The ISBN facilitates compilation and updating of book-trade directories and bibliographic databases, such as catalogues of books-in-print. Information on available books can be found easily. Ordering and distribution of books is mainly executed by ISBN; this is a fast and efficient method.
This is fast and avoids mistakes. The ISBN is required for the running of electronic point-of-sale systems in bookshops. Many publishing and supply chain systems are based on ISBN. The accumulation of sales data is done by the ISBN.
This enables the varying successes of different product forms and editions of publications to be monitored, as well as enabling comparisons between different subject areas and even different publishing houses.
Stella has worked in publishing and international standards related roles since She held managerial positions in both books and serials for over 10 years including roles at Wiley-Blackwell and Oxford University Press. Is it just some weird code for people in the know? Such a small thing, can it really be so important? Those digits may look insignificant but think of an International Standard Book Number ISBN as being instrumental in helping you to reach the widest possible audience. ISBNs are assigned by publishers to identify books.
Who is a publisher? A good way to think of it is as being the person or organisation that is responsible for taking the financial risk associated with the publishing project. Are you the one paying to get your book printed or turned into various digital formats? Will you only make money if the book sells well? If so, then you are the publisher of the book and should apply for ISBN. The essential concept of ISBN is really quite simple—each edition of a book that is produced by a particular publisher can be identified by a unique numerical string.
The string remains associated with that specific book for all time, and can be used reliably to order it in any country. On a printed book, such as a paperback, the numbers of the ISBN are usually clearly visible on the bottom right of the back cover, either rendered simply as numbers or converted to bar-code form for easy and quick processing of sales. Such visibility has enabled ISBN to become a widely known and instantly familiar standard. Thus, books with ISBNs can be quickly checked into stock in bookshops, processed efficiently at the till point and the sales data captured.
How did the book trade cope before ISBN? Quite simply, things were much more burdensome and even chaotic—manual, labour-intensive order forms, upon which full details of title, author, publisher, etc. In essence, ISBNs should be used to identify materials that are text-based, available to the public and in monographic form i.
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Click here to view our privacy policy. ISBNs were 10 digits in length until , when they expanded to 13 digits. Want to Learn More? Do you have a manuscript that is ready to publish? I am ready to publish today.
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