Back to the Books: ISBN and Barcodes

Ok, at last I'm getting back to my self publishing adventure thus far.

In my previous post I just gave a quick blurb about ISBNs and Barcodes you need for self publishing. Do be sure to check out ISBN.org you'll find lot of important information there.

I'm not simply going to send you off there and let you do figure everything out, nay, I've already done some of that. Especially with the barcoding, they go hand in hand. You can't simply have your ISBN. You can, but without the barcode it pretty much defeats the purpose of trying to publish your book for real.

RR Bowker also has Bowker Barcode Service there are others out there, but I'm just going with them for ease of posting.

Barcoding is a pretty simple thing. Once you have your ISBN assigned to your book, you take the number and use a barcode generator, that such a service would offer. They use your ISBN and, well, generate your barcode. They then send the code off to you, however they will.

So now you have your book, your very own ISBN(s) and a barcode. What's next?

Next will be putting it all together. But first, a special note on ISBNs!

ISBN SPECIAL ALERT!

When it comes to publishing whomever buys the ISBN associated with a book is considered the publisher. Period.

There are services and companies out there that offer ISBN's for sale "affordably priced". The honest ones will eventually tell you the catch, the shadyones won't tell you a thing.

What these places do is buy ISBNs in large numbers from RR Bowker and get a volume discount. They then turn around and sell the numbers individually or at "reduced" prices and make a profit.

What this means for you is, when it comes to the big publishing picture, these companies are considered the publisher of your book. In all the databases and everything your book is attached to their company/or whatever name they registered not you.

Furthermore, very few companies are authorized with RR Bowker to sell individual ISBNs. One being Lulu.com

Anyother company or individual offering ISBNs for sale WILL BE CONSIDERED THE PUBLISHER OF YOUR BOOK.

So always besure to proceed with caution and read everything that affects your works.

When next I post, It'll be on to layout, design, and printing! YAY!