Why it is Smart to Get Your Own ISBN

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ISBN

In a recent blog post I mentioned the findings of the January 2015 Author Earnings Report: 30% of the e-books being purchased in the U.S. 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.

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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-books 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 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. 

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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, bar code 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 reassigned ISBN’s, you will not be correctly identified as the publisher of record in “Books in Print” or many of the book industry databases.  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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BTW:  Did you change your sales price on Amazon? If not, hurry, otherwise you might get only 30% instead of 70% for your $2.99 book.  Amazon would pay you only half of your revenue.

 

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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