Goodreads is a shill for Amazon

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by bcholfin

That is basically the case. The ISBN exists so that the retailer can order the correct product from the publisher.

Exactly!

Which only really applies to paper, physical books. Ebooks and PDFs are "pushed" by the publisher, or whoever, to the online store. The Online retailer doesn't need or use the ISBN for an ebook, because they never order them.

[JSWolf]

The ISBN is how you identify the ePub or PDF. The ASIN is how you identify the Kindle edition. So you don't use the ISBN for the Kindle edition because then you cannot use the ISBN to identify the ePub (aka eBook) edition.

On Goodreads, there is no correct eBook edition and their cannot be unless the ISBN is removed from the incorrect ebook edition. The ebook edition should have an ISBN and not an ASIN. The Kindle edition gets an asin and does not have an ISBN.

So the problem is that there is no actual ebook edition and cannot be one. I don't see the staff at Goodreads fixing the ebook edition and making it a kindle edition and then making a proper ebook edition. They will see the ebook edition and say there is nothing wrong with it.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The ISBN is how you identify the ePub or PDF. The ASIN is how you identify the Kindle edition. So you don't use the ISBN for the Kindle edition because then you cannot use the ISBN to identify the ePub (aka eBook) edition.

On Goodreads, there is no correct eBook edition and their cannot be unless the ISBN is removed from the incorrect ebook edition. The ebook edition should have an ISBN and not an ASIN. The Kindle edition gets an asin and does not have an ISBN.

So the problem is that there is no actual ebook edition and cannot be one. I don't see the staff at Goodreads fixing the ebook edition and making it a kindle edition and then making a proper ebook edition. They will see the ebook edition and say there is nothing wrong with it.

They will say there is nothing wrong with it because there isn't. I believe you are the *only* person who thinks that there is (not counting the people who think that no e-book should have an ISBN...they are a separate issue)

If the ebook has an ISBN assigned to it, then it should be used, no matter where it is sold from. UNLESS...are you by any chance saying that the ISBN for the Kindle e-book is different from the ISBN for, say, the Kobo e-book? If so, I'm pretty sure that's a completely different issue.

Even if the Kindle book and the Kobo book have different ISBNs, that still doesn't mean that the Kindle book should be listed only by it's ASIN--if there is an ISBN attached to the edition, it should be used.

Contrary to your slightly strange beliefs, Kindle books actually *are* electronic books (e-books). I have no idea why you would think that they aren't.

Shari

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by shalym

They will say there is nothing wrong with it because there isn't. I believe you are the *only* person who thinks that there is (not counting the people who think that no e-book should have an ISBN...they are a separate issue)

If the ebook has an ISBN assigned to it, then it should be used, no matter where it is sold from. UNLESS...are you by any chance saying that the ISBN for the Kindle e-book is different from the ISBN for, say, the Kobo e-book? If so, I'm pretty sure that's a completely different issue.

Even if the Kindle book and the Kobo book have different ISBNs, that still doesn't mean that the Kindle book should be listed only by it's ASIN--if there is an ISBN attached to the edition, it should be used.

Contrary to your slightly strange beliefs, Kindle books actually *are* electronic books (e-books). I have no idea why you would think that they aren't.

Shari

I'm saying that what identifies Kindle eBooks is the ASIN. What identifies ePub eBooks is the ISBN. You can't use the ISBN for a Kindle edition because then you can't use the ISBN for the ePub. The ISBN can only be used once.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I'm saying that what identifies Kindle eBooks is the ASIN. What identifies ePub eBooks is the ISBN. You can't use the ISBN for a Kindle edition because then you can't use the ISBN for the ePub. The ISBN can only be used once.

They are not the same edition. 2 ISBN are needed. What you are mistaking is there is no NEED for an AMAZON EXCLUSIVE, since the only dealer IS the big A...

[DiapDealer]

Every single product sold on Amazon has an ASIN. It's not an ebook thing.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Every single product sold on Amazon has an ASIN. It's not an ebook thing.

On Goodreads, Kindle eBooks use ASIN and ePub uses ISBN. No eBook listing should use both.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

No eBook listing should use both.

You keep saying that, but I still don't know why you think it's true--or care for that matter. Are you having trouble locating ebooks? Or is this some misguided "but what about all the morons out there" campaign?

I'm offended that the epubs on Goodreads (please lets let camel casing just die it's inevitable death already) don't use the proprietary catalog identifiers of the retail stores that are selling them instead of the publisher's ISBN. How do you like those silly apples?

ISBNs and ASINs are utterly irrelevant to my ebook searching | buying | getting | reading practices. I don't notice or care about them in the least. I'm pretty sure I'm not in the minority there.

[maddz]

[Shrugs]. If you care about the correct data, why are you using Goodreads in the first place? I use ISBN in my book management because my catalogue is held in LibraryThing. I prefer it to Goodreads because I care about correct data and it's easy to make sure my entries are correct. Goodreads doesn't care about good data.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by maddz

[Shrugs]. If you care about the correct data, why are you using Goodreads in the first place? I use ISBN in my book management because my catalogue is held in LibraryThing. I prefer it to Goodreads because I care about correct data and it's easy to make sure my entries are correct. Goodreads doesn't care about good data.

I did try LibraryThing and I had to give up on it. There was a mistake where the book I was trying to add ended up being a different book. I did tell the staff and nothing was done. So the book I was reading could not correctly be entered into my library.

[maddz]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I did try LibraryThing and I had to give up on it. There was a mistake where the book I was trying to add ended up being a different book. I did tell the staff and nothing was done. So the book I was reading could not correctly be entered into my library.

Probably a bad combination. You could have asked for help on the forum or separated the two works yourself. Note that LT does not have an edition layer: there's the overall work record and within that your specific book.

Besides, I'm not surprised the staff did nothing; it's a small company, and most of the data maintenance is done by users. Staff build new features and fix bugs not bad data.

If you want to give it another go, PM me with your details on LT and I'll help out.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by maddz

Probably a bad combination. You could have asked for help on the forum or separated the two works yourself. Note that LT does not have an edition layer: there's the overall work record and within that your specific book.

Besides, I'm not surprised the staff did nothing; it's a small company, and most of the data maintenance is done by users. Staff build new features and fix bugs not bad data.

If you want to give it another go, PM me with your details on LT and I'll help out.

Are you staff on LT? If you are, I might give it another go.

[bcholfin]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Exactly!

Which only really applies to paper, physical books. Ebooks and PDFs are "pushed" by the publisher, or whoever, to the online store. The Online retailer doesn't need or use the ISBN for an ebook, because they never order them.

That's not precisely the case. Our files go to a distribution service--a kind of CDN for the retailers--and they manage the accounting for the sales reported by the vendors. I think you can guess what number they use to track accounts for each title! That is why, from our perspective, it doesn't really matter who the retailer is, or whether they put a wrapper on the file, or whatever. The sales all go against the same ledger entry.

[maddz]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Are you staff on LT? If you are, I might give it another go.

No, I'm not. But I'm coming up to 15 years on LT now, and I have over 18K individual titles logged there. I won't say I'm completely au fait with the entire site (I'm not a library professional), but I'm reasonably familiar with the idiosyncrasies of the site.

You have to remember the staff maintain the infrastructure; users maintain the data. There's less than 20 staff...