Merge Request

[Katharine]

Please merge:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

The second listed edition has invalid/non-existent ASIN/ISBNs.

[David]

These editions have different covers, so merging them would go against policy and could result in the loss of librarian privileges.

Additionally, the ISBN appears to be entirely valid. The ISBN prefix database confirms it belongs to "Fiery Seas Publishing," which aligns perfectly with the ISBN. Could you clarify how you determined that this ISBN is invalid? Deleting an edition with a valid ISBN is also against policy.

Regarding the ASIN, I’d appreciate understanding how you concluded it is invalid or non-existent. To my knowledge, there isn’t a reliable way to verify an ASIN’s validity (though I’d be happy to learn otherwise), and this ASIN is clearly associated with this edition. If you meant its availability on Amazon, most ASINs do not remain on Amazon indefinitely. This one appears to be an older ASIN, likely removed when Fiery Seas Publishing became unavailable. Removing such an edition without clear proof that the ASIN is a bot-generated entry would also go against policy.

I’m not saying your request is necessarily incorrect, but when requesting to override multiple policies at once, it’s customary to provide the reasoning behind it.

[Katharine]

Thank you for your detailed response - in checking my work based on your comments, I discovered the ISBNs listed as valid on the publisher's old website, which appears to be outdated but still live and includes the matching cover art: https://fieryseapublishing.wixsite.co...

I missed this originally because this site appears to not be indexed for search engines - it does not return in Google or Bing searches for the ISBNs, even when copy/pasting the text/formatting as it appears on the site itself.

The merge request itself can be disregarded with my apologies for the error - I should have checked more thoroughly.

Aside from that, this was my thought process:

In terms of validating ISBNs, I had originally referred to the Librarian manual page on acceptable sources for book data. I searched Worldcat, Amazon, both authors' official sites, AbeBooks, and Archive.org using both formatted and non-formatted ISBNs. None of these returned any results. The only hit I got for these ISBNs on a general Google search was an unofficial author blog post.

Is there an ISBN database/source site I should be checking instead?

I felt comfortable originally requesting a merge with differing cover art because, as the ISBNs appeared invalid, it looked as though the entry were using the paperback edition cover art, as seen here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
I'd separated the two Kindle/ebook editions out from the others before requesting the merge (I will recombine them). As mentioned however, based on the publisher's website, the cover art does appear to be valid for this Kindle edition.

In terms of ASINs, I'd searched Amazon (US) for the ASIN "B073VZ5G82". When that returned no results, I did a general Google and Archive.org search, both of which only returned a "no results" message. Based on your comments, though, it sounds like this should not be considered a reliable method of validation - is that correct?

Again, I'm happy to be corrected if I'm making a wrong call (which clearly this was) and appreciate you taking the time to offer a detailed response. It is certainly not my intent to go rogue on Librarian policies. If I'm doing something wrong, I want to correct it.

[David]

Many ISBNs do not appear in searches, and there is no way to verify whether an ISBN ever existed except by contacting the publisher or author or finding an image of the copyright page or back cover. Therefore, policy is not to remove valid ISBNs. Their validity can be checked on various websites, such as the Library of Congress ISBN Converter:
https://www.loc.gov/programs/preassig...

This converter is also useful for generating hyphenated ISBNs, which can improve Google search results and might have worked in this case.

If I suspect an ISBN is bogus—such as for publications I know never had one—I use the Global Register of Publishers to check the prefix, which can be identified from the hyphenated ISBN:
https://grp.isbn-international.org/

I am unaware of any method to validate ASINs. Policy is to keep all Kindle and Audible ASINs, while used book ASINs and, more recently, bot-assigned ASINs can be freely removed. However, care should be taken, as the bot also changes formats.

In general, cover images are not removed unless there is concrete evidence they are fan-created or otherwise bogus.