ISBN
Who Needs Them?
Introduction:
The acronym ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. It is a number assigned to published books. The thirteen digit number is used to establish the identity of individual book titles from one specific publisher. Do you need one? If you want to have your book globally distributed by online retailers, displayed in brick and mortar stores, or picked up by libraries, yes, you need one. There are no disadvantages to getting your own ISBN.
one | How to Get One
Bottom line, go to the MyIdentifiers website and purchase one or more through Bowker Publishing Services. Why? Because it matters where you buy your ISBN. It’s important to get your ISBN from a source that will ensure that it will be recognized internationally. It also ensures your book will be cataloged properly. From Bowker…
“As the U.S. ISBN Agency, Bowker is the ONLY official source of ISBNs in the United States. ISBNs provide unique identification for books and simplify the distribution of your books throughout the global supply chain. Without an ISBN, your book will not be found in most bookstores, either online or down the street from your house.”
You’ll find companies and freelancers from sites like Fiverr that will sell you an ISBN cheaper than Bowker, but you will not own it and their publisher prefix will identify your book. Libraries, bookstores, online retailers, distributors, and wholesalers depend on this unique identifier to track purchases and sales. Save yourself some unnecessary maneuvering down the road and purchase your ISBN from the official US recognized agency.
When purchasing your ISBN, remember that you’ll need one for each version of your book. If you publish your book in ebook, paperback, and hardcover formats, you’ll need three ISBNs. With that in mind, it’s always cheaper to buy in bulk. Think ahead about your next books as well.
While I’m at it, here’s a quick word about barcodes. When purchasing your ISBN, you’ll likely have an option to purchase a barcode at the same time. I have no opinion one way or the other, but unlike an ISBN, I never purchase barcodes. There are many reputable sites that will generate them for free. I use the Kindlepreneur site for all my barcodes.
two | How is it Used
The ISBN is a universal identifier for your book. You give your ISBN (and a barcode if you have one) to your publisher and they imprint it on the back cover of your paperback or back cover or jacket of the hardcover edition of your book. Retailers, libraries, and bookstores can then scan the barcode to get information about your book. The ISBN contains information like the publisher, author, title, and price of the book. Libraries use the ISBN to catalog books to make them searchable by their patrons. See below for a breakdown of the unique set of numbers that make up the ISBN.
three | How Long Does it Take to Get Them
I purchase all of my ISBNs from Bowker, the official ISBN agency for the United States. Usually, they issue within a few minutes after purchase and are usually ready for use after a day or so. I buy in stacks of ten and assign them to my books right before publication.
four | Reading an ISBN
In 2007, the ISBN number length went from 10 to 13 digits. There are five parts. The prefix element is 978 or 979, the registration (country group), the registrant (publisher), the publication element (title and format), and a check digit. The check digit confirms the numerical equation used to calculate the ISBN. If you’re interested in digging deeper into the anatomy of an ISBN, there are several sites that go into great detail about the subject. Wikipedia is just as good a place as any to start.
five | The Amazon Wrinkle (ASIN)
The Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN) is the Amazon internal catalog number. It is not an ISBN substitute as it is only used by Amazon. When you sell anything through Amazon, your product will automatically get an ASIN. That includes books but don’t confuse it as a replacement for a real ISBN. When you publish with Amazon and you do not have your own ISBN, they will assign a free ASIN. You may want to pump the brakes on this one, though, and consider the downsides.
The Amazon ASIN belongs to Amazon. If you decide to republish your book to a wider market, you couldn’t do so using the Amazon ASIN. Instead, you would have to get your own ISBN and publish a new edition of your book using the new ISBN. Amazon would remain the publisher of the first edition of your book. And that presents a problem if you’re trying to establish your own publishing brand.
The limitations of wide distribution while Amazon is on record as the publisher is problematic and could limit your listing in local markets. Amazon is a fierce competitor and some smaller distributors simply can’t compete. Some have gone out of business because of it. Amazon can, and does, absorb the impact of selling books at a loss in order to attract more readers. Except for Barnes & Noble, many brick and mortar bookstores simply cannot compete, so they refuse to buy books that are published by their largest, most aggressive competitor.
six | Free ISBN v Paid
There are a lot of companies and independent contractors offering free or low-cost ISBNs as part of the service they provide. Know that it is just a different take on the Amazon ASIN issue. They have purchased a batch of ISBNs and offering to give or resell an unused number to you. Like with Amazon, they or their company become the publisher of your work. That’s fine as long as you are not interested in assuming the role of publisher. If, on-the-other-hand, your intent is to be the publisher, you’ll need to purchase your own ISBN and assign it to the book you are publishing.
Who Offers FREE ISBN’s?
You can get a Free ISBN when dealing with Print-On-Demand or self-publishing companies, like Draft2Digital, Smashwords, IngramSpark, and Lulu.
So why pay for an ISBN when I can get one for free or for substantially less than I can from Bowker? It all comes down to your goals. Do you want the appeal of your name or company being recognized as a publisher? Do you want to publish wide? Or does none of that matter? Either way, the important thing is that you understand the differences.
As always, I hope this article was helpful. Thanks for reading it.
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