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What an ISBN is and is not Editor's Notes #120 April 15, 2012 |
| Hello, before you pull the trigger. --Tom Flynn In this issue: 1. What an ISBN is and is not 2. Tickled my funnybone 3. Interesting Web site 4. Now tweeting ========== 1. What an ISBN is and is not ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number and is the thirteen-digit number that identifies a book. The five parts of the ISBN are the prefix, which says, "I am a book," the country identifier, the publisher identifier, the title, and a check digit. The ISBN allows retailers and libraries to properly identify the book they are buying. Each combination of publisher and format gets its own ISBN. For example, a hard cover copy of a book has a different ISBN from the paperback version of the same contents. Besides the physical properties of a book, an ISBN may also identify the geographical jurisdiction where the book is published. So if foreign rights have been sold to publish a book in a different country, that edition will have a new ISBN. There are three important things to know about what an ISBN is not. 1. An ISBN is not a legal requirement to publish a book. You may, however, want one, and some ebook publishers like Apple insist that you have one. 2. The ISBN does not identify the author, but the publisher. 3. The ISBN does not give you copyright protection. If your book is published by a trade or educational publisher, The ISBN is taken care of for you. But if you publish your book yourself, you have options. In the next issue, I'll tell you the pros and cons of owning the ISBN yourself as opposed to getting a free ISBN from a company that creates your book for you. =========== 2.Tickled my funnybone Become an elementary arithmetic teacher and make the little things count. =========== 3. Interesting Web site Fore more information on ISBNs, see the International ISBN Agency site at http://isbn-international.org/ =========== 4. Now tweeting After a great deal of encouragement from a friend who is much more Web savvy than I am, I am now on Twitter. (Thank you, Lesley.) I'm amazed and just a little overwhelmed by how much material is being tweeted, but I'm glad I've dipped my toe into the stream. Follow me on Twitter where I am @AudreytheEditor. =========== Join Writer's Helper Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/WritersHelperEditor Follow me on Twitter @AureytheEditor =========== If you know a writer who would appreciate receiving Editor's Notes, forward this issue. If someone has passed this on to you, you can get your own free subscription by signing up at https://www.writershelper.com/newsletter.html |
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