Help:Screen:NewPub

The New Magazine, New Anthology, New Chapterbook, New Collection, New Omnibus, New Nonfiction, and New Fanzine ISFDB screens allow you to enter information for a new publication that has contents. Each of these screens are identical, except that the publication type is prefilled with "Magazine", "Anthology", etc. These can in fact be changed, so there is no functional difference between the different links except convenience in having the publication type prefilled.

These links are visible from the ISFDB home page, and from some other pages within the ISFDB.

The following is a detailed definition of exactly what should be entered in each field on this screen. These definitions are intentionally very complete. If you are looking for a quick summary of how to use this screen, please refer to Help:Getting Started which gives a simplified description of how to enter a book's publication details.

The screen is divided into two main sections. The first few fields define the publication itself, without regard to its contents.

Author(s)

 * Add Author. If there is more than one author or editor for this publication, this button will create a second author field.  As many authors as you wish can be added.

Artist(s)

 * Add Artist. If the cover art is credited to more than one artist, this button will create a second artist field.  As many artists as you wish can be added.

Content Information
The second part of the screen defines the contents. This in turn is divided into three sections. The first part, "Content", includes everything in the publication, including reviews and interviews. The second part, "Reviews", and the third part, "Interviews", provide additional details about the reviews and interviews, but do not substitute for an entry in the contents section for those items.

General contents
The content is defined by a set of six fields: page, title, date, entry type, length, and author. There is room for nine content items in the initial screen display; additional content items can be created by clicking on the "Add Title" button at the bottom of the content section. The screen will redisplay with a tenth content record visible. This can be repeated until sufficient content items are available to enter everything in the publication.

The content records are intended to record all the fiction, essays, and artwork in the publication, as well as some other material. See the discussion of the "entry type" field, below, for more details about how to record specific types of content.

The information stored in these six fields resides primarily in the "Title" records within the ISFDB. You can think of the content records as defining a set of titles. Entering these titles on this screen connects them to the parent publication, but does not modify the publication itself. The only exception is that the page field is not part of the title record or of the publication; it is an attribute of both of them, as it defines the page within the publication where that particular piece of content is to be found.

Add Author. If there is more than one author or editor for this publication, this button will create a second author field. As many authors as you wish can be added.

Reviews
Review columns (or individual reviews within a volume of critical essays) are entered as ESSAY types in the general content record, but you should also record the books reviewed, and who reviewed them, in this section. Each set of review details is defined by five fields: page, title of the work being reviewed, first date of publication of the review, author of the work being reviewed, and reviewer. There is room for three reviews in the initial screen display; additional reviews can be created by clicking on the "Add Review" button at the bottom of the review section. The screen will redisplay with a fourth review record visible. This can be repeated until sufficient review records are available to enter every review in the publication.

Note that you should only include books that are actually commented upon. If a reviewer mentions that a publisher has re-issued a work, but does not comment on the quality of the book, don't include it. Even a brief comment, such as "recommended", is enough to qualify, but without any comment the review should not be listed. For old reviews of Ace Doubles a reviewer would occasionally review one side of the book and simply mention the name of the book on the other side without comment. In these cases only enter the title that was actually reviewed. A review for a work of short fiction should be entered only if the reviewer specifically comments on that specific story. If several stories from the same collection or anthology are discussed, each briefly, recording this as a review of the collection or anthology may be preferable.

Note also that only books, magazines, and short fiction are entered; if the column reviews fanzines, you don't need to enter the review records for these, only the ESSAY record. Non-sf works should be entered but if an onerous number of non-sf-related works are reviewed in a column you are entering, discuss the situation on the Bibliographic Rules page to decide what can be eliminated.


 * Add Book Author. If there is more than one author or editor for the work being reviewed, this button will create a second author field.  As many authors as you wish can be added.


 * Add Reviewer. If more than one person wrote this review, this button will create a second reviewer field.  As many reviewers as you wish can be added.

Interviews
Unlike review columns, interviews are generally not entered separately in the content records. The only exception is if a content record exists for multiple interviews, in which case it is indexed as an ESSAY type.

Each set of interview details is defined by five fields: page, interview title, date the interview was conducted, name of the person being interviewed, and name of the interviewer. There is room for two interviews in the initial screen display; additional interviews can be created by clicking on the "Add Interview" button at the bottom of the interview section. The screen will redisplay with a third interview record visible. This can be repeated until sufficient interview records are available to enter every interview in the publication.

Add Interviewee. If more than one person is being interviewed, this button will create a second interviewee field. As many interviewees as you wish can be added.


 * Add Interviewer. If more than one person conducted this interview, this button will create a second interviewer field.  As many interviewers as you wish can be added.

Submitting
Once you're done entering the data, check it over, and then press the "Submit Data" button. This will put your data into the "submission queue". It won't immediately update the ISFDB. The submission queue is managed by the ISFDB moderators, who periodically look at the submissions and decided whether to approve or reject them. If you check back after a while you'll find you submission has been dealt with, and, most likely, approved. If you now search for your book's title, you should see that its data is now part of the ISFDB.