Although most writers and and self-publishers know what ISBN is and what the acronym stands for, I continually run across those who don’t really understand its importance to their books and their publishing ventures.
First, I thought I would just point people to the appropriate section in one of the many excellent self-publishing reference books. So, I grabbed three of them off my reference shelf and began looking.
Odd. They all talked about ISBN, what it is (in very basic terms), how to get it, and what to do with it. But not one clearly described why it’s important and why decisions regarding how to acquire and use ISBNs is so important.
Today and tomorrow, I will try to make some sense out of the confusion and misunderstanding surrounding ISBNs. I hope this helps those of you who have yet to make your decision on this critical item. I will be addressing the how and where strictly from a US perspective, since I don’t readily have the information on hand to talk about those aspects in other countries. The basic information, however, is applicable everywhere.
ISBN = International Standard Book Number
You knew that already, right?
The ISBN can be found in numerous places:
- Back cover of a book (with the bar code)
- Book’s copyright page (the back side, or verso, of the title page)
- Book catalogs
- Book’s detail page at online retailers (like Amazon.com)
- Industry databases (like R. R. Bowker’s Books-in-Print).
In the US, you can buy your ISBN(s) directly from R. R. Bowker, the designated US ISBN agency, at ISBN.org. You can buy a block of 10 for $275 or a block of 100 for $995 (you can buy larger blocks, if you wish). All ISBNs in an assigned block identify the publisher through the “publisher prefix.”
You can also buy a single ISBN from Bowker or through one of their designated resellers. Prices generally start at $125 for a single number, making this a very expensive option. And you will not own a “publisher prefix” that will be included in subsequent ISBNs for your subsequent books. You will only own that single ISBN.
The ISBN is an industry-wide standard to identify a specific title, edition, and format for a particular book. If you issue a single title as a paperback, hardcover, and e-book, you will need three separate ISBNs. If you significantly revise your title (as a second edition, for example), you will need to assign it a separate ISBN. If you write three or four books, you can quickly use up a block of 10 ISBNs.
Many subsidy publishers (usually, these days, calling themselves “POD publishers” or “self-publishing companies”) will offer to provide you an ISBN for your book. Be aware that any ISBN provided by them for your book (unless they are on the reseller list noted above) will identify that subsidy publisher as the publisher-of-record for the book.
Not you. Which means you are not really the publisher, regardless of what that publisher tries to tell you or might imply.
Why should you care?
Suppose you publish your book through Amazon’s CreateSpace or BookSurge service and allow them to assign it an ISBN. Two years later, you decide you prefer to print your book with another printer or even a different subsidy publisher. Your book MUST be assigned a new ISBN, since the original one was owned by the original publisher (CreateSpace or BookSurge). And that original ISBN can never be reassigned to a different book, even if the publisher declares their edition of your book as out-of-print.
From that point forward, your book will have two ISBNs associate with it. If a bookseller or library tries to order it, they will have to guess which one is the current one. You will have to rely on some (possibly clueless) clerk to make that guess. They may just pick the first one they stumble on. If that one turns up as OP (out-of-print) or otherwise unavailable, that’s what they’ll tell the customer.
And those two version of your book will continue to show up on Amazon with different publishers, possibly different prices, etc. An Amazon search on your title may not turn up the current version near the top of the results (or, possibly, at all).
You want to avoid this kind of confusion in the marketplace at all costs, if you expect to build your sales for the long haul.
Tomorrow, we will delve into the somewhat arcane inner workings of ISBN.
Questions or comments? Jump right in!
Thank you for this excellent information. I’ll be linking to it from vagrantbooks.com. Kind regards,
Ardin
Glad you found it helpful. Thanks for stopping by.
Mr. Shiel,
I ran across an interview with Mark Coker, of Smashwords, talking about the options his company offers for ISBNs. I found it curious that he downplayed their importance and was pushing authors toward just letting them assign one at no cost to the author.
Wandering across blogs, I was lucky enough to find yours and your ISBN header. This makes the issue much clearer for me and I’m passing on your knowledge at dtgooden.posterous.com. Thanks for the help!
Daniel Gooden.
Coker is not the only one who tends to push aside the real issues of owning your own ISBN. The same thing is true at Booklocker.com.
OTOH, for most people who aren’t going to bother doing any real marketing and, therefore, won’t sell more than a handful of books in any format, it probably doesn’t matter much. Until they wake up and realize they need to get serious with their book…and run headlong into the problem of having to assign a new ISBN to an existing book.
I self-publish an ebook serial in 60 languages 4 per year, up to 300 pieces per year including multiple episode issues. Buying isbns is never an option, but staying out of the big stores due to no isbn is too depressing. Many now give out free isbns. what rights do they have if i accept – to control my distribution of the isbn’d edition – can they now tell me i can only distribute through them as i have seen some claim? am i now there prisoner? or am i free to sell my ebooks on every eshelf online as i always have done as a non committed author? is it the display of the isbn they control or do they control the work itself?
ive been told an isbn is a license plate. someone big owns it, built it, and it can only go on one car, but your still free to drive that car anywhere you want??
The answer is…it depends.
It depends on exactly what the contract says or how the site’s terms & conditions specify what you’re getting with that ISBN.
If the outlet assigns you an ISBN from their own block of ISBNs, it would point to them as the publisher of record and they would own that ISBN. Which means you could not use it anywhere else.
An ISBN is a supply chain identifier that incorporates a numerical code the identifies the country/region of origin and the publisher of record. For more on what that means and how it is contained within the ISBN, read some of the other articles I have posted on this blog. Links to those articles are posted here: http://waltshiel.com/all-about-isbns/
Walt: would you clarify a point please? You say that if we issue a single title as a paperback, a hardcover, and an E book, we’ll need 3 separate ISBNs. Recently I read on another blog that if one’s E book is the same text as the paperback, one does NOT have to issue a separate ISBN to the ebook, and that it is fine to use the same ISBN for both. Was that information incorrect?
Walt: I have now gone through ALL the ISBN articles and I guess I understand (sort of) the process of assigning ISBNs to the various formats. Discouraging! I thought I would buy a block of ten, but now it looks like perhaps a block of 100 is necessary. I guess I don’t need you to answer the question I asked a few minutes ago, unless you have some extra insight. Thanks for all the valuable information!
The LCCN is assigned to the work itself (the package of text, photos, etc.), which means you use the same LCCN for all formats. The ISBN, on the other hand, identifies a particular content AND format. Just ask yourself if it will matter to the end customer which format they receive — e.g., if they expected an ePub format but receive a PDF or expected a print book and get a Kindle version, will they be annoyed? If the answer is yes, each of those formats must have a unique ISBN. The ISBN is a supply chain identifier.