Books Titles Changing on Amazon
 

Has anyone noticed on Amazon that ebooks titles (and covers) get changed, to fool you into buying the same book twice?

Its happening more and more.:angry:

You cannot buy the same book twice from amazon. When you try to buy a book you've already bought, you are unable to buy it again. Covers get changed all the time. That's nothing new.

If the ASIN changes, it's possible to buy the same book again.

Why would the ASIN change for the same book?

Yes you can I have done it 2 or 3 times
Different cover and different title Same book.

Because it is not exactly the same book. The old book would still be there, maybe no longer available for purchase. You cannot change the ASIN, but you can republish the book again with a different cover and title. Amazon would assign a new ASIN for it.

Does it happen to specific authors you like, or genres? Can you give some examples of specific books you purchased multiple times, please.

Open Road Media is notorious for this...re-publishing (for lack of a better word) their books with new ASIN so you don't know that you've bought them before. Jury is out on whether they do it deliberately or not, although it's hard for me to understand why else they would do it.

Some other publishers do it too, although most of the traditional big ones don't, or at least not much. Usually they do something like publish an "anniversary edition" or a "movie tie-in edition", but those sorts of editions should always be a signal to you to check carefully...

It also can happen if the publishing rights change - if the rights revert to the author, who puts out their own edition, if a small publishing house gets sold to a big one, etc.

Often it's obvious via a cover change, but not always, so it's always wise to check if you're not sure whether you've bought it before or not.

I would expect the ASIN to change when the publisher changes. But if there is a new cover and/or fixes, I would not expect it to be a different ASIN. I've seen plenty of ePub where there is a new cover and/or changes to the formatting and/or fixes and the ISBN has not changed.

An ASIN change I would expect is a new version such as an author's preferred text.

Some authors "reissue" books with new titles. I've run into this myself a few times. Off hand I can't think of any names, but did make a note to not support authors who do this.

One example was a typical light romance where the author chanced the location, made the characters Amish, and changed the name of the book. But the story was exactly the same.

Traditional publishing has had this happen in the past. An example is the works of Agatha Christie. In England her publisher's had one title for a given book and the U.S. publisher would have a different one (along with a different cover). "Murder in the Calais coach"(U.S) and "Murder on the Orient Express" (U.K.) is an example. It's the same book but with two different titles and covers due to there being two different publishers.

James Patterson Does that! Pi$$es me off! I keep thinking new book when its old book I already have :( You think as Rich as he is he would not stoop to trickery with his fans :(
Sample: Private Down Under aka Oz ....Private Oz aka Down Under [6th book of Private series]

Sometimes there will be a notice on the book's product page saying it was "previously released under the title *******"

It's fairly easy to miss.

Mine says Nothing. I found the information on Stop you're Killing Me
http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/P_...son_James.html
Looking at the page I see Another title change grrr

Same reason an ISBN changes. There was a change in the CONTENT.
ISBN identifies the RELEASE as well as a version (Just another printing does not change an ISBN. Look on the copyright page near the bottom (in paper books). 3456789 indicates 3rd printing. 89 indicates an orgy at the publisher :rofl: