Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

I am reading "To Your Scattered Bodies Go" by Philip Jose Farmer.The ISBN is 0-345-41967-7 with no ISBN13 and it is hardback. The dust jacket is missing so I'm not sure of the cover photo.

There is a book is the Goodreads database with this ISBN, but it also lists an ISBN13 and the format of the book is listed as "paperback". All other info listed for this edition matches the one I am reading.

Should someone correct the info for the listed edition?

There are listings on ABE books for both the 1971 Putnam hardcover and for the 1988 Del Rey paperback reprint.

The ISBN13 given matches the ISBN10, but probably isn't printed on the HC (since they weren't in use in 1971).

Both editions have the same cover art based on the bookseller images there. ABE is generally a very reliable source for book info, since most of the listings are from pro book handlers, and a lot of them show an actual product image.

I think this may be a case of a reused ISBN, where they just kept the ISBN from the hardcover when they printed it as a Trade Paperback.

Although the 1998 printing is not quite standard TPB size, it's substantially larger than a Mass Market Paperback, and TPB's are generally identical to the HC other than the actual binding and perhaps paper quality. In theory, they're not supposed to do that, and a new binding should get a new ISBN, but theory is all well and good and not always applied.

I'm not sure what the solution is, other than to add some kind of "alternative binding" edition which is identical other than the format field.

Paperback and hardcover sharing an ISBN is quite common in some countries and I believe not unheard of in the US as well. I don't know if we should had another edition as we don't have the cover.