Should You Buy an ISBN? A Guide for Self-Published Authors

This is a question that comes up a lot with new authors in the self published space. If you're book is going to be traditionally published, either through a small press or with one of the big New York City publishers, they handle ISBNs so you don't need to worry about it. As a self published author, whether you purchase an ISBN for your book is up to you.

 

 First, what is an ISBN?

 

ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. It's a unique way for your book to be identified. Multiple books can have the same title, but no two books can have the same ISBN.

 

If that sounds important, it is. Sort of.

 

If you're in the US, authors can purchase ISBNs from a company called Bowker (Click HERE to go to the site).

 

Authors can purchase ISBNs one at a time, in batches of 10, 100, or 1,000. Of course, the more you purchase, the cheaper they are.

 

 But with the rise of self publishing, online retailers have looked for ways to remove the cost barriers of publishing. One of the ways they do that is by offering to provide ISBNs at no charge.

 

Sounds great, right?

Well, that depends. If you're only publishing on one platform (usually Amazon) and you have no intention of ever publishing on any other platform, then maybe taking the free ISBN is a great option. Who cares what the ISBN is if it's only going to be for sale on Amazon?

 

But what if you want to publish your book on multiple retailers?

 

Well, they offer ISBNs as well. When you upload your book, you'll be asked if you want them to assign your book an ISBN or if you have your own. And again, it's free.

 

This all sounds great, so why would anyone buy an ISBN?

 

Let's say you decide to publish your book on Amazon, Apple, and Nook. If you decide to go with the free ISBN option offered by the retailers, your book will have a different ISBN on each retailer. On Amazon it will show Amazon as the publisher. On Apple, it will show Apple as the publisher. And on Nook, it will show Barnes and Noble as the publisher.

 

You get the idea. There's no consistency across all retailers even though it's the same book. 

 

Again, this may not matter to you. But it is important to decide what your long term writing goals are from the start. If you want to try one day for a run at one of the big lists, it might be a good idea to own your ISBN. If you want to build a publishing brand, you may want to have your own ISBN.

 

If you choose to take the free ISBN, then later decide to purchase your own for whatever reason, you will loose any reviews you've accumulated under the free ISBN. Given how important reviews are and how difficult they can be to get for self published authors, that alone could be a deciding factor.

 

Personally, I choose to buy my own ISBN. I bought a block of 100 almost 10 years ago and I'm still working my way through them.

 

It was the right decision for me, but that is something each author will have to decide for themselves.