Download Metadata problems with ISBN

siriusguy · 06-21-2018, 09:52 PM

When I search for metadata I don't always get a result. I've gone to Amazon, typed in the title and author and almost always get one. There do seem to be a few books that are Amazon-only and don't have ISBNs.

I wonder if the search takes the first type of book (Kindle, Paperback, Hard cover), etc. from Amazon. Because I do find that the metadata search will return the Amazon ID for the Kindle and the GoodReads ID but not the ISBN.

Are there any tricks for fine-tuning the ISBN search?

kovidgoyal · 06-21-2018, 10:18 PM

Searching by ISBN on amazon will only work if that particular isbn is avaialble on amazon. For amazon it is much better to use title/author. There are other metadata plugins that might work better with ISBN, though in general since ISBNs are edition and format specific, they are not a very good way to search for books.

06-21-2018, 09:52 PM	#1
siriusguy Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2018 Device: Kindle Voyager	Download Metadata problems with ISBN When I search for metadata I don't always get a result. I've gone to Amazon, typed in the title and author and almost always get one. There do seem to be a few books that are Amazon-only and don't have ISBNs. I wonder if the search takes the first type of book (Kindle, Paperback, Hard cover), etc. from Amazon. Because I do find that the metadata search will return the Amazon ID for the Kindle and the GoodReads ID but not the ISBN. Are there any tricks for fine-tuning the ISBN search?

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06-21-2018, 10:18 PM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,860 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Searching by ISBN on amazon will only work if that particular isbn is avaialble on amazon. For amazon it is much better to use title/author. There are other metadata plugins that might work better with ISBN, though in general since ISBNs are edition and format specific, they are not a very good way to search for books.

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