Goodreads Librarians Group discussion
Book & Author Page Issues
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Torus Run ASIN correction
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This did not necessitate a superlibrarian. Please post future requests in the "Book & Author Page Issues" folder.
David wrote: "This did not necessitate a superlibrarian. Please post future requests in the "Book & Author Page Issues" folder."Noted. I was told by regular librarians that it did. Sorry.
Harry wrote: "When The Torus Run was first added to Goodreads, a fictitious ASIN was entered somehow. The book is now for sale on Amazon with the following ASIN: B0F2X5NKYVFrom the pinned post on the message b..."
Hi Scott, thanks for picking this up, the link on the book's page still tries to go to the Amazon page for the fictitious B0DT4H7B6N ASIN
The Kindle edition goes to the correct page on Amazon. The paperback does not seem to be listed there any more, if it ever was.
Hi Scott,Thanks for checking into this. I see what you're saying about the Kindle version, however the main page on Goodreads is following a bogus link because the ASIN was made up at the time the book page was initially created (there wasn't even an ASIN for my book (either version) at that time. "B0DT4H7B6N" is completely made up and was never mine.
As a result the main image on my book page is following a bogus link to this URL: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0D...)
The correct page for the paperback at Amazon is: https://www.amazon.com/Torus-Run-Harr...
Both the paperback and kindle version are valid and available on Amazon (I just check again).
Can you please change the paperback ASIN to be B0F2X5NKYV (via the merge process if necessary) to correct that?
- Harry
Paperbacks don't really use ASINs, even though GRAmazon assigns one to every record. The links for paperbacks are by ISBN-10, which is missing. A librarian cannot add it, but if you contact support and give them the ISBN-10 that matches the ISBN-13, they may be able to enter it and then the link should work.
Thanks Scott. I have two problems following this advice: 1) The URL constructed by the "Buy on Amazon" button on my Goodreads book page is definitely using the ASIN (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0D...), as is the one for the Kindle edition (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0F...) which, as you pointed out, works fine.
2) My ISBN-13 has a 979 prefix, which, as I understand it, can't be down-converted to an ISBN-10 (979-8-9919729-1-8)
Can we not get this ASIN corrected to B0F2X5NKYV on the paperback edition here in Goodreads? It seems like that would just fix it.
- Harry
Librarians cannot edit ASINs. I don't think support can, either, but you can ask them.
There's a pinned post (https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...) that says the only way forward is this "Going forward, if an ASIN is on the incorrect record Librarians should instead change the book’s metadata to reflect that associated with the ASIN, and then create a new edition or book record for the edition not associated with that ASIN. Employees will continue to have the ability to update or move ISBNs on book records."
Hi Scott, I just tried, and got these errors
- ERROR Isbn13 is taken by an existing book with the title "The Torus Run" in 'Public' status. If you believe this is an error please double-check your data, then check the Goodreads Librarians group. ISBNs are optional so you can also add this book without an ISBN.
- The ISBN13 one makes sense since the existing book is using it. I tried again leaving it blank (hoping to sort it out at merge time) and was left with the next one:
- ERROR Asin is taken by an existing book with the title "The Torus Run" in 'Deleted' status. If you believe this is an error please double-check your data, then check the Goodreads Librarians group. ASINs are optional so you can also add this book without an ASIN.
OK ... now this one is a surprise. It seems maybe like some Librarian tried to fix it and left a deleted one lying around. I could leave it blank, but that kinda defeats the purpose, right?
Any suggestions on how to proceed. "DIY" is great, i just don't know how to proceed here.
Thanks
Hi Scott,I just noticed that on 4/6 you deleted the version with the correct ASIN. Can you help me understand the reason. This is what I've been trying to get created, and now the deleted record is preventing me from creating a new edition with that ASIN. Can you please undelete it?
Apr 06, 2025 02:54PM (#904790737)The Torus Run by Harry Buck
ScottScott updated the book The Torus Run by Harry Buck
edition: Deleted edition id=230603852 title=The Torus Run primary author=Harry Buck asin=B0F2X5NKYV, merged 0 reviews
As the ISBNs were moved to another, identical record, the ASIN paperback was no longer needed. As mentioned above, paperbacks do not use ASINs.
With or without ASIN, I can't create a new edition that uses the correct ISBN-13 because it has been associated with the now deleted record. Is there a step beyond deleted (archived? nuked?) that you can move your deleted record to so that I can create a new edition using the ISBN-13 and try the "no ASIN" route?
It seems that in the case where ISBN13 is 979-... the ASIN is important. We usually ignore ASINs for paper books and remove duplicates, that's why it was deleted. I haven't seen similar cases before.In your case, the bot first added the wrong ASIN to the book added by the librarian, and then created another one.
I restored the deleted edition. Since no one can edit ASIN, you need to ask support to move ISBN 9798991972918 to this edition
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... and then merge them.
https://www.goodreads.com/about/conta...
Hi Olga,Thanks for picking up this file. I just tried to do as you asked at add the ISBN (9798991972918) to the version at the link you provided, however the ISBN-13 field is grayed out.
There's a note at the top of this edition's page which says: "clearlibrarian note for this book (last edited by Goodreads at Apr 02, 2025 12:34PM)
The ISBN13 9798991972918 for this book was also used by another book." (the words "another book" is a hyperlink pointing to https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...) which is the one with the bogus ASIN.
Any suggestions?
- Harry
Harry, this might seem like nitpicking, but could you please move this discussion to the 'Book & Author Page Issues' folder? With 18 posts so far, every extra one wastes a little time — and it adds up.
Yes, please move your request to the "Book & Author Page Issues" folder by clicking the (EDIT) button next to the topic's title and picking the target folder from the dropdown list. And please reread my message:
"you need to ask support to move ISBN"
Have you contacted the support?
Hi Olga and David,Thread moved as requested.
Olga,
Sorry I missed that. I've sent the request. Thank you.
- H
From the pinned post on the message board about ASINs, apparently this is the way forward: "If an invalid ISBN or ASIN has been entered, the book edition with the incorrect ISBN or ASIN can be merged into one with the correct ISBN or ASIN — by a Superlibrarian when necessary."
Can you please update/merge as needed. Everything else about the listing is correct