[Answered} Duplicate ISBN in use for paperback and ebook editions

[Emmy]

Someone asked to add the paperback edition of above-referenced book as per Amazon's page, but was replied to that the ISBNs were already taken by the ebook edition published via Smashwords.

See this topic:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

and the links to Amazon and Smashwords:
■ https://www.amazon.com/Rawlins-Psychi...
■ https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...

For the time being I added the paperback edition without ISBNs (see https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...).

However, I understood that SuperLibrarians have a so-called Add a Duplicate ISBN Edition tool...

Would it be possible for you to enter the same ISBNs to this paperback edition too?

[Tal]

Emmy wrote: "However, I understood that SuperLibrarians have a so-called Add a Duplicate ISBN Edition tool...

Would it be possible for you to enter the same ISBNs to this paperback edition too?"

It's been close to two years since I reviewed this tool and I'm not even sure they still have it with all the recent policy changes but even if they do (just asked a friend who's a super and they do,) it didn't copy the ISBN into a second edition, it stripped the ISBN from one and moved it to another, like the ACE tool. An ISBN can still only be assigned to one book record at any given time. And from what I understood it was to be used for different works (completely different books) not different editions of the same work. But it's been a while, I could be misremembering.

[David]

I use the Duplicate ISBN tool quite often, mainly due to one publisher, which will not be named, that has a habit of reusing ISBNs.

As Tal explained, the tool moves the ISBN from an existing edition to a new placeholder edition, which can then be completed. It is convenient since it leaves very informative librarian notes. However, it should only be used when there is a clear distinction between "old" and "new" books. By policy, the ISBN belongs to the "new" book.

In this case, there is no clear "new" edition. The book text clearly states the ISBN is for the "KDP paperback" (KDP being Kindle Direct Publishing), which is what Amazon uses. On the other hand, Smashwords claims to have published the ebook with the same ISBN. One of them is wrong, and I don't see a way to determine which one. The correct action is exactly what Emmy did, namely, to create a new edition without an ISBN. The missing component is the librarian notes, which I have provided.

[Emmy]

Thank you for this explanation, @David. All completely clear now!
And thank you for putting Librarian Notes in both editions.

Topic marked as [Answered] and moved to [Archived] folder.