Don’t fall for this. I just saw a post today on LinkedIn that pretty well demanded that you buy your own ISBNs from Bowker. While buying a few ISBNs isn’t all that terribly pricey, you need to remember that every dime you spend on your book is a dime you have to earn back before you break even, much less make a profit.
How Much Are Those Bowker ISBNs?
- 1 ISBN - $125 – Well, except for this one. This is ridiculous. $125 for a single ISBN. They’re dreaming. In order to pay for this one ISBN, I’d need to sell 61 ebooks.
- 10 ISBNs - $295 – Essentially costs 143 books.
- 100 ISBNs - $575 – Costs 279 books.
- 1000 ISBNs - $1500 – Costs 728 books.
You Need an ISBN for Every Version of Your Book
It isn’t one ISBN per book. It’s one ISBN per VERSION of your book. This means that if you have an ebook, paperback, hardback and audiobook for your title, you need 4 ISBNs, not one. If I had done that for my little bitey series, and I actually had all four of those versions for every book, I would have gone through 84 ISBNs. If I did that for every book I’ve published to date, I’d need somewhere in the ballpark of 150 ISBNs. That means I’d have purchased two batches of 100 for $1,150, assuming I had that kind of money. In reality, if I needed to buy my own ISBNs, I’d still be saving for them.
I Have Yet to Find a Publisher That Doesn’t Have Free ISBNs
I have yet to find an independent publisher that doesn’t offer free ISBNs. Amazon has them. Barnes and Noble has them. Kobo has them. The caveat is that for each platform where you publish, you’ll need to get a new ISBN from them. You can’t use your Amazon ISBNs at Barnes and Noble or Kobo or vice-versa. The ISBNs that you get for free are site-specific. You cannot reuse them between sites.
Do You Need a New Book Cover and Title for Every Site, if You Get Free ISBNs?
I have no freaking idea. Honestly, after seven years of full-time publishing, the first time I ever heard of this was from some randos on LinkedIn. I’m not putting too much stock into that, and an Internet search of that exact question, pulled up jack shit. Or rather, it pulled up what I already knew. You need a new free ISBN for every publishing platform and every version of your book on each specific platform. I guess, if you have wrap-around book covers that include everything, you’ll need a new book cover because you need to change the ISBN and the barcode on the back cover. If you’re using separate front and back covers where the platform slaps that shit on the back cover for you, then no, I don’t think you need new book covers, but to be honest, I don’t know where they’re getting that. I sure as hell can’t find it.
The other thing is that you can just click the EXPANDED DISTRIBUTION checkbox on Amazon for your paperback. You’ll find your books in a lot of places if you click that. I’ve found mine on Barnes and Noble and Booksamillion, and the titles that I see on those sites aren’t ones that I manually uploaded before expanded distribution was a thing. And a quick search of one title tells me that some books may also be on eBay, bookshop world and better world…. Whatever that is. So, you can avoid the whole mess just by checking that expanded distribution button.
The whole point here is to watch what you spend on your book. I’ve covered this in numerous articles. Every dollar you spend on your book is a dollar you have to earn back before you break even. If you want to continue reading on this topic, look at: