OTHER PUBLICATION DETAILS

Before I go on to show some actual examples of publication statements, I'll just say a few words about other associated information that probably appears on the same page. The page probably tells you the name of the author, the title of the book, the publisher and various other details (e.g., the name of the translator or illustrator, where applicable).

Whereas you can work out the date, and hence the edition, without too much difficulty, in a lot of cases there is no easy way to get at this other information.

Some books give at least some of the information in Western script. I have a book open in front of me right now, for example, that says, "© Machiko SATANAKA/CHUOKORON-SHINSHA, INC."  That gives me the author of the book and the publisher who, between them, share the copyright on this volume (a manga version of Greek mythology).

Most modern books carry an ISBN, and sometimes an ISBN search, either on one of the major search organs (such as GOOGLE or ALLTHEWEB) or on the Library of Congress website, will lead to some information in English. Other than that, there's no easy way, I'm afraid.

Sorry this section's so short, but it'd either have to be very short or incredibly long and complicated. There's only so far you can go without being able to read Japanese fluently. On the positive side, though, as I've tried to explain, with a little effort even a non-specialist can identify the printing of a book and determine whether it is complete in itself or one of a series. That's definitely better than nothing!

Now let's take a look at some examples from some actual books.


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