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When searching for George Orwell's 1984, different results appear where one can buy the book. Like on kindle, or at play store here and here.
Can someone help me understand as to
why all the options have ISBN numbers?
why there is difference in the page count?
the ones in play store seems to be from different publishers. Do the different publishers also have some extra contents added?
to what extend does the publishers have liberty with the book, well apart from the cover design?
how do I go about and choose which one should I get?
Am I missing something obvious that one should know for purchasing ebook?
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Usually, the ISBN number is supposed to change when the edition is modified.
The modifications may be minor and not matter much to readers.
The publisher is not supposed to change the text, except for typos and such,
though that could depend on contractual agreement in some countries. It may
also happen that some parts of the text have different versions, all produced
by the author. These issues become very complex, but matter only to scholars.
Are you missing something obvious? Well ...
You seem to be looking in various places for your ebook. Possibly you are not
aware that these places are not equivalent. Ebooks come in a variety of
formats, mostly epub, pdf and mobi. These have variants, but that is less
important. Actually there are lots of formats, but you are very unlikely to encounter most of them.
The mobi format is used only by Amazon for the kindle, while nearly everyone
else uses mostly epub (and sometimes PDF, though PDF is not too convenient for
that purpose, because less adaptable).
Thus, when looking for ebooks, you have to know on what device you intend to
use it. If you use a computer, you will find applications for reading any of
the three formats. But if you intend to use an ebook reader, then you have to
buy ebooks in a format accepted by your e-reader.
I personally prefer epub which is an open standard. In all things technical, I
hate to be tied to a single provider, no matter how large and powerful.
Another issue you should investigate is DRM. DRM are software devices that
control your use of books, whether you can have them on different devices,
whether you can lend them or make copies. It has occasionally been used to
erase books in the home of the owner (just to give you an idea of the
potential of DRM). Actually, the book that was thus erased from its owners was
precisely a specific edition of 1984.
I tend to avoid books that carry DRM, but it is too often the case that a
given title is available as ebook only with DRM. However, there are cases
where a book is available with DRM from one retailer, while another retailer
will sell it DRM-free. Sometimes it is a matter of publisher, and the same
retailer is selling two versions of the book, with DRM from one publisher, and
without from another publisher.
Some form of DRM are somewhat innocuous. For example watermarks, are quasi
invisible markers that identify you as the owner so as to be able to trace
illicit copies. But it will not interfere otherwise with your use of the book.
Last point. If you want better precision about the book size, use word count
rather than page count. You often get both.
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Methods for estimating page count for ebooks depend on a variety of things and don't really indicate anything.
Different ebook distributors use different ISBNs. It used to be that print publishers would have a single ISBN. Nowadays, when you publish on a distributor's platform they will tend to assign an ISBN specific to the store.
Google Play stores tend to have the same store for everybody, but Amazon has stores for each region or country. I would expect that Google Play Books to have more editions -- especially for public domain titles.
With print editions, there are often different editions with different covers and prefaces and annotations. That is especially true with books for classrooms. Typically less developed countries may produce cheaper print editions and be priced accordingly. With ebooks, there are not as many different editions unless the work is public domain. It can sometimes be different to tell the difference among them.
You may not realize this, but 1984 is in the public domain in certain countries (but not the USA).
If you are unsure, the best thing to do is to check the main website for the author and see what editions that the author's site links to.
Finally about Orwell's 1984 and Amazon, I see that various Kindle editions cost from to .99 (for a collected novels). Also, translations have different prices. If you live in a country where the novel is in the public domain, you may see more editions (and a greater variety of prices).
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