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Should New Authors Have To Worry Over Buying ISBNS?
For the independent author, ISBNS may come off as an imposition, here’s why
ISBNS.
That funny looking barcode you see on the bottom right(or left) of books. It stands for International Standard Book Number. This special number is what libraries looks at, and according to research, it ensures your book is catalogued in the print database. However, obtaining an ISBN is expensive.
How does this affect the independent author?
This affects the independent author in many, many ways. Let’s take a look at some Print On Demand book e-tailors and how they handle ISBNS for you.
Take Amazon for instance. I have at least three books published through them: A coloring book, and two books of poetry. They each have an ISBN that is associated with Amazon and the ISBNs were free.
That’s right — free!
Sites like Draft2Digital and Smashwords, even Barnes and Noble Press, offer you a free ISBN for choosing to publish with them. This is the commonsense route I have chosen because when I tell you the cost of obtaining ISBN numbers, your jaw will drop.