Last summer, I wrote a series of articles about ISBNs. One common question I may not have answerred as well as possible is: When do you really need to assign a new ISBN to version of a book? Let’s take a look at the question.
If you’re not all that familiar with ISBN (International Standard Book Number), what it is, why it is, and what it really means, you might want to read these earlier articles:
ISBN – Who Really Cares?
ISBN – What Does It All Mean, Anyway?
ISBN – How to Decode It
And maybe even Buy Your Own ISBNs.
The ISBN is a inventory control, stocking, and ordering number used by book publishers, printers, wholesalers, distributors, retailers, and libraries — essentially everyone in the supply chain of the book. A unique ISBN ensures that the end user (your reader) gets exactly what they intended to buy — including the edition, revision, format, and binding.
So, let’s say you buy a block of 10 ISBNs and publish your first book, My Novel. You pick a number off your list of ISBNs and assign it the first one on the list to the first paperback edition, a 6×9 format in normal type size.
So far, so good.
Now, you decide to issue the same content in hardback (maybe your loyal fans have requested something more durable to pass on to their children). You need another ISBN. You need both ISBNs to make sure that those who want a hardcover edition get it, and those who prefer the paperback get that. If you used the same ISBN, there’d be no way make certain that happens. Hell, even if you sold your book only on your own website, you might make a mistake and send the wrong book.
So, paperback and hardcover of the same book require separate ISBNs. Makes sense, right?
Now, maybe some folks complain that their elderly relatives really want their own copy but can’t deal with the normal font size. Always eager to please, you re-typeset the book as a large-print edition and publish that. How will you make sure that only those who want the larger type get it while everyone else gets either the paperback or hardcover?
You guessed. You assign a third ISBN to the large-print edition.
Things are going well. Your fan base is increasing, but people are clamoring for versions they can read on their laptop or Amazon Kindle or Sony Reader or even their iPhone. So, you decide to publish the My Novel as an e-book, but you discover that doing so will probably require three or four different e-book formats:
- PDF for those who want to read on their desktop or laptop
- AZW for Amazon’s Kindle Store
- PRC for Mobipocket (and all its associated retailers)
- EPUB for Sony Reader and iPhone/iPod (and many others)
Uh-oh. See it coming? The only way to make sure the proper format is being delivered to the customer is to assign each its own unique ISBN.
Note: Actually, there are a couple of ways to mitigate that problem. First, you could bundle several formats into a ZIP file and sell the bundle under a single ISBN (but make sure it’s a different ISBN than any of the print formats). Second, a solid case can be made that you don’t need a separate ISBN for the Kindle, since Amazon will never use it, anyway (they assign their own unique stock number – the ASIN). Third, you can upload the PRC to Mobipocket and let them distribute it to Amazon and dozens of other retailers.
What if you make revisions and republish My Novel? Do you need a new ISBN for that revised edition?
The answer is. . .it depends.
Were those revisions mostly typo corrections and/or minor fixes? If so, don’t change it, although you might want to note someplace on the book (made the copyright page) that this is the second edition.
If you made major changes, you should assign a new ISBN. That way, retailers will know that there is a significantly revised version available and can make sure their customers get the latest one. To decide whether to assign a new ISBN, ask yourself if your readers will care which one they get? If so, use a different ISBN.
What if you change the cover but the content remains unchanged? In that case, I wouldn’t bother with a new ISBN.
The key to the decision is whether it will matter to your readers which particular edition, format, and binding they get. If it does, assign a new ISBN.
Oh, and count up all those potential different ISBNs I noted above. You could use up that block of 10 quickly. If you are sure you’re going to write more than one book, it might be better to bite the bullet at the outset and buy the next larger size block (that would be 100 ISBNs). Of course, that’s also more expensive, but your cost per ISBN is much less.
There are doutbless more permutations on this issue, but this should give you a firm footing to make a good decision.
If you have a question not addressed above, drop a comment and ask.
7 Comments
January 29, 2009 at 7:00 pm
I am about to reprint the first book of the series. In response to comments from older readers, I’m considering increasing the line leading (which would increase page count) to improve readability. Also, I’d like to add some new “blurbs” at the beginning of the book.Nothing else would change–paper, size, etc.
In your opinion do I need to use a new ISBN?
Many thanks
January 30, 2009 at 10:48 am
As long as you accept that this is MY opinion and not necessarily the revealed gospel.
I can see no reason to use a different ISBN and a lot of reasons to keep the current one.
The last thing you want to do with a book, particularly one that kicks off a series, is dilute its sales or online exposure by having multiple ISBNs anywhere “out there.” You can try to declare the first one OP but the big, wide Internet with all its innumerable databases will probably never completely eradicate it. And that is true on Amazon.com as well. Multiple ISBNs may make the book more difficult to find…and buy.
You might want to consider adding a note on the (probably back) cover to the effect “Now improved for easier reading!” if you think that will matter to your potential buyers.
As for blurbs, we always leave at least two blank pages up-front in initial versions to allow for adding blurbs later. That way, we don’t affect page count for later versions.
That’s my opinion.
May 22, 2009 at 6:59 pm
My original POD seems to have forgotten that I own the copyright on my book. No sales have been reported for three months. I’ve seen the ranking changes on Amazon, so I know that copies are being sold.
Disgusted with this theft of my royalties, I’d like to port my book from POD-A to POD-B (who does seem to keep track of Amazon sales).
The problem? The original book is 8.5×11. The second POD only offers 8×10 (there’s a fraction of an inch in each dimension which makes the actual difference in trim size very small, maybe .25″ and .4″).
If I keep the same number of pages (with a tad of manipulation on font size, spacing, etc.), can I use my same ISBN for the slightly smaller trim size? The book content is the same (yeah, I fixed a couple of typos).
I believe that anybody looking at the two versions side-by-side would not discern any difference other than a slightly smaller footprint.
Thanks if you can figure out an answer for this one!
May 23, 2009 at 7:42 am
Marva,
You really haven’t provided enough information, so I’ll have to make a couple of assumptions.
First, by “POD” I assume you’re referring to one of the ubiquitous “POD publishers” or “self-publishing companies” that proliferate on the Internet. Before the Internet, such companies were called subsidy publishers (or even vanity publishers). Neither of the current terms is accurate, and both are designed to disguise them and their business model.
Such companies make their money by selling books and services to writers, not to the book trade. They’ll make a profit from your book even if it never sells a single copy. That’s their business model.
Jerry Simmons calls them “publishing mills,” which I agree is far more accurate.
Given your choice of a “POD publisher,” what rights you retain in your book and what you can legally do with it depends almost exclusively on your contract. This varies a great deal from publisher to publisher. Read it carefully before doing anything else with your book.
I also assume that you did not purchase your own block of ISBNs from R. R. Bowker (at ISBN.org) but are using the ISBN provided by your current publisher. Which means they own that ISBN and, most likely, the design and layout of the book’s cover and interior.
You cannot, therefore, just “port” the book from one publishing mill to another.
Without the title or ISBN of your book (or your name as it appears on the book), I can’t determine what might be happening with your book on Amazon. (Even with it, I probably don’t have the time to do the research.) If used copies are being offered by third-party sellers, any sales of those used copies would affect the Amazon sales ranking.
IF, AND ONLY IF, you purchased your own block of ISBNs from Bowker rather than your current publisher and you actually own the book’s design, you would not need a new ISBN just to alter the page size.
An ISBN uniquely identifies a particular book, format (hardcover, paperback, audio, PDF, etc.), and edition (it’s only a new edition if there are significant updates). A slight change in page size and a few editorial corrections do not a new edition make.
Do not assume that, just because you paid for a service from your current publisher (cover, interior layout, ISBN, etc.), you own what you paid for. It depends on your contract. If you find the contract confusing, you need to consult a properly qualified intellectual property attorney (not all lawyers are well versed in that field of law).
Before you can “port” your book to a new publisher, you will have to convince your current publisher to delete it from their accounts. Depending on the publisher and your contract, that may not be easy. We hear lots of complaints from people trying to do just that on the Yahoo Self-Publishing Group.
If you signed the typical contract with a “publishing mill” and paid for the typical package of services, the only thing you truly own is the way the words are strung together to create a story. You might not like that answer, you might think it’s unfair, but it’s probably the case.
But, as I said, I had to make a number of assumptions to try to answer the question. If any of those assumptions are wrong, the answer might be different.
May 23, 2009 at 10:32 am
Good answer, which covers a lot of what I do already know.
It is my ISBN, not Lulu’s. I didn’t pay them for anything except the ISBN, which was the Publish By You option. I typeset and did the cover design myself, and I’m the publisher of record on Bowkers. The contract says I can use another printer if I wish to, but I can’t sell the book for less than what it costs if supplied by Lulu to the bookstores (on-line and/or brick and mortar). I’m free to sell any books I purchase from Lulu and then resell them at any price I want to set. I can also “retire” my book from Lulu’s circulation whenever I want.
The one variable that I couldn’t determine, is whether the slight change in trimsize requires a new ISBN to be issued. It is not a new edition in the sense of changing the type (paper to paper) or making major modifications to the work. The point size was changed from 17pt to 18pt. It is a Large Print book.
From what you’ve said, I think the answer is that I can take all my files and ISBN to a different print-on-demand company.
Thanks much for your detailed answer. It’s very educational for anybody interested in this issue.
May 23, 2009 at 10:49 am
Marva,
Exactly. If the only revision is a slight change in the trim size, I would not assign a new ISBN.
If you’re serious about this and want to get the maximum mileage about of an on-demand printer option, I highly recommend that you consider using Lightning Source Inc.
You also might want to read my earlier posts Is Lightning Source the Self-Publishing Answer? and Pricing Your Book on Lightning Source.
LSI can print perfect bound at up to 8.25 x 11 trim size.
The one caution is that you can’t guarantee good results with LSI if the typesetting was done using a word processing program (like Microsoft Word) and/or if you create the PDF files using anything other than Adobe Acrobat. They offer detailed instructions for PDF file creation (for cover and interior) that, if followed, produce consistent results.
June 2, 2009 at 4:41 pm
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