Publisher:DAW/Verification Spreadsheet

The DAW list pages are generated from an Excel spreadsheet that has columns that currently are not displayed on the web pages for space reasons. At present the spreadsheet is being updated several times a week by Marc Kupper and is not being stored on the ISFDB server. If you would like a copy then please e-mail Marc Kupper.

At present the spreadsheet is independent of ISFDB’s database meaning changes or verifications of one do not always get reflected in the other. There is a project underway to merge these but in the meantime we have the spreadsheet.

If you have a couple of DAW books where you would like to submit corrections and/or verification then the best method would be to update the ISFDB database and ideally to drop a note on the DAW Talk page so that your updates can be noted in the spreadsheet. Note that the spreadsheet has several fields that are not collected by ISFDB. You can add the additional data in either the ISFDB note field or on the talk page. In summary – the additional fields that are collected in the spreadsheet that are not in the ISFDB publication record are:
 * Logo # (use "None" if there is no Logo #)
 * Order # (use "None" if there is no Order #)
 * Spine (UQ, UY, 451-, ISBN, ISBN2, ISBN3, Price, or None)
 * Type (Yellow, New, hc, or tp).
 * Series
 * Genre - This is usually “SF” or “Fantasy.”)
 * Copyright – Copyright date (just the year).
 * First Printing – Stated first printing date.
 * Printing Line – This is the printing number line (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 …). You can abbreviate it as "1 to 10" for example. You may abbreviate a long list and use “1 to 9” instead of “1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9.” If your book does not have a number line (book club edition or printed in 1972) then please enter n.p. here.
 * Country – USA or Canada
 * See the column descriptions below for more information on these fields.

If you have many DAW books then it may be easier to edit the spreadsheet and to e-mail a copy back to Marc who will merge your changes into the main list.

The list of fields in the DAW List spreadsheet follows. While it seems like a lot at first Editors have reported that it takes about 1 minute per book enter and/or verify the date in the spreadsheet version of the list. Note that while not all of the fields are being shown on the DAW and/or ISFDB web pages it’s possible they will get displayed in the future and/or used to automate merging with the ISDB database.

The columns have been grouped so that you should not need to jump around in the book too much. The main jumps you will find that for trade paperback and hardcover editions the Logo # is on the copyright page and not the cover the page count.


 * Row – This is used to sort the spreadsheet back into display order after you have sorted it by other columns such as the Author or title. In general, the spreadsheet is sorted by Logo #, binding, and printing but there are enough small exceptions to this that it turned out to be simpler to manage the row order manually.
 * Title # – Not all DAW publications state the Logo # and so this column is used to keep track of the Logo # that’s assigned to a title.
 * Logo #
 * For older paperback publications with the yellow Spine this will be in the little yellow box in the upper/right corner on the front cover and will say “No. 125” where “125” is the Logo number. If your publication instead has a code starting with the letter U, as in “UY1321” in this spot it’s a later printing and you probably will not find the Logo # anywhere. You enter the Logo # as “None” in this case.
 * If you have a newer paperback publication where the cover art wraps onto the spine then the Logo # can be found under the DAW Logo on the front cover, under the DAW Logo on the inside of the front cover, and/or as the “DAW Book Collectors No.” on the copyright page (sometimes DAW uses “DAW Books Collectors No.”).
 * Hardcover and trade paperback publications seem to only note the Logo # as the “DAW Book Collectors No.” on the copyright page.
 * Please check the Logo # on the front cover, inside front cover, AND on the copyright page as there have been a number of printing errors where I’ve seen that the numbers don’t match. If there is a discrepancy then please document what is stated in each location in the Notes field.
 * Older Book Club publications usually do not state a Logo # and so you can put “None” for the Logo #.
 * Order # – This is a six character code that starts with the letter U followed by one letter, and then four numeric digits. If you can’t locate the Order # then put “None” in this field.
 * For older paperback publications with the yellow Spine the Order # is almost always on the front cover either at the top or in the yellow logo box. Some of DAW Books’ first publications had the Order # on the spine and not the front cover.
 * If you have a newer paperback publication where the cover art wraps onto the spine that has an ISBN that starts with 0-87997- or 0-88677- then the Order # is usually printed as part of the ISBN/price line that’s sideways on the front cover. If your copy does not have this then check the top of the spine just under the DAW logo and also on the inside of the front cover. DAW Books started to phase out Order #s in the late 1990s.
 * If you have a newer paperback publication with an ISBN that starts with 0-7564- then it will not have an Order # and you can put “None” in this field.
 * Hardcover and Trade Paperback publications follow the same conventions as the newer paperback publications though many of them do not have Order #s.
 * Cover Price – If you have a Book Club edition then put “None” in this field and also add a comment to the Notes field that this is a Book Club edition. If the price on your copy is defaced or cut out then put “Clipped” in this field so that I know that you could not determine the price. You can sometimes see the price on the spine as a three digit code after the Order # or ISBN. For example, a code of “225” is $2.25.
 * Spine – I am tracking when DAW Books made significant changes to their book layouts as this also helps date when a book was printed. This field is a code that is one of:
 * UQ – DAW’s first publications had the Order # on the spine formatted as UQ1001-095. You don’t need to enter the entire code here as “UQ” will do.
 * UY – A few DAW publications are coded as UY1185-125.
 * 451- – The second spine style is similar to the first but is prefixed with “451-” as in “451-UQ1033-095.” Again you don’t need to note the entire code as “451-” is enough so that someone could figure out what the code is. Please enter the code with the hyphen otherwise Excel will interpret the value as a number and not text.
 * ISBN – The style still has a yellow spine and has the the ISBN printed down the length of the spine followed by the price as three digits without a decimal point. You don’t need to enter the ISBN itself nor the price code.
 * ISBN2 – Around the time DAW dropped the yellow spines they also changed the spine layout and have the price horizontally (when the book is on a shelf) on a couple of lines above the ISBN which is still printed vertically.
 * ISBN3 – After ISBN2 DAW switched to a style where both the price and ISBN are printed horizontally on the spine, wrapping the ISBN onto multiple lines.
 * Price – Current DAW paperbacks do not have the ISBN on the spine but instead show the price in a small white box on the lower part of the spine.
 * None – Book Club, trade paperback, and hardcover editions almost never have the ISBN or price on the spine and so you generally use None for these.
 * UE – A few books printed in the mid to late 1990s have the Order # on the spine and I’ve included this code mainly to raise awareness that the Order # can be found here.
 * I-S-B-N – If your book has an ISBN (either it’s a yellow “451-“ spine or a newer book with a barcode) then enter the ISBN here with the hyphens. If you have a Book Club edition that does not have an ISBN then see if there is a book club # in on the back cover or back flyleaf and enter that as BC-# where # is the book club number. If your book does not have an ISBN then Enter “None” here.
 * ISBN – For DAW books that have something in the I-S-B-N field this is just a copy of that field but without the middle hyphens. If you have an older DAW book then compute what the ISBN should be (See Marc Kupper) and enter that here. Please enter the ISBN without the middle hypens but to append a hyphen to the end of the value. The only reason for this is otherwise Excel will interpret the ISBN as a number and mangle it by removing the leading zero, etc. The reason for both the I-S-B-N and ISBN fields is that not all DAW books had ISBNs but their Order #s are often translated into ISBNs and also to make easy to search the DAW list for ISBNs with or without the hyphens.
 * Type – This is one of Yellow, New, hc, or tp and is used to color code rows in the web pages. The code that matters the most is Yellow to denote a book with the older style yellow spine. It has not been confirmed but it’s believed the original 75 cent E.C. Tubb books had black spines and so please enter “Black” in that case.
 * Title – Use the title from the title page per ISFDB rules. One break from ISBN is for omnibus publications where I append “(omnibus of first title & second title)” to the title. If the title on the cover does not match what’s on the title page then please make a comment about this in the Notes field so that people will understand why the title is entered as it is. You may want to check the title on the spine too and add notes if that is different too.
 * Author – Enter the author(s) and roles from the title page. If the book is translated then you can enter that here too with a role of (translator) but should also add a comment to the notes field giving available information about this such as the original language and foreign language title.
 * First Last – This is a duplicate of the Author field but formatted using Firstname Lastname. In the main spreadsheet this is a computed column but the field data is available as a standard column in verification spreadsheets to make it east to search/sort by author name.
 * Series – This field is more subjective. Many publications are part of a series don’t say so in the publication or may use a different series name than what ISFDB has. For numbered books we append “#3” etc. to the name rather than having a separate series # field.
 * Genre – This is usually “SF” or “Fantasy” and can be determined from the DAW logo. I’ve also been using categories of:
 * SF Anthology
 * SF Collection
 * SF Omnibus
 * Fantasy Anthology
 * Fantasy Collection
 * Fantasy Omnibus
 * As a few DAW titles seem to defy a simple SF/Fantasy breakdown you can enter other genre that seem appropriate.


 * Copyright – This is the copyright date. If there are multiple dates such as from magazines or new introductions then use the newest date and document what the copyright page says in the Notes field.
 * Cover Artist – This is usually on the copyright page. If cover artist is uncredited but can be determined from the covert art (signature) then note the artists name but also add a comment about this to the Notes field. If you can’t determine the cover artist then put “uncredited” here and add a comment to the Notes field that the artist is not credited and that you could not find or determine the signature.
 * Note – while inspecting at the copyright page please look to see if there are any statements about earlier editions, revised editions, credits for interior artists, etc. Record these statements in the notes field. Also, see if there is a frontispiece illustration and if it’s not credited then add a note that there is an uncredited frontispiece. If you are familiar with the artist’s style or recognize the signature then you can add notes about that but please make clear that this is based on observation/interpretation and not something that was stated in the book.


 * First Printing – This is the stated first printing date. The spreadsheet formats the field as mmm-yyyy. Some early DAW Books stated “First Printing 1972” and for those enter “1972-00” as the First Printing date. The very early DAW publications, and some Book Club editions do not state a First Printing date.  In that case use “n.d.”  Do not guess at or assume a first printing date based on the copyright as we only care about exactly what’s stated. Note that if the book says “First Paperback Printing” or “First hardcover printing” followed by the date then that’s the “First Printing” date.
 * Printing – This is usually a number line that looks like “1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9.” Enter the lowest number, for example, “3 4 5 6 7 8 9” gets entered as “3rd.” While it’s quite rare, some DAW publications spelled out the printing as a word as in “Tenth Printing.” If that’s the case then please add a comment about this to the Notes field. DAW books published in 1972 did not have a number line. In that case enter “n.p.” (no printing). Do not guess at or assume a first printing as we care about exactly what the publication states, or on this case, does not state.
 * Printing Line – If there is a printing number line then please enter it. This is a fairly new addition to the spreadsheet and is being used to see if useful data can be mined from knowing the contents of the line. You may abbreviate a long list and use “1 to 9” instead of “1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9.” If your book does not have a number line (book club edition or printed in 1972) then please enter n.p. here.
 * Country – DAW publishes in both the USA and Canada. You can enter USA and don’t need to literally copy U.S.A. I’m tracking USA/Canada as it seems DAW runs the printing #s separately and I’ve also seen that the USA and Canadian editions are not always the same (for example, in 1984 the USA printed editions switched to the new style spines while Canadian ones still had the yellow spine.)
 * Binding – This is one of Paperback, Hardcover, or Trade Paperback.
 * Pages – This is the page # of the last numbered page.
 * Verified – This is used to color code rows on the web pages. The format is “p 2006-11-10 MK” where “p” means physically verified, the date as YYYY-MM-DD, and either your name or initials.
 * The spreadsheet has a keyboard macro which is activated by CTRL-Q (control-Q) and will automatically append a new “verified” entry and change the color coding. Thus to mark a row as verified you just go to it and use CTRL-Q. If you are using a Macintosh then you can assign a different letter to the macro.


 * Name – Enter your name or initials here. This is used by the CTRL-Q verified macro and is also a filter field. Click on the right arrow and select your name to see a list of all the books you have verified.
 * Notes – Document anything you feel is noteworthy about this publication (but don’t describe, summarize or review the story itself).

You will also see that the rows are broken down into sections. For the most part the yellow section divider lines should explain things but in summary
 * The main DAW list divided into groups of 100 titles.
 * Unknown Logo #. (BTW, Renaissance Faire is probably #1317 and Constellations is #1321 but I'm waiting for physical confirmation of this.)
 * Upcoming Books
 * No Logo #
 * Box Sets
 * Display Sets
 * Vaporware
 * Missing/Skipped numbers – This section is used to keep track of Order numbers and ISBNs that DAW seems to have skipped, or has not used yet.

Revising data vs. adding rows. The spreadsheet has one row per printing. If you have a printing that is not listed then copy/paste a row that seems to match your publication the best and revise that. An alternative is to just overwrite an existing printing #. In either case, when your spreadsheet gets merged back into the main list your updates will get picked up and overwrites will get handled by adding rows to the main list. Don’t worry about the Row # column if you insert new rows.

If the spreadsheet already has a row for your printing then go ahead with making changes. If you are updating an already verified row then I will be asking the editors that previously verified the row to re-check their publication. As it’s fast and will catch earlier errors, you might as well verify books that are already marked as verified.

Good luck, and thank you!