This may be a bit late in the conversation, but I asked a friend of mine, who works in publications, about ISBN’s.  His reply doesn’t answer the “descriptive” part of Linda’s question, but at least gives a general answer.  It’s the same book on the inside…

 

-patty

 

 

Hey Patty,

Every different format of  the same book has a separate ISBN.  So a hardcover, softcover and e-book of the same text will give you three completely different ISBN's, but the actual text will be 100% the same. 

Of course, if the book is a different format and a different edition, it will of course have differences.  But usually, those are marked by "new edition", "2nd edition" or "revised edition". 

Hope that helps!

Joe

Hey there Joe J

 

You’re my resident ISBN expert…can you break down what the different ISBNs kind of mean/are for?

 

-patty

 

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Hi All,

 

In my quest to replace my spiral-bound 8th Edition of The Gregg Reference Manual, I reached out to all of you regarding its ISBN.  Interestingly, both Marylyn Calabrese and Reva Daniel replied with two different ISBNs for supposedly the same book.  When I asked Reva about those, she discovered that Marylyn's is a "spiral trade edition" while hers represents a "spiral bound text edition."

 

Would any of you know what those descriptive differences mean?  And for those of you ordering any kind of books who may not be aware of this, different ISBNs exist for similar publications.

 

Confusing and interesting!  Thanks again for all your assistance and sympathy.

 

Linda