Before going to publish your e-book or paper book you should to obtain an ISBN number. This is not a law, but it is a golden rule of book publishing. Do you want your book be listed in international catalog so it can be visible in any country of the world for a first request? Then go and buy your own ISBN number.
It is not obligatory to have an ISBN number for your book, especially for books which are not intended for a market, but does that make any sense to create a book which you will never sell? Sometimes, yes. For example, if you create a FREE downloadable manual for your website, it is not necessary to buy an ISBN number. That little FREE manual could persist only promotional purpose. Lets say, a little bit about ISBN.
ISBN – International Standard Book Numbers a unique numeric commercial book identifier based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering (SBN) code created by Gordon Foster, now Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin, for the booksellers and stationers W.H. Smith and others in 1966.
The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO 2108. (However, the 9-digit SBN code was used in the United Kingdom until 1974.) Currently, the ISO’s TC 46/SC 9 is responsible for the ISBN. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978.
Since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland EAN-13s. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure; however, this is usually later rectified.
A similar numeric identifier, the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN), identifies periodical publications such as magazines. You can purchase a single ISBN number from $125, or, you can get a discount by purchasing a block of 10 or more ISBNs through the Web site ISBN.org. You can also opt your ISBN numbers here: Selfpublishing
operate as a publisher
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 again, 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.
As you can see ISBN is a marketing tool for all for booksellers and distributors, so if you are going to establish your own e-book market you’d better think about obtaining ISBN in pack.
Another recommendation for a first time publishers and writers is to buy ISBN on your own publishing company’s name. If you are new publisher, you should apply for your own ISBN publisher prefix and plan to identify and circulate your books properly in the industry supply chain.
If you haven’t registered your own book publishing entity yet then go and do it. Register your own LLC to operate as an independent business facility, as a publisher. Remember, that opting ISBN on your own publishing company’s name you are registering another legal claim on your own name and that asserts an additional proof of your copyrights.
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