How does the ISFDB deal with dos-à-dos books such as Ace Doubles, and Tor Doubles?
Ace published hundreds of “doubles” from 1953 to the early 1970s, as did Tor between 1988 and 1991. These books are often bound “dos-à-dos” which is French for “back-to-back.” (The correct term is “tête-bêche”, meaning “head-to-toe”.) The books have two front covers, each of which is “upside down” with respect to the other, requiring the reader to flip the book in order to read the second title. The more modern Tor books have the ISBN/barcode on one of the covers and that’s usually considered the “back” cover. The title of this cover should be considered the second title when titling the double for the ISFDB record. Later Tor Doubles were published as a standard book with a single cover and both works published in the same direction. Ace Doubles should be entered into the ISFDB as omnibuses, because these were published as “novels” regardless of their actual word count. Occasionally one (or both) of the titles would be a collection of stories. The book publication record would still be
