How to Get an ISBN for a Book: Do you need one?

hey guys i'm dave chesson of kindlepreneur.com and in today's video we're going to learn what an

isbn is when and why you might need to buy one how to buy one and also how to find some discounts but

before i get into that if you would like to learn more about book marketing or as well as look over

my shoulder as i do some of these marketing components be sure to hit that subscribe button

as well as that little bell icon to the right so as you get notified when my next video comes out

and with that let's begin so to start off let's look at exactly what is an isbn an isbn which

stands for international standard book number is a unique 13-digit number used to identify your book

think of it like a fingerprint for your book if you will it helps identify it

and eliminates confusion between books that may be similar all right so now that we know what one

is let's go ahead and go through an example so that we understand all the different components

that actually make up that 13 digit let's say this was your number 978-0-679-80527-3

the first three digits are always going to be either 978 or 979 this is the EAN prefix the

next number zero is a registration group this can be any number one through five and allows

for you to tell which country or region the isbn was registered in the next three six seven nine

are the registrant element which is a unique number to the publisher that created the book

80527 is the publication element which tells you the title format and edition of the book

and the last digit 3 is mathematically calculated and helps to ensure that the isbn has been typed

out properly this is also known as like a checksum as you can see this number is heavily calculated

and has a lot of details inside of each one of those digits which means that you can't use the

same number for another book so you may be asking yourself why and when do i need to get an isbn

then the most simple answer for that question is if you are publishing your book physically you

must have an isbn some companies will allow you to purchase at a discount within their services

and we will discuss later in this video how you can do that and what the pros and cons are also

any new additions or different formats like you know soft cover and hardcover they're all going

to need their own unique isbn number this also goes for publishing in different languages as well

lastly if it's important to you that your name and not a publishing company's name

is listed as the publisher for your book you will want to consider buying your isbn outright rather

than going through a free slash discounted service for some authors this is important

to them so paying that extra money is definitely worth it okay so now that we know what an isbn

is as well as when and why we might want to buy one let's go ahead and look at how to buy one

as well as find discounted and even free isbn when it comes to getting your very own isbn the best

way to do it is through a government agency if you are located in the u.s the isbn agency is poker

my identifiers i will put a link below in case you are not located in the u.s and need to look

up your country's isbn agency to contact since i'm located in the u.s i'm going to go to Bowker

MyIdentifiers at myidentifiers.com once there i'm going to either create an account or sign

in then choose a package with the number of isbns i will need if you plan to print multiple formats

you will want to choose a package with 10 or more to eliminate having to do these steps over again

lastly check out and pay for your isbns once you have checked out your isbns you will be under your

account go to my account my identifiers and fill in the information for your books submit the form