Re: ISBN #

On Tue, January 18, 2011 9:43 am, Tommy wrote:

> Are ISBN#'s the same for e-books as they are for printed publications
> and do you need to get two different numbers to publish in both
> printed and electronic format?

According to the International ISBN Agency, yes (see,
http://isbn-international.org/faqs/view/7#q_2). In fact, not only do they want
you to have separate ISBNs for print and digital, they want you to have
different ISBNs for each digital format you produce (ePub, PDF, MobiPocket,
Nook, Lit, etc.).

Of course, there is nothing magical about ISBNs, and these rules are
frequently violated. Baen Books uses the same ISBN for each title whether in
paperback or any of their digital formats. There are tons of e-books on
Amazon.com that don't have ISBNs and are tracked instead by ASIN. Most book
club print editions do not have ISBNs.

There is no requirement that you get an ISBN to publish /any/ book; you only
need one if you want to play the ISBN game. In the U.S., having an ISBN gets
your book listed in Bowker's Books in Print. If that's important to you, you
will need to get a slew of ISBNs. I understand that there are some online
retailers that require ISBNs on e-books sold on their sites (Amazon is
obviously not one of these). If you want to sell in their stores, you have to
follow their rules.

The last digit of an ISBN is a checksum of the previous digits modulo 11. This
means that for every valid ISBN there are 10 invalid numbers which differ only
in the last digit (and when I say invalid, I do not mean they are not yet
assigned; I mean they can /never/ be used as ISBNs). If your online retailer
just wants a unique number to track your inventory (and perhaps payments) and
doesn't care if it's a valid ISBN or not, use your print ISBN and just change
the last digit (remember, if you do this be sure you have the acquiesence of
the retailer, and be prepared to track the meaning of the last digit on your
own).

What it all comes down to, is that whether you need a new ISBN or not is
really up to you; just ask yourself, "What's in it for me?" In any case,
there's no need to pay for a new ISBN until you really, absolutely, have to
have it. With print books it makes sense to get it at the outset (if you get
one at all) because you can't go back and add it later to a print run of
10,000 books. But e-books are immediately and infinitely malleable. When
someone comes to you and says, "I'm sorry, we can't sell this for you until
you get an ISBN," then go get an ISBN and slap it on. Until then, I wouldn't
bother.

> Thank You
> Tommy



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