Wrong ISBN (at amazon)

[Fjeronimo]

Hi all,

The following book http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61... created from amazon.com had an invalid ISBN, which is listed at (http://www.amazon.com/Nomes-proprios-...).

I fixed the ISBNs but I am afraid that a future refresh (either automatic or manual) might override them in the future.

I left a note :
"This book has an invalid ISBN listed at amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Nomes-proprios-Por...). Please do not refresh data from Amazon!"

but I was wondering what is the correct procedure in this case?

Thanks,

fjeronimo

Ps- By the way, strangely enough when I try to refresh the data for this book from amazon (in the edit page) the system tells me the refresh could not be made...

[Cait]

The Amazon refresh runs by the ISBN, so if you've changed the ISBN, it'll be trying to refresh the new ISBN.

Why do you say that Amazon's ISBN is invalid, by the way? Is it the ISBN for a different book? I can't find a reference to it being for any other book and it's just going to reimport from Amazon again, so I left it here as an edition of the book for now....

[Fjeronimo]

Why do you say that Amazon's ISBN is invalid, by the way? Is it the ISBN for a different book?

The reason for that is that I have the exact same edition and the ISBN is not the same. As far as I'm aware that ISBN is not being used in another book but it is not for this one either.

Speaking of importing from amazon, I noticed that we need to manually change a lot of data to correct problems (mostly related with format, titles and author names - if multiple). This is especially disturbing for non-english books where sometimes all of the data is wrong.

I've been doing this for the books in my library and I don't think I've found one imported from amazon with correct data...

[Cait]

Fjeronimo wrote: "Why do you say that Amazon's ISBN is invalid, by the way? Is it the ISBN for a different book?

The reason for that is that I have the exact same edition and the ISBN is not the same."

Books are often published in multiple editions with a different ISBN for each edition, even though they are the same book. It looks like this book has two editions, and you have the one which isn't currently listed on Amazon. Both editions are valid, though.

"Speaking of importing from amazon, I noticed that we need to manually change a lot of data to correct problems (mostly related with format, titles and author names - if multiple). This is especially disturbing for non-english books where sometimes all of the data is wrong."

You should be sure that you have the correct edition by ISBN before you change the information, but yes, very often the data on books published other than in the US is entered incorrectly on Amazon and needs to be fixed once it's imported into GR. It's also very common for only some of the non-US editions to be imported -- the hardcovers but not the paperbacks, for example -- which is why it's so important to double-check the ISBN before changing a record.

[Fjeronimo]

Cait wrote:
Books are often published in multiple editions with a different ISBN for each edition, even though they are the same book. It looks like this book has two editions, and you have the one which isn't currently listed on Amazon. Both editions are valid, though.


Thanks for info Cait. Does that usually happen with the same publisher and in the same year (as is the case here)? Is there any way to verify if that alternate ISBN edition truly exists?

You should be sure that you have the correct edition by ISBN before you change the information.

Yes, I'm very careful with this. I always search by ISBN (10 and/or 13) and only by name if the book isn't found or if it doesn't have an ISBN to begin with.

I also only change edition specific fields if I have the book in my hands and can confirm the details :)

Another thing I find quite puzzling is the amount of times the original title for a non-english book appears with the english translation...

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Fjeronimo wrote: "Thanks for info Cait. Does that usually happen with the same publisher and in the same year (as is the case here)?"

Yes. VERY often. It is not a reason to assume an ISBN is incorrect.

[Fjeronimo]

rivka wrote:
Yes. VERY often. It is not a reason to assume an ISBN is incorrect

That's good to know. I'll be certain to never assume that. Thanks.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

I don't know why publishers sometimes use three different ISBNs for what appear to be identical editions and then other times re-use an ISBN for a new cover.

But they do. Maybe it's just to mess with us. ;)

[Cait]

Fjeronimo wrote: "Does that usually happen with the same publisher and in the same year (as is the case here)?"

Yes, that could be a different format (hardcover, paperback, audio, ebook), the publisher wanting to change the cover, some internal fuss at the publishing house -- I don't know what makes a publisher decide to put out a new edition instead of reprinting the existing one, but it's done a lot.

"Is there any way to verify if that alternate ISBN edition truly exists?"

Generally you can put the ISBN into a search engine and see if you get any reputable-looking hits. However, if the book is for sale on Amazon or B&N (the import sites for GR) and it has an ISBN on one of those sites, we have to either assume that it's a valid ISBN or confirm that it's not a book ISBN at all -- if an ISBN isn't listed on GR and is listed on one of the import sites, sooner or later that ISBN is going to be re-imported into GR, so we need to keep a record with that ISBN and the information we know about it here on this site. (That's what the not-a-book section of the librarian manual is for.)

"Another thing I find quite puzzling is the amount of times the original title for a non-english book appears with the english translation..."

For most imports, the first search is done on Amazon.com, the US-specific site, and a lot of booksellers who list non-English books on Amazon.com like to provide an English title -- I'm not sure why, but I think it's something that Amazon encourages for some reason. There's no need to keep the translation in the title field on GR, not with the original title field available, so the titles of those books can be corrected to show just the actual titles of those editions.

[Fjeronimo]

Cait wrote: For most imports, the first search is done on Amazon.com, the US-specific site, and a lot of booksellers who list non-English books on Amazon.com like to provide an English title

I imagined as much. Thanks for all the info Cait and rivka.