Kim's DIY~Self-Promotion

Kim’s Do It Yourself Guide to Self-Publishing

Guidance for Future Independent Authors

Sample Text from pg. 29

ISBN NUMBERS

I choose to list ISBN numbers before publisher or publishing. This is where you must pay attention, and know what the hell you are doing.

ISBN Numbers, Why Are They so Important?

ISBN-numbers are used to identify your book in whatever format it's in. The assigned number is directly attached to the book, author, or publisher. For the self-publisher, it is important for people, companies, bookstores, and libraries to be able to associate that number with your name.

I would also suggest that anyone looking to purchase ISBN’s, not buy used numbers or discontinued numbers; unless you really know what you are doing and trust that company. I have read

horror stories of self-published authors finding out that their number was a dud, or that their information was not associated with the number. So be careful and do your research. Personally, I recommend buying official numbers. Use the official site for ISBN’s, which is Bowker.com. The link that I used to get to the site is below:

https://www.myidentifiers.com/myid_sign_in?destination

One ISBN~$125

Ten ISBN~$295

One Hundred ISBN~$575

My Opinion: This part is so relevant after talking to authors from all genres. I realized that everyone did it differently and many had horror stories. These stories ranged from the publisher stealing their rights to a publisher stealing their manuscripts. Others found out that when they left a publishing company, they couldn’t take the ISBN’s with them.

They would still have to purchase another before pushing the book back out. On that note, it took me a year to plan and save up for my numbers. It is better to take a long time and get your business done right. Then rush and have to start all over. Now that’s a waste of money and a lack of common-sense.