Adding a book "series" that is not numbered

[Bryan England]

There is a novel series that I inherited and want to put in ComicBase, but the books are not "numbered". They were released every other month or so -- as part of a subscription novel series as well as on newsstands -- for many years, but each was titled differently, for example: Don Pendleton's Mack Bolan: Retribution (December, 1998); Don Pendleton's Mack Bolan: Ambush (August, 2001); Don Pendleton's Mack Bolan: Stolen Arrows (May, 2004); etc. I don't want to just make up issue numbers because they will be in no logical order as others are added, but I also don't think entering each one as a separate title is the best solution since they were released "in series" and the titles remain consistent through the run. I have considered using numbering similar to some magazines: there aren't volumes, but each novel does have a unique issue month & year, so I could use the title "Don Pendleton's Mack Bolan", then number each in the series by year and month, such as 199812 (December, 1998); 200108 (August, 2001);  200405 (May, 2004); etc., and then use the Item Title field for each book's specific title: Retribution, Ambush, Stolen Arrows, etc. This would keep them in publication order, make them easy to locate in searches, and anyone who collects this book or similar titles published in series would (should) understand the numbering immediately (considered 9812, 0108, 0405, but those would not sort in order because they span the 1900s into the 2000s). I know I could use whatever numbering I want and just not submit them for addition to the ComicBase master database, but if I'm doing all the work (I have several boxes of these and similar books), I want others who own/collect them to also benefit.

Any suggestions? Does this pass muster? I won't "submit" unless or until I hear back from the ComicBase guardians!

[Steven L. Dasinger]

I would enter each book as a separate title, and use Overall Title Name and Book # (both Title level fields) to 'link' the books together.
I also tend to add the Publisher to the Title as the same book could be published by different Publisher over time.
Also, in general, Magazine type issue numbering doesn't work well for books. For example if you used 200108 for the 1st printing, what would you use for 2nd (and up) printings? 200108-2, 200108-3 when the 2nd and 3rd printings were NOT printed the same year/month doesn't look good.

As an example:

Title                        Overall Title Name  Book #
Retribution (Gold Eagle)     Mack Bolan          1
Ambush (Gold Eagle)          Mack Bolan          2
Stolen Arrows (Gold Eagle)   Mack Bolan          3

NOTE: I am assuming a Publisher of 'Gold Eagle' as I found some issues on Ebay but without access to the book, it could be some other publisher.
Also, the Book # I listed are just an example as I don't know the publishing sequence.