Question: I am guilty of adding a kindle book with an ISBN recently. In my defense, the actual kindle book showed an ISBN in the book, rather than an ASIN, and Booklikes did this stupid thing again where I couldn't add the book with an ASIN because an error message told me the book already existed even tho it showed no results when searching by ASIN, ISBN, or other criteria.
Just add it with the ISBN and call it an ebook - unless you're particular about your kindles having ASINs? If so, (and I understand completely) I'd say leave it blank, but put the ASIN number in the source field. I. hate. this. bug.
And you if you're guilty of it, rest assured you are NOT alone by a long shot. It's the single most common error made (aside from people who can't be bothered including (or can't for legit reasons) any ID number, but that's not an error really). :)
Oh, ok. No problem. I don't particularly mind calling a kindle version an ebook, and that sounds like a good work-around - now I only need to remember the next time. ;)
Thanks for putting up with all the frustrations that arise out of the librarian work. :)
Usually the ISBN listed on the copyright page is for a paperback or hardcover, though (yes, even in an ebook). We shouldn't be adding paperback ISBNs and calling them ebooks!
Usually the separate ebook ISBN will be listed as e-ISBN and if the same ISBN is used for a Kindle edition, you can actually search using the ISBN on Amazon and the Kindle edition will pop up (even though it won't list the ISBN anywhere on the page). Sometimes the publisher will use a different ISBN for the Kindle edition, however. Also, searching for the ISBN on BL will pull the record from Amazon if the same ISBN is used for the Kindle edition.
But I'm all for listing ebooks with ISBNs as ebooks since that's usually the copy I'm reading anyway. It irks me to have to add the "Kindle edition" to my shelf.
Ok, I should probably add that if you're talking about the copyright page as it would appear in a physical book, i.e. at the start of the book, it'll probably list a physical book's ISBN unless noted otherwise. If you're talking about the copyright page near the end of an ebook, it should be correct ISBN.
For clarity, it was an e-ISBN. It would not occur to me (EVER!) to add a p/b or h/b ISBN and call it an ebook. I am aware that they are not the same thing.
I didn't mean to imply that I doubted you, I just wanted to distinguish between some of the paper ISBNs that can be found in ebooks and the actual e-ISBNs. Because I mistakenly used the wrong one a few times before I figured it out when I first started reading ebooks...
Yes, it used to be very confusing and I think was a relic from when ebooks were a novelty, so they didn't issue seperate ISBNs. Now though, ebooks (from mainstream pub anyway) all have their own and are generally listed on the copyright page in the front. I've seen them alone or in a list, i.e.
hardcover isbn: xxx
paperback isbn: xxx
ebook: xxx
But definitely - please don't use the printed isbn for the ebook. Thanks to both of you for clarifying what I didn't. :D
In my experience, they do issue separate ISBNs but that page that is normally found at the beginning on a book isn't updated with the information (or they only started doing it very recently). My comment was pointing out that it can be confusing because sometimes it looks like the paperback ISBN is the one for the ebook when it definitely isn't.
Thanks again for all the efforts. The ASIN is getting so frustrating! There are kindle exclusives and I know that the ASIN is easiest to pinpoint the book search on Amazon -- but the bugs and issues with them on booklikes are so persistent.
I'm pulling an ostrich on the Kindle exclusives and the self-pubbed. They're legitimate stumbling blocks, but I have no answers or work around suggestions for them. But if we all use ISBNs instead of Kindle ASINs when we can, maybe at least the mess will be smaller IF they ever fix the bug.
I'm new here, but I noticed the issue, so I'm getting around it rather weirdly by adding "Kindle" to my tags if I own the book in anything not physically known as a book. If it's just a doc, I make a personal note about that. It's not a great system, and the covers are sometimes different, but this way I can go to my "Kindle" shelf & see what should be in that thing. Now, can someone convince Amazon to change their ways and tell me if I own a hard copy of something rather than assuming I love buying a kindle copy of the book I just bought???
PS - In my new effort to be more organized -- see above -- I found a hard/time-consuming way to get the ISBN from Amazon. Find it on the web & click on the hardback copy or the paperback. Both will have the ISBN. It's a huge pain, but they do list ISBNs, and they know it. grr @ Amazon
Oddly, I am finding if I add a missing ebook with its ISBN that booklikes fills in the ASIN as if I were adding a kindle edition (but good grief don't ever try to add the kindle edition with ASIN or edit the editions that show an ASIN).
The hardcover and paperback will have different ISBNs than the ebook, however. You can usually find the e-ISBN on the publisher site or another bookseller site that sells epubs.
ahh, OK, well then my stupidly difficult and time-consuming method won't work for booklikes. BTW - when we add a cover to a book that doesn't have one, I didn't see anywhere to add the source. It just took the cover & that was that. Perhaps I should leave everything alone until I get a clue or more.
Well you can always add the hardcover or the paperback to your shelf instead of the ebook version. We just don't want to add a ISBN for a paper copy and call it an ebook because that would be confusing for the people who actually read the paper one.
MbD was referring to needing sources for changing an existing cover. If it's a blank green cover you don't need a source.
@"so it goes." - You only need a source for replacing covers; adding where one didn't exist doesn't need a source specified. Optionally, you can edit the book instead of adding cover, select an image file there and fill in the source if wanted (and sometimes the source is "book in hand" rather than a URL particularly if out of print).
I'm also in the habit of shelving/tagging things like "format kindle" "format library ebook" etc. -- partly because my poor book catalog has been thru various sites with different support for kindle editions, formats, bindings, what tagging/shelving/key-wording/library/catalog terminology/fields got used ...
Technically, there's no such thing as an e-ISBN. It does show that terminology on copyright page of some ebooks, particularly if self-published -- but it's not a real thing.
Self-publishing creating multiple new editions and traditional publishers reissuing backlist titles can be really awful about forgetting or failing to edit the ISBN on copyright page to replace the hard copy ISBN with the ebook ISBN. I suspect that's why some started specifying the made-up "e-ISBN" designation to keep their edits straight.
Amazon did not always let you search by the ebook ISBN. I think it's been less than a year since that started working. But, the ebook ISBN does work now on Amazon (and will work for booklikes now-only-Amazon-no-more-nook-and-kobo-etc. purchase links to help support booklikes) where the ASIN of kindle editions is probably less important. Except for folk like me who are picky partly because I imported data with thousands of ASIN editions. I get irritated seeing marketplace seller items with marketplace ASIN for hard copies -- ASIN are for kindle and audible editions -- where those books are missing the real ISBNs or failing to merge to correct ISBN.
By "e-ISBN" I was just using the terminology that I've seen to describe an ISBN for an ebook. It's still just an ISBN, and I don't really read self-published stuff so I was speaking from a traditional publishing standpoint.. Even "big" publishers usually don't edit the ISBN on the copyright page at the beginning.
@So it goes...: I like the Kindle tag/shelf idea, I'll bet it is easier to browse that than the kindle (just going by the kindle app, which I hate).
As Tannat (I think) said, if it's a green missing cover, you can just add cover without stressing about source. It's only when someone says "that's not the right cover" that a source is needed, for various reasons: some readers just want the book on their shelves to match visually and don't pay attention to edition info; some readers just like other covers more than the 'official' one; some readers do have a different cover for the same edition (re-prints with different covers are common) - in this case, having the source helps us identify when we need to create an alternate cover edition.
When you search BookLikes using the ISBN, BookLikes imports the record (if it wasn't already here) from Amazon; this is why ebooks come in as "Kindle Editions" and have both an ISBN and an ASIN. This drives the librarians CRAZY and until this bug started up, we separated them out. Now, we can't, because as soon as we try to save most records published in '17 and '18 with an ASIN it'll kick it back. So when this happens, I've just been removing the ASIN and changing it to an ebook. It's the only way we can make changes to the record.
Almost all mainstream publishers have the specific edition ISBNs on their websites (there's one smaller one that doesn't, whose name is not coming to mind; luckily I don't come across their stuff much). Audiobooks can be a bit more challenging, but audio publishers are getting better at displaying the ISBNs of their stuff too.
I might dig through some copyright pages of ebooks I have and post some examples later - I just got called into work unexpectedly today, but I shouldn't be there long and I should be able to do some research and come up with some suggestions for easiest way to find ISBNs.
But most of all - THANK YOU for caring to get it right. It's people like all of you that make the BookLikes database better and better. :D
Thanks everyone. Just to make ease thoughts, I have only ever done one thing to a book -- add one cover to a as-yet-unpublished book. I'm too much of a worrier to mess w/ the system until I learn more.
Thinking about this booklikes ASIN/ISBN/eBook-ISBN issue made me think about the regular library & borrowing eBooks: It's hard sometimes to find an eBook even when I know the library owns it, and I wonder if it's the ISBN issue there too. They don't worry about ASINs, but there is clearly a glitch in the MD digital library system - which houses many libraries including many university & med schools including Johns Hopkins library as well as the National Institutes for Health library, Enoch Pratt system & the various other huge county systems. Often it's easier to get to the audio book page, then look for the "there is also an eBook version of this" link. I now wonder if it's because of this same ISBN issue w/ eBooks? Things that make me go Hmmm.
@MbD --You're correct that the Kindle app is bad for finding books you have. And God forbid you want to re-open a book to look at something again, it decides you've not read it, etc. Even the actual Kindle is difficult to keep track of books. When sorted, it invariably screws up somehow. I spaz out thinking "I know I had this book" and end up using search. It's easier to search Amazon Orders on the website than the Kindle. The worst part is that Amazon refuses to allow that owning one version of a book--Kindle/PB/HB-- is similar in any way to owning that same book in another format, so I'm guilty of having bought the same book in both hard copy & Kindle more than once.
When new to booklikes, many imported data backed up from other book sites which generally worked well except for tons of missing book covers. I still don't have my own shelves in order 4+ years later with missing covers and some goofy ASIN entries.
We really whined a lot until got an easy way to add missing covers. Weren't nearly as appreciative of the issues-addressed-and/or-desired-new-features-added Thursdays as we should have been.
What do recommend in that circumstance?
And you if you're guilty of it, rest assured you are NOT alone by a long shot. It's the single most common error made (aside from people who can't be bothered including (or can't for legit reasons) any ID number, but that's not an error really). :)
Thanks for putting up with all the frustrations that arise out of the librarian work. :)
Usually the separate ebook ISBN will be listed as e-ISBN and if the same ISBN is used for a Kindle edition, you can actually search using the ISBN on Amazon and the Kindle edition will pop up (even though it won't list the ISBN anywhere on the page). Sometimes the publisher will use a different ISBN for the Kindle edition, however. Also, searching for the ISBN on BL will pull the record from Amazon if the same ISBN is used for the Kindle edition.
But I'm all for listing ebooks with ISBNs as ebooks since that's usually the copy I'm reading anyway. It irks me to have to add the "Kindle edition" to my shelf.
hardcover isbn: xxx
paperback isbn: xxx
ebook: xxx
But definitely - please don't use the printed isbn for the ebook. Thanks to both of you for clarifying what I didn't. :D
PS - In my new effort to be more organized -- see above -- I found a hard/time-consuming way to get the ISBN from Amazon. Find it on the web & click on the hardback copy or the paperback. Both will have the ISBN. It's a huge pain, but they do list ISBNs, and they know it. grr @ Amazon
MbD was referring to needing sources for changing an existing cover. If it's a blank green cover you don't need a source.
I'm also in the habit of shelving/tagging things like "format kindle" "format library ebook" etc. -- partly because my poor book catalog has been thru various sites with different support for kindle editions, formats, bindings, what tagging/shelving/key-wording/library/catalog terminology/fields got used ...
Technically, there's no such thing as an e-ISBN. It does show that terminology on copyright page of some ebooks, particularly if self-published -- but it's not a real thing.
Self-publishing creating multiple new editions and traditional publishers reissuing backlist titles can be really awful about forgetting or failing to edit the ISBN on copyright page to replace the hard copy ISBN with the ebook ISBN. I suspect that's why some started specifying the made-up "e-ISBN" designation to keep their edits straight.
Amazon did not always let you search by the ebook ISBN. I think it's been less than a year since that started working. But, the ebook ISBN does work now on Amazon (and will work for booklikes now-only-Amazon-no-more-nook-and-kobo-etc. purchase links to help support booklikes) where the ASIN of kindle editions is probably less important. Except for folk like me who are picky partly because I imported data with thousands of ASIN editions. I get irritated seeing marketplace seller items with marketplace ASIN for hard copies -- ASIN are for kindle and audible editions -- where those books are missing the real ISBNs or failing to merge to correct ISBN.
As Tannat (I think) said, if it's a green missing cover, you can just add cover without stressing about source. It's only when someone says "that's not the right cover" that a source is needed, for various reasons: some readers just want the book on their shelves to match visually and don't pay attention to edition info; some readers just like other covers more than the 'official' one; some readers do have a different cover for the same edition (re-prints with different covers are common) - in this case, having the source helps us identify when we need to create an alternate cover edition.
When you search BookLikes using the ISBN, BookLikes imports the record (if it wasn't already here) from Amazon; this is why ebooks come in as "Kindle Editions" and have both an ISBN and an ASIN. This drives the librarians CRAZY and until this bug started up, we separated them out. Now, we can't, because as soon as we try to save most records published in '17 and '18 with an ASIN it'll kick it back. So when this happens, I've just been removing the ASIN and changing it to an ebook. It's the only way we can make changes to the record.
Almost all mainstream publishers have the specific edition ISBNs on their websites (there's one smaller one that doesn't, whose name is not coming to mind; luckily I don't come across their stuff much). Audiobooks can be a bit more challenging, but audio publishers are getting better at displaying the ISBNs of their stuff too.
I might dig through some copyright pages of ebooks I have and post some examples later - I just got called into work unexpectedly today, but I shouldn't be there long and I should be able to do some research and come up with some suggestions for easiest way to find ISBNs.
But most of all - THANK YOU for caring to get it right. It's people like all of you that make the BookLikes database better and better. :D
Thinking about this booklikes ASIN/ISBN/eBook-ISBN issue made me think about the regular library & borrowing eBooks: It's hard sometimes to find an eBook even when I know the library owns it, and I wonder if it's the ISBN issue there too. They don't worry about ASINs, but there is clearly a glitch in the MD digital library system - which houses many libraries including many university & med schools including Johns Hopkins library as well as the National Institutes for Health library, Enoch Pratt system & the various other huge county systems. Often it's easier to get to the audio book page, then look for the "there is also an eBook version of this" link. I now wonder if it's because of this same ISBN issue w/ eBooks? Things that make me go Hmmm.
@MbD --You're correct that the Kindle app is bad for finding books you have. And God forbid you want to re-open a book to look at something again, it decides you've not read it, etc. Even the actual Kindle is difficult to keep track of books. When sorted, it invariably screws up somehow. I spaz out thinking "I know I had this book" and end up using search. It's easier to search Amazon Orders on the website than the Kindle. The worst part is that Amazon refuses to allow that owning one version of a book--Kindle/PB/HB-- is similar in any way to owning that same book in another format, so I'm guilty of having bought the same book in both hard copy & Kindle more than once.
We really whined a lot until got an easy way to add missing covers. Weren't nearly as appreciative of the issues-addressed-and/or-desired-new-features-added Thursdays as we should have been.