Re: ISBN #

--- In [email protected], "Lee Passey" <lee@...> wrote:
> 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.).

I'm sure they do, given that they sell them.
A few years ago, Bowker hit me up for $800 for 100 ISBNs. (I tried to tell them they were just numbers and weren't even gold-plated, but Bowker wouldn't listen.)
I don't know what ISBNs cost now, but if they were only two bucks each I wouldn't waste them by slapping one on each format.

> Of course, there is nothing magical about ISBNs, and these rules are
> frequently violated.

Not a rule. Not a law. Just a Bowker suggestion that they'd love to see become a rule or a law. $$$$$$$

> 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.

Yup. Definitely.

> 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.

Again, yup. And consider that the places that sell the largest numbers of my titles (Fictionwise and similar others) don't require ISBNs, though my titles have them. Most are indie marketers whose businesses are based in genres. Fictionwise alone has been worth *many* thousands of dollars to me over the last decade. They know their stuff when it comes to ebook marketing and I very much hope they survive being absorbed by BN.

The places that DO require ISBNs seem to be mostly big outfits who are new to ebook marketing. For all their huge Internet presence, they haven't shown me much at all in the way of sales.
Ed
Ed Howdershelt - Abintra Press
Science Fiction & Semi-Fiction
http://www.AbintraPress.com




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