info.Don Erikson 12:20, 21 Jun 2007 (CDT)

Wrong ISBNs

Another submission had an incomplete ISBN, which I researched and changed to the correct number. When entering these numbers, pay extra attention. You don't have to enter the dashes between the numbers. The system will provide them automatically. Thanks for the submissions. Mhhutchins 19:18, 11 Jun 2007 (CDT)

Actually, it's ok to enter the dashes and I encourage this.
  1. There is less chance of error on the editor's part.
  2. If ISFDB's code fails to parse the hyphenated ISBN then the moderator will see an ISBN with hyphens. This is a clue to the moderator that "something is wrong" and to research the submission. If the editor enters an ISBN as an unhyphenated 9 or 11 digit value for example then it's unlikely the moderator would spot this unless they are paying extra attention. Marc Kupper (talk) 14:01, 18 Jun 2007 (CDT)
Good point, Marc. That situation never occurred to me. Mhhutchins 19:43, 23 Jun 2007 (CDT)

Golden Scorpio

I see you want to remove the note about where the Cover-artist credit for Josh Kirby comes from in this pub. Can you confirm that that's because he's credited on the edition itself? Primary verification would trump a secondary source of course, but if it's not there we'd want to keep the note along with the extras you added. Thanks! BLongley 13:02, 14 Jun 2007 (CDT)

I goofed that up somehow, didn't mean to change it. Sorry.Don Erikson 12:25, 21 Jun 2007 (CDT)
No worries, glad to see you talking here! BLongley 13:50, 21 Jun 2007 (CDT)

Ant(h)ony Alban

Could you please double check that the author's name is listed as "Antony Alban" and not "Anthony Alban" in this publication? Thanks! Ahasuerus 13:40, 14 Jun 2007 (CDT)

After I input the info on the 2nd Alban book I noticed I screwed up. It is "Antony". Don Erikson 12:28, 21 Jun 2007 (CDT)
No worries, quite a few library catalogs have The Day of the Shield listed as by "Anthony Alban" as well :) Do you happen to have Catharsis Central, apparently published as by "Anthony"? Ahasuerus 18:51, 21 Jun 2007 (CDT)

My copy of Catharsis Central has "Antony" on the cover, spine and title page. On the copyright page it says "Copyright 1969(c) by Anthony A. Thompson" , That's with an "h".Don Erikson 10:25, 22 Jun 2007 (CDT)

The Dark Light Years

Hi Don, you entered the Year as 1964-00-00 this would appear to be the year of the 1st printing. We use the actual printing year if its mentioned. The price would suggest the late 60's or early 70's. Also with the Cat#'s we use the "#" in front of non ISBN#'s. You can reply on this page or my talk page if you have any questions. Thanks :-)Kraang 21:02, 14 Jun 2007 (CDT)

I missed the "3rd printing" slug.Don Erikson 12:33, 21 Jun 2007 (CDT)

The Ballantine Teachers' Guide to Science Fiction

I have approved "The Ballantine Teachers' Guide to Science Fiction" and corrected the spelling of the title from "Ballentine" to "Ballantine" as per WorldCat. I also deleted "no price" from the price field and added a note to that effect in the Notes field. Finally, we reserve the NONFICTION type for book length works and we use ESSAY for all other non-fiction entries, so I have changed that as well.

No worries, these are the kinds of minor mistakes that we all make when we start contributing here. Thanks for editing! :) Ahasuerus 18:03, 17 Jun 2007 (CDT)

I see that you have also submitted the second printing of this book. There is an easier way to handle subsequent editions of a title, especially if it contains multiple entries like stories and essays. You just have to wait for the first edition to be approved, then pull it up and use the "Clone" option in the navigation bar. You can then change the price, ISBN or any other fields that are different vis a vis the original publication. That's what I did in this case -- take a look at the results. Thanks! Ahasuerus 18:37, 17 Jun 2007 (CDT)


Enemy Stars

This shows up with a bad check-sum, can you double-check please? BLongley 13:35, 21 Jun 2007 (CDT)

Oops! it's 0-425-03943-9 Don Erikson 15:13, 21 Jun 2007 (CDT)
Thanks, fixed now. BLongley 16:15, 21 Jun 2007 (CDT)

Ensign Flandry

I've approved most of your edits, but I'm uncomfortable with the update of the 1979 printing to your suggested third printing. The 1979 one looks about right according to the second picture on this page - if you have the third edition it should look more like the first picture? Unless you know differently, I think we want to clone the pub rather than update it. BLongley 13:48, 21 Jun 2007 (CDT)

Every book I submit is from my collection. So I have the book shown on Amazon. I'm sorry to be so obtuse, but what is your question?
Also I'll reread the Help Page concerning Cloning, I may have misunderstood. Don Erikson 15:22, 21 Jun 2007 (CDT)
Amazon tend to have a page only for each MAJOR reprint/reissue. We at ISFDB want to record EVERY printing.
There's TWO books shown on that image page: one is labelled as the first printing and the other is labelled 3rd printing. (Amazon may not care, but those image-providers clearly do.) The problem with your update is that it would remove our entry for the first printing (which looks a bit incomplete, but isn't actually wrong) to create the good third printing's record. "Cloning" would create the record for the 3rd printing without removing the entry for the 1st. So if somebody actually has the first printing we would still have most of the information here already for them to fill out the extra details. We always like extra good data (thanks for all your good work in that, by the way, not all messages should be complaints!) but removal of data (which you would accidentally do in this case) is something that we're a bit wary of. If you'd updated a "1900 Trade Paperback edition" you'd obviously be correcting REALLY bad data (I'm not joking, we do see some rubbish like that here occasionally). And providing the good data and eliminating some bad data in one edit is a good idea when you have to wait for approvals. But in this case, I think you have enough information to confirm the 3rd printing, and if you're interested, update the 1st printing with some extra info as well - I think we can safely say it's the same cover artist, for instance! BLongley 16:55, 21 Jun 2007 (CDT)
Do go read up on Cloning, or ask for extra explanation if the help isn't clear - sometimes it's easier to clone a good publication to match a bad one, then delete the bad one. But when you have to wait for approvals, this can be a bit frustrating and it makes the Mods wonder what's going on, and therefore even more hesitant to approve things. One thing you might want to look at is leaving a note to the Moderators about your future intentions in the "Notes" field for publications as you submit them - e.g. "I'm updating this to match my publication's details, will clone back to the original after approval" is GREAT when you're adding contents to a collection or anthology and don't want to have to add a dozen entries to BOTH titles individually. Ideally we'd have a "copy contents" shortcut for that already, but we don't, so the Mods do the shortcuts themselves but have to guess the intentions from other editors. BLongley 16:55, 21 Jun 2007 (CDT)
Anyway, thanks again for editing! Feel free to ask questions here, or on My talk page, or on the Community portal. We're friendly really, it's just that if it takes an editor a little time to discover the messages being left for him or her the first few can look like a huge set of complaints, when we really just want to advise, thank and educate. :-/ BLongley 16:55, 21 Jun 2007 (CDT)
Don, I should comment here in that this publication update is similar to the one I just commented on below for Peregrine (Star Ways). The item that held up this update is that you want to change the year field from 1979-00-00 to 1980-06-00. I cloned 134321 and added the data from your 3rd printing (Year 1980-06-00, Pages 277, Artist Michael Whelan, Note 3rd printing) creating 201161. I also rejected the original update so that 134321 has the data we know of for this printing. It's quite likely the page count is 277 but I'd rather wait for someone with a copy of this printing to show up and confirm this. There is a plan to add the printing # as a separate field as right now the title record, 5268, shows two similar lines for ISBN 0-441-20724-3 and it's not until you drill down that you would see that one of those records is for the third printing and the other must be the 1st or 2nd printing.
If your third printing has a "First printing" date statement for 1979 (and maybe even gives the month) then you could update 134321 to add to the notes that it is the 1st printing with the source of that data being the copyright page of the 3rd printing. Marc Kupper (talk) 14:48, 23 Jun 2007 (CDT)

I seem to be misunderstanding the use of the clone tool. The Clone Help page says "This is similar in many ways to the edit publication screen, but the existing content records are not editable, except that their page numbers may be set." I read this to mean that I can't change the existing info that I clone. I guess I'm wrong because otherwise the clone tool wouldn't be very useful. Don Erikson 20:34, 23 Jun 2007 (CDT)

When cloning you are allowed to edit the "meta data" which is the top part of the page. You are also allowed to edit the page numbers in the Content section and to add new Content titles. The only thing you are not allowed to do is to make changes to the exiting Content titles. Marc Kupper (talk) 13:01, 25 Jan 2008 (CST)

Report on Probability A

I see you've verified this pub, can you just double-check to see if I've added the right cover-artwork? I'm pretty sure my edition is the same as the one you verified. BLongley 14:52, 21 Jun 2007 (CDT)

It appears to be the correct one. Don Erikson 15:29, 21 Jun 2007 (CDT)
Thanks! I do like to check when I make alterations to a verified pub - there's always the possibility that we have two different editions that the text data alone wouldn't distinguish. Feel free to question anything I've verified that looks wrong to you - it's much better to talk than than get into edit-wars. BLongley 17:00, 21 Jun 2007 (CDT)

Flandy of Terra

Judging by the 7th printing of Flandy of Terra, you have found the "Clone" option :) I have the 4th printing of Flandry of Terra on hold since it looks like you used "Add Publication" to create this submission. Do you want to resubmit it using Clone and capture the contents as well as page numbers? Thanks! Ahasuerus 18:51, 21 Jun 2007 (CDT)

  • click* Light bulb goes on. That makes much more sense than what I've been doing. I'll do that in the future.

Don Erikson 10:29, 22 Jun 2007 (CDT)

The Best of Poul Anderson

Don for The Best of Poul Anderson this publication [1] you changed Recollecting to Rceollecting. Is this change in the contents page or the chapter title page ix? When making changes to contents in a title its best to use the add title, and then use the remove title in tool bar. By changing the titles in contents it changes all the titles in all associated publications with this title. You can answer here and i'll see it. Thanks for editing! :-)Kraang 20:00, 21 Jun 2007 (CDT)

Just a typo on my part. Don Erikson 10:39, 22 Jun 2007 (CDT)

No problem set it back to Recollecting Thanks!Kraang 19:18, 22 Jun 2007 (CDT)

The Gods Laughed

Don, I have approved The Gods Laughed, but I am not 100% sure about one title change that you made, from "The Soldier from the Stars" to "Soldier from the Stars". The former title was used in the original magazine publication, which Mike Christie verified a while back. Also, Contento lists the story as reprinted with the article. Could you please double check what the first page of the story (233) says? Sometimes there are differences between the table of contents and the body of the book. In that case, we use the latter as our gold standard and add a comment to the Note field explaining that the ToC is in error. I have changed the wording of the title back to the original until we sort it out.

Now, if we confirm that the story was reprinted without the article, then we will establish that the story has appeared under two different titles and they will need to be disentangled. We have a special procedure for this type of cases -- please see our help page that covers it. I will also e-mail Bill Contento so that he could update his site. Thanks! Ahasuerus 00:26, 23 Jun 2007 (CDT)

It IS "The Soldier from the Stars" on page 233. I didn't even think to check. lesson learned. Don Erikson 09:24, 23 Jun 2007 (CDT)
Thanks! Tables of contents and magazine covers have been known to have all kinds of typos and errors, so it's usually prudent to check the stories themselves, although it takes longer. The worst case scenario are stories that are not listed in the ToC at all :(
Robert Erisman was responsible for a moderately famous screwup with a magazine cover once. See this publication - check the Notes field :) Ahasuerus 10:55, 23 Jun 2007 (CDT)

Price change to Peregrine (Star Ways)

Don, you had sent in a publication update to 25884 Peregrine (Star Ways) where among other things you changed the price from $1.95 to $1.50. As it's quite likely Ace has a later printing that was $1.95 you should clone the publication and create a record for $1.50 rather than overwriting the data about the $1.95 edition.

As you had updated a number of fields with some of them, such as the cover artist and date, being data that we can't confirm, sight-unseen, as applying to the $1.95 edition I decided the best way to deal with this was to clone the publication, adding the data you added, to create PRGRNSTRWS1978. I then rejected your original submission and updated the original publication, 25884, to change the binding from tp to pb as that's something that seems safe change sight-unseen.

The general rule is we don't change fields such as the Year, Publisher, ISBN/Catalog #, Price, and Cover Artist on ISFDB publication records but rather clone the record and update the clone to match whatever we are using as the source for the publication. The binding and page count are often from Amazon and are often wrong meaning those usually overwritten. If a publication record has blanks or "00" in the case of the Year field then you can fill those in from your source.

Of course, if you can determine that the data in a publication field is wrong (either a typo or someone failing to follow the general rule on don't change fields) then overwrite it though even here I'll usually add a note to the publication explaining what I'm changing and why on the off chance the previously entered data was based on a valid source. Sometimes I'll have a first printing and see a record that has a price that's a little lower than what's in my copy. In that case I overwrite the price but also add a note as the original price may be what the publisher announced the book at.

The publisher names are fuzzy as we don't have rules on where they should be entered from and how accurately we should copy what's stated in the publication. As you probably have noted, ISFDB records often have the short version of the publisher's name - for example, "DAW" instead of "DAW Books, Inc." Thus while I said above to not change this field it is one that can be updated as long as you are not just hijacking a record and changing it from one publisher to another. Marc Kupper (talk) 14:29, 23 Jun 2007 (CDT)

Star Ways

I'm happy with the update to make the artist "Ed Emshwiller" if you're sure, but we don't want the D-255 "Two Complete Novels" picture on D-268. The Cover Art URL is supposed to be for the publication it actually belongs to, which seems to be this pub here? BLongley

As soon as I submitted this I thought "No wait!" realizing I hadn't checked to make sure it was the right cover. Sorry. Heres the right one

n2274.jpg Don Erikson 19:08, 24 Jun 2007 (CDT)

What???? How's that happen? All I did was paste in the the site address. Don Erikson 19:10, 24 Jun 2007 (CDT)
It's the Wiki software trying to be helpful and displaying any links that end with ".jpg" :)Ahasuerus 19:44, 24 Jun 2007 (CDT)

Poul Anderson's Tau Zero

I accepted your submission for this new edition of Anderson's novel, but removed the cover graphic link. (The graphic didn't show up on the summary page.) Also added the publication date. Question if you have a copy of this pub: are you certain that the price is $0.60? Most Lancer editions from 1971 were priced at $0.95. Thanks Mhhutchins 16:33, 24 Jun 2007 (CDT)

To tell you the truth I have no idea how I did this. It's $0.95. Heres the site address for the pic I found: [2] —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Don Erikson (talk • contribs) .
I've added this to 201593 plus also updated 32887 with the Star Ways cover. Marc Kupper (talk) 02:13, 25 Jun 2007 (CDT)
Re: the proposed changes to the Berkley Medallion edition of Tau Zero, the linked image is at [3]. Do we have permission to link to the site owner's images? Some people have very limited monthly bandwidth allowance, so "deep linking" makes them go over the limit and effectively shut down their site for up to a month. Other times there are copyright considerations, so we try to get permissions from site owners before linking to their images. Ahasuerus 11:55, 25 Jun 2007 (CDT)
There's a similar problem with "Time and Stars", one for the same site and one from www.sfreviews.net, so I've held those till I see the response. BLongley 14:02, 25 Jun 2007 (CDT)
I've also replaced the Fantastic Fiction Image you gave for Time Patrolman with the one from Amazon - we CAN use Fantastic Fiction entries if there's nothing on Amazon, but Amazon is always the first preference. Please check to see if it's an acceptable substitute. BLongley 14:14, 25 Jun 2007 (CDT)
I have approved the submission for now. I suspect that we will need to run a search against all URL records at some points and scrub anything that we don't have permission to link to. Ahasuerus 20:20, 30 Jun 2007 (CDT)
I've approved the ones I had on hold too, but moved the URL to notes for now. BLongley 13:21, 9 Jul 2007 (CDT)

Ok. From now on I'll get permission before I link to any images. I did notice that most of the links already being used don't show anything. These are Amazon links that say the image is 1x1 pixels in size, I wouldn't think that would allow for much resolution :). (I think that's the first time I've ever used an emoticon non-ironically). Don Erikson 11:49, 9 Jul 2007 (CDT)

I remove broken links, especially before verifying. There's no telling WHAT will show up there if it becomes useful, so rather than allow a random picture to get attached I'll let someone go search for the right one. BLongley 13:21, 9 Jul 2007 (CDT)

Maybe there could be an ISFDB Flickr site for images, there is already some for book collectors. Don Erikson 11:49, 9 Jul 2007 (CDT)

Some of us have have tried Flickr - e.g. this was my test. But there's a limit on the free accounts of about 200 images, and Marc and I have already exceeded those with our "uploaded to Amazon" covers, whcih is my current preference for now. And with Flickr, technically we have to provide a link back to the containing page as well, not the image. BLongley 13:21, 9 Jul 2007 (CDT)
I was half tempted by this one. They let you upload zip files and access the files individually after that, and no problems with linking to them either. The main problem being that they've always operated in a legal grey area. --Unapersson 14:05, 9 Jul 2007 (CDT)

The Winter../ The Queen of Air..

Don i've put this title on hold because its already in the db in the Omnibus section [4]. Is the publications title different than whats in the db? You may want do an edit of this publication instead. Thanks!Kraang 22:03, 27 Jun 2007 (CDT)

I used the "find" feature in Firefox to search the Anderson page & twice did not find the word "winter". I shudda known better! AND I hadn't even noticed the Omnibus section of the biblio, what a dope... Don Erikson 10:46, 28 Jun 2007 (CDT)

Don i updated the omnibus edition [5], have a look and see if its okay. Thanks :-)Kraang 14:03, 1 Jul 2007 (CDT)

Looks good. I was going to add the page numbers for THE QUEEN... but should I just number them as they appear or do I indicate some how that there is two sets of pages.Don Erikson 18:36, 1 Jul 2007 (CDT)

I would put page numbers only on the Queen titles the other novels page count could be put into the notes section. If you put a number in for The Winter... novel it will get mixed in with the other titles.Kraang 20:41, 1 Jul 2007 (CDT)

Battle Circle and Bearing Hourglass(Ballantine Del Rey)

Don, in the Mork & Mindy I changed the "/" to a ":" this is preferred. On Battle Circle when you cloned it you could also have added the page # at the same time. Also if the book has a number line its best to note it like "Stated 2nd printing(per number line) of 1988 Pocket ed.". If you look in the help section under printings this will give you a good overview of how to record them in notes. Also with Ballantine or Ballantine Del Rey books I'm putting in notes were there printed US or Canada. From 1978 to the late 1980's(single price on cover) they issued the books with two different prices. One has a Canadian price and the other a US. The Canadian is always higher. If you look at Jack L. Chalker you will see examples of how I have recorder various types of novels. Thanks for editing!Kraang 19:02, 28 Jun 2007 (CDT)

With the Mork & Mindy I used a "/" because that is how it appears on the spine. On the cover and title page the two part of the title are separated by photos. About Battle Circle, I try not to change anything I don't have a primary source for, especially one I'm cloning from. But I guess in this case it would have made sense. I'll try to remember to us US & Can. for Ballantine prices. Don Erikson 20:35, 28 Jun 2007 (CDT)
Don, you don't need to put US or Canadian beside the price; this space is for price only. If the cover has both prices, just use the US price. I've left an example of the the change I've made to the Ballantine edition. [6]. Thanks!Kraang 20:57, 28 Jun 2007 (CDT)
I also made a change to this [7] Avon 2nd printing in the notes section. This makes it clearer for the moderators when approving edits. If you have any questions you can leave them on my talk page. Thanks!Kraang 21:14, 28 Jun 2007 (CDT)

Leo & Diane Dillion

1) These get entered as separate people, just use the "Add Artist" button. 2) I've assumed it was your typo and changed them back to "Dillon", please let me know if the typo was on the book. BLongley 13:47, 30 Jun 2007 (CDT)

I'll use "add artist' for now on. Sorry it was a typo. Don Erikson 19:42, 30 Jun 2007 (CDT)
No problem, easy fix - if it's a typo on the BOOK we want to know about it though. If we set up all the typos as variants, we catch them more easily. Thanks for editing! BLongley 19:48, 30 Jun 2007 (CDT)
Just a typoDon Erikson 20:01, 30 Jun 2007 (CDT)

Split Infinity

1) One of your edits updates the 1982 printing to create your December 1985 printing. There appears to be a 1982 edition, e.g. someone is selling one here so we want to keep that. I'll approve the edit and clone it back to the 1982 one. 2) A couple of times you've mentioned a map in notes. These can be entered as "Interiorart" entries. (The other example is Justaposition). BLongley 14:23, 30 Jun 2007 (CDT)

Yes I should have used the clone tool. I try not to change someone else's entry unless it's an obvious mistake. And often not even then. I have to tell myself "Don't assume". I mean I'm already enough of an...aaa...you know. Don Erikson 19:57, 30 Jun 2007 (CDT)

Steppe

I see you found a price for my edition of Steppe - thanks! (I buy a lot of my books second-hand, the new price is often obliterated.) BLongley 14:27, 30 Jun 2007 (CDT)

Belmont/Tower

You are quite right, Belmont and Tower(s) were the same publisher. They used "Belmont", "Tower" and "Belmont Towers" as their imprints at various times. I have changed the Notes field accordingly. Ahasuerus 15:02, 30 Jun 2007 (CDT)

Return to the Planet of the Apes

I see you've been entering these as by "Willian Arrow" rather than "William Arrow" (who we know a little about). Can you double-check if it's "Willian" please? We might need to correct a pseudonym if that's so. BLongley 15:09, 30 Jun 2007 (CDT)

Who in the world thought it was a good idea to put the M & N next to each other on the keyboard? It's William!!! Don Erikson 20:00, 30 Jun 2007 (CDT)
Thought so - fixed. (I do spot that error more easily than most, I think, seeing as it's my name too...) BLongley 05:12, 1 Jul 2007 (CDT)
Interesting - it turns out one of the "William"s is actually a "Don"! What a coincidence, eh? BLongley 05:39, 1 Jul 2007 (CDT)

Act of God

Just a heads-up that I've added the coverart to this pub, can you double check if I've got it right? BLongley 15:25, 30 Jun 2007 (CDT) That's the correct cover.Don Erikson 09:34, 1 Jul 2007 (CDT)

Earth is Room / The End of Eternity

Don two questions. The 1959 Earth is Room Enough is the publisher Panther and the price $0.35? You appear to have all three editions of the Lancer pub The End of Eternity and the 3rd lists the dates for the 1st and 2nd thats good the way you noted it. But the Lancer 1st 1963 #74-818 is priced($0.75) higher than the 3rd 1968 #73-701($0.60). Did you get them mixed up? Heres a list of the dates, prices & Cat#'s 

             1st 1963 74-818 $0.75
             2nd 1966 72-107 $0.50
             3rd 1968 73-701 $0.60

Thanks :-)Kraang 21:49, 1 Jul 2007 (CDT)

The 1959 is Bantam, how I did Panther I don't know. It is Bantam A1978, $0.35 The prices for the Lancers are correct. Lancer had "Limited Edition" "Science Fiction Library" series with cover printed on fancy pebbled paper, my guess to justify the premium prices. Ironically these books aged much worse than the regular editions. Don Erikson 09:55, 2 Jul 2007 (CDT)

Thanks for clarification, i'll change the Panther to Bantam.Kraang 10:15, 2 Jul 2007 (CDT)

Fantastic Voyage

Don, for Fantastic Voyage #H3177 $0.60 1st printing you set the year as 010-00? I'll approve and change year to 1965-00-00. If this is wrong [8] just submit an updated edit. Thanks!Kraang 10:38, 2 Jul 2007 (CDT)

Foundation and Empire

Don ,i agree the date is in conflict with the notes but my inclination is to leave the notes as they are for future reference. I'll copy your note and make a clone of the original entry and switch in your note. Also i'am keeping track of the Ballantine Del Rey Canada or US printings up to the late 90's when they went to us printings only. I put into note (Printed in Canada) or (Printed in US). Between the late 1970'(Ca1978) and the late 1980's(before dual pricing) they put higher prices on the Canadian printings(most of the time). Some times the US printing would have the Canadian price on it. There was no indication which currency was being used. You have to know the year and what the book should sell for more or less in the US or Canada. If you look at the Jack L. Chalker page you can seen may of my examples of this.Thanks :-)Kraang 14:20, 2 Jul 2007 (CDT)

On second thought i approved your edit and changed the other one. This way its not in your rejects.Kraang 14:46, 2 Jul 2007 (CDT)
I think (as I had a quick peek while the submission was on hold) that someone (Brin1?) copied my 1990 edition to create a 1972 edition? Obviously I don't mind someone cloning my submissions, but when they do I think they should double-check what it says in notes against their pub - especially when you can use them to go off and create a load of other "stub" printings from the information. Often the prior printing history disagrees with other publications, which is why I entered lots of notes in my pub instead. I DO create prior "stub" publications based on later editions, but so far only with infrequently reprinted titles, years apart. That's just my preference - we haven't solved the problems of displaying EVERY printing of a book that's been reprinted 50 times in England, 40 in the USA, 30 in Australia et cetera, so I've left the data in notes till now, so that if I get run over by a bus tomorrow, the data is still here to be used. I just think entering all the stub entries at once will make the pages messy and I'd rather get all MY publications entered before that happens. ;-) BLongley 17:24, 2 Jul 2007 (CDT)
Don - feel free to carry on creating the stubs, it's just MY preference that we don't do that till the active editors have entered their verifiable ones: and Kraang, do feel free to challenge edits - I know my method is going to make it a pain to FIND where the extra info I left actually IS. I know I can find it in the database backups but that's not going to be much of a help to the editors left behind to fill in the final gaps! ;-) BLongley 17:24, 2 Jul 2007 (CDT)
Anyway, you two carry on, you're both doing fine. BLongley 17:24, 2 Jul 2007 (CDT)

A publisher called "f"?

I think you may have had finger trouble on this pub? ;-) BLongley 15:08, 4 Jul 2007 (CDT)

What usually happens is I type "f" and the macro shows me all the Publishers that start with "F" in this case Fawcett Crest. I fix it now. Don Erikson 00:19, 5 Jul 2007 (CDT)

Nightfall and Other Stories

Don one of the thing you can do with a title that has been changed(a variant) is use the add title button at the bottom of the contents and put in the correct title or titles. For the titles that are incorrect leave the page # blank. When it has been approved bring up the publication and click on the "Remove titles from this pub" and mark the titles to be removed. This will remove titles from this publication and not effect other publications. Its a two step process. I'll approve this and let you go back and make the changes.Thanks! :-)Kraang 21:40, 5 Jul 2007 (CDT)

You can actually do both steps without waiting for approval, if you can remember which titles need removing without the page note. I tend to use "NA" for page numbers to make it clear what I want to remove later, or what I'd be happy for Mods to remove on my behalf: see here. We haven't adopted a convention yet though, so feel free to mark them any way you feel fits. I personally leave blank page numbers for some items I DON'T intend to remove, e.g. Interiorart entries, so I don't support Marc's suggestion there. But a convention all Mods understand would be good. BLongley 15:20, 6 Jul 2007 (CDT)

Nine Tomorrows

You added 208213 but I'm wondering - was the Catalog # stated as 044901971 or 0-449-01971? One seller listed the book using "Fawcett 1959 0-449-01971-0" though that trailing 0 is not correct as if it was an ISBN it would be 0-449-01971-3 which is not found on the Internet. Could you also please check the printing date? You noted it as July 1967. I have a 16th printing priced at $2.25 that says "First Fawcett Crest printing, November 1969" but yet you have a 4th printing that's dated July 1967? FWIW - the catalog # on my copy is 0-449-24084-3 though it must have been printed before 1980 as there's no bar code. Marc Kupper (talk) 19:31, 6 Jul 2007 (CDT)

I added/verified my copy. Something that may help determine if you have a "different" Fawcett printing than mine is there's an error in the table of contents which has the story All the Troubles of the World listed as All the Troubles in the World in the table of contents though it’s listed with “of” in the body of the book at the head of the story and in the page headers. Marc Kupper (talk) 19:52, 6 Jul 2007 (CDT)

Even though it's hard for me to remember all the back to this morning, I think all I did was to add the cover artist to this listing. I would have entered the number as #M1971 and I would not have said it is a 4th printing because it is not indicated. I try to change others as little as possible, so if the original entry says "49901971" etc. I feel that in the past has been an excepted method of numbering. By the way the number on the spine says "499-01971-095"
In this case you had used clone-publication meaning you were adding a new record. When clone-publication is used unfortunately ISFDB does not log the original source publication nor does it show which fields were changed between the original and clone. Thus all of the date is "new" to the system and I could not tell that #49901971 was from the original record without a bunch of legwork.
I edited the publication you added to and changed the catalog # from to #49901971 to #499-01971-095 as that better reflects what's actually stated in the publication.
I just looked at the Nine Tomorrows title record and see two publications for 044901971. The one dated Jul 1967 is the one you added and you must have cloned NNTMRWS19X2 which is at the top of the list. Hmm, this is a judgment call thing. The new record you added is identical to the original with the exception you added the date and the note "4th printing." In this case I probably would have used edit-publication of the original to fill in the blanks (the date and 4th printing). Later, if it turns out #499-01971-095 was used for another printing someone can clone the record and change the note.
The date of that appears also was entered by some else. Of course I could have some screwed this all up myself...
The original record does not have a date and so I'll assume you entered it as part of the clone-pub.
Should I go back and edit it?
I already did the edit but then decided to then apply your edits to the original publication (NNTMRWS19X2) and deleted the one you had added. This way there's one record for #499-01971-095 and if someone comes along with a different printing they will clone this record. If the publication does not state July-1967 anywhere then please edit NNTMRWS19X2 and remove the date (make it 0000-00-00). I usually add a note that the first printing was on (date) and that this is an undated nth printing.
All three copies I own has "in" on the title page & "of" elsewhere in the book. it probably wasn't seen as a big enough problem to spend the money to fix. Don Erikson 20:47, 6 Jul 2007 (CDT)
That's up to you. I normally do add a note as it will helps explain the source of why some web sites will list the title as All the Troubles of the World (it's on 110 pages per Google). In fact, in this case as Asimov is a well known author and the error seems common I added a variant title record along with a note explaining the source of the variant. That way someone using Google is likely to run across the page and will understand why some Asimov bibliographies or story listings for Nine Tomorrows include the title All the Troubles in the World.
Generally my personal practice has been is when I spot something in a publication that looks like it could result in different interpretations (such as an author name with the middle initial on the cover but not the title page) then I document it so that others doing Internet searches/research will understand the potential sources of error/confusion regarding that publication. Likewise, if I see something that is in error I'll add a note to the affect that "Yes, the publication really does state xyzzy" so that people will understand the source of what looks like wrong data. Marc Kupper (talk) 14:42, 7 Jul 2007 (CDT)

What I meant when I wrote "it probably wasn't seen as a big enough problem to spend the money to fix." I was speaking of the Publisher. I wasn't implying that minor differences were unimportant.Don Erikson 16:34, 7 Jul 2007 (CDT)

Interior artist

Please remember that rather than adding a note such as "Interior art by Tony Tallarico" that we do this using add-title and addeding an INTERIORART record. This will allow add the publication to the cover artist's bibliography in ISFDB. See these publications where you can see what I did with the publications recently added/updated.

Ok I get it now. It was the "Author" pull down for interior art that I wasn't getting. Don Erikson 16:28, 7 Jul 2007 (CDT)

Myth Directions Dates

I have the Seventh Printing of this book with no Printing Date. Are you getting the dates from an outside source, or do the 2nd and 6th Print Runs have Printing Dates in them? CoachPaul 16:51, 7 Jul 2007 (CDT)

Both these printing have specific printing dates that I used. Don Erikson 21:18, 7 Jul 2007 (CDT)

Cover artist for Arc of the Dream

Is the cover artist credited as "Brook Steachman" in the publication? There is a better known artist Broeck Steadman. Could it be the same guy? Thanks. Mhhutchins 17:16, 7 Jul 2007 (CDT)

The copyright page says BROOK STEACHMAN. According to Google, the only references to this artist is in relationship to this cover. But looking at the cover I see a signature that says "E.T. Steadman". ????????????? Don Erikson 21:28, 7 Jul 2007 (CDT)

I updated the publication notes to add a comment that both the cover artist name is spelled in the credits as "BROOK STEACHMAN", that there is a signature visible on the cover that says "E.T. Steadman" and most likely these are both Broeck Steadman. His web site, http://mywebpages.comcast.net/steadmans3/, says "See the portfolio of international illustrator and artist Broeck Steadman also known as E.T.Steadman."
The cover artist credit for the publication should remain as Brook Steachman though and I made that a pseudonym of Broeck Steadman. It's not clear if E.T. is his legal name or part of his working name. His son is named Evan Thomas Steadman and so I've e-mailed Broeck about "E.T." Marc Kupper (talk) 10:56, 8 Jul 2007 (CDT)
Both e-mails for Broeck bounced and so "E.T." remains a mystery for now. Marc Kupper (talk) 11:31, 8 Jul 2007 (CDT)

Thanks for the input!

Just thought I'd say that first... you're not done with the "A"s yet as far as I can see, but you're already one of the most prolific editors we've found recently! I'll let you into a little secret - the Mods don't always agree on what is "right". I expect that as I'm writing this, some other Mod will be writing about how it's not a good idea to update an ISBN in an existing pub. Or updating a publication date to "0000-00-00" from a definite date. Or how you should actually really be noting Author Pseudonyms. So do feel free to join in the discussions on the community portal when something seems wrong. There is a "but" of course: you haven't answered the permissions question yet. ;-) Feel free to just leave it up to me (my inclination is to approve the edits but then remove the image links till we have permissions) but I think you're going to become a good moderator yourself someday, if you can cope with all the questions and start adding some yourself! BLongley 18:35, 7 Jul 2007 (CDT)

It's great to be here. I've just finished "A" in pb & tp and now will do the few HB I own. Then "a" anthologies. And then.... I don't know if I can keep up this pace, I don't want to burn out. I own about 20,000 pb and 1,000 HB plus may be 3,000 mags & hundreds of fanzines etc. Even at the brisk I'm going I figure this is going to take me 3 or 4 years. So we'll see. If I disappear for a while, don't worry it's probably piece-of-junk computers semi-monthly death-rattle or maybe I did burn out........oh but what a beautiful light. Don Erikson 12:04, 9 Jul 2007 (CDT)
Wow, an SF collection with almost 25,000 items in it! Mine is only 20,000 and I thought it was a tad excessive! :)
I wouldn't worry too much about the burnout factor, the gafiation/degafiation cycle is pretty much a given in this field. Besides, as more and more editions/printings are added and verified, it makes physical verification easier. I was doing my Leinsters the other day and almost 50% were already in the database. Ahasuerus 12:25, 9 Jul 2007 (CDT)

Goldlust and The Slaves of Lomooro

For both of these you have the comment "Albert Augustus, Jr. is a pseudonym for Charles Nuetzel." Is this something that's stated in the publications? If not, then what's the source of the pseudonym attribution?

The reason I ask is currently we have

Google finds an artist named Alfred Nuetzell also known as Al Nuetzell. http://haldolen.com/alN/Al%20Nuetzell/NUETZEL2.HTML is for Albert/Al which the writer of the page calls "Dad". http://haldolen.com/alN/CoverArt/CoverArt.html shows that Charles Nuetzel must be the author/son and that he was born in 1934. Marc Kupper (talk) 11:03, 8 Jul 2007 (CDT)

I found out about the Augustus Pseudo from a Google search. I actually thought I remembered this and used Google to verify it & of course find out how to spell "Nuetzell". Don Erikson 12:11, 9 Jul 2007 (CDT)
This site shows Augustus, Albert, Jr. pointing to Charles (Alexander) Nuetzel - is that the one you found? Or here? Or maybe here? BLongley 12:53, 9 Jul 2007 (CDT)
I think Clute lists this pseudonym as well, although I can't check at the moment. OCLC concurs, so it's probably a safe bet. Ahasuerus 13:14, 9 Jul 2007 (CDT)
Yes, Clute confirms the Albert Augustus Jr pseudonym for The Slaves of Lomooro. "Alec River" and "Charles English" are also mentioned for other works. BLongley 13:26, 9 Jul 2007 (CDT)
ok - the "bad" thing that I see that happened was a comment was added to a publication record that did not indicate that it was based on a secondary source. The assumption is that everything stated in a publication is exactly how it's stated in the publication. If you want to add additional information then it should be clearly noted that the information is from another source (and ideally you also cite the exact source(s) for the additional information. For example, it would have been ok to write "I believe the author Albert Augustus, Jr. is a pseudonym for Charles Nuetzel. ~Don Erikson" and left it at that. You are the source and there's no need to dig up further information unless you happen to have the time/resources. Ideally those comment's would be left on Albert Augustus, Jr.'s bibliographic notes page (Author:Albert_Augustus,_Jr. rather than in the publication notes. You or someone else could then research for sources to confirm or disprove this belief.
I deleted the original publication comments and once this thread peters out we can copy/paste the relevant portions as supporting documentation for the pseudonym attribution to Author:Charles Nuetzel where I've already added some comments. Marc Kupper (talk) 23:31, 9 Jul 2007 (CDT)

Friends Of The Horseclans II

Don, according for the notes "Story title "Kilsister" changed to "Killsister" as per content page and title on story page." But in the Modified Contents you are changing "Killsister" (note the two "l"s) to "Killlsister" (note the three "l"s). Which is correct? CoachPaul 16:33, 9 Jul 2007 (CDT)

I thought I changed that. It's 2 Ls. Don Erikson 20:38, 9 Jul 2007 (CDT)

I went ahead and approved the edit, and then changed the name of the story back to 2 Ls. If I have mis-interpreted what you meant, please change it to whatever it is supposed to be. CoachPaul 20:50, 9 Jul 2007 (CDT)

The Seventh Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories and F. L. Wallace

I have approved The Seventh Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories, but I had to remove the newly added ANTHOLOGY title from the Publication. When Cloning an Anthology Publication (or Adding a Publication to an existing Anthology), the original Anthology Title is included in the resulting Publication behind the scenes. Ditto with Collection Titles, so adding an extra Title manually results in two identical Anthology (or Collection, as the case may be) Titles in the same Publication. The catch is that our software tries to behave "intuitively" and doesn't display Anthology Titles in associated Publication records' tables of contents, which often leads to even more confusion. We may have to revisit this whole area at some point, probably in the fall, when Al, our programmer, comes back.

Also, removing a bogus Anthology Title from an Anthology Publication is not easy since the software tries to be "fool proof" and doesn't allow you to remove it directly. If you have an extra Anthology Title in an Anthology Publication, you need to change the Title record's type to Novel (or something else) first and only then will you be able to Remove it from the Publication.

Finally, you entered a note in Galactic Empires 2 to the effect that "Floyd L. Wallace is shown as F. L. Wallace". I went ahead and replaced the "Floyd L. Wallace" Title record with an "F. L. Wallace" Title record in this anthology as per Help:How to change a story in a collection. Does it look OK now? Thanks! Ahasuerus 22:02, 12 Jul 2007 (CDT)

It sounds like I'm causing more problems than normal for all hear. I'll try to do better.

The Wallace entry looks right. I'm going to dribble in Anthology entries instead of doing then in large groups. It can take up to 45 minutes to enter the contents and because of computer problems here it could take three tries to get it to work. Frustration abounds. Don Erikson 09:25, 13 Jul 2007 (CDT)

Feel free to enter anthologies in chunks, leaving a note to the moderator such as "Work in progress, more contents to come". You're not the only person that has computer problems, we're quite used to this. I think I took Four days to do this monstrosity for instance, due to all the variants! BLongley 12:17, 13 Jul 2007 (CDT)

The Creature Creature

You added The Creature Creature 209661 with the author as Brian Ball.

  1. Is that title correct? I know of The Night Creature by Brian_N._Ball. Please check the title on both the front cover, spine, and title page as there's something fishy about this book. Using catalog # M3167 I found two AbeBooks listings for this
    1. Night Creature Of Things Undead Which Rise At Night to Menace the Living by Brian Ball
    2. Night Creature by Brian N. Ball
  2. Is the author name stated as Brian Ball on both the cover, spine, and title page? He uses Brian N. Ball much more often.

Note that we enter the version of the title and author name that's on the title page but if the cover is different then ideally that gets documented. I usually also check the spine. Marc Kupper (talk) 23:52, 12 Jul 2007 (CDT)

I looked at the Brian N. Ball page and didn't see it then relooked, then rerelooked and then... and still missed it. Shesh!

On the cover, spine, title page, copyright page and even in ad on the last page it is "Brian Ball" No middle initial. Don Erikson 09:33, 13 Jul 2007 (CDT)

Thank you Don. What's the title? I'm assuming it's not The Creature Creature but it's not clear if it's The Night Creature, Night Creature, or something else. It's a little easier to do with FireFox but I normal use the browser's search function (Ctrl-F) to look for the title on the page and plus hit F3 (continue search) to make sure I know about all the instances of the title as sometimes there's two or more records. In this case it should have been easy as there were no books for Brian_Ball before you added this record which is why I has asked about if the book consistently used "Brian Ball". Marc Kupper (talk) 18:12, 15 Jul 2007 (CDT)

This book is "The Night Creature" Don Erikson 09:29, 16 Jul 2007 (CDT)

The Disaster Area

I took your note The story "Build-Up" appears under variant title "The Concentration City" in this pub you entered and created the variant relationship. Is this the way you intended it to look? BLongley 12:12, 13 Jul 2007 (CDT)

Yes that's it. It tried to figure out how to do it my self but... I seem to lack that required brain cells. Don Erikson 12:45, 13 Jul 2007 (CDT)

Variants can be a real confusion, I agree. I think in this case you could have cloned a different edition to get the title you wanted, but there were two copies of "The Concentration City" around, only one of which was linked as variant title. BLongley 13:08, 13 Jul 2007 (CDT)
Feel free to just make it clear in your notes what you want the title to be in YOUR book, and when you discover "previously published as..." information we aren't showing already, note that too - it's all useful stuff! For learning how to do it though, it's best to start small, e.g. one title as a variant of another title by exactly the same author, one who has no pseudonyms. I'm happy to explain the steps I take in converting your notes to the version we end up with, but as I say it's best to start with the very simplest edits so this isn't it. But I'd like to get you up to speed before you encounter, say, Julia Gray and Jonathan Wylie. ;-) BLongley 13:08, 13 Jul 2007 (CDT)

Ballard's Terminal Beach

I have a copy of Ballard's "Terminal Beach" no "The", (Berkley Medallion F928 $0.50) that only has nine of the twelve stories that appear in the UK editions. I can't alter a clone version and adding a "new" collection under the same title may cause problems. So what do I do?Don Erikson 12:55, 13 Jul 2007 (CDT)

You can probably clone one of these rather than one of these? Or if the UK editions are actually more similar to your copy, then clone one of those and put the page numbers for the missing titles as 'NA' or something else that indicates they aren't really in your pub. We can fix it after the cloning with "Remove Titles from this pub" and add any missing titles later. But do have a look at both titles and see which is a better starting point. BLongley 13:15, 13 Jul 2007 (CDT)

Ooooh! I didn't notice a separate entry for this title, I'll go and edit the one you linked to. Thanks for the info. Don Erikson 14:17, 13 Jul 2007 (CDT)

The Wind from Nowhere

Price: $1.95? Should this be "Price: £1.95" or is there a US printing I wasn't expecting? BLongley 13:22