MAP Group member, Gloria Hander Lyons, offers the following information about ISBN's and barcodes, which are excerpts from her book, Self-Publishing on a Budget.
International Standard Book Numbers
You
will need to obtain an ISBN (International Standard Book Number) for your book
if you plan to sell it through major retail chains, bookstores and
distributors.
You
must submit an application to R. R. Bowker Company to apply for a publisher
prefix number (the first eleven numbers in a 13-digit ISBN). The applications
are available online at: www.isbn.org.
This
13-digit number identifies the publisher (you), the book title, and the author.
It is important that you obtain your own ISBN rather than using one issued by
your printing company or subsidy publisher, because these numbers are assigned
to publishers. In other words, for as long as your book is in print, the
“publisher of record” and their contact information is determined by the ISBN
printed on the copyright page of the book.
Anytime
someone wants information about your book or wants to discuss a business deal
regarding it, they will contact R. R. Bowker (Books in Print) to get the official publisher’s name, address and
phone number.
You
are not officially a self-publisher unless you are using your own ISBN’s and
are listed as the “publisher of record” for your book.
ISBN’s are purchased in blocks of ten numbers for $250.00
(at the time of this printing). You can also purchase just one ISBN for $125.00.
Learn more about ISBN’s and how to purchase them online at: www.isbn.org
You
will receive a log book by e-mail, listing your ten numbers. Print a copy of it
and keep it in a safe place. As you write your books, assign one number to each
book. You will also need to assign a different ISBN to each edition of your
book (i.e. soft cover or hard cover, comb binding or perfect binding).
If
you later decide to make major revisions to your book, assign a different ISBN
to this new edition. Once assigned, an ISBN cannot be reassigned, even if the
book is out of print.
Your
log book is a permanent record of all the ISBN’s you have assigned. As
mentioned before, keep it in a safe place.
After
assigning an ISBN to your book, you will need to register the title and
information with R. R. Bowker, so they will list your book’s details in Books in Print. This is a directory of
all books published in the U.S. that have ISBN’s. The website is: www.bowkerlink.com.
Bar
Codes
If
you plan to sell your book through major retail chains, bookstores and
distributors, then you will need to obtain an EAN Bookland bar code to place on
the back cover.
This
bar code is created from the book’s ISBN. For a fee, your book printer should
be able to create the bar code and place it on your cover. Some book printers,
like CreateSpace.com, offer this service for free.
You
can also find services online that will create a bar code and send it to you as
an electronic file so you can place it on your cover before it is printed. Or
they can print the bar code onto labels for you to apply to the back cover of
each book yourself.
R.
R. Bowker (www.bowker.com) offers a
bar code service. The cost is $25.00 for each ISBN (at the time of this printing)
for creating the electronic file.
