So, I’ve been thinking a lot about how some people like to collect books in Hardcover and some like to collect books in Softcover. We’ve already got any hardcover that collects things differently in the database (Chronicles and Archives, for example, often cover the same content but in different ways or amounts per volume. Ditto for showcase.)
But there are also a lot of books that have the same release in hardcover, then again a few months later in softcover. But not every book. So if someone wanted to only collect dc books that have a hardcover version, they would have to go through every one and check the amazon listings right now.
So I want to mark it in some way. DavidTai over at the DC Archives Message Board just sent me his hardcover list, which will make my life a little easier in this respect!
The first thing I need to do is add another amazon link field so if a book has two editions you see “Amazon” and “Amazon HC”. Or maybe “Amazon SC” and “Amazon HC.” I also want to figure out a way to only show whichever it is – so it doesn’t show an unworking link for one or the other (kind of like the links for reviews don’t work on most books on their data pages right now. I’d like to fix that too!)
That shouldn’t be a big deal, it’s just adding another custom field.
But also I think people will want to be able to filter lists by this information. For example, I might want a list of Batman books that are hardcovers. Or I might want to see Elseworlds titles released in prestige format. So I’ll have to create a custom taxonomy just for this so when filtering is working people can make lists based on different sets of data – “Superman Elseworlds Hardcovers from the Modern Age” for example.
I’m not sure what to call this one, though. Here is the information that it might contain for a book:
Prestige Format
Softcover
Hardcover
Oversized
Slipcase
Digest
I can’t think of any others off the top of my head. Somethings could be combined – you could have an Oversized Softcover (like Batman Black And White Vol. 2 or Birth Of The Demon) or you could have a Hardcover with Slipcase (like the Deadman Collection).
Should we call this taxonomy tag set “Binding” or “Edition” or what? There might be a better word I’m just not thinking of right now.
Should it just be “Publication information” and include “Black And White” or “Newsprint paperstock” or stuff like that too?
“Publication information” might work. Other ways of describing it would be “trim size” or “format.”
One category of book you don’t have listed is the Digest. That’s a format much more common for Marvel, but DC does release some things (mostly its now-defunct CMX imprint) in Digest.
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Yeah, you’re right. There’s a bunch of DC Animated stuff in Digest format, plus the Sgt. Rock digest and a couple other random books here or there.
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Now that I think of it, wasn’t Swamp Thing: Dark Genesis a digest too?
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There may have been one (it sounds familiar) but the version I have is a regular trade.
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Oh, maybe it was just a normal trade then. I’ve never actually seen that trade myself, I just thought I read it was a digest somewhere.
By the way, is that a picture of your shelf or someone else’s? If it’s yours, you should post a bigger version!
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hahaha no. that is an unorganized ridiculous little shelf. I have three huge well organized shelves (and one regular size kind of organized shelf.)
I’m waiting on a shipment of showcase trades to come in, then I’m gonna take some good pictures. You’ll see em, I promise!
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Cool. I always enjoy the “Show Us Your Shelf Porn” posts on Robot6, although it amazes me sometimes what horribly messy shelves/rooms people decide to show off.
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I’m actually planning on sending my stuff over there :)
I think that a lot of it is because many of them are into action figures, something I don’t really have an interest in (although I REALLY want the swamp thing action figure – with the detachable hand that would pull in when you squeezed his legs – I had as a kid. I kept it until a couple years ago when I somehow lost it in a move – very depressing.)
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