How to Get an ISBN Number
The other day I wrote a little blog post about tips for those in the self publishing field, one of which was to ensure that your self published book had all the correct paraphernalia such as an ISBN number and so forth. It only just occurred to me that some people, particularly if they are only just beginning to consider going the self publishing route for their work, might not even fully understand what an ISBN number is, let alone how to go about getting one, so I thought “I know, I’ll write a blog about it”. Oh, the power!
Basically, an ISBN number is the International Standard Book Number, which is a unique identifier for every book embedded in the barcode on the back cover (regardless of whether it is hardback, paperback, eBook, or even audio book format). Books which came out before 2007 had ten digits, while today the ISBN number (yes, I know that basically reads the International Standard Book Number, but that’s how everyone else writes it, so don’t get pernickety with me) consists of 13 digits. If you want to sell your self published book through booksellers either online or in the real world, you will need an ISBN number.
ISBN numbers can be purchased online and take about ten days to go through. A single ISBN number costs about 118 UK pounds (ex VAT) and UK authors must purchase via the Nielsen ISBN Registration Agency.
A quick note of anyone thinking of using us:
Please note that if you are thinking of using our publishing service then you do not need to purchase an ISBN number as we provide you with one of our own that is included in our publishing package. We cannot use ISBN’s that are purchased beforehand by the author.