Techniques are disclosed for maintaining multiple versions of electronic books on an access device and for carrying over annotations between the multiple versions. In one embodiment, an annotation to be carried over between multiple versions may include both a document file indicator and a surrounding text indicator associated with a document file in a version. The document file indicator may be used to determine whether a corresponding document file exists in a differing version. If the document file exists in the differing version, the surrounding text indicator may be used to determine whether the surrounding text exists within the differing version. If the surrounding text exists, the annotation may be inserted at the corresponding location in the differing version. Differing versions may be maintained on the access device based on whether each of the differing versions is a major or minor version. Versions of the electronic book and related annotations may be stored on or off-device.