Sometimes I forget that all the resources I use are not on everyone's radar. Case in point, when last week, Tor.com included an essay entitled, "The Single Best Bibliogrpahic Resource There Is If You Like SFF." This essay was referring to the Internet Science Fiction Database.I had a few people reach out to ask me if I knew about this and if I also knew it included Horror.
The answer was "Yes." But I also checked the blog archives and I saw that I have never written about ISFDB.
Why have I not shared it here even though I have used it many times? Well, mostly because it is a bibliographic database. It is a list of authors, titles, and awards-- all things you can get other places that also include additional information that will help you to know for whom the book would be the best fit.
I use ISFDB mostly for writing my books and gathering lists of short stories by specific authors. For example, here is the entry for Stephen Graham Jones which you can use to find where every single one of his short stories was published. This is very useful information for completists, but doesn't help you figure out what the stories are about or who would most enjoy them.
But I do think you should know about it, so I am fixing the fact that I have nerve mentioned it on the blog with this post today.
Keep ISFDB in your back pocket for your hard to help Speculative Fiction patrons, especially the ones who think they know more than you. With this tool, you will demonstrate your genre skills even if Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror are not among your strengths. It has EVERYTHING!
Finally, here is my entry in ISFDB [meaning they even keep track of nonfiction].
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