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Book Cover Help
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Alternate cover editions... but which one is the alternate?
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What do you mean, where do you put the images?
I mean... should I create alternate editions and put the older covers on them, or do the books on my 2007 shelf have the newer covers on them incorrectly? Should THEY get the older covers, and create alternate editions for the newer covers? To be honest, I have no idea how to even tell the difference.(oh yeah... thanks for answering.)
When I do an image search for that ISBN 0007120982, I also come up with this:
So I'm guessing at some point that image was in one of those book records, and it got overwritten, which is why an alternate cover edition has the same cover as the original ISBN.
Eggzackly! That's the one I have, so for this particular one, that would be the solution. What about the other thirteen or fourteen?
As far as I know, there is no formal policy. But I tend to assign the "original" cover to the record with the ISBN, and create alternate cover editions for any newer covers.
Andy wrote: "I mean... should I create alternate editions and put the older covers on them, or do the books on my 2007 shelf have the newer covers on them incorrectly? Should THEY get the older covers, and crea..."Generally, whatever cover is on the ISBN before you got there is the original, and if you want to upload a different cover, you are the alternate. Even if your publication date is earlier than the other one. "Alternate cover edition" doesn't imply any chronology, except that the person who creates it got there after someone else, or after the original import.
(I DO have a tendency to... overreact? to this sort of thing, but I'd really like to do it, or MAKE it right. (It's this thing about having an illusion of control)):-s
Lobstergirl wrote: "Generally, whatever cover is on the ISBN before you got there is the original, and if you want to upload a different cover, you are the alternate...."I understand that, but how do I (we) know that the cover that is there NOW is the one that was there when the record was created?
The reason it's not acceptable to switch covers willy-nilly - making an older cover the "original," and a later cover the "alternate" - is that many people shelve by cover, and they don't like to see the covers on their shelves suddenly changing.
We're cross-posting, which is why this conversation doesn't entirely make sense....If the cover is sourced to Ingram, most likely that cover is not the one there when the original ISBN was imported.
Another example and then I'm done for the night.http://www.goodreads.com/book/edits/3...
It looks like the image has been changed four times??? Which one could be correct?
Trust me, luv, it's not just the cross-posting that's messing with what's left of my brain. ;-)
Thanks again, and good night.
Can't help you there, I've never understood how you're supposed to tell which image got uploaded, given that the newest one replaces all of them in the edition "history."
Lobstergirl wrote: "If the cover is sourced to Ingram, most likely that cover is not the one there when the original ISBN was imported."I've mentioned this several times in several places. I thought "user-supplied data", including covers was not supposed to be replaced by "externally sourced data". However, for some reason, onix and ingram seem to change existing user-supplied data constantly, despite, as Lobstergirl wrote: "The reason it's not acceptable to switch covers willy-nilly - making an older cover the "original," and a later cover the "alternate" - is that many people shelve by cover, and they don't like to see the covers on their shelves suddenly changing. "
Mod
Could have been replaced with higher-quality image each time, but likely at least one was an error or alternate-cover issue.
rivka wrote: "Andy wrote: "It looks like the image has been changed four times???"Could have been replaced with higher-quality image each time, but likely at least one was an error or alternate-cover issue."
Replacing an older image with an alternate-cover issue is an error as well, right? Shouldn't the alternate-cover issue have been placed in an alternate-cover edition?
Mod
rivka, I was talking to Paula a while back on a different thread and she said that if a book had been shelved by less than five people a "normal" librarian could delete it, but if more than five people had shelved it, it would require a "super" librarian. Where can one see the count? Maybe I could get in touch with some of these people and see which cover was which? Is there an easier way to tell?
Mod
So all I need to do is get in touch with the 6244 people who rated the second edition and see which cover they had... Sorry, but I think I'll pass. ;-)Do I just setup a second alternate cover edition? I mean after I get my act together and actually scan some covers. :-s
I have images on my computer that I found from booksellers in Germany and Italy among others. If I understood the thread on valid covers correctly, those are NOT permitted. Is that correct?
Mod
ooooooo... If I get that scanner hooked up tonight, you'll be sorry... and surprised. ;-)I mean, I've only been talking about it since I joined. :-(
Mod
Hi. Since you probably didn't notice, I HAVE been adding some new scans. Of course, in SOME cases, I'm wondering if I screwed up. I saw that there was no cover on a book, so I uploaded mine. Then, I started to wonder. The description for some of the books isn't the same as what's on the back cover of the books I have. A case in point is Towards Zero. The cover on mine states:A tense MENAGE A QUATRE in a gracious English home... The "chance" demise of an elderly solicitor with a long memory... The violent death of a grand old lady.
Superintendant Battle knew one thing for certain: he was facing ZERO HOUR, the savage climax of a carefully plotted double-edged murder--the third and very final act in a deadly drama of burning hatred and ice-cold revenge!"
I know Pocket used the same ISBN through at least three different editions... So... do I add my image and change the description or create another alternate edition with my cover and my description? It looks like that description came from barnes noble, so...
(sigh) I know I think too much, but I think I'd rather do that than start a cascade of updates.
Thanks!
Mod
Adding covers where there were none is a good thing.
ok... but my question remains. ACTually, it goes one better. 1) add my cover and leave the description alone
2) add my cover and description
3) create a new edition with my cover and description
"The best description to enter is one found on the back cover or on the dust jacket of the book."
On a related note, the series Gonji.
1) Ted, the author, has added basically an author's note as the description. Would it be appropriate to leave that there, with the back cover text at the beginning of the description field?
2) What should the titles be? Gonji: Deathwind of Vedun? Gonji I:D of V? Just D of V?
3) In his description, Ted explains that the publisher changed the name for all but one of the books. Is HIS title the "original title" or should that be the title as originally published? (I checked the Librarian Manual, but it wasn't mentioned)
As always, thanks for your help.
As for your first question, if the ISBN you have doesn't have a cover, upload the cover to it. If it does, time for a new edition. If the ISBN doesn't have a description, upload the description. If it does, technically you can change it to your specific edition (but be mindful of the "default description" button; ticking it will get the other description completely wiped away from all editions). I would, however, check to see where the current description came from; if it's an import, I see no reason not to change it to what's on the back cover of the book. If it's from a librarian, you might want to give it a bit of consideration; if they have a reprint and typed up a description based on the back of their cover, they probably won't be too thrilled to see you've replaced it.As for the Gonji series, don't take my opinion as an official opinion by any means, but I don't think it's appropriate for a book's description to be a pseudo-memo from the author. I would replace it with what's on the back of the book.
On the subject of the title, "proper" format is Deathwind of Vedun (Gonji, #1).
As for "original title" field, that should be the original title as published, not as planned.
Andy wrote: "The best description to enter is one found on the back cover or on the dust jacket of the book."Humph. I've read jacket blurbs that read like the copywriter has either read an entirely different novel or only seen the movie but at least if you use the jacket blurb you are using an "official" piece of writing. I usually include "From the jacket blurb" as a pointer.
Amara wrote: "...On the subject of the title, "proper" format is Deathwind of Vedun (Gonji, #1)...."I'm pretty sure that was the way titles were supposed to be entered before we had Series. I don't know if we're supposed to take them out yet or not, but since each of these books says "GONJI" in all CAPS and then the "title" in smaller print, I thought it should be included as part of the title. (shrugs)
Banjomike wrote: "Humph. I've read jacket blurbs that read like the copywriter has either read an entir..."(grins)
Trust me, I know whatcha mean. To prove my point, I offer any of the Fu Manchu series. "This is the first book... This is the second book... etc..." I usually think of descriptions like that as a starting point.
Andy wrote: "I'm pretty sure that was the way titles were supposed to be entered before we had Series."In theory, series were supposed to remove the need to shove the series info in the title space, they didn't completely, as there are still places (such as shelves) were the series information won't show up unless you still use the "[Title] ([Series Title], #)" format.
But it's not terribly important if you don't want to do it that way; it's just that if someone comes along and wants to "correct" it, they certainly can since "[Title] ([Series Title], #)" is still the suggested way to do it.
(sigh)Hey people, it's me again. :-|
I recently received the book Evil Under the Sun ... I'd thought it was this one because the ISBNs match: Evil Under the Sun.
But the cover, publisher, pages, published date and description all match THIS one:
Evil Under the Sun, alternate edition of: Evil Under the Sun.
If I'm reading the change log for the first book correctly, nearly all the information was changed by an ingram import.
So... Do I just take it over and make a duplicate of the blue cover except for the ISBN, or leave it alone and create an alternate edition?
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Books mentioned in this topic
Evil Under the Sun (other topics)Evil Under the Sun (other topics)
Evil Under the Sun (other topics)
Towards Zero (other topics)
The problem is that the second shelf has books with a copyright date of 2002. The FIRST shelf has books with a copyright of... 2002. The difference I see (based on the two books I have) is that on the back of the cover, in little tiny print is the text that the COVER is copyright 2007.
OK. That's the background; here's the question. Although this book is clearly an alternate cover edition of THIS ONE (from the description AND the GR book ID number) they have the same cover. :-( If I'm reading the change log correctly, the cover was replaced by "ingram".
So when I scan the older books that I have... where do I put the images? I'm confused enough by the efforts to buy the damn books. Somebody PLEASE help me out here. :-(