ISBN

One step in preparing my stories to be published is acquiring an ISBN, which stands for International Standard Book Number. We see the number in nearly every book we browse or read.

This one is from a fellow writer (WW Walton) when he published his book "Qi". Here, I noticed he also went through lulu.com. That ISBN on the back tells a lot..



It is a 13-digit number and is needed for any book that is going to be sold on a shelf or placed in a library. (If you simply want to publish a book to give away, you do not need an ISBN). According to ISBN.org there are 5 parts to the number which are separated with a hyphen. The first set of numbers is 978 (is found on all books). Second is 0 (identifies a national or geographical grouping of publishers). Third is 98122687 (identifies a specific publisher within the group). Fourth is 0 (identifies a particular title or edition of a title) and fifth is 5 (validates that it is an ISBN).

For me, the ISBN us most important because it helps market my book by booksellers, libraries, universities, wholesalers, and distributors. Let's say I find a vendor who will put my book on the shelf and it sells out. Of course, he can renew from me by just calling (really, I will be doing the follow up call), but let's say that I have bought a package that also includes Baker and Taylor's distribution of my book. B n T needs that number to know what book the vendor is talking about. Important number if you want to sell a book.

What is interesting is that this is the second edition of this specific book. On the inside cover of his book, on the copyright page, is the first ISBN.

Another example is fellow writer's club member Joyce Lee McIntosh's 1st in a series ("Inside Out") of mysteries.

I show this because she has two ISBNs, the inside cover tells the tale of the differing numbers.

As you see, the first ISBN which ends in an 8 is for paperbacks; the second, which ends in a 5 is for e-books.



So, I know now I will need two ISBNs because I want to publish both as a paperback and as an e-book. So far, I have found that one ISBN is $125.00 and you can buy 10 numbers for $250.00, ISBN.org recommends to buy 10 if you are going to use that many in a 5 year span. Also, they come in packets of 10, 100, and 1000.

I know I need this number, and now I know where to get it if the self-publisher I use does not provide the service to get one.

Just because I have the number doesn't say it all. After I get the number I need to register the book's title with Books in Print at www.bowkerlink.com.

There are also ISSN for an ongoing series of books, and then there are international bar code formats, and I am far from being concerned about that. All I want to do right now is understand the steps in getting my book published, and this is one. A little one that is huge.

I am sure I have given you more information than you ever wanted to know about an ISBN, but for those who are on the same journey as I am in wanting to publish a book, I hope this helps. Next Friday I will again take one step on my book publishing journey.

Until then...have a great weekend.