What is an ISBN?

International standard book number. What is it? Why is it important? 

You know that long number on the back of books on top of the bar code? That’s an ISBN. An ISBN is your book’s social security number. It’s unique to your book and cannot be duplicated. Even if you republish your book with a hard cover or in another form; there has to be a new ISBN assigned. (Ebooks do not require this.) The ISBN is how retail stores, libraries, book sellers, and other retailers identify your book and track sales. In fact, most stores will not stock your title without it. 

Image from: https://selfpublishingadvice.org/

Although Bowker is the only place that assigns them, there are other ways to get ISBNs. Now that self-publishing is a common option, a lot of companies offer to assign ISBNs to their customers for free or a small price. Here is the drawback to that:

Registration: Although it is your work and you are legally covered (make sure your copyright is registered), using an ISBN assigned from your printer means your book is under their imprint.

What does that mean?

If you use a company-assigned ISBN, said company will be the publisher on record for your title. This means if anyone wants to make inquiries about your book and possibly do business, they will go to the publisher on record. 

This also means that they have control over how your title appears to retailers. Categories, descriptions, metadata, etc. Although most of these services request that you provide that info while setting up your title, they do have the right to change it if you use their ISBN. 

Purchasing your own ISBN also means you can change or publish your book with multiple companies. 

There are more benefits, but it all boils down to ownership. If you plan to write more than one book, buy your ISBNs in bulk. It’ll save you money in the long run. 

To buy your ISBN: 

Still confused on what’s going on? Our DIY-ish package allows us to do the work for you while you get all the credit.