ISBN 101

Hello Dear Readers!

Today I want to talk about ISBN numbers. I know I tend to be notoriously long winded, so I will try to keep this one short and to the point.

I am part of an online community of independently published authors and I have seen this question come up a few times recently so I wanted to take a stab at answering it. “Do I need an ISBN? Should I just use the one I can get from Amazon?” Well, to answer that, let’s make sure we know what an ISBN is and why you need one in the first place.

ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. This is typically a 13 digit number which gets assigned to books and book-esque things. (This is not the same as a barcode.) Think books, magazines, audiobooks, comic books, etc. This number is unique to not only each book, but each edition or format of a book. So if you publish a book, the paperback edition needs a different ISBN than the hardcover, which also needs a different ISBN than the audiobook. As of right now ebooks do NOT require an ISBN number but can be assigned one; there are some mixed opinions of whether you should bother using an ISBN number for an ebook or not. We might touch on that later.

Think of the ISBN number as kind of a serial number or fingerprint to a published work. It makes your book official. This is helpful because you can find an exact edition of book with this number. Numbers are never re-used so even if a book is out of print, the information about it could still be tracked down, including title, author, publication date, etc by libraries and book sellers. Handy, right? All that information is logged when an ISBN number is assigned to an asset. Whoever owns the serial number gets to assign it to whatever asset they want and establishes that data. (Book, audiobook, etc.)

So who do you get an ISBN number from? In each country, there is one agency who assigns and manages ISBN numbers for all publishers, including self publishers. I can’t speak to other countries but in the United States that entity is Bowker. Not Amazon. Not some other publisher or publishing agent. Bowker.

Now… anyone can buy an ISBN number from Bowker and then “sell you” the ISBN number. This is where authors, especially independent authors need to beware. Once an ISBN number is purchased it can’t actually be sold or traded to another individual. They are only selling you the ability to use the ISBN number, and there is a difference. (The rules are a bit different if one company or one publisher is bought out by another). See this statement from Bowker at ISBN.org:

”ISBNs cannot be transferred on an individual basis. If a self-publisher wants to be identified as the publisher, the self-publisher must get their own ISBN. A printing company or publisher services company cannot sell, give away or transfer one of their ISBNs to a customer.”

Now you might be saying “Ok, but so what? ISBNs are expensive. Why should I care if I use Amazon’s ISBN?” I’ll tell you why! My understanding is that the original purchaser can fill in your information, but on the back end, they technically still own the ISBN number, and therefore may own part or all of the distribution rights to the book. They do not own the book itself, but can limit where your book can be available. Let’s use Amazon as an example of how this plays out.

Amazon will “give” you an ISBN number for your self-published book if you publish through them. However, like we just learned above, that means they own the ISBN number. Amazon can (and does) stipulate that you cannot sell a certain amount or percentage of copies outside their platform. (Someone online recently told me no more than 10% of sales can happen off Amazon or some such.) Because Amazon owns the ISBN they limit how widely you can distribute your book. I don’t know about you, but if I wrote a book and I were to self-publish, I would get really cranky if someone told me I could or couldn’t sell my book someplace or sell more than a certain amount or some other arbitrary corporate restriction that is designed to benefit the company and not me.

If YOU go to Bowker and purchase your ISBN directly, you have complete control over your book’s metadata and much more control over where your book gets listed or distributed. You can move your book to different printers or platforms without needing a new ISBN every time, making data collection and tracking much more reliable. Plus you have a very clear record of ownership for your material.

In my humble opinion, ISBNs are really not that expensive in the grand scheme of publishing. You can buy a 10 pack for $295. If you want to buy just one it’s $125. To me, it is worth the peace of mind to spend between $100-$300 to make sure that I own the distribution rights to my book and I get to control the metadata associated with my book. I also firmly believe it will save me any headaches or frustration down the road.

Also, for what it’s worth, you can keep the same ISBN number and change your cover art, change your internal formatting, and correct typos or make very minor changes to the text without needing to get a new one, so there is some wiggle room to change a few things down the road if you’re worried about not having the budget for your dream cover, or maybe couldn’t hire an editor at this time.

Anyway, I’ve rambled enough and I think you get the jist. Hopefully this gives you some information and now you feel equipped to make an informed decision about whether buying your own ISBN numbers for your books is right for you. ^_^

Till next time, Happy Self-Publishing! <3 Tiff

P.S. I forgot to talk about if you should get an ISBN for your ebook!

A lot of what I learned has been through self research and also with the guidance of my publishing coach. I paid a consultant who specializes in helping independent authors self-publish to help me make sure I did things right the first time and didn’t run into any common pitfalls when I first published A Songbird’s Tale in 2023. At the time, my coach did not recommend using an ISBN on the ebook edition of your book.

I actually have to disagree with him on this one. I spent some time looking to see what other authors were doing and I believe several trad publishers do use ISBNs for their ebooks. I’m not saying everything we, as independent authors, do has to mirror what a trad publisher does, but in this case, if they are doing it, maybe I should, too? Especially with everything going on right now with AI, and IP theft, anything I can do to strengthen my claim to my own intellectual material feels like an added safety measure to me. I went ahead and used one of my ISBN numbers I purchased in my ten pack for my ebook. It brought me a little extra peace of mind.

Ultimately, make the decision that is right for you! My coach said not to worry about it. I went ahead and did it anyway. Do what you think is best. That’s one of the best parts of self-publishing anyway! Cheers!