ISBN “Multiple formats” option misunderstood by many indie authors

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The International ISBN Agency, and their national agencies such as Bowker in the U.S., have repeatedly insisted that the correct use of the ISBN system requires each format of an ebook be identified with its own ISBN, as is the case with print books. Thus a Kindle file should have its own ISBN, the ePub its own too, a PDF yet its own, and so on. However, some indie authors who have purchased their ISBNs from Bowker in the U.S. insist they can assign a single ISBN to cover all Read More …

ISBNs and the self-publisher Part I: the ISBN system

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(This is modified text from The Global Indie Author.) The ISBN System ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. The rules and regulations governing the use and distribution of ISBNs are determined by the International ISBN Agency, based in London. The international agency allots ISBNs to national agencies, who in turn allot them to their publishers; thus, a publisher cannot acquire an ISBN from a foreign national agency: a British publisher, for example, cannot buy an ISBN from the American ISBN agency and vice versa. Publishers then assign their ISBNs Read More …

The battle for ebook supremacy: Amazon versus everybody else

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While self-publishing my novel, Baby Jane, to Amazon’s Kindle was relatively easy, publishing to the other devices is proving more challenging. Sony, who own the eReader, Apple, who own the iBookstore, Kobo, which is mostly owned by Indigo Books and Music Inc., and Barnes & Noble, who own the Nook, have all adopted business policies that exclude small publishers and self-publishing authors or, as in the Nook and iBookstore, have installed barriers that make it difficult for non-Americans (or non-Mac users) to sell on the their sites. Sony and Kobo Read More …