ISBN

All About Barcodes – And How You Get Them

Trust

 

A barcode represents the number that identifies a book uniquely.  All the information about a title is held in a computer database. By scanning the barcode, this information (including the description and price) will be retrieved from the database.

Barcodes come in a variety of formats known as “Barcode Symbology”.  There are two ways used to generate barcodes for books, the older Bookland or Bookland EAN, and the newer EAN/JAN-13 or just EAN-13.  The difference is that the older Bookland symbology generated a 13-digit barcode from what was then a 10-digit ISBN.  Newer books, which have 13-digit ISBN, can use the Bookland symbology or the newer EAN-13.

The five-digit retail price barcode is made up of the country code digit and the four-digit price. The British pound, for example, is 0, the U.S. dollar is 5, and the Canadian dollar is 6. Thus, a book retailing for £17.95 would read “01795” – if it were USD $17.95 it would read “51795.”

A code of 90000 indicates the book does not have a suggested retail price and is
commonly used when a single cover file is used across multiple jurisdictions.
The price barcode is optional in some countries but is mandatory in the United States.
A specific price is, however, still optional, so it is common to see U.S. books with a 90000 barcode.  If you contract with a print on demand manufacturer, they will provide you with a cover template and barcode or you let it create by a graphic designer or DIY.

How to Create a Barcode
GS1 is the official provider of GTINs and EAN/UPC barcodes globally: https://www.gs1.org/contact
As a global standards organization, GS1 ensures your barcodes work everywhere in the world.
See also the easy barcode creator software for Mac and Windows, for example:    http://www.easybarcodetech.com/ebc.html

or at https://barcode.tec-it.com/en/ISBN13

Specifications

The specifications for barcode type, size, and placement are listed at the print-on-demand sites, for example at Amazon’s help site: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201953020

“When you upload your cover, you can choose to provide your own barcode.
It has to have a resolution of 300 dots per inch. It also needs to be 2″ (50.8 mm) wide and 1.2″ (30.5 mm) high.  When placing the barcode on your back cover, make sure it doesn’t obscure other elements.  If the barcode doesn’t meet our specifications, we’ll replace it.”

“IF you don’t choose to include your own barcode, then we’ll place an ISBN barcode in a 2″ (50.8 mm) by 1.2″ (30.5 mm) white box in the lower right-hand corner of your book’s back cover. If you leave images or text on this part of the cover, the barcode will cover them during printing, so don’t leave anything important there.”

See Also These Barcode Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6aR1k-ympo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJW5D5SDAgw&t=79s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmiPA54gHB0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aYdKCWR5YM

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More Books by Doris-Maria Heilmann:

111 Tips to Create Impressive Videos:
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https://www.books2read.com/u/3GYnpa

111 Tips To Make Money With Writing
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https://books2read.com/u/bWZMjz

111 Tips on How to Market Your Book for Free:
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111 Tips to Get Free Book Reviews:
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plus 1,200+ reviewer contact links
https://books2read.com/u/mZ5nx5

111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer=
How to Create, Where to Upload and How to Market Your Videos
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Hidden Benefits of Using Your Own ISBN

 

 

I often wrote in this blog how important it is to get an ISBN for your title.  Read here and here all you need to know about it.  An ISBN is used as a serial number for a book.  ISBN also identifies the publisher of the book.  It is the standard ID number used to identify books by booksellers, libraries, book wholesalers and distributors. 

ISBN For Print Books
A print book must have an ISBN or it can’t be sold in most bookstores (not even on the bookstore’s website).  However, Amazon and some other major ebook retailers don’t require that an ebook have an ISBN.  Some self-publishing authors might also think that an ISBN has no value.

Not all distribution channels require an ISBN, but at the same time revenue from those distribution channels can justify the cost of buying ISBNs – just for the sake of future-proofing alone it is worth.  It’s all about controlling one’s identity because otherwise Amazon, Kobo, etc. will control you…

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Consider the Following Situations:

  • You publish a book, digital only, and you don’t bother with an ISBN number
    You distribute it on Amazon, which assigns it an ASIN number, an Amazon product code
  • You distribute it on Kobo, which assigns it a “free” ISBN number owned by Kobo, so your book will appear to be published by Kobo, not you
  • You distribute it on Smashwords, which assigns it a “free” ISBN number owned by Smashwords, so your book will appear to be published by Smashwords, not by you
    With the exception of Smashwords, none of these identifiers appear within the eBook itself.
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What Could Happen:
Let then ten or fifteen years go by… In the worst cases, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords might be out of business.  Amazon changes its product code assignments and no longer uses ASIN numbers.  There is no searchable database made available by Amazon for the old ASIN numbers.   Kobo, which owns the ISBN provided controls what the “Bowker Books In Print” or any successor database contains and updates the information about your book in ways you might not approve of!   Since you have no ISBN number of your own it will be the only record of your title in “Books In Print” – not showing you, but Kobo as the publisher of the book.
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Readers, trying to find your work across a reference to your book based on an old copy from Barnes & Noble can’t find it because the B&N identifier is no longer alive.  It may or may not connect with a Kobo record in ‘Books In Print’ which has a completely different identifier…
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Print Numbers
“Brick and Mortar” stores, libraries, airport bookstores, and other vendors are requiring ISBNs.  Audio sales are through distributors that require ISBNs.  eBook and print sales are often through distributors that require ISBNs, not to mention book clubs and all of the national libraries worldwide.
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Professional Publishing
Buying ISBN’s is the same principle as hiring professionals to edit and finish a book. Theoretically, authors don’t need either, an ISBN or paid assistance, but this investment can pay off in increased revenue and be viewed as a professional writer/publisher.

Any author who approaches book publishing as a business needs to look past the convenience or “savings” and look at the real figures and the benefits for the future of their writing.

 

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Books by Doris-Maria Heilmann:

111 Tips to Create Impressive Videos:
How to Plan, Create, Upload and Market Videos
https://www.books2read.com/u/3GYnpa

111 Tips To Make Money With Writing
The Art of Making a Living Full-time Writing
An Essential Guide for More Income as Freelancer
https://books2read.com/u/bWZMjz

111 Tips on How to Market Your Book for Free:
Detailed Plans and Smart Strategies for Your Book’s Success
https://books2read.com/u/bMre1a

111 Tips to Get Free Book Reviews:
Best Strategies for Getting Lots of Great Reviews
plus 1,200+ reviewer contact links
https://books2read.com/u/mZ5nx5

111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer
How to Create, Where to Upload and How to Market Your Videos
https://books2read.com/u/mVZkjr

Book Marketing on a Shoestring:
How Authors Can Promote their Books Without Spending a Lot of Money 
https://books2read.com/u/mZ5gdp

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Benefits of Getting Your Own ISBN

ISBN

30% of all e-books sold in the United States lack an ISBN number and are not listed in library and book stores – nor in market surveys or reports by Bowker, AAP, BISG, and Nielsen. So, why do author-publishers don’t obtain their own ISBN’s? Could it be to they want to avoid the fees?

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After all ISBN’s Belong to the Publisher!
If you are the one who has complete control over your book, doing the marketing and distribution, then consider getting your own ISBN. Each version of your book – e-book, paperback, hardcover, or audio-book – needs a unique ISBN.  Order at least a block of ten numbers.  ISBN numbers are assigned by a group of agencies worldwide coordinated by the International ISBN Agency.
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Where to Order Your ISBN:

Canada
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/publishers/index-e.html
USA
http://www.isbn.org
UK
http://www.isbn.nielsenbook.co.uk/controller.php?page=121
Australia
http://www.thorpe.com.au/isbn/
New Zealand
http://www.natlib.govt.nz/services/get-advice/publishing/isbn
South Africa
http://www.publishsa.co.za/publishing/isbn-numbers

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Benefits of an ISBN
As an author, you may have received offers from distributors, POD companies or “Vanity-Publishers” for a discounted ISBN. Don’t fall for these traps explained in this article!

  • Only the one who purchases their own ISBN from the official distributors is considered the publisher! Or self-publisher.
  • You can list your book worldwide with Bowker to be in all databases of libraries and bookstores around the globe.
  • One of the most important reasons to have your own ISBN is that an ISBN helps to cement your publisher brand and makes it easier for the bookstores and libraries to carry your book or e-book.
  • In Italy e-Books that do not contain an ISBN are charged 22% VAT – while e-books with an ISBN are charged at a rate of only 4%.

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What Do All These Numbers in Your ISBN Code Mean?
ISBN is the International Standard Book Number, a 13-digit number that uniquely identifies books published anywhere in the world. Parts of an ISBN are:

  • group or country identified
  • publisher identifier
  • title identifier
  • and the check digit

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To sell your e-book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple or Kobo doesn’t necessarily require an ISBN, but it will be necessary, as soon as you start your book’s print version. Any book on your book shelf, at libraries or in book stores has a mandatory ISBN.

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Read more:
http://www.isbn.org/faqs_general_questions
https://www.savvybookwriters.com/who-is-the-publisher-check-the-isbn/
http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2015/best-practices-for-ebook-front-matter-copyright-page-part-1/
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Who is the Publisher? Check the ISBN!

ISBN

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Have you been wondering about the numerous news stories about “declining e-book sales” during the last couple of months?  Well only those who have an ISBN, and only those from certain book stores, online retailers and large trade publishers are counted.

30% of all e-books being purchased in the United States do not use ISBN numbers and are invisible to the industry’s official market surveys and reports.  Which also means: all the ISBN-based estimates of market share reported by Bowker, AAP, BISG, and Nielsen are wildly wrong.  Unfortunately ISBN’s are pricy in the States and too many authors are jumping on free or low-cost offers by publishing service companies – with negative impacts for authors

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Bestseller Author M.A.Demers Explains:
“An ISBN clearly identifies an e-book as a book, no different from a print book.  No ISBN leaves the door open to classify the good as a digital good and not a book.  Since e-book retailers such as Amazon sell a multitude of items in addition to e-books, only an ISBN “proves” the good sold is an e-book.  This explains for example why Italy, who are already facing prosecution for lowering the rate of VAT on e-books, will only do so if the e-book bears an ISBN.”

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A Book – or Not a Book in Italy?
Writing about changes in sales tax (VAT) in the EU, Amazon recently explained in their email that Italy has implemented new legislation that charges a higher rate of VAT on e-books that do not have an ISBN.
e-Books that do not contain an ISBN are charged 22% VAT, while e-books with an ISBN are charged a rate of only 4%.  One might argue: I don’t care about the Italian book market, but other countries might follow this example if the EU cannot reach an agreement to consider each book – no matter in which format it is sold – is a book!

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Who is the Publisher?  The One Who Owns the ISBN!
You may encounter offers from other sources to purchase single ISBNs at special offer prices. Companies that provide limited services such as distributing, retailing, barcode services, printing, and/or marketing should NOT assign ISBN’s from their company to your publications – unless you allow them to also hold the publishing rights for your books.  If you use one of these re-assigned ISBN’s, you will not be correctly identified as the publisher of record in “Books in Print” or many of the book industry databases.
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If you Want to Appear as a Professional Author-Publisher:
An ISBN helps to cement your publisher brand and makes it easier for the bookstores and libraries to carry your book or e-book.  Each version of your book  – e-book, paperback, hardcover, or audio-book – needs a unique ISBN.  So be smart and order a block of ten.  And list your book worldwide with Bowker to be in all databases of libraries and bookstores around the globe.
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Read All About ISBN here:

https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/isbn-numbers-and-how-to-get-one/

https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/06/08/author-beware-unauthorized-resellers-of-isbns/

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