Publishingathome

A Quick Guide to ISBNs for Self-Publishers

Jennifer Tribe

ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. It is a code assigned to every published book that uniquely identifies it in the marketplace. ISBNs make it easier and more efficient for libraries, booksellers and others in the publishing industry to order, distribute and catalog books.

When To Use an ISBN

You need to assign an ISBN to any content you intend to distribute through outside channels such as bookstores, catalogues or libraries. ISBNs should be placed on

-- print books

-- electronic books

-- videos

-- audio cassettes and CDs

-- CD-ROMs, and

-- other items as detailed by the International ISBN Agency.

You need to issue a separate ISBN for each edition of your book and for every format. For example, if you issued the same book as a print book, e-book, audio book and Braille book, you would require a separate identifier for each. If one year later, you updated the manuscript and re-issued the book, you would assign new ISBNs to this second edition in each of its different formats.

Deciphering the Numbering System

All ISBNs are currently 10 digits. (The industry will slowly be transitioning to a 13-digit system starting in 2005. See http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/isbn/transition.asp for more information on the change.)

The digits identify

-- the group (country, area or language area of the publisher)

-- the publisher, and

-- the title of the item.

The last digit is a check digit.

The group number is comprised of one to three digits. Zero is the number for the English language group that includes the United States, English-speaking Canada, the U.K., Australia and other countries.

The publisher number is comprised of two to seven digits. The more ISBNs a publisher uses, the small their publisher number.

Publishers that use more than 100,000 ISBNs are given a publisher number of only two digits. If you apply for 10 or fewer ISBNs, you will be assigned a publisher number with seven digits. Everyone else falls somewhere in the middle.

Thus anyone in the book trade can look at an ISBN and know roughly how big you are as a publisher by the number of ISBNs you have applied to use. This is why self-publishing gurus like Dan Poynter recommend acquiring your ISBNs in blocks of 100 to avoid being labeled small potatoes.

Poynter further recommends that you use an ISBN from the middle of your list of 100 for your first book, since a 0 or 1 as your title number will reveal you as a first-timer.

The check digits range from one to 10. Since there is space for only one check digit, the number 10 is represented by an X.

How To Acquire ISBNs

ISBNs in the United States are administered by R.R. Bowker. Bowker charges a fee to process your application. Ten ISBNs cost $225; 100 ISBNs cost $800. Visit www.bowker.com for more information, or to complete an application.

ISBNs in Canada are administered by the National Public Library as a free service. Visit http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/isbn/index-e.html for more information or to apply on-line.

For more information on the ISBN system and how it works, visit www.isbn.org.

About The Author

Juiced Consulting helps business owners package what they know into information products - such as books, audiotapes and teleclasses - that they can sell to generate new business revenue. For a free newsletter and other resources, visit www.juicedconsulting.com.

Lulu.com Makes Self-Publishing Easy and Affordable

If you want to self-publish your work, then you must check out the www.Lulu.com website. Lulu.com offers free, on-demand publishing for books, e-books, music, images, calendars, and more and also provides a marketplace for independently published content.

The latest endeavor of Red Hat co-founder Bob Young, Lulu (www.Lulu.com) is a web site that allows people to publish and sell their own books, e-books, images, multimedia and music. Lulu provides the creators and owners of content businesses, educators, artists, musicians, and others with control over how they use and share their work. The Lulu brand is derived from the concept of a "lulu," which is an old-fashioned term for a remarkable person, object or idea. The enterprise is driven by Young's strong belief that improving access to information creates a firmer foundation for knowledge advancement, whether in education, computer code, or other realms.

Founded at the end of 2002, as of June 2006 Lulu continues to grow rapidly, with over 45,000 books lining its virtual bookshelves. Independent authors and publishers publish more than 167,000 new titles every month, in addition to thousands of songs, images, calendars, and other projects.

Linda Locke
Publishingathome.com

Find a Literary Agent or Self Publish: How to Decide

by Fern Reiss

So, you've finally finished your book. Now, do you try to find a literary agent--or do you self publish? What are the tradeoffs? I give all-day Publishing Game workshops on this topic--but here are just a few things to consider:

* Cachet. Being able to refer to your literary agent and publisher is now, and probably always will be, more impressive than publishing yourself. When someone at a cocktail party asks what you do, if you can say, "I'm an author, HarperCollins published my latest book," that's classy. When I say, "I'm PublishingGame.com," it's just cute. So it depends on your goals; if you're in it for the prestige, the traditional literary agent/big publisher route is probably best for you.

* Control. If you want to control the details of your book--the editing, the cover design, even the content--you need to self-publish. Although the best publishers give you some input, you're never able to control all the details unless you're publishing yourself.

* Profits. If you have a clear sense of who your audience is, and how you can reach them, you might be able to generate much more income from your book by doing it yourself. When you work with a large publisher, you make only 10% of list price (and the agent takes 15% of that.) So the book that sells for $10 retail is netting you--85 cents. As a self-publisher, you keep all those profits--so that same $10 book, once you've paid off the middlemen who sell to the bookstores and libraries, will generate at least $4.50, or as much as $8 or $9 for books sold back of the room at talks or directly over your website. You can be just 10% as successful as a large publisher--and make the same amount! (The downside is that you'll also incur all the financial risk. With a big publisher, you may not make money, but you won't lose it either.) Still, there are over 100,000 small publishers in the US today, and we're generating over $14 billion annually in book sales. You can be one of us.

* Speed. Mainstream publishing is painfully slow. Even after you find a literary agent and publisher, the time lag between their acceptance of your manuscript and the final publication of your book could easily be as long as two to three years. Be sure your topic won't wither in that period of time. (My book, Terrorism and Kids: Comforting Your Child came out one week after 9/11. All the big publisher books on 9/11 came out nine months later, way too late for the market--and most of those books ended up being remaindered.)

* Shelf Life. With a big publisher, you have no control over the shelf life of your book. Most books today--even those which receive huge advances of money--have a bookstore shelf-life of only eight months. So if you want your book to be around for longer, you need to consider self-publishing. (I turned down a six-figure advance for my book, The Infertility Diet: Get Pregnant and Prevent Miscarriage, because I was concerned that it would be yanked from shelves prematurely. By self-publishing, I was able to ensure that it stayed in print--and on bookstore shelves--forever. That book has now been selling for six years--and it still sells like hotcakes.)

* Business. If you like to write, but you have no interest in business, leave the publishing to someone else. Self-publishing is a business. To make money at it, you need to like those sorts of business things. (You may, on the other hand, find that you love those sorts of business things--I have!)

* Publicity. Finally, no matter which way you ultimately decide to publish your book, remember that you--and you alone--are responsible for your book's publicity. No matter how much money the big publisher throws your way, it's unlikely that they'll be doing any publicity for your title. (In fact, several large publishing houses are now buying my small press book, The Publishing Game: Bestseller in 30 Days and giving it to their authors to encourage them to do some publicity on their own!) If you want your book to sell, and sell well, you'll need to learn how to do book promotion. Fortunately, it's a learnable skill, and with a little practice, you'll get good at it.

Finally, remember that publishing is a game. Whichever way you decide to publish, sit back, relax, and enjoy the experience!

Fern Reiss is the author of The Publishing Game book series, and leader of the popular Publishing Game Workshops. For more information, visit http://www.PublishingGame.com