Help:Screen:EditPub

The Publication Editor allows you to modify information for a publication that already exists. The screen is very similar to the publication cloning screen; see the help for cloning for more information about the differences.

This screen is accessible via the "Edit this Pub" link, which is displayed in the left navbar whenever a publication is displayed.

Note that this screen does not permit removal of content items from the publication. There is a separate tool, Remove Titles from this Pub, for that purpose.

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 which are for Publication Information and Content Information.

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 review and interview columns. 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 the columns containing those items.

General contents
When you are viewing or editing an ISFDB publication record, the data in the upper part of the page is from the publication record and the data in the Contents section is composed of ISFDB title records. Any changes in the Contents section -- other than the page numbers -- will be update the original title record which can be referenced from multiple publications. If your change only applies to the way the title appears in the current publication -- which is often the case -- then changing all publications is not what you want to happen. For this reason any title that appears in more than one publication is greyed out and not editable in the Publication Editor. The only two fields that you can edit are the page number field and the "Story length" field, which is only meaningful for short fiction.

If you need to make a change to a title, author name, date or title type and find that you can't do it directly because the field is not editable, use the [Add Title] button and set up the new title record which matches what's in your publication. You can then remove the old/incorrect title record using the “Remove Titles From This Pub” option which is available from the publication display screen.

If you need to change an attribute which applies to the title record itself and should affect all publications that the title appears in, access that title's Bibliography page and use Edit Title to make the change directly.

The Content Fields
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. Hint: If you need to add several blank title records, then "Add Title" once and start pressing the space bar. With most browsers this will repeat the button press and it will be easy to add a number of blank title records. It's OK to have extra blank records at the end when you are done since ISFDB will ignore them.

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.

Author

 * Add Author. If there is more than one author or editor for this publication, this button will create a second author field. You can add as many authors as required.

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. (No ESSAY entry is needed for a single, standalone review (one review with no additional text) unless it is a regular feature with a recurring title.) Each set of review details is defined by five fields: page, title of the work being reviewed, date of the review, author of the work being reviewed, and reviewer. There is room for one review 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 second review record visible. This can be repeated until enough review records are available to enter every review in the publication.


 * Add 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.
 * 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.
 * 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.

Once you're done entering or modifying 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 novel's title, you should see your book's data is now part of the ISFDB.