Prevent work being combined

[P.G.]

Soon launching a vastly updated version of a novel I published 4/5 years ago. New title, new characters, rewritten from ground up, etc.

I read that it's possible for someone to come along and combine my old (now unpublished) novel with my new novel, meaning the old novel's ratings and reviews are combined with my new novel. Which would seem odd in this scenario, as the reviews and ratings would concern a vastly outdated version of the book.

Is this accurate?

Kind Regards

[Vikarti]

Yes, sometimes people combine such books.

Examples:
and (2nd one have a lot of edits and more text added and they are different books on Kindle Store. Basic story is same).
Another example (in Russian): and . 2nd one is about 2 times larger and have a lot of edits.

It does not matter that book is no longer published, somebody could still own it.

It's technically possible to combine ANY book with ANY OTHER (even completly unrelated) book as long as author is same. Person doing could loose her librarian status for abuse.

May be you should 'new' version new title which will help people understood it's it's essentially new book?

[P.G.]

Thanks for the information.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

On Goodreads, revised editions of a book are combined with the original edition, regardless of title changes.