>>> Publisher.objects.get(name="Apress")
<Publisher: Apress>

>>> Publisher.objects.get(country="U.S.A.")
Traceback (most recent call last):
  ...
MultipleObjectsReturned: get() returned more than one Publisher --
  it returned 2! Lookup parameters were {'country': 'U.S.A.'}

>>> Publisher.objects.get(name="Penguin")
Traceback (most recent call last):
  ...
DoesNotExist: Publisher matching query does not exist.

try:
  p = Publisher.objects.get(name='Apress')
except Publisher.DoesNotExist:
  print "Apress isn't in the database yet."
else:
  print "Apress is in the database."