Why I Purchased ISBNs
Heart pounding, I evaluate the four ISBN options.
- 1 ISBNs for $125
- 10 ISBNs for $295 (Best Seller!)
- 100 ISBNs for $575
- 1,000 ISBNs for $1,500
Swallowing, my mouse hovers over the Add to Cart button…for 100 ISBNs. The mouse clicks, and a spiral of giddy excitement rises. One step closer…
Why buy ISBNs?
The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a product identifier used globally as a unique identification code for your book. Retailers, libraries, publishers, and supply-chain logistics use the ISBNs to order, list, track, and stock your book. When you assign an ISBN to your book, you provide metadata including the title and subtitle, a book description, the format, genre(s), author(s) and/or contributors, publication date, sales, pricing, target audience, language, edition, volume, and previous editions (if applicable). For print books, you also record the size, weight, number of pages, and number of illustrations.
“Both Draft2Digital and Amazon provide free ISBNs! Why should I buy my own?”
To be the publisher or not the publisher, that is the answer. Not helpful? Okay, here’s another way to look at it. If you take a free ISBN, you are granting them the publishing credit for your book.
“Huh? But I’m self-publishing!”
Nope, if you accept the freebie ISBN, you are publishing through Amazon, or Draft2Digital, or whichever aggregator you’re using. They will take your book’s metadata and register the information with the Books In Print database service with you as the author and them as the publisher.
Want to know why that matters? Because anyone who wants to get access to the book for anything special will contact the publisher of the book. Book clubs, corporations, television or film producers… ah, the light glimmers.
The per-format ISBN does transfer between sellers, so you can use the same ISBN on your paperback at print-on-demand services such as Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Print, Ingram Spark, as well as traditional printers. Unless you change the size of the book. Then you’ll need a new ISBN.
Do I Need More than One ISBN?
You’ll need one number for each book format. Formats include eBooks (see below), paperbacks, hardbacks, and audio books. Want to put out a new edition, special illustrated version, limited edition, or an anniversary edition? Yep, you’ll need a separate ISBN for each.
“I’m only going to have an ebook, so I only need one ISBN, right?”
Sorry, no. You actually need one number per format. For electronic books, that means a different number per file type. Seriously. So you’ll need one for the mobi, EPUB, and PDF versions.
“But wait, Amazon is no longer using mobi! I can skip that version, right?”
Good question. While it’s true we upload EPUB files to KDP now, they still get converted to mobi files for Amazon’s Kindle devices. Finding no answers on their site, I called the KDP folks to confirm. The representative I spoke to confirmed the KDP system queries the Books in Print database for the EPUB version. As long as the metadata you provide KDP matches what you used to register your ISBN, you don’t need to use an exclusive ISBN for Amazon any longer.
How Do I Purchase and Assign ISBNs?
In the United States, we can only purchase ISBNs from Bowker. Once you’ve purchased your ISBN(s), you log into their system to assign an ISBN to your book’s format. They have a helpful pdf guide on their site if you want a little extra information.
Outside of the US, you can use this link to find your ISBN agency: https://www.isbn-international.org/agencies.
Why did you buy 100 ISBNs?
Pragmatically, my first series is (will be) four books. For each, I plan to create a paperback, ebook, and eventually, an audio book version. I’m also considering a hardback version, but that may happen later. At a minimum, I’ll eventually need 12 ISBNs for my series. Next, volume pricing. The price difference between one and ten ISBNs is so ridiculous I don’t know why anyone would pay $125 for a single number vs $29.50 per number. The volume pricing continues with each step up; my 100 ISBNs cost $5.75 each.
Aspirationally, I am serious about my writing. I have a spin-off series building in my mind, and a completely different series I’ve been itching to write for a couple of years. I have hopes for fans who will appreciate 10-year anniversary editions of my books. Besides the adult books, I may pursue independent publishing for my children’s books. My stockpile of ISBNs is a step toward a fulfilling and prolific writing career. Who knows? With luck, I’ll purchase another hundred at some point.
Header Photo by Kimberly Farmer on Unsplash