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Expanded archive listing

'Pending edit', submitted more than 3 months ago

. Good day Sir, Madam,

I submitted an entry on 2025-01-27, submission # 6154317, an anthology (WEIRD WINDSOR Anthology).

Two things were flagged: on the price, I put: 'Pay what you want.' (PDF or EPUB)

And was told:

More than one space character is not allowed in the price field

All right, we can put 'Free' for the price, instead.

But the second one is about the barcode on the paperbacks (15 paperback copies were printed for the collaborators.) It said that:

ISBN-10s that starts with 2 and ISBN-13s that start with 9782 are typically in French (although exceptions exist), but the submitted language of this publication's main title is English The copies were printed in the UK, so, yes, exceptions exist. The ISBN is 2370001956766.

 I can send you a clear photo of the cover and the ISBN if needed.

But maybe the ISBN section could be left blank, since there are no more printed copies sold, and now that the anthology is available online. Here’s the link, by the way:

https://payhip.com/WeirdWindsor

So, I would appreciate help concerning these two little editing issues: changing the price for: 'Free'; and either removing the yellow notification about the ISBN (which is correct, photo proof upon request) or removing the ISBN altogether since now the anthology is available in electronic format (PDF or EPUB).

Thank you very much, and wishing you, Sir, Madam, a wonderful day!

Cordially,

-Carl Lavoie —The preceding unsigned comment added by Jahrel (talk • contribs) 17:28, April 2, 2025‎

It sat so long because it required a great deal of work. Here is the verified ebook. If you need an explanation of the changes and additions, I will post on your talk page. 18:46, 2 April 2025 (EDT)

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?6214550; I made an edit that got a similar message about ISBN starting with 9782; Sarob is based in France as of a few years ago so that would explain it, right? --Username (talk) 19:52, 3 April 2025 (EDT)

The actual ebook had no ISBN. John Scifibones 20:39, 3 April 2025 (EDT)

untitled stories

I want to enter the book "Try and Stop me" by Bennett Cerf because it has a chapter called "The Trail of the Tingling Spine" which is a collection of stories that he said were told to him. most of them are ghost stories but none of them are titled. how should they be titled and disambiguated. i thought about something like "untitled [1]" etc with "The Trail of the Tingling Spine" as the series. is numbering them like that valid. Gaz Faustus (talk) 14:49, 3 April 2025 (EDT)

I tried to put a link in to the internet archive for these stories but it just showed up as ordinary text. Faustus (talk) 15:19, 3 April 2025 (EDT)

Here you go. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 17:49, 3 April 2025 (EDT)

cheers Faustus (talk) 13:16, 4 April 2025 (EDT)

There is a recent R&S discussion on this topic that has not yet been resolved. The direction in which that was heading is to use "untitled [n] (pub title)" for this case. It's an unfortunate amount of extra work, but if that scheme is used, I would encourage you to edit the title records once created and enter something in the notes to identify each story (like first line + last line or dramatis personae or whatever seems useful). --MartyD (talk) 13:14, 7 April 2025 (EDT)

righto mate i'll do it like that - I dont mind sorting it out if it neds to be changed. cheers - Gaz Faustus (talk) 13:30, 7 April 2025 (EDT)

Directory Entry transliteration

What, if any, effect does it have on the db if two authors with the same surname have their Directory entries transliterated differently? Some examples: Bäckström, Bergström, Engström, Myllylä, Nyström, Sjöberg, and one that's half-and-half Källström. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 18:53, 3 April 2025 (EDT)

The whole point of the transliterations is to make it easier to find an author (or title) because the search engine here treats accented/macroned letters (for example "ō" as opposed to "o") differently. Searching for "Engström" will not find "Engstrom" (and vice-versa). So, for accented characters, the non-accented version should be included as a transliteration, and any reasonable transliterations should be included (such as "Engstrom" and "Engstroem", in this case). I don't see any issues with any of the ones you linked. This also applies to Romanizations of non-Latin-based writing systems such as Japanese, Cyrillic, and so on. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:08, 3 April 2025 (EDT)

Directory Entry is a bit of a dealer's choice because we can only pick one - either value is correct when multiple transliterations are possible. I tend to prefer the "strip all special parts and use the straight letters" option except for German names where the standard is to have "e" added replacing the umlauts. But I do not change this one if another transliteration is chosen instead. So even if the directory name for the two Nyström is different, the search by name will find it for both spellings because they carry the transliterations (which is why I do not search by Directory name and only look at it when I look at the author directory where only the first 2 letters matter anyway. The DB (and anything else on the site) really does not care - this field is only used if you do specific search for it and for that table. Annie (talk) 19:18, 3 April 2025 (EDT)

Thanks for those quick answers, now I know there's nothing to see here :) Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 19:40, 3 April 2025 (EDT)

Adding a new German translation of an English Anthology

Hello, I am preparing to enter a German translation of an anthology. I already searched in the frequently asked questions, in help, but still have questions left and need the community. The title: A Dragon-Lover's Treasury of the Fantastic (Editor Margaret Weis): https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?513 There are about 20 stories to enter. At the end of each story the original English title is given and also the name of the translator. The date of the German publication: 1995-05-00 1) Date for the German translations: Is it 1995-05-00 or do I check if there is a German translation of a story already on the database and use this date? 2) Translators: How can I enter the name of the translator of a story? 3) Varianting: Do I variant each story separately? Is there a way to variant all the stories in one submission? Thank you! SciFanta (talk) 18:01, 9 April 2025 (EDT)

Hello! I hope the following does help a bit.

Ad 1): Please do check if there's the same German translation (using the exact same title) already in the database: for example for Stepsons of Terra there are two different German translations (both using the same title proper). If there does exist this exact title, there are two possible ways to proceed: a) enter the title (and merge with the existing one after the publication was moderated), or b) import the existing title (s) after the publication was moderated. The second way is preferable, because we won't have doublette titles at any given point in time.

Ad 2): The translator is to be added in editing the notes of a title when this does exist, like here. Please use the Template:Tr template.

Ad 3): The individual titles have to be varianted separately: every one has to be varianted to a different title. If you can rely on already existing titles it's possible to import them in one submission step, though [see b) under Ad 1)]. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 02:48, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

Thank you Christian, your information helps! As I found neither the German title "Drachen füttern verboten" nor the ISBN in the database I going to start the process Greetings! SciFanta (talk) 03:32, 10 April 2025 (EDT).

Great! Just be sure to also add the publication series. I also hope there are credits for the respective translators: this publisher sometimes (foremost in the 1980s and 1990s) was sloppy with regards to this point (and some others also). In those cases the only thing left was to add a note like to this title. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 04:18, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

Collections with different contents

Theres a collection with 12 stories. A later collection (different publisher) has the same title but only has 5 stories (they are all in the earlier one). Seperate titles or varianting? cheers - Gaz Faustus (talk) 13:28, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

Gaz, I've come across this before and asked the same question. My post received one reply expressing an opinion but no definitive answer.

The thread is here: Collections with Abridged or Expanded Contents.

As you can see from my examples, there does not appear to be a consistent policy for this situation.

This ought to be resolved. Teallach (talk) 14:14, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

cheers mate do you know if they can be varianted if they have the same title and author? I think I'll do the 5er as a seperate title with notes and see what the reviewer says. - Gaz Faustus (talk) 15:07, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

No, don't variant them. Variants are for same work with different title or author. I suggest you wait a bit to see if a moderator contributes to this thread. If not, go with your own proposal: "seperate title with notes". Teallach (talk) 18:29, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

In general terms, we treat collections like any other content type. If the differences are minor, we consider it the same work. If the differences are large, we consider it a new work. Same as with a story that has been edited, it becomes a judgement call when enough changes are enough to call it a new work. If it is just a single work difference, you will likely find the editions have been combined with a title note stating differences. If it is a larger difference, you will likely find the editions are separate with title notes on both stating the differences and not to merge. In this case, I would treat as different since it's such a large difference. They would be treated as separate works so not varianted to each other. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:05, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

cheers i'll do that - Gaz Faustus (talk) 09:29, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

JLaTondre: Thanks for the clarification. Now that I know it's a judgement call, all is fine. I can work with that. Teallach (talk) 18:31, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?36238

this one sprang to mind that i pved a bit back. the Sphere edition is missing 4 stories, 4 poems and the afterword that are in the american books so not a minor difference but it wouldnt seem right to unvariant them. (anthology not a collection but similar problem) Gaz Faustus (talk) 19:15, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

For that one, I would definitely split it into its own title, after verifying that the contents really aren't there in the American release. That's too much of a difference. They basically left out around 50 or so pages of content. That's too much of a difference to be a variant. Notes should be placed on both titles, though, pointing to the other and saying they shouldn't be merged. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:16, 14 April 2025 (EDT)

well i owned both books when i wrote that note, its the american one thats got the extra stuff which is why i bought it and then offloaded the uk version to the British Heart Foundation. Willem H and stonecreek are pvs for the 2 versions so you should give them a shout for extra confirmation. I'll let you sort it out as i'm happy the way it is. - Gaz Faustus (talk) 17:07, 14 April 2025 (EDT)

They've been split now: Best SF: 1973 and The Year's Best Science Fiction No. 7. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 17:48, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

still needs to be varianted to the canonical author and put it in the series (No.7) - Gaz Faustus (talk) 19:52, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

Done. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 20:01, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

they show up nicely together when theyre in a numbered series like this one but if they're not in a series and have different names they could end up at opposite ends of a list of anthologies or collections and you wouldnt know theyre related just from the list. is threr any way of grouping them other than varianting or series so they show up together? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 20:22, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

Not really. They each have links to the other, so that should be good enough. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 21:00, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

Bulgakov's name

In all the editions of Cuore di cane published by De Donato (one already in the db, one just submitted) the author name is spelled Michaíl (accented "í"), but when I submitted the new book, or tried to correct the one already present, the system replaced it with a normal "i". Can somebody fix it? thanks! --Fantagufo (talk) 18:45, 15 April 2025 (EDT)

Fixed. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 17:51, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

thanks Joe! --Fantagufo (talk) 22:17, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

Tonelli's name

The artist Etonelli (Elio Tonelli) is not actually credited with this name in the two publications he has in the DB. He is identified only by his signature, which is sometimes clearly "E.Tonelli", sometimes "ETonelli". I think that the canonical name should be changed to "E. Tonelli" or "Elio Tonelli". What do you think? --Fantagufo (talk) 16:08, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

When there is no explicit credit, we generally credit using their canonical name since signatures can vary wildly (initials, abbreviated, symbols, etc.). ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 17:49, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

I know and agree. What I'm saying is that there is no reason to have a misleading "Etonelli" as canonical name, just because it was never explicitly credited. --Fantagufo (talk) 22:08, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

Updated. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:58, 17 April 2025 (EDT)

Author: Kate Moretti

Kate Moretti is the author of the short story "Blink" in the first Brave New Girls anthology. However, in Kate's author page, her surname is misspelled as Maretti. I have an e-book copy of the anthology, and the correct spelling their is MORETTI. Her biographical note their also confirms she is the same Kate Moretti that is listed at Amazon.

I don't have permission to change the spelling of her name on her author page. Would someone please help. Thanks! Michael Main 14:50, 22 April 2025 (EDT)

The way you can fix this is to go to the "Blink" title page and edit the title there, changing the author to "Kate Moretti". That will create a new author page for that name, and the old one will be deleted (automatically, I think, although perhaps we'll have to go do that manually -- I forget). This specific case is simple because it is used in only two versions of one publication, and we can easily confirm that the correct spelling is present in the sources for each. And the author page itself does not have any info we want to preserve, so making a new page and deleting the old one is fine. --MartyD (talk) 17:15, 22 April 2025 (EDT)

That's right, "orphaned" author records are deleted automatically. Ahasuerus (talk) 17:30, 22 April 2025 (EDT)

Many thanks for the instructions. I have submitted the change from Maretti to Moretti in the story's title page. Thanks again. --Michael Main 20:27, 22 April 2025 (EDT)

reading this, I understand that I could have done the same for H. J. Edouard Evenpoel, but in the meanwhile I had already submitted an AuthorUpdate request... should I cancel it? --Fantagufo (talk) 19:40, 23 April 2025 (EDT)

Nope. All fixed. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 21:38, 23 April 2025 (EDT)

Thank you!! --Fantagufo (talk) 14:53, 24 April 2025 (EDT)

Organizing more Murderbot Diaries Collections

Hello! I am re-reviving this 2022 discussion about organizing collections of the Murderbot Diaries series. To recap: The Murderbot Diaries as of 2025 contains roughly nine "main" titles: five novellas (1, 2, 3, 4, 6); two short stories (0, 4.1); and two novels (5, 7). Because the series is mostly short fiction, international publishers translating the series often choose to publish the novellas and short stories collected together in various combinations. Last time, we decided to make organizing easier by moving the Murderbot collections into the sub-series Murderbot Collections and variant the collections to dummy parent titles depending on their short fiction contents: The Murderbot Diaries 1-2 (1-2), The Murderbot Diaries 3-4 (3-4), and The Murderbot Diaries (1, 2, 3, 4). Now another collection title needs figuring out.

In 2024 the translated Chinese collection title 厭世機器人Ⅳ：系統崩潰風險評估 was published containing 6-7 (Fugitive Telemetry & System Collapse), which are respectively a novella and a novel. In 2025 Tor has published a new English collection, title The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 3, also containing 6-7. For extra confusion, the Chinese title has Roman numeral 4 in its name and the English title has number 3 in its name, but both books have the same contents. For MAXIMUM confusion, Tor published this English collection in a new group of 3 paperback collections (contents in parentheses), with the names The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 1 (1-2), The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 2 (3-4), and The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 3 (6-7)--omitting a novel (5 / Network Effect) in the middle of the series. This is already proving confusing to new readers picking up the new paperback Murderbot books for the first time while not realizing that they're accidentally skipping an entire novel. I don't want to increase potential confusion by organizing the new 6-7 collections weirdly or against ISFDB policy.

So my questions about these books containing Murderbot 6-7 / Fugitive Telemetry & System Collapse: Since the title contains a novel and a novella, should it be a collection or an omnibus? Should 厭世機器人Ⅳ：系統崩潰風險評估 be the parent title because it was published first, or should The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 3 be the parent title because it was the first English publication? Or should both books be variants of a dummy parent title like The Murderbot Diaries 1-2 and The Murderbot Diaries 3-4? If we opt for a dummy parent title, what should the dummy title(s) be named or re-named to indicate the book contents while avoiding being confused with Tor's The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 1-3 & beyond? Thanks. Morebooks (talk) 23:28, 29 April 2025 (EDT)

Clarification?

After posting a comment here Orbit 1, I realized I found the statement in the 3rd bullet slightly confusing; Do not use brackets for unnumbered pages which fall within a range of numbered pages. (See the first bullet under this subsection.), leaving me wondering whether the page should be [7] or 7. Clarification please? Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 15:50, 1 May 2025 (EDT)

It would be helpful if I could see the publication in question Orbit 1 before supplying advice. At the beginning of the Orbit 1 thread on Markwood's talk page, Username advised that he has added an archived link. However, this link is not yet on the pub record so I guess his edit is still awaiting processing. I will ask him for the archived link and then get back to you here. Teallach (talk) 08:41, 2 May 2025 (EDT)

Thanks for picking up on this. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 10:33, 2 May 2025 (EDT)

The edit has been approved, so the archived link is now on that page. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:14, 2 May 2025 (EDT)

Nihonjoe: Thanks.

Kev: The Internet Archive copy has "Borrow Unavailable" status so is of limited use. The ToC is visible on the IA scan and it does list the Introduction on page vii. Markwood's first sentence in this thread is "No page has a Roman numeral page number.". This situation has been discussed before: Numbering of pages numbered in the ToC but not numbered themselves. The discussion is extremely long and petered out with no consensus reached by the community. As things currently stand, there is no clear rule on how to deal with the situation where no Roman numerals page numbers are explicitly printed on the pages themselves but the ToC references a Roman numeral page number. Currently, it is just left to the discretion of individual editors. So, as Markwood is the first PV, it's his call as to how the Pages and Contents Start Page fields are specified. So, from the information I can see, the pub record is acceptable as it currently stands. I would strongly recommend adding a pub note along these lines: "Although no Roman Numerals are printed on any pages, the Table of Contents page lists the Introduction beginning on page vii". Teallach (talk) 19:07, 2 May 2025 (EDT)

I second this advice, even though this situation was never settled. The "Don't use the ToC" rule/guidance is mostly because the ToC's numbering may be incorrect (e.g., typos aside, a ToC reprinted from an edition with different pagination) or may not line up with the ISFDB's rules for which page is the beginning of the content. Here, you have: no number printed on the page, a number in the ToC, and a number in the ToC consistent with the page count and quantitatively consistent with the first numbered page (it is the fourth page before the one numbered "11"). So I would treat it as numbered and "vii" and enter it that way. In other words, I agree with the choices made in the current record. This is my personal opinion, and other moderators may disagree. I think a strict constructionist interpretation of the current rules, however, supports using "7". The actual numbering situation should be documented in the notes, though, regardless of which number is assigned. The page count "192" is unaffected since the vii/7 falls within the set of pages spanned by counting backward from numbered p. 11. --MartyD (talk) 08:23, 3 May 2025 (EDT)

As for your original request for clarification, this situation falls under the first bullet, not the third. Because there is a numbered page 11, the preceding ten pages fall within a range of numbered pages (this is where a strict interpretation would yield "7"). If that eleventh page had been numbered "1", however, then the first ten pages would be a range of unnumbered pages, and the third bullet would apply (and you would use "[7]" and also add [10]+ or [7]+ to the page count). --MartyD (talk) 08:35, 3 May 2025 (EDT)

Thanks to you both for your clarification - I've amended my post on Markwood's page. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 01:04, 7 May 2025 (EDT)

Adding the Graphic Novel Hardcover Edition of Snowpiercer as a novel or collection or an omnibus

Hello, I’m asking for advice how to enter a hardcover edition of the graphic novel series Snowpiercer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowpiercer_(graphic_novel_series). The publisher Egmont Comic Collection (www.egmont-comic-collection.de ) published the series in this German translation in two volumes: Snowpiercer: Snowpiercer (01) (2021) (ISBN 9783770401239, 280 pages), which includes the volumes 1 The Escape, 2 The Explorers, 3 The Crossing of the series. Snowpiercer: Terminus (02) (2022) (978-3-7704-0190-1, 232 pages) is the second book and includes volume 4 Terminus of the series. Thank you (SciFanta (talk) 17:31, 9 May 2025 (EDT))

Graphic novels and comics are outside the scope of ISFDB and not eligible for inclusion (see Exclusions under Contents/Project Scope Policy). The only exception would be for prominent genre authors. That exception would not seem to apply here as based on Lob's Wikipedia article, he seems to be a notable comic creator and not a written speculative fiction author (as how ISFDB defines it). The ISFDB made the decision to exclude comics and graphic novels as there are other sites that deal with those and there is more then enough written speculative fiction to keep us busy. -- JLaTondre (talk) 18:01, 9 May 2025 (EDT)

Thank you for your clarification. Actually, I got interested in this pub, as I have just seen the science fiction film Snowpiercer, directed by Bong Joon (he also directed Mickey 17, 2025). Learning, that the film is based on this pub, I borrowed it from my library and finally decided to ask about a submission. Thanks again! (SciFanta (talk) 18:05, 12 May 2025 (EDT))

Dashes in titles

Got a story which has a short dash on here but a long dash in the book itself. The long dash title is on here as a variant but with alternate author name so would need to make a new variant if it needs to be changed. thought i'd check before firing off to the umpteen pvers. cheers - Gaz Faustus (talk) 17:37, 13 May 2025 (EDT)

unnumbered pages before page 1 (chorus of groans)

sorry but i'd like a bit of clarification on the unnumbered content 1st bullet point. My book has a total of ten unnmubered pages before page 1 with the recordable content starting on the fifth of these so i take it as [10]+whatever and the page number for the content [5]. the book has been pved and theyve put [6]+ in the pages field and the content on [1]. that's not right is it? its a bit ambiguous cos it says "There is no need to record these unnumbered pages if they contain no content that needs to be recorded." - Gaz Faustus (talk) 18:08, 13 May 2025 (EDT)

Can you please provide a link to the publication. Teallach (talk) 13:29, 17 May 2025 (EDT)

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?694490

it looks like Markwood has intepreted the rule to include only the unnumbered pages as far back as the 1st recordable content - Gaz Faustus (talk) 13:50, 17 May 2025 (EDT)

You are correct. The Pages field of Voices should be [10]+364 and the three Content items before page 1 should have Start Pages of [5] and [7] and [9]. I agree that the Help wording is ambiguous. What the first bullet point under Unnumbered Content should say is something like:

"... There is no need to record these unnumbered pages if they contain no content that needs to be recorded but if they do contain recordable content then count all pages from the start of the book. ..."

I agree with you that it looks as though Markwood has interpreted the rule to include only the unnumbered pages as far back as the start of the recordable content and I wouldn't blame him or anyone for this interpretation given the existing wording. However, what I have said is the accepted practice.

As an aside, the Start Pages should also be piped (for example, [5]|0.5 and [7]|0.7 and [9]|0.9) so that they are correctly sorted before the novel on page 1.

As another aside, there is a PV'd second printing which has the Pages and Start Pages specified correctly (although it omits the poem and also needs the Start Pages piped). Teallach (talk) 18:39, 17 May 2025 (EDT)

that ammendment you suggest does the trick for me. If it gets changed to that then i'll jump in and ask the pvers for cases like this if theyre happy to change it but for now i'll just let it lie. cheers - Gaz Faustus (talk) 19:38, 17 May 2025 (EDT)

Ellipsis followed by question mark

i was just about to merge 2 titles when I noticed that one had a space between an ellipsis and a question mark and the other didnt. the rule says put a space between the ellipsis and the following word but does that apply to question marks as well? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 13:59, 23 May 2025 (EDT)

and while were at it the story has 3 variants with ellipsis and all of them have a space before the ellipsis. the book in hand does not have a space before the ellipsis. Nothing in the help page about this scenario either. New variant or not? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 21:12, 23 May 2025 (EDT)

Not a moderator, but I can add something to your first question. The Associated Press Stylebook says to treat an ellipsis as a word and put spaces before and after, for what that's worth. Sfmvnterry (talk) 22:56, 30 May 2025 (EDT)

cheers mate but the title i was lookin at in my book had no spaces before or after the ellipsis and you have to enter them as they are in the book unless theres a rule here saying otherwise. I sent it in as it is in the book with a mod note and it was signed off. Gaz Faustus (talk) 07:04, 31 May 2025 (EDT)

Penguin Classic?

I'm not sure I have the correct publication series for this printing. The copyright page states this is the 16th printing of a 2011 Pocket Penguin Classic 2011, but this book doesn't seem to fit in with the publications here. Advice please. Thanks, Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 16:50, 26 May 2025 (EDT)

I don't have a definitive answer, but I think I may have found a clue. First, pull up your pub on Amazon UK and click "Read sample". The second displayed page is a selection of 5 other covers in the series. One of them (left column, second row) is for Tarzan of the Apes. Second, look at the covers of our publication series "Penguin Pocket Classics". See The Return of Tarzan at the bottom of the page? The art and the design are similar to the Tarzan of the Apes cover in your pub and is completely different from the other "Penguin Pocket Classics" covers on the same ISFDB page.

Based on the above, it would appear that there are two different Penguin publication series with similar titles. Either that or at some point the publisher decided to revamp the way covers were done for the series. Ahasuerus (talk) 14:44, 28 May 2025 (EDT)

Thanks for your time looking into this! With more research I find that there were indeed two series with similar names. I'll be creating a new series "Pocket Penguin Classics"; this was started shortly after the "Penguin Red Classics" series (as shown in my printing linked at the top here), but before (our listed) existing "Penguin Pocket Classics" series, and providing what documentation I can to each of these. We probably have records which are incorrectly allocated to the 'catch-all' "Penguin Classics" series (also, the outlier "Tarzan of the Apes" is certainly incorrect as allocated to the "Penguin Pocket Classics" series. With Penguin's churning of these titles under many different series names, it feels like the door to another rabbit hole :). Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 15:29, 30 May 2025 (EDT)

publication edit in limbo?

I submitted publication edit https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?6222325 (for Naomi Novik's Spinning Silver) on April 10th and have gotten no response. During that period I've submitted a couple other edits and have had them accepted. I'm wondering whether this one has found a crack to fall through, as a month and a half on the queue far exceeds anything I've previously encountered. Glenn.Skinner (talk) 15:52, 27 May 2025 (EDT)

Approved. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:06, 27 May 2025 (EDT)

Thanks! Glenn.Skinner (talk) 23:10, 27 May 2025 (EDT)

chapbook conversions of translations

I am doing one of Tove Janssons Moomin books which is down as a novel. i've got the English translation in hand and its obviously not novel length and kobo says 29k so i changed it to shortfiction prepping for chapbook conversions. I asked kobo what the Finnish title is and it says 26k. Should i assume that all the other translations into umpteen languages are all novellas as well and convert them? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 08:04, 29 May 2025 (EDT)

We don't have the ability to variant by length. Therefore, translations always mirror the length of the canonical. John Scifibones 08:20, 29 May 2025 (EDT)

cheers, have sent them all in now (step 2) - Gaz Faustus (talk) 16:46, 30 May 2025 (EDT)

I approved all your publication conversions, then merged the chapbook title records as appropriate while adding the correct language. You still need to add the translator template to the chapbook titles and variant to Trollkarlens hatt. John Scifibones 18:25, 30 May 2025 (EDT)

cheers mate, theres still 2 chapbook titles for "Il cappello del gran Bau". they've bothgot the same translators so should they have been merged as well? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 08:01, 31 May 2025 (EDT)

Clearly. I approved your variant submissions. Make sure everything looks correct while adding the translator templates. John Scifibones 08:51, 31 May 2025 (EDT)

done the tr notes - it looked shipshape and Bristol fashion. Gaz Faustus (talk) 12:15, 31 May 2025 (EDT)

You need to update the note here. The new note should include the approximate word count and source (not everyone will look in the note to moderator). Thanks, John Scifibones 17:07, 31 May 2025 (EDT)

Done! a bit more to it than i thought but what the hell - bring on the rest of the series I'm up for it!

How to add a review of two graphic novels

I've been adding reviews to the issues of ParSec magazine that don't have them. I'm not sure how to handle a review in the Spring 2023 issue. It's a review in one essay of two graphic novels based on stories by Cixin Liu. The magazine presents it as:

"Cixin Liu’s | The Butterfly: A Graphic Novel | adapted and illustrated by Dan Panasian | The Devourer: A Graphic Novel | adapted by JD Morvan and illustrated by Weilin Yang | A double review by Nick Hubble"

The edit form lets me add extra authors and reviewers to a review, but not an extra title. Also, do I present all the names for a graphic novel, Liu and the adapter/illustrator, as the authors, or just Liu? Sfmvnterry (talk) 22:44, 30 May 2025 (EDT)

I think the best you can do is enter two reviews, one for each work. I suppose you could treat it as a review "column" and enter both an ESSAY and then REVIEWs for each. You can put them on the same page with a piped number to sort them in the order they're discussed. E.g., "30|30.1" and "30|30.2" if the review is on p. 30. Assuming the text is revised for the adaptation, we would treat Liu and the adapter as co-authors, and the illustrator as artist (an adapter who also did the illustrations would get two credits). --MartyD (talk) 22:25, 5 June 2025 (EDT)

I second this: I always enter a review of multiple works as individual reviews for each so they show up on each of the works being reviewed. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:42, 6 June 2025 (EDT)

Good advice. Thanks to you both. Sfmvnterry (talk) 00:06, 8 June 2025 (EDT)

Account Corrections

How would one go about making a correction to one's user name? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Molly.pinn (talk • contribs) .

The ability to change an existing user name to something else was added to the standard Wiki software in MediaWiki version 1.40. Unfortunately, we are running version 1.35, so our software doesn't support this functionality.

Since you haven't edited the Wiki or the database as "Molly.pinn", I would suggest simply creating another user name and taking it from there. Ahasuerus (talk) 16:14, 8 June 2025 (EDT)

For v1.35, you can install the RenameUser extension. This was absorbed into the main wiki installation in version 1.40. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 16:10, 9 June 2025 (EDT)

A problem in cloning.

I recently tried to add a clone of this record and I kept getting this. What am I doing wrong?. MLB (talk) 23:23, 8 June 2025 (EDT)

My best guess is that you tried the cloning after one of this merges, where the title for the May issue likely was dropped. I tried to clone it, and there was no error message. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 05:29, 9 June 2025 (EDT)

H. R. F. Keating / Harold F. Keating

● According to his Wiki page Henry Reymond Fitzwalter Keating (1926-2011), otherwise known as H. R. F. Keating had a nickname of “Harry”. I suspect he was also Harold F. Keating. H. R. F. Keating turned to being a professional mystery writer during the sixties. His Wiki page doesn’t mention if he was a soldier, although that would tally with the last letter by (Harold) Keating in 1941. I think they are the same, but … MLB (talk) 20:57, 14 June 2025 (EDT)

H. R. F. Keating was an English author. From the IA scans of the magazines, all the Harold F. Keating letters state he is from Quincy, Massachusetts, USA (I added that info to the author record). That seems like they would not be the same person. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:35, 15 June 2025 (EDT)

Okay, thanks. MLB (talk) 22:47, 23 June 2025 (EDT)

COBISS.SR & COBISS.BR templates

My use of this template in this submission is not successful in pointing to this COBISS page.

Investigating, I couldn't find any links that do work in this search. Looks like they've restructured. I'd appreciate any help, thanks. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 07:13, 16 June 2025 (EDT)

It looks like there are two separate issues here.

The first issue is that the COBISS page that you linked is for COBISS.SI, the Slovenian version of the COBISS catalog. If you check the main COBISS Web site, you'll see that the COBISS software is used by 8 different jurisdictions in the Balkans, but each jurisdiction has a separate catalog. We currently support External IDs and templates for the Bulgarian catalog (COBISS.BG) and the Serbian catalog (COBISS.SR), but the Slovenian catalog, COBISS.SI, is a separate database which we do not support at this time.

The second issue is that COBISS.SR and COBISS.BG have apparently changed their URL structures. For example, our template for COBISS.BG is configured as "https://plus.bg.cobiss.net/opac7/bib/[catalog ID]#full", but the current URL is "https://plus.cobiss.net/cobiss/bg/en/bib/[catalog ID]#full".

Let me see if I can update our COBISS templates and External ID definitions. Thanks for reporting the problem! Ahasuerus (talk) 11:39, 16 June 2025 (EDT)

The two templates and their matching External ID definitions have been updated. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:09, 16 June 2025 (EDT)

All problems resolved. Thanks for your help! Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 04:15, 17 June 2025 (EDT)

Great! Ahasuerus (talk) 08:46, 17 June 2025 (EDT)

Candlin as canonical

I've edited this record 398527, adding a note and making it an alternate name for 402402. Now both names show up as being canonical: here and here. What am I missing? Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 18:39, 21 June 2025 (EDT)

Look again. S. A. C. Candlin, R. A. F. is an alternate name for Candlin as called for in the standards. Your edits are correct. The directory entries are the same so they are grouped together in the Author Directory John Scifibones 21:01, 21 June 2025 (EDT)

Thanks for checking John, maybe I didn't make it clear what I was referring to: I don't understand why "S. A. C. Candlin, R. A. F." shows up in the Canonical Name field in the edit screen of this record. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 21:17, 21 June 2025 (EDT)

There is only one edit/editauth.cgi?. It doesn't matter whether the author record belongs to an alternate or a canonical name. You just never noticed. Check any alternate name in the database. John Scifibones 21:24, 21 June 2025 (EDT)

Ahhh, light. Thanks very much!

lol, you're welcome. John Scifibones 21:30, 21 June 2025 (EDT)

(unindent) I have more questions... All of the above stems from the entry for " S. A. C. Candlin, R. A. F.", #7 in this report.

• I've edited the names, #s 3 to 18 in the report, but they are still showing. I presume that when the report regenerates nightly it only adds new entries, and doesn't remove any processed entries (with other reports I've edited, the entries have disappeared immediately after the edits). Why are they still showing?
• An entry for "Cherokee Indians, North America" is at #2, the only "North America" suffix listed. However, in the two publications listed under this title record, there are other "[Indians' name, North America]" contents that don't appear in the Unrecognized Suffix report (above). Why not?

Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 11:09, 22 June 2025 (EDT)

Bob Hoskins / Robert Hoskins

Here’s another question about fifties letter writers. Does anyone other than me think that Bob Hoskins is the same author as Robert Hoskins? They both started writing letters to the same magazines at the same time. MLB (talk) 00:40, 24 June 2025 (EDT)

Yes; I'd also think so! Christian Stonecreek (talk) 01:25, 24 June 2025 (EDT)

I found while researching some John Smiths that often the magazines include some sort of location (City, State/Country) with the attribution. If you can find scans or PVs with copies, you could check if that information is available for both forms of the name. --MartyD (talk) 08:19, 24 June 2025 (EDT)

Probably but there are other Bob Hoskins, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Hoskins_(disambiguation). Unlikely based on birth dates that it could be the actor or the footballer but the missionary could have been a teenage SF fan although the SF guy Robert Hoskins was also old enough to write letters in the 50s so it could be him or both of them. While looking into this I made variants for W. B. (Wild Bill) Hoskins/W. B. Hoskins and Hoskins/Winfield Scott Hoskins (also updated the latter's record with birth/death dates and birth place). --Username (talk) 18:09, 24 June 2025 (EDT)

Okay, I have nothing from Robert Hoskins (letterwise, that is), but from the April 1952 issue of Startling Stories "Bob Hoskins"'s address is 1 Thurlow Terrace/Albany 3/New York. I hope that helps. MLB (talk) 04:41, 25 June 2025 (EDT)

Both are New Yorkers. MLB (talk) 04:44, 25 June 2025 (EDT)

Why is this author "unknown"...

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2280068

...when all the publications have the author as Robert Wallace? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 19:00, 1 July 2025 (EDT)

Robert Wallace is a house pseudonym that was used by multiple authors. For a house pseudonym, if there is a work where we don't know the actual author, it gets varianted to unknown. Now whether all the titles under this author record are from the house pseudonym is debatable. The house pseudonym seems to be for the Phantom Detective series, but not all titles with Robert Wallace as the author are part of that series (for example, the one you link to above is not). It's possible there needs to be some further disambiguation of this name. -- JLaTondre (talk) 22:10, 1 July 2025 (EDT)

cheers - Merril says he was a staff writer for Life magazine. This looks like him - Gaz Faustus (talk) 22:34, 1 July 2025 (EDT)

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Wallace-26591

I changed A Living Doll to be by Robert Wallace (II). I added the info from Merril to the author notes with a statement it might be the person in the WikiTree article. -- JLaTondre (talk) 19:15, 2 July 2025 (EDT)

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?6297522; There's a bio at the end of the story. --Username (talk) 19:27, 2 July 2025 (EDT)

Thanks. It matches the WikiTree article so I have updated our entry's biographical info. -- JLaTondre (talk) 19:33, 2 July 2025 (EDT)

OK. Also, Google search for author and "Blue Groper" found 1 mention in PDF of an issue of Metaphysical Review which reviewed the anthology it appeared in; that Wallace is this guy, https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4473118.Robert_Wallace, and it's a pseudonym in case you want to use that info to fix anything. --Username (talk) 20:00, 2 July 2025 (EDT)

How do I post a review of a book (multiple books)

Hello,

I have been through the Help and various instructions and, it's probably me, but I find no information on how to post a published review for several different titles - Fleet of Worlds by Niven, Tunnel in the Sky by Heinlein, Settling Accounts: In At the Death by Turtledove, Space Cadet by Heinlein, Space Vulture by Wolf & Myers, Cloud Cuckoo Land by Sivell (asll published on the SFReader website a while ago.

I see instructions on accessing the entry for the title, but once there, I see nothing regarding adding a review.

Thanks for your help.

(Yes, when logged in)

Steve —The preceding unsigned comment added by Steve davidson (talk • contribs) 11:04, July 2, 2025‎

Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~). You already asked this question on the moderator noticeboard. Try to keep threads together. Blog posts are not eligible for inclusion. Only reviews included in an eligible publication. The rules of acquisition are here. John Scifibones 11:25, 2 July 2025 (EDT)

book with 2 "Authors"

The book i'm doing has 2 authors on the title page and everywhere else and nothing anywhere in the book that says they have different roles. Its an illustrated book so i thought one is the artist and sure enough amazon confirms it but if the book doesnt say that should they be both go down as the authors? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 19:32, 8 July 2025 (EDT)

I'd say: Yes, both should be credited as authors, and likely the artist should also enjoy a credit for the additional illustrational work.

When there's no other hard proof that the roles were strictly different (one only the author, the other only the artist; for example this could be stated in a note within the book) we go by that which is stated within the publication. It does happen from time to time that the story was done by both, though that's more common in the world of comic books. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 01:39, 9 July 2025 (EDT)

cheers i think i'll do it the way you say - Gaz Faustus (talk) 09:06, 9 July 2025 (EDT)

Identifying Canadian publications

I've moved this discussion to Rules and standards discussions as it seems more appropriate. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 16:17, 19 July 2025 (EDT)

Wrong title record listed as collection title for a publication

For the publication record Reisen von Zeit zu Zeit, a collection within the publication (Die ersten Zeitreisen) is listed as the collection title record instead of the actual record (Reisen von Zeit zu Zeit ). In fact, the actual record does not seem to be displayed anywhere on the publication page. Any ideas why this happening and how to fix it? Thanks! - Riselka (talk) 17:24, 15 July 2025 (EDT)

I think this is a bug. If you go to Remove Titles on it, that shows both the publication's (collection) title and the other collection title are present in the contents. So the publication view seems to be confused by two container titles with the same author/editor credits. (Maybe it's picking the first such title in alphabetical order.) --MartyD (talk) 20:40, 15 July 2025 (EDT)

I am afraid the ISFDB software doesn't support multiple container titles with the same title type within the same publication. For example, an OMNIBUS publication can include multiple ANTHOLOGY or COLLECTION titles, but it can't include multiple OMNIBUS titles. If the software finds multiple OMNIBUS titles in an OMNIBUS publication or multiple COLLECTION titles in a COLLECTION publication, its behavior becomes unpredictable, including displaying the wrong "reference" title at the top of the Contents section and/or removing some OMNIBUS titles' page numbers during editing.

I don't think we have a cleanup report for this scenario. In the short term, we could create one. Long term, it may be possible to add a way to tell the software which container title is the reference title within each publication, but I expect that it will require a fair amount of work. Ahasuerus (talk) 09:42, 16 July 2025 (EDT)

For these scenarios, does it make sense for a publication to contain multiple titles of the same type? I can see why someone might list a collection within another collection, but it's not clear to me that this should be allowed. If this shouldn't be supported, a cleanup report seems sufficient. This issue feels related to that of variant collections having different contents (e.g., Collections_with_different_contents) since this work feels like an expansion of a previous collection. That said, I think this work should be its own independent work rather than a variant.

For this particular case, does it make sense to (a) remove Die ersten Zeitreisen from the publication's contents or (b) convert the publication (and title) record from a COLLECTION to an OMNIBUS? I'm leaning towards the former option, but could see a case for the latter. Thanks! - Riselka (talk) 11:01, 16 July 2025 (EDT)

It looks like option (a) should work. Since this publication has been primary-verified, I would suggest asking the primary verifier to review this discussion to make sure that we are all on the same page before we make any changes. Ahasuerus (talk) 12:20, 16 July 2025 (EDT)

Linking pen name to parent

Hello, everyone. In a dictionary of pseudonyms I'm reading, Christine Dewees is listed as a pseudonym of Lynn Abbey. The compiler says this info was provided by the author. Should I make the former a variant of the latter? Thanks. --Rosab618 (talk) 00:34, 16 July 2025 (EDT)

Which dictionary of pseudonyms is it, please? The reason I am asking is that, as per ISFDB:Policy, we use "publicly available sources" to set up pseudonyms and alternate names. If the dictionary is publicly available, then we should be able to use it as long as we credit it as the source.

Also, Robert Lynn Asprin's "The Making of the Thieves' World" talks about "Christine DeWees" in a way that hints that she may be a pseudonym:

• I point out that there are only two weeks remaining before the deadlin. [Ace editor Jim Baen] concedes that with such a limited time-frame, I probably won't be able to get a story from a "name" author. He'll let me work with an "unknown", but the story had better be good!

• Christine DeWees is a kindly, white-haired grandmother who rides a Harley and wants to be a writer. Lynn and I have been criticizing her efforts for some time and have repeatedly encouraged her to submit something to an editor. So far, she has resisted our proddings, insisting that she would be embarrassed to show her work to a professional editor. I decide to kill two birds with one stone.

Asprin's account is compatible with the notion that "Christine DeWees" was a Lynn Abbey pseudonym. Presumably Abbey and Asprin, the creators of the series, were running out of time and needed another story for the first Thieves' World anthology. Abbey wrote one ("Myrtis"), but, since she already had a story ("The Face of Chaos") in the book, she used a pseudonym for "Myrtis". Ahasuerus (talk) 10:20, 16 July 2025 (EDT)

It is Hawk's Authors' Pseudonyms III: Comprehensive Reference of Modern Author's Pseudonyms. Thanks for the backstory! —Rosab618 (talk) 11:59, 16 July 2025 (EDT)

Looks legit. I'll notify Galactic Central and SFE. Thanks for finding the connection! Ahasuerus (talk) 12:27, 16 July 2025 (EDT)

Add alternate name

Author "Ally Wilkes" https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?328455 has published at least one work under the name "A.V. Wilkes". She lists both names on her social media pages.

I added her 2023 book "Jamie Hallow and the End of the World", now pending, under the A.V. name, as published, but could not see any way to link it to the Ally name.

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?6311441 & https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?6311447

--AlanHK (talk) 22:24, 16 July 2025 (EDT)

Thanks for identifying the pseudonym and creating the two submissions! I have approved them and made the following changes:

• Changed the title and publication types from NOVEL to SHORTFICTION/novella because the word count is 34K, which is below the ISFDB's 40K threshold for novels.
• Changed the format of the paperback edition from "pb" to "tp" since the length is 9", which is below the 7.25" threshold for "pb" -- see Template:PublicationFields:Format for details.
• Changed the publication date of the paperback edition and the title date from 2023-07-11 to 2023-07-06 since it was published in the US first.
• Clarified that the submitted synopsis came from the publisher.
• Changed the prices from pounds to dollars since the publisher is based in the US; documented Amazon UK's prices in Notes.
• Merged the pairs of CHAPBOOK, SHORTFICTION and COVERART title records created by these submissions.
• Turned the merged CHAPBOOK and SHORTFICTION title records into variant titles with their parent titles using the name "Ally Wilkes". Moved their synopsis data, the series information and the 2 links to third-party sites to the new parent titles.
• Turned "A. V. Wilkes" into an alternate name of "Ally Wilkes". Added a note to the "A. V. Wilkes" record explaining why we believe that they are the same person.

I think this covers everything. Thanks again and don't hesitate to ask for help -- there are a lot of rules (and exceptions)! Ahasuerus (talk) 18:38, 17 July 2025 (EDT)

Thanks. Doubt if I could work that out myself. --AlanHK (talk) 05:28, 18 July 2025 (EDT)

Queries (website publications etc.)

I've been examining the official website for the Old Kingdom series (http://oldkingdom.com.au/; the series on ISFDB 37593); the website has several short stories posted under the "Bonus Material" section. All of these, I believe, have print publication of some form (as extra material for one or more of the main books). I'm still inexperienced in adding info to the site so I have some queries:

• How does one record such a publication, if at all? The titles all have entries already except for one (see below) due to the aforementioned print publications, but I'm not sure if I'm reading the bits about web-based publication on ISFDB:Policy correctly.
• "An Extract of the Journal of Idrach the Lesser Necromancer" 982081 appears to have a variant title here ("The Nine Gates of Death", if I'm reading the rules on titles correctly), and an older version of the website had it under the heading "The gates and precincts of Death". Not sure how to handle this.
• "Doctor Crake Crosses the Wall" is also troublesome. Currently it doesn't have a title entry; according to Wikipedia the story was published in the Australian edition of Goldenhand, which does not have an entry on ISFDB (Worldcat says it was published by Allen & Unwin, 2016, ISBN 978-1-74175-863-4) and which I don't have access to at the moment. What do we do here?

Any help would be appreciated. Arcorann (talk) 09:05, 17 July 2025 (EDT)

I've added that edition of Goldenhand here, based on info from Abebooks. So, once the above gets sorted out, that story can be added to that publication. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:07, 17 July 2025 (EDT)

Non Genre stories by under the threshold authors

Should they be removed from pubs, deleted and notes added if approrpiate? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 09:02, 23 July 2025 (EDT)

Please provide examples. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:09, 23 July 2025 (EDT)

mate theres thousands of examples out there across the spectrum, i come across them every day so you must do as well - loads of stuff seems to get entered in anthologies and collections without the editor checking or caring if its genre and later somebody comes along and says that some are non-genre. do you as a mod ever dump these when you see them? maybe as a mod whos been here for donkeys years you could pop out a few general guidelines or parameters that might help for us medium pace pie throwers. maybe hypothetical cases where you definitely would or wouldnt delete. the threshold concept is a thorny issue but assume that theres no doubt that theyre under it. as an example I did one a few days ago looking at an old collection which can be read online which had three stories all genre.2 of the stories when i looked at them them had to be labelled as non genre. in the past i would just have left it at that but i thought soddit i'll try and remove and delete them and let the reviewer decide and it was accepted but maybe another mod would have taken a different view, i don't know as there dont seem to be any guidelines. Gaz Faustus (talk) 22:00, 23 July 2025 (EDT)

One general reminder - if they are in a GENRE magazine, they are eligible to be included regardless of who wrote them. The full contents of a genre magazine is always eligible. Thus the need for an example or 3 because not all of these need to be deleted even if it looks so at first glance. That does not make non-eligible books eligible just because the stories are already in but genre magazines are indexed in their entirety (that's the difference between how we handle genre and non-genre periodicals and why it is important to decide what you enter one as). Annie (talk) 11:38, 24 July 2025 (EDT)

cheers for the reminder about the genre mags i'd heard that before but forgot it. The one which prompted the question was this chappie. 3 stories all non genre in 3 anthologies. i'd be happy to put a few bob on saying that a fair number of the "genre" stories in 2 of those anthologies are non-genre as well although some of the authors are no doubt over the threshold. Gaz Faustus (talk) 17:35, 24 July 2025 (EDT)

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?20134

None of these are eligible under the current rules technically so removing them and adding a note in the pub notes that they are also there is the usual solution. We have a LOT of them - especially in older publications - sometimes added because someone was helpfully transcribing the contents table, sometimes added because noone realized they are not genre. And we have even more in those mixed anthologies which are not even marked.

We may want to have another discussion over in R&S at some point about non-periodicals and contents. These days the line between a magazine and anthology is so blurred that having different contents rules make less and less sense. These records don't harm anyone and as long as the anthology is majorly ours, keeping them actually makes our records look better. But that would be a rule change (or rule alignment - most of us had been caught doing that for anthologies anyway - sometimes simply because we do not know if a story is genre or not and sometimes because most of the non-genre ones sneak in under the threshold rule anyway).

So to make this short: under the current rules, they are not eligible. However, I have the feeling that under the current practice, they actually are part of the pattern of how we add these majorly genre anthologies... We cannot even look at the data properly because for every story marked as non-genre, there are at least 2 that are as non-genre as it but whoever added the contents and approved did not realize that (or it was before the flag existed). Annie (talk) 18:53, 24 July 2025 (EDT)

cheers annie i'll keep that "majourly ours" in mind. The one that had the removal signed off was a collecction with 3 stories in totla all originally marked as genre but 2 of them weren't so those 2 were taken out and dumped. that's jogged the memory bank about a collection recently and it had (something like) 9 stories and the publisher flagged up on their site 5 that were supernatural and the other 4 were non genre. I didnt put those 4 in the contents and just said in the notes that there are another 4 stories not listed but if majourly ours means >50% then should all the stories have been put in the contents? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 21:04, 24 July 2025 (EDT)

Nope. Even if the practice leans there occasionally, the rules still says no. A story (or 3 in bigger books) is usually what I'd add. Think more 90% than 50% :) That close to 50%? Nope. In such cases I'd usually mark the whole anthology/collection non-genre and add only the stories that in scope (and add the titles/authors of the other 4 in the notes). But the setting of the flag probably varies a bit between editors when the numbers are that close. What you did was the correct approach (only record the stories that are ours). :) Annie (talk) 21:29, 24 July 2025 (EDT)

so in a nutshell if a anthology has 90% genre stories its labelled as "genre" and the non-genre stuff goes in the contents but if its 60% genre its labelled as "non-genre" and the non genre stuff isnt supposed to go in the contents and you remove them if already there (and put in the notes)? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 12:53, 25 July 2025 (EDT)

If you will. Under the written rules, the non-genre stories in both cases are out. But in the 90% cases, it is a lot less likely for someone to make a problem of it and the practice seems to be to tolerate them. An R&S discussion may be in order. Annie (talk) 12:57, 25 July 2025 (EDT)

it would be quicker to wait for the singularty and let the AIs sort it out. personally I'd like to get rid of all non genre even by the megastars (with the possible exception of Rev Lionel Fanthorpe). If we have to have over the threshold stuff then there should be a list of who they are. Gaz Faustus (talk) 13:15, 25 July 2025 (EDT)

"The Publisher"

The author name The Publisher 38731 is attributed to 5 different publishers: T. Becket, Richard Bentley, Kassel Books (Kassel Classics), David Bell, and King-Size Publications, Inc. for 197915, 198023, 197933, 197955. I'm asking how should these be differentiated, if at all? Thanks, Kev. BanjoKev (talk) 18:45, 23 July 2025 (EDT)

Well, there are two ways to handle that:

• Variants - make "The Publisher" a pseudonym to all of these authors and then variant as usual. Think of house names in the early days of pulps - same principle. Won't work very well for the King-Size case though as it really need to be on the publisher, not the writer
• Differentiate with the name of the author in brackets "The Publisher (Richard Bentley)" for example.

Or we can even mix and match... I lean towards differentiation quite honestly but either way works. Annie (talk) 11:43, 24 July 2025 (EDT)

Thanks Annie. Yes, I'm currently working through house names, and I'm leaning with you… Differentiation is simpler and more straightforward in every way that I can think of so I'll implement this method. Kev. BanjoKev (talk) 10:23, 25 July 2025 (EDT)

A benefit of the differentiation approach is that you can use it even when the actual writer's identity is unknown (as in the Kassel Books and King-Size Publications cases). You can use the publisher's or publication's name instead. --MartyD (talk) 12:16, 25 July 2025 (EDT)

Thanks Marty, quite correct! Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 15:14, 25 July 2025 (EDT)

Double Novel

Not sure what publication type to enter this; People's Choice Literature: The Most Wanted and Unwanted Novels
"The book comprises two novels, The Most Wanted Novel, which is a thriller designed to emulate the secret sauce of airport bestsellers and The Most Unwanted Novel, a wildly angular mashup of sci-fi, tennis, and Christmas." ― The Brooklyn Rail
two novels by the same guy, neither of which has been published before. (Only one appears to be SF.) Collection, although they're novels and not short fiction?
Thanks. --gzuckier (talk) 23:19, 24 July 2025 (EDT)

Omnibus. If the author is above threshold, you add both novels inside. If not, just the one that is ours and add a publication note that only the speculative contents is added. :) Annie (talk) 00:15, 25 July 2025 (EDT)

OK, thanks gzuckier (talk) 17:46, 25 July 2025 (EDT)

Lists of characters in novels - Essay or Shortfiction?

searched for "list of characters" and got 16 hits - 4 shortfictions and 12 essays. - Gaz Faustus (talk) 18:30, 7 August 2025 (EDT)

A character list would normally be fact, not fiction. --MartyD (talk) 22:26, 7 August 2025 (EDT)

Yeah, lists of characters would be considered ESSAYs. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 11:35, 8 August 2025 (EDT)

2-0 both gaffers thats good enough for me - cheers Gaz Faustus (talk) 19:21, 8 August 2025 (EDT)

BTW, that applies equally to titles containing "Dramatis Personae". :) Phil (talk) 22:08, 8 August 2025 (EDT)

Number line confusion

https://www.ebay.com/itm/197129903196

the copyright page scan on this listing says "First Printing" but the number line says otherwise. Publisher's cock up or is something else going off? - Gaz Faustus (talk) 08:00, 9 August 2025 (EDT)

Its alright i've just seen the notes for our entry that mentions it. Gaz Faustus (talk) 08:04, 9 August 2025 (EDT)

Pending edits, how long

I submitted my best shot of Analog (July/august 2025) almost a month ago (6307235). I am sure there are things that need to be fixed, but wondered, how long will it take for someone to review it? I check my talk page, but nothing shows up. I need to do this more often, but I seldom get a copy of a magazine very early (this was an author's copy) Bob —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Wallet55 (talk • contribs) . 15:33, 9 August 2025‎ (EDT)

As all mods are volunteers, some edits can take a while to be approved. In this case, it looks like it was waiting because there were a number of things that would have required editing in order to fix the submission:

• The issue title for magazines should always have the issue number or date in it. In this case, it should have been entered as "Analog Science Fiction and Fact, July-August 2025".
• Always use the masthead title (usually on the copyright page or the page where they list all of the contents and/or staff. In this case, "Analog Science Fiction and Fact" instead of "Analog Science Fiction & Fact".
• The date for the issue should always be the month of issue on the cover (or the first month, in cases such as this where the issue covers multiple months). You entered this correctly for the issue date, but then you manually entered a generic "2025-00-00" for all the content. Always leave the content dates blank as they will be automatically filled in using the date of the issue.
• Generally don't include the source site for cover artist name. In this case, "GrandeDuc" instead of "GrandeDuc via shutterstock.com". We don't need the information on where they got the art.
• Don't enter generic/base website URLs in the Pub Web Page and Web Pages fields. The generic "https://analogsf.com" belongs only on the series page.

All-in-all, you did a pretty good job for being new to the site. There's a steep learning curve here. The best suggestion I have is to carefully study how previous issues have been entered so you can learn how to enter them. You had a lot of correct information in your submission, but it looks like the issue was entered into the system before your submission was approved, so I rejected it as a duplicate. Please let me know if you have any questions. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:26, 11 August 2025 (EDT)

Different Artwork on Boards and Dust Jacket

I am working on Terry Pratchett / Raising Steam - Waterstones Edition. This version has the dust jacket artwork from the regular version printed on the boards and different dust jacket artwork by the same artist. This is explained in the pub notes but I feel it should also be reflected in the contents records. However, I'm not sure of the best way to proceed.
Option 1) Treat both of these artworks as cover art. I'm not wildly enthusiastic about this idea because the pub record would look odd. Both entries in the Cover field would appear identical.
Option 2) Make the artwork on the boards interior art (varianted to cover art). I'm not wildly enthusiastic about this idea because a book issued without dust jacket would have artwork on the boards designated as cover art.
Are there any other options? Advice appreciated please.
I asked the existing PV (who is also a moderator) about this issue here but have received no reply for three weeks, hence this post. Teallach (talk) 18:40, 10 August 2025 (EDT)

It would be a bit of abuse, but I suppose an approach you could take is to make the boards INTERIORART and give them page numbers of "fc" and "bc". If that idea appeals, it might be (although I won't hold my breath) a quick R&S discussion to change the help wording for those two page designators to make this one of the official use cases for them (e.g., --> "... cover of a magazine or board of a dust-jacketed hardcover that isn't included in the pagination.") --MartyD (talk) 14:30, 11 August 2025 (EDT)

"Omnibus" containing only one novel

Hello, all. On NooSFere, I came across Les Chroniques de Tornor - 2 by Elizabeth Lynn, which apparently contains only La fille du Nord, a translation of The Northern Girl (1980). The previous French omnibus, Le Chroniques de Tornor - 1, contained the first two novels of the series. How should I enter the second volume? Thanks! --Rosab618 (talk) 13:22, 15 August 2025 (EDT)

If it's just the one novel in it, enter it as a novel. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:34, 15 August 2025 (EDT)

But the novel inside has a different title. Should I make Les Chroniques de Tornor - 2 a variant of The Northern Girl, but put La fille du Nord inside it? --Rosab618 (talk) 14:01, 15 August 2025 (EDT)

Even though it's listed there as an omnibus, don't enter it as one here. Do you have access to an actual copy so you can see the title page? If not, enter it as Les Chroniques de Tornor: Tome Deuxieme as a NOVEL and variant that to The Northern Girl. Be sure to include a note explaining why it's entered this way. It may be good to include a note on Les chroniques de Tornor: Tome 1, too, and change that title to "Les Chroniques de Tornor: Tome Premier" since that's what's on the cover (unless you can see something different on the title page, if you have access to it). ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:32, 15 August 2025 (EDT)

Two issues I need help on

There are two issues I need help on. First, is there a way to edit/fix issues on an edit after you submit them. I am looking at a new magazine issue I submitted, and I forgot the $ in the price, and one author is appearing as new, even though it looks exactly the same as her entry for all her other works in ISFDB.

The second is, how do you check to see if someone else has not already added a magazine and it is pending? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Wallet55 (talk • contribs) .

Unfortunately, there is not a way to edit a submission. You have to wait for the submission to be approved and then edit the record once it is created. I also don't believe there is a way for non-moderators to view the submission queue. -- JLaTondre (talk) 06:52, 17 August 2025 (EDT)

If the submission has not been published, go to your "My pending edits" list and you can open it. You can't edit it, but you can copy the info to a new submission, correct it, submit the new one, then click "Cancel submission" for the first one on your pending list. If you realise immediately after submitting there is an error, you can go back a page in your history to pre-submission, correct it and submit again, then cancel the first one as above. AlanHK (talk) 23:51, 22 August 2025 (EDT)

Problem with The Dresden Files Collection 1-6

When I used Add a New Omnibus to create a title record for The Dresden Files Collection 1-6, something went wrong with the records for the novels contained in the omnibus. I don’t know why it happened, nor do I know how to fix it. I’m hoping somebody can explain how things went awry and how to fix the mess.

The problem is that the submission created references to new title records for the novels contained in the omnibus, rather than references to the existing title records. E.g., the HTML link in the Contents section of The Dresden Files Collection 1-6 for Storm Front leads to (newly created) title record 3497597 rather than to record 21523 as it should.

When I filled in the title entries in the New Omnibus form, I cut and pasted the author and title information for each entry from the corresponding extant title record. Should I have done something else? If so, what? And what needs to be done to correct the errant links in the publication record (1067710)?

Glenn.Skinner (talk) 00:27, 17 August 2025 (EDT)

When you type titles and authors into the contents section when creating or editing a pub record, the software will create new title records for each of the items you entered in the contents section. It will not automatically combine identical author/title records (as there many cases where authors reuse titles, etc.). If you are entering a collection or omnibus where the contents are already in the database, the best approach is to enter the publication without the already existing contents, and then when the publication has been created, use the "Import Content" option on the publication record to import the existing contents into the publication. To solve cases where duplicate records were created, you need to merge the duplicates. The easiest way to do that in this case, is to go to the publication record and use the "Check for Duplicate Titles" option. From there you can select the duplicates and merge them. -- JLaTondre (talk) 06:46, 17 August 2025 (EDT)

Thnks for the explanation. I've submitted merge requests following the procedure you desccribed. After doing so, I went back to the help page for new publications and found the procedure described there in the Content Information subsection. I've probably read that section a dozen times, but it apparently flowed into one ear and out the other. I expect to do better next time... Glenn.Skinner (talk) 15:07, 17 August 2025 (EDT)

Cover replacement failed (?)

Hello... I need assistance to understand what went bad. A few days ago I uploaded a new scan for the cover of Prigione senza sbarre this way: 1. from the pub page, click "upload new cover scan"; 2. Select the file and click "upload file" 3. Select "Ignore warning and save file" on the following page, where there was the warning "A file with this name exists already". The image in the pub record did not change; if I go to the cover page, the image is still the old one, although the thumbnails section below shows my scan as "current" and the resolution and file size reported under the image are those of the new scan. clcking on the thumbails only shows the old one. What should I have done instead (or in addition)? thank you! --Fantagufo (talk) 13:43, 17 August 2025 (EDT)

I looked at it and your update took effect. When you upload a new version of an existing file, you may have to clear your browser cookies to see it immediately. Otherwise it might be several days before the existing cached image and cookie is cleared. Hope this explains it sufficiently. Phil (talk) 14:17, 17 August 2025 (EDT)

Another method, if you don't want to clear your cache, is to perform a hard page refresh. This forces your browser to download everything on a web page from the server. Go to the pub record and perform a hard page refresh. How you do that depends on your operating system and browser. For some browsers running on Windows, hold down the Ctrl key and press F5. If that doesn't work you will need to search on the internet to find how to do a hard page refresh for your configuration. Hope that works for you. Teallach (talk) 16:55, 17 August 2025 (EDT)

Thank you Teallach, I'll try to remember your advice for the next occurrence... I cannot try it on this one because today I see the right cover... guess the cache expired as Philfreund said. Thanks again to both! --Fantagufo (talk) 07:55, 18 August 2025 (EDT)

Luca, When you wish to replace a previously uploaded image, don't use "upload new cover scan" in the publication record. Go to the wiki page, in this case, here. In the file history section you will find the link "Upload a new version of this file". This will avoid the duplicate warning message. When you are satisfied with the new image, post a request on the Moderator Noticeboard to delete the old image. I have taken care of this one. As previously noted, clearing the cache is necessary to see the change. John Scifibones 16:38, 18 August 2025 (EDT)

Thank you John, I (hope that...) I will remember this process. Shouldn't it be explained in the Help page for uploading covers? I did what I did because I didn't find instructions to replace them. --Fantagufo (talk) 20:09, 18 August 2025 (EDT)

That's the first time I have ever seen this process described or have it stated that it's how duplicates should be handled. There shouldn't be a button that allows us to go ahead and upload anyway if it's always the wrong thing to do and the correct process needs to be put into the Help documentation. Phil (talk) 22:00, 18 August 2025 (EDT)

I haven't looked into the software behind the Wiki upload page (and the matching "Upload" link on Publication pages) in over 10 years. It's possible that the ability to "Upload a new version of this file" did not exist in the version of the MediaWiki software that we were using in the early 2010s when I added the current "Upload" link to Publication pages. Either way, if all moderators agree that what is described above is the preferred image replacement process, then we probably need to update our software to automate this functionality. A cursory review suggests that it shouldn't be too hard to do. Ahasuerus (talk) 13:47, 19 August 2025 (EDT)

How to add Psychopomp short stories

The website Psychopomp has a bunch of short fiction under the "Psychopomp fiction" headline that's not part of any publication.

Most of these stories are not on ISFDB. A few do:

• Joanna's Bodies is categorizes under a publication titled Psychopomp, July 1, 2024.
• What Any Dead Thing Wants (ISFDB), was reprinted in an anthology, and doesn't have a "Psychopomp, DATE" publication.

The other stories on the website don't have a date associated with them, so I don't know how to add them:

• https://psychopomp.com/not-lost-never-lost/
• https://psychopomp.com/we-who-will-not-die/
• https://psychopomp.com/update-the-buildings-are-hungry/

--Salty-horse (talk) 05:12, 21 August 2025 (EDT)

If stories aren't published in a proper publication (as defined here, under Rules of Acquisition) they are unfortunately not eligible. Allowed electronic publications include webzines, ebooks, downloadable files, and others, but stories that are just put as a stand-alone into the web are not taken into consideration. Hope that helps. Stonecreek (talk) 06:42, 21 August 2025 (EDT)

With the only exception to the above being "Online publications available exclusively as a Web page, but only if published by a market which makes the author eligible for SFWA membership (listed here), OR shortlisted for a major award". So if the magazine or the work meets either of the two exceptions, then they could be listed. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:14, 21 August 2025 (EDT)

These Psychopomp "issues" are most likely a made-up publications, that only contain one story each. So I shouldn't create similar ones for the other stories? --Salty-horse (talk) 12:54, 22 August 2025 (EDT)

How to add Series to a pub

For the novel Deeper by James A. Moore at https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1239393
I added an entry for the ebook, now pending, by cloning.
This book is part of the series "Cthulhu Mythos". But there is no "Series" line in the Publication Editor for the existing or cloned title.
How do you add the series? AlanHK (talk) 23:36, 22 August 2025 (EDT)