Well firstly, as a new writer looking at the different publishing options, everyday there seems to be something new I need to learn when it comes to advertising the book, and ISBN options are one of them!
Secondly, apart from seeing them on the back of books, I had no idea what the point of them were (yep, sad but true! lol) as I was more interested in spending time creating my books rather than thinking about what happens when I've finished them.
If you don't know (like myself a few months ago)...an ISBN is "The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a 10-digit number that uniquely identifies books and book-like products published internationally.
The purpose of the ISBN is to establish and identify one title or edition of a title from one specific publisher and is unique to that edition, allowing for more efficient marketing of products by booksellers, libraries, universities, wholesalers and distributors.
There are over 160 ISBN Agencies worldwide, and each ISBN Agency is appointed as the exclusive agent responsible for assigning ISBNs to publishers residing in their country or geographic territory. The United States ISBN Agency is the only source authorized to assign ISBNs to publishers supplying an address in the United States, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico and its database establishes the publisher of record associated with each prefix.
If you are a new publisher, you should apply for your own ISBN publisher prefix and plan to identify and circulate your books properly in the industry supply chain.
The ISBN Agency assigns ISBNs at the direct request of publishers, e-book publishers, audio cassette and video producers, software producers and museums and associations with publishing programs".
Source (in black): http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/isbn/us/isbnqa.asp
Through my own research I have realised that choosing to use a free ISBN service from one of these self publishing website depends on two things:
- Do you want to have your own "imprint of record" on your printed books? or;
- Do you not care if the website publishing your book is the "imprint of the record"?
Createspace offers this service (for printed books), however, through a few enquiring emails, I have found that should you take their free ISBN service, they have replied,
This translated means:
- They will give you a free ISBN number for the books you upload and want them to print, however, due to the ISBN belong solely to Createspace, they will be the brand/trade publishing name (e.g. like Marvel Comics, Penguin books, Simon & Schuster, etc.),
- You cannot use their free ISBN service if you want to have another brand/trade publishing name on your book and;
- You can not use your free ISBN with any other other services
The Pro's
The pros of a free CS ISBN include the fact that it's free. Also, you don't have to do any registration with Bowker; CS takes care of that. The Con's
The cons are that you can't take that ISBN with you to another printer because CS owns it. CS is listed as the imprint of record, although they will not allow you to state anywhere that they are the publisher of your book.
Also, if you plan to publish more than one book and want to create your own imprint, purchasing and registering your own ISBNs would be preferable.
I used Createspace (they specialise in print books. Kindle is best for eBooks and these do not need ISBNs) throughout this blog as I have the most experience with them and have read mixed reviews about them.
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