I tried the Help Center, but I'm still confused.

I'm trying to post a hardback book.  When I enter the ISBN from the back cover 0739446797, it brings up the number on the bar code 9780739446799 and wants me to enter all the book information.

The ISBN from the inside page is 1555838588, which is for the paperback version.  I'll guess this hardback came out after the paperback.

What do I do?

Post as if there were no ISBN:

• When your book has no ISBN
• When your book's ISBN is unknown to the PBS database (has not yet been added by regular updates)
• When your book's ISBN "brings up" another booktype in the database
  • Such as the paperback if you have the hardcover, and vice versa
  • Such as Large Print when you have the regular-font version
  • This happens when the publisher assigns the same ISBN to multiple booktypes).

If your book does not match the listing information (title, author, booktype) in the database for the ISBN on the book, it must be Posted without an ISBN

• First, make sure to look over your book really well
  • Sometimes ISBN numbers can be found in unexpected places like the spine
  • The back of the book and in the publishing information in the front of the book are the most common places to find an ISBN.
• If your book has no ISBN (or the ISBN you have doesn't work in the system):
  • Go to the Post Books page
    • From My Account: click the Post Books tab
    • From anywhere on the site: place your cursor over My Account on the toolbar at the top of the site and click Post Books in the menu that drops down.
    • From your Bookshelf, click the link "Post Books" at the top of the page, in the yellow bar.
  • On the Post Books page:
    • Click the "Post a Book without an ISBN" link at the top of the page, in the yellow bar.
    • Enter the information about the book in the form that comes up:
      • Mandatory information includes: title, author, book dimensions, Subject (genre), booktype
      • Optional information includes: Large Print, Homeschool, Publisher, # pages, Back Cover Description (synopsis of the book content), Book Cover image.
      • Your Book Cover Image needs to be less than 5 MB in size, and in .jpg format.

I used the search feature and it doesn't look like this book is in the PBS system yet.....so I think it wants you to enter the book information so it can be added to the system.

I think you don't have a choice but to list the book as being without an ISBN and post it that way. http://www.paperbackswap.com/members/book_add_ninfo.php

Thanks, Charlie.  Sounds like the best plan since it definitely has an ISBN. 

You're amazing :)

No, you don't list it as if it doesn't have an ISBN, folks, sorry. It's a new ISBN that is IN the systm, but has not had all the information filled out yet. It wants you to give it all the extra goodies now. The number it is giving you on the info page is the 13 digit match for the 10 digit you are entering. I know I'm way too late, you already did it, but I'm sending you a PM, Diana.

Is this something new, Sherry?  I've not run across it, and don't recall reading anything about it in the forums or in the Help Center !?!

Anna, strangely enough, I've never read it either, but when you fill in the information for the book inyour hand, when you are all done the 10 & 13 are both showing. You know they aren't going to assign the 10 to a 13 that it doesnt belong to. I've probably had 3 or 4 of them come up. I never really thought too much about it. I went the first time somewhere else to double check that the number that was on the fill in the blank page is actually the 13 that goes with the book in hand, and it did. There's not a think in the forums or the Help Center, and I never really questioned why until now, I just entered my book.

Some how, some times, the only thing that gets into the database at the update is the ISBN number, and when you enter it, it opens up waiting for you to feed it!

Maybe our PBS team isn't aware of it either!!  hahaha  That's a great feature, though. 

I have a Ruth Rendell book that I'll have to post without an ISBN, if I decide to post it.  Apparently the publisher used sequential #s for the Canadian and the US issues.  I can find ISBN-10: 0770427146, and I have 0770427145(Canadian issue).  Everything about it looks the same - the cover, the blurb on the back, and of course the Publisher - it's very tempting to just list it under the US #, but that just dumps the problem on someone else... maybe I'll just send it to my sister and she can pass it on to her friends!

Anna -- 0770427145 is not a valid ISBN at all. In an ISBN, only the first 9 digits are meaningful. The 10th digit is a check digit which is calculated by plugging the first 9 digits into a formula. The only possible 10th digit for 077042714 is 6, not 5. This has got to be a misprint on your edition of the book.

Not that this explanation helps much. I guess if the number on the book is not a real ISBN, then you would still have to list it as a non-ISBN item. :-)

Best bet woud be to check the Canadian Amazon site to see what they call the (primary) ISBN for that Rendell book - I would do it, but don't know the title!

Diana:  book listings are in the process of switching over from 10 to 13-digit ISBN's; going from the former to the latter requires a formula that (usually) leaves the final digit "off" by a couple of numbers. In cases such as yours the book should be entered under the 978 number, filling in the fields as best you can. This is not a case of a "missing/mismatched" ISBN, your book correctly belongs under the 978 number, but the database hasn't caught up to "transferring" the 10-digit details yet (it just recognizes that the number itself is "obselete"). Hope that helped.

Well, many thanks to both of you, Cathy and Jack!  Not that I entirely understand the assignment of numbers, but telling me that the one on my book is not a valid # made me double-check (which should have been the first thing I did) - AND - while the ISBN on the back is 0770427145,  on the copyright page the # is 0770427146 .  I hadn't even considered a typo.  DUH

Anyway, better a little embarassment and some add'l knowledge than to just sit here dumb and happy!!

I have an Ursula LeGuin copy of the Farthest Shore (with no ISBN because published in 75). I have noticed 20 some copies of this same book, several with the same covers, all with short not real ISBN numbers. Seems a shame to have yet another one. Can I just pretent it has the same non-number as the other Bantam books?

Sorry, but no you can't do that. Under the book description field, I'd put something like "1975 printing - no ISBN# assigned"

This was confusing, but Sherry did straighten out my issue!  Thanks to everyone. 

I'm not sure getting this book at a sale price was worth it ;)