how to stop iTunes automatically changing epub books titles

iTunes is changing the names/titles of my epub books as soon as I add them. How do I stop iTunes from doing this and make it use the titles of the books as they are before being added to iTunes? I spent a few hours today reorganizing a large book series (over 200) into chronological order by giving the books a numeric sequence (001 Title A then 002 Title B then 003 Title C etc.) but when I go to add them to iTunes iTunes automatically changes all the titles and undoing all my work. Will I have to add them and then rename the book individually after they're already in the iTunes library?