Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

Hi all--new librarian question here.

This book is in the GR database: Emerson's Essays, both series First Series and Second Series.

This one I just bought for my Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004...

As far as I can tell, the two are identical except that the ASIN is different on the Amazon website from the GR database.

Should I add another "edition" with the additional ASIN? Just ignore the ASIN and add the current GR edition to my shelf? Replace the old ASIN with the new? Or is that old ASIN still floating around out there somewhere?

Guess I'm really not clear what kind of standards are involved with ASINs.....

Thanks for whatever insight y'all can provide!

Sounds like a new edition. The easiest thing to do would be enter the ASIN for the new edition you have into the search bar. That should trigger the import from Amazon...then you can tweak it, if needed, with correct pages, cover image, etc...much easier than doing a manual add from scratch. :)

Don't forget to "combine" it with the other editions...or if that makes you nervous (I wouldn't do them when I was new...I was scared)...list the asin here, and someone will combine it for you.

And welcome!

Thanks, Beth!

I tried entering the ASIN (B004L9L3YS) into the search bar, but got no hits. So I tried using the "import" feature with the Amazon product info page (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004... it found 15 books but none were importable.

Is it safe to just go ahead and manually enter the new "edition" with the new ASIN?

Should be okay to do that. :)

Groovy. Will do. I'll try not to crash the database. ;-)

lol...I assure you, if I've not done it, it can't be done.

Um, well, crap.

I went to the "More Editions" page (http://www.goodreads.com/work/edition...) and clicked "add a new edition," and I seem to have changed the details of the "main" page rather than just adding the Kindle edition--at least, that "in the GR database" link I included in my very first post on this thread now points to the edition I just entered.

Or is that the way it works--the most recent edition is the "default" for the title? Or... something?

You didn't change the main one, unless you *replaced* the isbn with the asin. If you had a blank space and put in the asin, then you're good.

The one that comes up with a search is the most popular version, so it's possible that it's pulling up your new one...unusual, but not out of the question.

As the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy says, "DON'T PANIC." :)

:: breathes deeply ::

Thanks, Beth. :-)

If this is an ASIN only book- no ISBN- should David add a Librarian "Don't delete" note so no one deletes it thinking it's part of the "bad" import?

I know...scary, isn't it? The good news is that most mistakes self correct...if there's an isbn out there on amazon, you delete it, it will reimport. Whether you want it to or not. :)

That's not to say you want to be all willy-nilly, though, lest someone misunderstand. :)

Shay, it shouldn't be a problem...it's a kindle edition...so it shouldn't be confused...kindle asin's are valid. :)

If it says "Kindle" for edition, it won't get deleted.

And David, new editions don't automatically get combined with the others -- you have to do so manually.

Cool. Thanks, Rivka. I was just concerned when the original link seemed to "redirect" to the new edition I'd just created. But Beth calmed me down. ;-)