How to deal with reprints and year

[Halvor (Raknes)]

When I am adding an edition I own, how should I address the issue of edition year vs imprint year? Say, the edition was published in 1998, but I have a 5th printing published in 2004. How should these two years be represented?

[Wynn]

Publication date is the date the edition associated with the listed ISBN was published. If the book was first published in 1998, that date would go in the "original publication date" field which is under work settings on the edit page. "5th edition" can go in the edition field.

From the Librarian's Manual -
https://www.goodreads.com/help/show/2...
https://www.goodreads.com/help/show/411
https://www.goodreads.com/help/show/402

[rivka, Former Moderator]

5th printing is not 5th edition. If the 5th printing is the same as the 1st printing of that edition -- same cover, publisher, number of pages -- and the only difference is the year of the printing, it would not be added separately from the 1st printing of that edition. So the date would be 1998.

However, sometimes a later printing will have a different cover, etc. Then it gets its own edition, and that edition's pub date would be when the new version was printed. Assuming the new cover or whatever started with the 5th edition (to the best of the info available), that would be 2004.

[Halvor (Raknes)]

Thank you both!