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How to Get an International Standard Book Number - ISBN

 

An ISBN is a unique number and barcode, used to identify a book and is recognized internationally. If an author is publishing a physical book, edited book, eBook or audiobook, he or she cannot proceed without first acquiring an ISBN. An ISBN is also beneficial in tracking sales and rating of a publication. The ISBN is a thirteen-digit number, uniquely assigned to each publication. Before the year two thousand and seven, the ISBN number had ten digits. Read more information at this website https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publication about publishing.

 

There are distinct identifiers within the thirteen digit code. The first three digits represent a specific prefix. The following two digits are referred to as the registration group elements which represent the country of origin, of the publication. The next four digits represent a registered publisher. The publishers are usually issued with unique codes once they have been registered. The next three digits are a denotation of the book's edition or title and are referred to as the publication element. The last single digit is commonly known as the check digit. It is used to authenticate the ISBN number by applying a specific calculation formula. All these attributes of the thirteen digit code are very important because they help the user of the publication or relevant authorities, to validate the code. To read more details, just go here!

 

Any author or self-publisher who wishes to register for an ISBN number must first identify a suitable publisher to initiate the registration for them. Since the ISBN number contains a publication element which contains a unique publisher's number, all ISBN registrations must be channeled through a publisher. The next important step of registering for an ISBN is to find out if there is an ISBN agency within the person's geographical area. The ISBN agency is mandated to carry out the registration on behalf of the international agency. If there is no ISBN agency, the author can register by contacting the International ISBN agency in Berlin. Click here to check it out!

 

Once the author identifies an agency, they should fill out a publisher prefix application form. The application form and the required payment, is sent to the ISBN agency to initiate registration. Terms of payment are different for every geographical area. There are countries that allow for payment of a single book while others only allow for the purchase of a minimum of six prefixes. The payment is categorized in blocks of six, ten and much more. Payment for a single prefix may cost about one hundred and twenty U.S dollar while a block of six prefixes cost two hundred and fifty U.S dollars.

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