Best practice for handling multiple variants of the same books?

[BaronKrause]

I'm curious what people generally consider the best practice for having multiple versions of a book.

Not just different formats of the same text, but actually different versions like maybe the book was re edited years later and/or different publisher, or it was a book that originated in another language and you have different translations of it (like a Japanese light novel that may of had a fan translation then years later they get official translations or was translated officially by different people/publishers years apart).

Their the same book name from the same series (if applicable) but even if all versions were different formats you still wouldn't want them as alternate file types in the same entry.

Do you just add them separately, with the same name/author/title/series and try to distinguish them with tags (like "Re Edited", "Fan Translation" etc)?

Do you try to avoid duplicate versions at all costs and split duolicates into different libraries if you still want to have access to them, keeping what you consider the best version in your main library?

Thanks!

[JSWolf]

If the book is a different version, there are two things to do.

1. Pick the one you want to read and delete the other.
2. Keep both but in separate entries. But make sure the name of the book is different. For example, American Gods: The Tenth Anniversary Edition. This one has more text then the original as this one is the author's preferred version as what was edited out originally was added back in. So you would know which was which by the title.

Personally, I'm for option 1.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If the book is a different version, there are two things to do.

1. Pick the one you want to read and delete the other.
2. Keep both but in separate entries. But make sure the name of the book is different. For example, American Gods: The Tenth Anniversary Edition. This one has more text then the original as this one is the author's preferred version as what was edited out originally was added back in. So you would know which was which by the title.

Personally, I'm for option 1.

Also option 1. I might save an earlier/different version to a folder on my hard drive created for this purpose (it isn't a part of any Calibre library), but not always.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by BaronKrause

I'm curious what people generally consider the best practice for having multiple versions of a book.

Not just different formats of the same text, but actually different versions like maybe the book was re edited years later and/or different publisher, or it was a book that originated in another language and you have different translations of it (like a Japanese light novel that may of had a fan translation then years later they get official translations or was translated officially by different people/publishers years apart).

Their the same book name from the same series (if applicable) but even if all versions were different formats you still wouldn't want them as alternate file types in the same entry.

Do you just add them separately, with the same name/author/title/series and try to distinguish them with tags (like "Re Edited", "Fan Translation" etc)?

Do you try to avoid duplicate versions at all costs and split duolicates into different libraries if you still want to have access to them, keeping what you consider the best version in your main library?

Thanks!

Not ideal, but this the best method I have found for different scripts of the 'same' movie - e.g. there have been 5 Star is Born productions:

I add them separately and associate them via a #links/Links custom column.

The links reference the folder of the other book(s) - i.e. <a ref="file:///D:/Calibre/Libraries/Media/blah-blah (nnnn)">Selznik 1937 production></a>. The link tool in the comments editor has a Browse button to facilitate creation of the links with a couple of clicks. When I click on a link in Book Details the other book's folder opens in the file manager.

I tried grouping them via a custom series column but I rejected that because there's no Similar Books->Books with the same <custom column> option. I also tried using the Reading List and Entities Manager plugins but I found them too cumbersome for this particular purpose.

BR

[ekbell]

I add them in separately and distinguish them by whatever it is that's different such as adding x(translator) or y(illustrator) to the authors field.

I'll see all copies when I pull up the book by title or tag so I don't feel a need to link copies. As long as I can clearly see why I have four copies of Beowulf in the author's field (four different translations/retellings) then I don't need to rename three of them.

[Horus68]

I also use this:
- Register translator and illustrator as authors
- Register the Published date.
- Fill a custom column for "Edition/Version" useful when they are the same book, from the same publisher, but for different editions (1st edition, 2nd edition...) .
- Fill a custom column for "language variant" as I have books in my language (Portuguese) but written for different countries (as in Portuguese-Portugal or Portuguese-Brazil) and also with different orthographic rules or variants for the same country.