ISBN Info
Want to make sure you understand the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) and what it means to you and your self-publishing project? Here is a collection of articles I’ve posted on this blog over the past year that might help answer your questions.
ISBN – Who Really Cares?
ISBN – What Does It All Mean, Anyway?
ISBN – How to Decode It
Buy Your Own ISBNs
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Hi there,
We’re a very small publisher with our own two books. My first book, originally published in ’04 is in China (it’s 4 color) for it’s third printing. The printer has emailed me saying they are printing 13 digit ISBN numbers for publishers and noted ours is only 10 digits. There are no changes in the book – except it will say third printing on page two instead of second printing. The cost of buying an ISBN number for this isn’t something we figured in when we were considering reprinting. The entire ISBN system seems confusing to me. I have so many questions related to it that I’m not sure what to do. We have distributors in place – Ingram, Baker Taylor, New Leaf, etc. Do I absolutely need to make this change? Will it somehow come back on me if I don’t make the change to 13 digit? It seems like something that makes things easier for the industry, but not absolutely required for me and my small reprinting order. Thoughts?
Thank you so much!
Robin
I urge you to read through some of my blog posts listed above. The ISBN system is really not that difficult.
As to your specific issue, there is no need to buy more ISBNs. All books printed today should use the ISBN-13 format (you can also include the old ISBN-10 format if you wish but it’s not required).
ISBN-13 is merely a mathematical conversion of your old ISBN-10. You can do the conversion for free on the ISBN.org website using their ISBN-13 Online Converter.
I was just reading one of your articles on ISBNs and have a question I hope you can answer definitively for me!
I will be terminating a contract with my publisher within the next month. I will then self publish my book. as is, minus my former publishers’ logo etc. I have contacted the POD distributors that have been handling my book (Lightning Source), and hope to be able to continue with them as a self published author. I own all copyrights etc.
One of the items I was billed for by my publisher as part of my contract was an ISBN that she assigned.
I read that ISBN numbers contain identifying information about publishers; so I am assuming that I will need to buy my own ISBN.
I don’t want the reissue of my book to have any link to her company, so buying my own ISBN is the way to go…right? Big thanks. Nancy
The ISBN the publisher “sold” you was doubtless one of their own. Using it would clearly identify the book’s publisher as them, and not you.
As for LSI (Lightning Source Inc), they are a printer and not a publisher or a distributor. LSI books are distributed via Ingram Books, since both are part of the Ingram Group. Amazon may acquire books from Ingram or direct from LSI.
So, yes, you need to purchase your own block of ISBNs from Bowker. You can also buy a single ISBN, but that is usually a bad idea, financially, since a single ISBN currently costs $125 while a block of 10 costs $250.
If you decide to produce the book in eBook formats, you will need to use a new ISBN for each distinct format (PDF, ePub, etc.). Some people will tell you that you should assign a distinct ISBN to the Kindle format, too, but I can see no reason to do that — Amazon won’t use it but, instead, will assign their own unique ASIN to the book.
One other note of caution: although you are the copyright holder for the book, be sure that the publisher releases ALL RIGHTS to you when you terminate the contract…in writing. You did not say who produced the book’s cover, but if the publisher did, you will almost certainly have to have a new cover created since they will own the rights to that first cover.
Thank you so much for your clear answers and guidance. Although the cover of my book is original art done by my son with copyright acknowledgement on the book, I will be sure to ask my publisher to release all rights in writing to me! Take care. Nancy
Good morning
Could you advise me of the benefits of getting a Library of Congress Control Number for my book . Do I need to have it for online sales or bookstores who might want to order my book?
Also if I am the copyright holder for my book and have all rights released in writing from my former publisher, do I need to re register my copyright ?
Thanks for your guidance. nancy
Re: LCCN
Read my post LCCN – Should You Bother?
If you own the copyright, the original copyright registration should be in your name. Your publisher should have sent you a copy of the registration form. If not, you can confirm it by searching the Copyright Office records. If it is registered (and in your name), there is no need to register again, as copyright registration pertains to the content of the book not the specific format.
Hi Walt,
I am writing as someone in absolute shock about an ISBN issue. I read the long posting about Create Space in Publetariat, but my particular situation was not really addressed by it.
After four fairly successful university press books, I for reasons I won’t tire you with decided to self-publish my fifth book, a literary study of a popular English mystery writer, Ruth Rendell (aka Barbara Vine). I chose a division of Amazon so that when someone typed in Ruth Rendell’s name, my book would show up on a list. This has happened. Indeed, Create Space made a beautiful book for me, perhaps the most striking to look at of my five books. I had issues with them, one about Expanded Distribution Channels, but I received those channels with the publishing package I bought. When someone orders my book through Ingram, Lightning Source will print it and send it out. That’s fine. I am actually taking over distributing my own book by buying at author’s price and selling it at my own on my website. Making money was never my motive in writing this book although I would welcome sales. But here is my Catch 22. Ruth Rendell is a household name in England and so the U.K. is a natural outlet for my book. Amazon.uk is already selling it at double the Amazon price here, but they are not offering it, acting as an outlet for other booksellers. However, if Lightning Source in the U.K. has the files, the book can be printed and distributed in the U.K.
To my horror (!), I have discovered that I cannot enter into any agreement with Lightning Source U.K. because the ISBN number is owned by Create Space. And so far as I know, they have no intention of letting Lightning Source U.K. distribute the book. Why? I don’t know. Perhaps you do. I do own the copyright on the book but Create Space owns the files and the ISBN number. If you can give me any direction about what my options are, or can post this to warn any future authors that if they hope for any foreign distribution, they had better clarify the matter with Create Space before buying a publishing package.
Any illumination you can shed on this will be much appreciated. Any direction will be more than appreciated. Have I any options. Should I go to the expense of a lawyer? Shall I just throw up my hands?
Thank you for your attention to this matter. Barbara F. Leavy
I have mentored many folks through the self-publishing maze, but I have never recommended CreateSpace for anything. I think there are much better options with far fewer gotchas and contractual potholes.
Also, I ALWAYS recommend that our mentoring clients buy a block of ISBNs. There is not much you can do in your case, since CreateSpace does own the ISBN. And you must remember that CreateSpace was set up with one overriding goal — to maximize Amazon’s profit on books sold through Amazon.com. Anything else is just crumbs they are tossing to authors.
You may own the copyright in the content, but CreateSpace owns the ISBN and, most likely, the printing files they created from your MS Word file.
Your only recourse is to buy some ISBNs, set up your own account at LSI, and print the book through them with worldwide distribution. You’ll probably have to have the book freshly typeset with a new cover, depending on exactly what you uploaded to CreateSpace. I’d recommend canceling your CreateSpace account once that is set up.
The downside is that your book will then have two ISBNs, with one effectively showing up as out of print. And your search results on Amazon will be split between them.
Thank you so much Walt! You have generously provided free informtion that an intellectual properties lawyer would have charged a lot for. I see now that I am facing a lot of Catch 22 situations. Perhaps I just have to swallow my error for the time being. I wanted the Amazon connection. I wanted this book to show up among the others of mine offered by Amazon, which in England establishes my standing by listing (with images) three pages of books that quote or cite me. In a sense, Amazon is telling readers I have a good reputation in the community of writers who share my subjects. I wanted my book to show up when Ruth Rendell’s name was entered by a potential buyer. This has happened.
This is the other Catch 22, and I offer it not looking for advice but as a possible alert to other authors reading your posts. The natural US outlets for my book are small mystery bookshops, which are becoming threatened with extinction because of Amazon. So I am reluctant in my own publicity to send buyers to Amazon. This is even true on my website, although I do it. China put my husband out of business: he couldn’t compete with their low labor costs, a fraction of his. I view Amazon as the small booksellers’ (and even the larger chains’) China. I wanted and felt I needed the Amazon connection but actually experience guilt in knowing that I am contributing to a major problem. At the moment, I am offering booksellers my book at hardly above my own costs just to induce them to carry it. And they can bypass Amazon and even Lightning Source by taking me up on my offer.
My other problem is my small potential readership to begin with. If I thought I would get significant sales abroad, I would consider canceling my CreateSpace account and following your advice. For now, I will see if I have any success distributing the book myself.
You are providing an enormous service and are illuminating my dilemmas, some of which are of my own making. One more piece of advice you might be able to offer. I am thinking of taking out an ad for the book in a newspaper that is distributed free by and to libraries and booksellers and that has a half million subscribers. The name is Book Page. Before I commit to investing in this ad, where I will suggest that the biggest discount can be had through me directly, are there any warnings you can pass on to me?
Thank you so much!!! For the illumination. For providing this service.
Barbara Leavy
Here is the other Catch 22.
Booksellers are, in general, reluctant to order books directly from publishers, feeling that the paperwork burden is excessive. They prefer to order books from a distributor or wholesaler. LSI-printed books are available through Ingram and Baker & Taylor, the two biggest wholesalers. If a bookstore orders your book through their favorite distributor, that distributor may track you down to fulfill that order, which means your Books-in-Print listing had better point to you with clear info on terms and how/where to order. Convenience, for what would almost certainly by small orders individually, outweighs your proposed higher discount.
The last time I looked into a BookPage ad, the cost seemed excessive when I calculated how many books we’d have to sell to recoup the investment. If you have some powerhouse reviews (e.g., Publishers Weekly or Library Journal or even Foreword), you could quote them in the ad. It might help, but study a couple of recent issues of BookPage before making a decision or designing an ad. You might also ask at a number of chain and independent bookstores to see whether they buy based on those ads.
Walt, thanks for your article on ISBNs. Simple question here: I plan to publish a little ebook (self publish all the way including hand tweaked CSS!!) that will contain audio and video too. As of Sept. 2011 iBooks / Apple are the only outfit what will support this so I guess I’ll need to strip out all the audio and video for a Kindle and Nook versions and just provide html links to this content on the web (point to the website for the book).
I assume then I’ll need two ISBNs one for a standard version and another one for enhanced super duper HD video version right???
Simple answer — yes, you need two ISBNs.
After four fairly successful university press books, I for reasons I won’t tire you with decided to self-publish my fifth book, a literary study of a popular English mystery writer, Ruth Rendell (aka Barbara Vine). I chose a division of Amazon so that when someone typed in Ruth Rendell’s name, my book would show up on a list. This has happened. Indeed, Create Space made a beautiful book for me, perhaps the most striking to look at of my five books. I had issues with them, one about Expanded Distribution Channels, but I received those channels with the publishing package I bought. When someone orders my book through Ingram, Lightning Source will print it and send it out. That’s fine. I am actually taking over distributing my own book by buying at author’s price and selling it at my own on my website. Making money was never my motive in writing this book although I would welcome sales. But here is my Catch 22. Ruth Rendell is a household name in England and so the U.K. is a natural outlet for my book. Amazon.uk is already selling it at double the Amazon price here, but they are not offering it, acting as an outlet for other booksellers. However, if Lightning Source in the U.K. has the files, the book can be printed and distributed in the U.K.
To my horror (!), I have discovered that I cannot enter into any agreement with Lightning Source U.K. because the ISBN number is owned by Create Space. And so far as I know, they have no intention of letting Lightning Source U.K. distribute the book. Why? I don’t know. Perhaps you do. I do own the copyright on the book but Create Space owns the files and the ISBN number. If you can give me any direction about what my options are, or can post this to warn any future authors that if they hope for any foreign distribution, they had better clarify the matter with Create Space before buying a publishing package.
Pier,
Sorry this got trapped in my blog’s spam filter and I just found it there.
Your predicament is a classic example of why it is important for a self-publisher to buy their own block of ISBNs. You can buy ISBNs now and publish the book via LSI with a new ISBN that you own. However, you will lose any connection on Amazon between the two version. And you are correct that CS owns the printer files they created (this is common to just about all the oxymoronic “self-publishing companies” that have proliferated online over the past decade). And this also means you’ll have to pay to have somebody do the book design, or learn how to do it yourself. It’s relatively easy to do it yourself, but much more difficult to do it RIGHT yourself. And there is a difference.
There is no easy way out of your dilemma, I’m afraid. These kinds of problems is why I recommend that new self-publishers study some of the excellent books on the subject to learn the ins and outs and/or hire a mentor to make sure they understand the ramifications of their decisions. I have done a lot of such mentoring through our Five Rainbows Services company.
Walt Shiel,
I have a book with ISBN numbers in the front of the book different from the way they are presented on the back cover, on top and below the bar code. For example: It’s written like this in the front> ISBN 0-9666673-0-1 Printed in Iceland. Second Printing. Then, on the back by the bar code, it is listed in two distinct ways: On top of the bar code it’s listed as ISBN 978-0-9666673-0-1, then below the bar code, it’s listed as follows: 9 780966 667301 then off to the right of the bar code there is a number 90000> The book is in English but says printed in Iceland. Any clue at all to whom might be the publisher. As the publisher is not mentioned. thanks in advance Bruce
Perhaps this is a pirate copy of a book. I can find no listings for that ISBN or that publisher prefix. Those various ISBN formats (ISBN-10, ISBN-13, and EAN) are all the same number formatted for different purposes (read the articles linked at the top of this page to understand why).
The 90000 code simply means that no price is encoded in the bar code.
Walt, Well then, now I even wonder why the publishers put the ISBN number there in the first place? Thanks for answering! Much appreciated!
warm regards, Bruce
Thank you, Walt, for keeping me apprised of the issues with ISBN numbers. Aside from their producing a beautiful looking book, I found my free gift of an ISBN number from CreateSpace an absolute trap. I have posted on this with you and Google picked up my longer posting to Publetariat, which I think has misled some readers about foreign distribution. What it means to be “listed” on Amazon.co.uk is a bit ambiguous. You can be listed but readers in Great Britain still have to buy the book from Amazon.com and pay shipping costs–at least as far as I can see. I was not able to get a clear explanation from April Hamilton about this and I gave up trying to get one.
My story has at least for me a happy ending. My self-published book has been picked up by a well-regarded commercial publisher and with their help I will be able to better promote it. As part of my contract, I pulled the book from Amazon (CreateSpace), essentially putting it out of print.
But I want to respond to one of your postings about self-publishing. I would urge anyone who is about to do so to get what you call a “mentor.” A lot of soul-searching has to be done by the author. How promotional are you?. How assertive? How large a readership do you think you would optimally have (mine was quite small and I am not at all self-assertive: I have often quipped that I could not sell a thimble to a sewing group). I am very successful at giving talks on my subject (crime fiction) and my audience is quite enthusiastic. But I am not good at approaching libraries, bookstores, and so forth. I think I greatly underestimated the problems of distribution, promotion, and other matters associated with a POD book. Some people do very well but they either have more self-promotional ability or they have had good advice. So perhaps a mentor might have helped me address all of these issues.
I will have distribution now where I wanted it and where CreateSpace blocked it by essentially giving me their ISBN number. Perhaps I still don’t really understand my own experience. I wish all potential self-publishing authors my hopes for their success. But again, I urge them to know what they are doing or are about to do.
Barbara Leavy
Barbara,
Unless you have distribution set up in Europe, buyers’ orders will be fulfilled from the US. One way around this is to print through LSI and set up an account with LSI-UK, in which case European orders will be fulfilled through LSI-UK’s partner distributors. The same is now true for LSI-Australia.
And yes, it is a very smart move to hire a self-publishing mentor who can guide you through the often overwhelming maze of things that need to be done if you expect even a modest success with a new book by an unknown author. Through our Five Rainbows Services, I offer such a mentoring program for a modest fee. I usually recommend a schedule that begins three to five months before the book is available for purchase. The more you try to compress that schedule, the less likely you are to have any success at the end.