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Frequently Asked Questions |
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- What
do the abbreviations mean?
- How do I find the author/character I am looking for?
- I’m traveling to (wherever). Can you suggest
some books set in that locale?
- I like (this author/style), can you recommend
another author I would like?
- When is (author) going to come out with a new book?
- The title I was waiting for disappeared. Where did it go?
Why does the date on the release keep changing?
- The author I’m looking for has vanished.
Where did that page go?
- Why do you list a book as
published in (one year) when everybody knows it was published in (another
year)?
- Why all the links to Amazon?
- Why aren’t all the titles linked to Amazon.com?
- I’m an author/publicist. How do I get a page
or add a book?
- Where can I find videos, DVDs, e-books, and audio books?
- Where do you list uncollected short stories and anthologies?
- How can I find out-of-print books?
- Have you read all the books listed on the website?
- What is that crazy logo?
- How can I support the Stop,
You’re Killing Me! website?
- Who is Bonny Brown?
- Who are Lucinda Surber and Stan Ulrich?
| What do the abbreviations mean? |
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CSI: |
crime scene investigator |
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DI: |
Detective Inspector |
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PI: |
Private Investigator |
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nln: |
character with no last name |
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APA: |
also published as |
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AKA: |
also known as |
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[SS]: |
short stories, including novellas |
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[NS]: |
non-series, stand-alone |
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[r]: |
reprint from hardcover or earlier paperback |
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[s]: |
simultaneous hardcover and paperback release |
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post: |
posthumous, published after the author’s death |
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| How do I find the author/character I am looking for? |
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At the top of each page is the alphabet. Click the letter for the
last name of the author or character you are looking for. We are
still looking for an author for the -X-
page—Qiu Xiaolong is there just to help
people looking in the wrong place! Use the -nln-
link for characters with no last name. |
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| I’m traveling to (wherever). Can you suggest
some books set in that locale? |
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Use the Location Index to
find books set in locations all over the world. |
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| I like (this author/style), can you recommend another
author I would like? |
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Visit our Read-Alikes section.
You will find suggestions arranged by similar authors and categories. |
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| When is (author) going to come out with a new book? |
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We continually check for new releases and post them on the New
Releases in Hardcover and New Releases
in Paperback. Sign up for our newsletter to
receive information about new books by email. |
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| Why do you list a book as published in (one year) when
everybody knows it was published in (another year)? |
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For your convenience, sort of. For example, Barnard’s “Death
of a Literary Widow” was originally
printed in the UK in 1979 as “Posthumous Papers”; the
US edition was printed in 1980 as “Death of a Literary Widow”.
Our general practice is to list US titles first and indicate other
titles following “APA” (also published as). However, to maintain the correct order of the titles, we list
the earliest publication date, regardless of the original
title. We could indicate which country the title applies to, but
for now we are conforming to past practice at SYKM. When there are
two (or more) titles for an item, you can assume that the first one
is the US title, although there are exceptions. If the gap between
publication dates is two or more years, the date after the US title
will be in square brackets: [date]. |
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The title I was waiting for disappeared. Where did
it go?
Why does the date on the release keep changing? |
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No, you haven’t lost your mind. They really are changing
or disappearing. We report anticipated publication dates based on
information at Amazon.com, publisher and bookshop newsletters, and
author websites — we don’t just make this stuff up. But, like
Bonny said, it’s the publication business. Schedules change.
We usually won’t list a title unless it has an ISBN assigned to it
and is set for publication within the next nine months. On rare occasions,
just to keep things interesting, we’ll list a forthcoming title
based on an author’s statement, even if there is no ISBN yet.
And sometimes a book shows up in print while we still list it as
forthcoming, but who’s going to complain about that? |
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| The author I’m looking for has vanished.
Where did that page go? |
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In an effort to make the Author Index pages easier to use, we have
started a “Dormouse” section
for authors who published only one book at least five years ago.
The author pages are still there, accessible by clicking the • at
the end of the Author alphabetical index at the top of each page. |
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| Why all the links to Amazon? |
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When you use one of our links to make purchases at Amazon.com,
we get a very small percentage of the sale price, which helps support
the maintainance of this site. So if you don’t buy directly
from your local independent bookstore, please use our links! Also,
Amazon provides a brief synopsis of most books as well as reviews
to help you decide which books are right for you. There are also
links in the right sidebar to Abebooks and Alibris as
well as BookSense (the
online store for many independent book stores) if you would like
other choices for buying books online. |
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| Why aren’t all the titles linked to Amazon.com? |
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We usually don’t provide links for books that are out-of-print
and/or very expensive on the used book market. And, of course,
we don’t link to books that haven’t been printed in
English yet, although in the interest of completeness, we like
to provide the full list — for example, see Karen
Fossum or Henning
Mankell. Also, sometimes we are way behind and don’t want to delay
uploading a page until the links can be added. You don’t
need them anyway, if you are heading off to the library or your
local
mystery bookstore. |
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| I’m an author/publicist. How do I get a page
or add a book? |
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To ensure that your book is listed on the website and the newsletter,
email us for the address to send review copies or catalogs.
The genesis of SYKM was the desire to read books in order, series
or non-series, so we focus on authors who have several books to
list. Generally we put authors with only one book on a “watch
list” until they have a second book scheduled for publication.
However, winners of major awards for first books are likely to
be listed, and perhaps authors on the best-seller lists.
We get many suggestions by email, from authors and readers. The
more information you provide, the more likely it is that a new
series author will be listed, when we are looking at a lot of suggestions. |
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| Where can I find videos, DVDs, e-books, and audio books? |
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We list mainly books and audio books.
If you are interested in Kindle books and related items, you can
find many of them at Amazon.com by
following book links and looking for other “editions.” It
would be fun to list movies made from the books we catalog, but
that is a project for another day (or year). |
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| Where do you list uncollected short stories and anthologies? |
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We don’t. It would be a wonderful thing for the completist,
but we focus on books. It is said that Edward D. Hoch has written
nearly 1000 short stories — we leave those catalogs to others.
On rare occasions, we’ll list a novella relating to a series character,
but not otherwise. |
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| How can I find out-of-print books? |
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Amazon.com has a out-of-print service. Just search on the title
in a search and often there is information about their service
on the title's page. We almost never provide an ISBN1 link
to an out-of-print book, although a book may go out-of-print without
us knowing about it. Here are some other online resources we’ve
used: Abebooks.com and alibris.
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| How can I support the Stop, You’re
Killing Me! website? |
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Tell all your friends about us! Print our flyer and
take it to your book group or local library. Email us when you find
errors so that we can fix them. We were amazed when people wrote
asking how they could support the website financially. A few suggested
we set up an Amazon
Honor System Account to accept donations, so we did. |
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| Have you read all the books listed on the website? |
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No, but we are trying — if only we had more time. As a long-time
SYKM user, Stan tended to latch on to an author’s series and
doggedly read everything in order, which, with the likes of Rex Stout,
Ed McBain, and Arthur Upfield, can take a while. Since we assumed
responsibility for the website, Stan has gone from a “vertical” reader
to a “horizontal” reader — typically reading the
first books of a whole bunch of different authors before even thinking
of reading the second in a series. Lucinda reads two or three times
faster than Stan, so she can read a lot more of them, but still not
over 22,000 titles, at least not right away. |
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| Who is Bonny Brown? |
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Stop,
You’re Killing Me! was created
by Bonny Brown in 1998. She had to give up maintaining the site
in April 2006 because of health reasons. Here is Bonny’s
description of the site: “I love a good mystery! When I
find new authors, I want to read everything they’ve written.
I like to go back to the beginning title and follow the development
of a writer’s work.
With the exception of Sue Grafton and her alphabet series, it can
be difficult to find an author’s first book. So I have searched
online and in reference books to list the books featuring series
characters in the order written.” |
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| Who are Lucinda Surber and Stan Ulrich? |
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We were introduced to
Stop,
You’re Killing Me! by Lucinda’s
father Floyd
Surber and found it an invaluable resource for exactly the reason
Bonny created the site. We both love to read and noodle around
with our computers. |
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