Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

Hi!

I recently stumbled upon an example which shows something really disturbing for Goodreads users: the same audiobook can have different ASIN numbers! :O :O This depends if you're searching for it on Audible.com or Amazon.com

Details:
I have recently read the book titled The Ghost Brigades, by John Scalzi. I purchased it from Audible.com with credits. After finishing it, I wanted to mark it as read on GR, so I looked at the details of all English Audible Audio editions of this book. No ASIN matched, so I created a new one. Then I remembered to search the same book on Amazon.com, as I had added it in the past to my Wish List. Selecting the Audiobook version resulted in a short message on the right sidebar saying that I already have this title in my library - so Amazon clearly sees my Audible stuff. Then I went to details, and saw a DIFFERENT (!!) ASIN number. I was shocked, let me tell you!

Is there anyone higher up the chain of command who can shed some light on this problem? I'd say this will result in millions of duplicate book entries, as people are adding a new edition of the same book just because they bought it from Amazon - or that their process of checking ASIN numbers relies on Amazon.com details page.

I was also in contact with Audible support, and they told me a book can have multiple ASINs. Like wtf? Isn't it a uniques identifier? Then why would it need more than 1? :D Having (at least) 2 of them would mean it's not unique anymore, and it doesn't really identify that book in a clear and obvious way..

I can provide the links, but please help me out :(
Audible link: https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Ghost-...
Audible ASIN: B002V9ZFSK

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/The-Ghost-Brig...
Amazon ASIN: B0015VEVU8

This is not a super-librarian issue, the questions folder is the right place

Why Amazon does this, we don't know, the only thing important here is how we handle them on Goodreads. And each Kindle or Audible edition with a different ASIN is a valid edition here (Which is something different from all those second hand editions with only an ASIN).

It can lead to several editions that look otherwise identical, but most of the time it is limited to just a few editions. Not every book is on all of their platforms. And not every version is automatically imported to here, part of them are only manually added if someone wants that specific edition listed.

I don't see the problem. There are examples of the same paperback edition with dozens of ISBNs. Why would two ASINs for the same audible be disturbing? We typically don't add the Audible one unless it was requested, but it does exist.
Having said that, as Renske said, this is not the place for this discussion.

You don't see a problem in the same book having 2 different "unique identifiers" - whether you check it on Audible or Amazon site? I even explained, that after buying it from one site, the other site is showing it as already owned by me. So it's literally the same book!!

Your example doesn't stand, as the same text can be printed with a different cover, or after some minor corrections - so it makes sense to have different ISBN code for different physical copies/books.

What I understood is that nobody knows, I can add each one of them (thank you Renske!) , and this is not the place to ask complicated questions. Have a nice day!

Edit: I moved the topic to the Questions part, so that it doesn't bother others..

I'm not sure what you expect us to do. If you want to know more about Amazon's decisions, you need to ask them, not us volunteers here.

Róbert wrote: "You don't see a problem in the same book having 2 different "unique identifiers" - whether you check it on Audible or Amazon site?"
That's where the mistake lies. ASIN isn’t a unique identifier for an edition; it uniquely identifies a record in the database. The same edition can, and often does, appear multiple times in the database. To clarify, I’m not referring to a different cover or minor corrections—it's the exact same edition.