I have a book that I was going to enter and the ISBN on the back of the book looks up a completely different book from the same publisher.

I googled around for my title and found it various places with an ISBN. I found a Boxtree number one place for a different edition and that looks up here with the same author, a similar title, but a different publisher.

Should I add it as a new book? Do I put the bad ISBN?

I would just list it under No ISBN#.

When you enter the isbn if the title, author and type (hardback, paperback) don't match your book exactly, then you can't post it using that isbn.  You would need to post it as if it doesn't have an isbn at all...This takes a little more time, but your book is then in the system correctly.  :-)

You also might want to send that information to one of the BD people and/or use the Edit Book Data link at the bottom of the page.  Perhaps that would help fix the wrong book in the system.

As I have just gone through the ISBNs of just about every book in my personal library today, I would suggest comparing the one on the back of the book with the one on the inside of the book.  I found one today that forgot to put two of the numbers on the back, and another that had the completely wrong ISBN on the back.  Both times, the correct ISBNs were in the front on the copyright page.

Hope this helps.

Dawn

Hi Tommy--

Unfortunately, it isn't unheard of for publishers to "recycle" ISBNs by assigning the same one to more than one title, so it is possible that both your book and the "wrong" one are listed under the same ISBN.  Per the Help Center:

"Problem: the ISBN brings up a Listing Preview showing a totally different book than the one you have:

Explanation: This happens when publishers assign ISBNs to more than one title. 

    On PBS, only one book listing can be attached to each ISBN. The one you are seeing on the listing preview is the one attached to that ISBN at PBS.

Solution: You will need to post this book with a customized listing for the book, using the Post Books without an ISBN link on the Post Books page."

So, as others have already stated, post it as a book without an ISBN.  You can edit the book record if some of the details are wrong (i.e. wrong author), but not if it is an entirely different book.  If you'd like someone to double check the ISBN and title, feel free to post the ISBN here or PM me and I'll take a look and edit the record if necessary. 

Cheers,

Catt

Tommy, this happened to me, and since I wasn't in a rush to post the book I submitted my information the edit book data link and waited to see if the edit would be approved.  Ultimately it was, and then I posted my book under its ISBN.  This would NOT work if it truly was a case of two books with the same ISBN (then the system uses the first book that was entered under that ISBN), but in my case I suspected it was just a mistake, and it turns out it was!