(This is abbreviated text from The Global Indie Author.)
The high cost for individual ISBNs in some jurisdictions versus the inexpensiveness of a block of 1000 ISBNs — costing as little as $1.00 per unit — has created an opportunity for vanity press (“author services”) companies and ebook aggregators to offer free ISBNs to their clients. Most vanity publishers, in fact, make use of their ISBN mandatory. But there is a hidden cost to accepting this ISBN: by doing so the indie author is technically no longer self-publishing: the vanity press or aggregator becomes the publisher of record. This has legal as well as practical implications.
Legally, as the publisher of record the vanity press or aggregator is entitled to reproduce and distribute your book as they see fit, within the parameters of your contract with them. Some contracts give the publisher full control over pricing and distribution, while others allow the author to set the price and to opt in or out of specific retail channels. Whichever it may be, you need to read the contract carefully to understand exactly what you are handing over when you accept a “free” ISBN. This is not to say you should not accept the ISBN, only that you should be aware of what it means to do so.
The Not-So-Non-Exclusive Contract
Most of these publishing contracts will state they are “non-exclusive” and, while it is true that you are not prohibited from entering into a similar contract with another publisher to publish your title, or to publish directly to another retailer, you and the various publishers cannot publish the same book with a different ISBN attached as this would create confusion in the marketplace. Instead, you must change the book in some fundamental way for each publisher: usually this means a different cover, but it can also be the size of the print book — for example the mass market paperback instead of the 6” x 9” trade paperback — or it can be the digital format, the PDF instead of the ePub for example. So instead of paying for your own ISBN, you pay for multiple covers or book designs. Not very sensible.
The “non-exclusive” contract is thus actually exclusive as it pertains to your title/format combination. You can offer the same title across multiple publishers, but not the same book. Which is something none of the vanity publishers or aggregators want you to know and none will tell you until you run into problems.
ISBNs are Not Transferable
If you accept a publisher’s ISBN, you cannot use their ISBN to distribute your book directly to other sales channels: you do not own the ISBN, and doing so is a breach of your contract with the aggregator. You also cannot use the ISBN your aggregator assigns to your ePub and use it for your Kindle book: again, this is not permissible, and also the ePub and Kindle are different formats.
Books in Print Database
If you publish your title to multiple formats, but only one format (the vanity publisher’s or aggregator’s) has an ISBN attached, only that format will show up in the Books in Print database. This means you cannot tie all the formats together so that, at a glance, a library for example can tell what formats the book is available in. They will only know about the registered format and will thus not be presented with the option to buy other formats.
Also, some aggregators only provide Books in Print with the minimum information required by the registry. You will find the title and author, and of course the aggregator listed as the publisher, but optional information like a synopsis or contributor bio will be absent from the record.
Brand Promotion
The primary reason vanity publishers and ebook aggregators want you to use their ISBN is because doing promotes their brand. If you look on any retail site you will see the publisher listed in the book’s information; if the publisher is also listed in the format, their name may be displayed as prominently as the author’s.
In this respect I take issue with the aggregator Smashwords, who, while claiming that accepting their ISBN does not make them your publisher, nevertheless make it mandatory that authors put “Smashwords Edition” on the book’s copyright page: as you now know, “edition” denotes the publisher/format combination. Smashwords even require author/publishers who supply their own ISBNs to put “Published by [your name] at Smashwords” or “Published by [your name] via Smashwords” on the book’s copyright page; if you do not your book is rejected for distribution. This I find particularly audacious: it is the equivalent of a wholesale distributor like Ingram forcing legacy publishers to put “Published via Ingram” on a book’s copyright page. Considering how many distribution channels a single title may utilize, it is outrageous to suggest that a wholesaler or distributor be included on the copyright page, yet this is precisely what Smashwords mandate. [Update: Smashwords no longer mandate this, but “recommend” it.]
Whether this is bothersome for you or not is a personal matter, but I feel strongly that since I am the one incurring the costs to bring my book to market, it is my brand I want to promote, not that of a vanity publisher or aggregator.