Salvatrice, definitely add the book (through the upload as Paula suggested, or manually), and then combine it with the existing editions.

Regardless of edits, translations, and extra materials like appendices, introductions, etc., texts that are essentially the same content are combined together.

Salvatrice wrote: "I would like to update information about a book which had gone out of print and has recently be re-printed (with edits & additional content) by a different publisher. The new edition has a differe..."

yes, I believe this is the only solution you have. Goodreads deal with each book-edition as a seperate entity. then you can later combine the two books.

Salvatrice

Try doing a search first by ISBN, which can trigger a download from Amazon. Other wise add the book, filling in all the details you can and the combine with the other addtion.

I would like to update information about a book which had gone out of print and has recently be re-printed (with edits & additional content) by a different publisher. The new edition has a different ISBN. Do I manually add the book and then combine with the existing edition or...what? help. thanks.

Rivka, That's the conversation I was remembering. Either moving it or splitting it into two. I don't think foreign language editions came up at the time. Just things specific to audio books, or editions with special prefaces or afterwords. Things that would be "in addition" to the regular description, rather than a translation which would be "in place of" the regular description.

It was, actually. If and when that happens, we'll have to deal with it. IIRC, there was some discussion of having both a "per work" description and the option of an additional "per book" description. Precisely to deal with things like foreign editions and audio books and other semi-unique (ok, so that's not a real word ;) ) items.

mlady_rebecca wrote: "Wasn't the book description one of the field that was being considered for being migrated from "per edition" to "per book"?"

I could be misremembering, but I don't think so.

Wasn't the book description one of the field that was being considered for being migrated from "per edition" to "per book"?

While some text IS copyright protected, fair use would apply in many if not all cases.

Okay. Thanks for clearing that up, Lisa :)

Well, I think the book description should be in whatever language that edition is in.

However, we need to be very careful about what we put in the book description field for any book/book edition. Along with not putting personal opinions/reviews or spoilers, some text is copyright protected and should not be used.

Thanks Michael & Lisa :)

Any takes on the description field (message 113)?

I agree with Michael, but combining with other editions of the book is key. I go to many books where there are many foreign language editions not yet combined with all editions of a book.

Personally, as long as it is combined with the English books, I prefer the second way, without specifying the English title.

Also as a newbie, is the correct way to represent the titles of foreign language books like this: Dexterin pimeät unet / Darkly Dreaming Dexter Would it be enough if the title was just "Dexterin pimeät unet (Dexter, #1)" without the English title?

I guess it is said somewhere but right now I can't find the answer and searching discussions gives way too many topics. I've been adding Finnish editions of books I've read and I was wondering if it's okay to put the back cover text in the description field or is it considered spoilery? For example, I added Sydämen muotoinen rasia. Can I put the cover text in the description field? It is in Finnish, though. Is it okay to have the description in Finnish for a Finnish edition or is there a policy ready for this stuff which I haven't seen?

Also, just checking if I got this right: the translator in the Author field by adding the translator role, and the cover artist in the Description field; right? (Check the book I linked above; is that correct?)

(Sorry, head is still a bit stuffy from the summer cold I'm recovering from. I hope this question makes some sense.)

Mlady Rebecca, thank you for a very clear and concise answer. But, with a bit more digging I found that "Bengal Station" is a much-shortened version of the novel Brown eventually published as "Necropath". With over a hundred pages cut out (about a quarter of the book) it is probably sufficiently different that I oughtn't to combine them. With the Morgan book I am sure that only the titles are different. Thanks again.

Titles are unique to each edition of the book. Combining them won't merge the titles in any way. During a book search the most popular title will show up, but you can see all the choices by looking at "other editions".

You might want to include a librarian note explaining why you combined the books. That way someone won't accidentally un-combine them.

In Message 49 Kristen asked whether to combine editions of a book published under different titles, with the example of US and UK editions. What happens to the book then? Does it have one title or two, and if two, do they both show up in searches once combined? I am slightly hesitant to combine them because I don't want one title to vanish. I have two examples in mind: Eric Brown's science fiction novel known as Necropath and Bengal Station; and Richard Morgan's book variously known as Thirteen and Black Man.

Heh.

I was just about to post the link under the delete the book thread when the link suddenly disappeared. Sorry anyway :)

Got it. (Next time, a link would help.)

*sigh* the website has indicated that I am not super enough to delete such a book... I can only imagine the mockery if I were to press the profit button...

I assume I am at the limit of my librarian powers with this one.

Step 1: Change the author on the short to the author on the anthology (by editing the short's book record).
Step 2: Combine.
Step 3: Delete.
Step 4: Profit!

. . . wait a minute . . .

Thank you for your responses and the awesome ninja face. Noobie librarian that I am, I'm not sure how to combine books with different authors. The short story I'm referring to is Day Off by Jim Butcher, and it is from the Blood Lite anthology. I hate to shove duties off on someone else, but maybe a better librarian than I could take care of it, or tell me how?

C, unless the short story has been published as a stand-alone, it doesn't belong in the system and needs to be deleted. If it has been published alone, it shouldn't be combined with an anthology containing other short stories.

Edited to add: rivka makes a good point about combining-and-deleting to preserve the reviews. Also, I need to type faster!

Assuming it has no ISBN and was never actually published separately (as the occasional novella-length short is), I would combine it with the anthology and then delete. That way any reviews move over to the anthology, rather than being lost.

Sorry if this has been asked before:

Should I combine a book that is actually just a short story taken from an anthology with the book? Or should the short story entry be deleted? Or should it be left alone?

Ron wrote: "Yes, JG, thanks; I agree with Vicki that having an example to follow was very useful."

You're welcome!

I agree.

My opinion is that if it's an omnibus edition to make the page number 997.

I have a question.
I have a book which contains actually two books with separate page numbering (1-497 and 1- 500)
Should i keep the page number blank for this book, or use the total page number?

Yes, JG, thanks; I agree with Vicki that having an example to follow was very useful.

JG wrote: "No, but I think it's buried somewhere on the official to-do list. Manually add your book, but leave the isbn field blank. Add your cover art, and make a note that this is an alternate cover for w..."

Wow! Thanks for adding the link to an example. For new librarians having an example or a before and after would be so helpful. I wish more people would do this.

Love the Librarian's Note feature! I never noticed that link before! How awesome!

Thanks again for your quick response; I found the Librarian's Note feature and have added the note to the alternate cover entry.

A librarian note is much easier to see. The link to add one is located just above the title field on the edit page of any book. It's not very obvious.

JG and Isis FG, thank you both very much for your very useful answers; I have tried to do as you suggest. I did not find the Librarian's Note feature, so I left a Librarian Comment instead, and I hope it will suffice.

But you were much more thorough in your answer!

Sometimes books are reprinted with the same ISBN but a different cover. Right now, GR has no way to upload alternate cover art, and changing the cover art is a bad idea because there are people who shelved that book with that specific cover art. So the only alternative right now is to manually add a new edition to the database but to leave the ISBN fields blank and put it instead in the Description field with a Librarian's Note about how it is an alternate cover edition. You can also put this information in the Librarian's Note feature (available near the top of the book edit page) so that it will be more noticeable to Librarian's and the edition less likely to be deleted because someone thinks its a bogus edition. It is also a good idea to make sure to fill in as much data about the book as you can...this will also help make sure the blank ISBN edition does not get deleted by accident.

Oh, and make sure to combine your new edition with any other editions.

EDIT: LOL, JG got the answer typed quicker than I did ;)

No, but I think it's buried somewhere on the official to-do list. Manually add your book, but leave the isbn field blank. Add your cover art, and make a note that this is an alternate cover for whichever isbn in the description field. Here's an example for you.

I have almost the opposite problem with cover art: I have a copy of a book which is in the database with correct ISBN-13 and data, but the cover art is different. I don't want to change the cover in the db, but is there a place to file the alternative cover art?

Welcome, Sherry! :)

Sherry wrote: "It would NOT be correct to upload my older cover art for the newer edition's entry, right?"

Not unless you know the cover art stayed the same for the later edition (possible but unlikely).

Sherry, Yes, that's the exact process. Manually add your book edition and combine it with the existing edition. Thanks for checking.

Hello, I'm brand new here! Just a simple question, I guess. I found a book listed - only one edition listed - published in 1995, with no cover art uploaded. I own a much older edition of the same book, published in 1965. Should I create a second entry with my edition's info and cover art, then "combine" editions? It would NOT be correct to upload my older cover art for the newer edition's entry, right?

All right. That's what I thought. Thanks!

saranicole, It is the edition that has the most ratings that shows up first. Hopefully, more and more GR members are learning that they can add the edition they want. With this particular book, if members select the paperback, eventually it will be the most popular edition and it will show first.

Hey--I swear I've seen a thread on this, but I can't find it. Is there a way to change which edition of a book pops up when a person searches for that book? I was thinking that maybe it auto-sorts based on which version has the most reviews... ?

(Edit - NOTE: I've got a book I was editing that is the paperback version (where the hardcover is no longer in print), so if people go to read the book, they'll probably be reading the paperback. I thought it would be appropriate to have the PB as the primary edition.)