Importance of ISBN in Book Publication
Book publishing industry is becoming multidimensional all across the world, as more and more authors are coming out with interesting and innovative subjects for their book. Self-publishing industry is growing in order to provide fair opportunities to promising authors. Self-publishing can be an exciting gateway for new authors to get their book out to the readers as ISBN plays a vital role in the book marketing for self-published authors. So, it might be useful for all the self-published authors to know all about ISBN. ISBN first came into existence as a way of organizing books in a computerized warehouse. It is also very important for the circulation of the book in the market.
Let’s take a look at the importance of an ISBN for your book:
- Unique Identifier for Your Book: ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is a 13-digit numeric code that serves as an internationally applicable unique identifier for books. It means that a published book can be pulled up from records with all important details like title, author’s name, page number, cover, edition, binding specification etc. using this unique number from any part of the world.
- Structure of ISBN: The 13 digit ISBN number comprises the following elements and hence is vital to the listing and tracking of the book:
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- Prefix element – The first 3 digit of ISBN is the prefix element.
- Registration group element – The second element in the ISBN system is the registrant group that identifies the country, geographical region, or language area the book comes from.
- Registrant element – The third element of the ISBN identifies a particular publisher or imprint within a registration group.
- Publication element – The fourth element identifies a specific edition of a publication by a specific publisher.
- Check digit – The fifth element of the ISBN is the check digit which is the final single digit that mathematically validates the rest of the number.
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- Impact of ISBN in Distribution- ISBN is an essential element n distribution. Most bookstores will not feature or sell any book that is not first listed within their warehouse database. To get there, your book must have a unique ISBN. Your book should have an ISBN, if you want to put it up for worldwide distribution through Amazon, Ingram and other such platforms. Multi-channel distribution is not possible without an ISBN, because that is the only way of finding your book. Who doesn’t know the importance of distribution in boosting sales in case of self-published books?
- The Benefit of ISBN in Listing: If your book has an ISBN, you can refer it anywhere for e.g. libraries and in-house bookstores. You can edit or update contents (only minor changes though) but your book will still be pulled out with the unique identifier, without having to undergo massive re-distribution. An ISBN also provides maintenance, storage and access to bibliographic databases. Besides this, most online readers’ forum and book cataloging sites like Goodreads, Reddit etc. will ask you for an ISBN number, if you want your book to be a part of their system. A major advantage to upload your book with ISBN is that a reader can directly buy your book from online distributors. Apart from that, it also avoids duplicate listing.
- ISBN in Sales and Marketing- Ordering and sales tracking of books are mainly executed by ISBN. This is a fast and efficient method. So, ISBN s an absolute necessity for multi-channel distribution. Although most distribution channels like Amazon, Kobo, Ingram, Google Play etc provide ISBN of their own but these are distributors’ ISBN and specific to their platforms. Therefore, if you want to go for a multi-channel distribution (which is needed for a wide visibility of your book), you cannot do that. For example you cannot use Kindle ISBN with Google or the other way round. Though many writers rely on distributors’ ISBNs but it is always a good idea to have a unifying ISBN that is valid globally and works on both online and offline stores as books that are sold through conventional bookshops almost always require an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) to ensure order processing is completed smoothly, reliably. So, having an ISBN naturally gives you ease and efficiency with sales tracking, thus making it absolutely inseparable in book marketing for self-published authors.
With the virtue of having an ISBN you book can be found and referred widely and beyond your lifetime. In other words, an ISBN renders your work technically immortal. Even after years, your book can be discovered from literary database only with the help of an ISBN.
