The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a 13-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.
Every ISBN will consist of thirteen digits in 2007. The thirteen
digit number is divided into five parts of variable length, each part
separated by a hyphen.
The five parts of an ISBN are as follows:
1. The current ISBN-13 will be prefixed by "978"
2. Group or country identifier which identifies a national or geographic grouping of publishers;
3. Publisher identifier which identifies a particular publisher within a group;
4. Title identifier which identifies a particular title or edition of a title;
5. Check digit is the single digit at the end of the ISBN which validates the ISBN.
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.
Once an ISBN publisher prefix and associated block of numbers has
been assigned to a publisher by the ISBN Agency, the publisher can
assign ISBNs to publications it holds publishing rights to. However,
after the ISBN Agency assigns ISBNs to a publisher, that publisher
cannot resell, re-assign, transfer, or split its list of ISBNs among
other publishers. These guidelines have been established to ensure
the veracity, accuracy and continued utility of the international ISBN
standard.
As defined by the ISO Standard, the ISBN publisher prefix (or "root"
of the ISBN) identifies a single publisher. If a second publisher
subsequently obtains an ISBN from the assigned publisher's block of
ISBNs, there will be no change in the publisher of record for any ISBN
in the block as originally assigned. Therefore, searches of industry
databases for that re-assigned ISBN will identify the original owner of
that assigned prefix as the publisher rather than the second publisher.
Discovering this consequence too late can lead to extensive costs in
applying for a new prefix, re-assigning a new ISBN, and potentially
leading to the application of stickers to books already printed and in
circulation.
If you are a new publisher, apply for your own ISBN
publisher prefix and plan to identify and circulate your books properly
in the industry supply chain. You may encounter offers from other
sources to purchase single ISBNs at special offer prices; you should be
wary of purchasing from these sources for the reasons noted above. There
are unauthorized re-sellers of ISBNs and this activity is a violation
of the ISBN standard and of industry practice. A publisher with one of
these re-assigned ISBNs will not be correctly identified as the
publisher of record in Books In Print or any of the industry databases
such as Barnes and Noble or Amazon or those of wholesalers such as
Ingram. If you have questions, contact the US ISBN Agency for further
advice.
To purchase an ISBN:
There are 2 ways to get a ISBN:
1. Buy From Us PrintPapa: Once you place the order for your book, and
you have chosen this option, then all you have to do is fill the ISBN application form to
provide all the details about the book. Sit back and relax and we do
the rest. We will register your book detail in the ISBN directory,
generate a unique ISBN number, generate a barcode, embed the barcode
into the back side of the cover, and send you a PDF Proof. Please note
this takes around 2 to 3 days once you submit the ISBN
application form.
Note: If you use this method then our name will be listed as the
Publisher with Bowker. You still keep complete control of your book,
retain all rights and profits
OR
2. Buy Directly from Bowker: Your name or company name will be listed
as the publisher. It will cost you around $150 or more for both the
ISBN and the Barcode, plus you will need graphics design expertise to
embed the bardcode into the cover page.
You must have an ISBN number for your book in order to be listed by any online retailers:
Amazon.com offers a program called "Amazon.com Advantage" that will allow you to sell your book through their website. It is free to join this program.
In order for your book listed at Barnes and Noble.com you must first become listed as a "Vendor of Record" with their warehouse.
If you find that your book is listed by either
www.amazon.com or www.barnesandnoble.com but they are not displaying the cover
image or description you can submit them. For information on submitting your cover art or book description:
Amazon.com: visit their Publishers and Book Sellers Guide.
Barnes and Noble: visit their Publisher & Author Guidelines.