Bowker Cuts Cost of ISBNs in US
Bowker, the agency that administer ISBNs in the United States, has cut its prices on ISBNs blocks. A block of 10 ISBNs is now $250 instead of $400.
The Bowker website states that the price cut was made in response to publishers requiring so many more ISBNs because of multiple formats and editions. Many books are now published not only in hard cover and soft cover, but in a wide variety of e-book formats as well.
Bowker recommends a different identifier for each e-book format, so that your Kindle edition, for example, would have a different ISBN than the Sony Reader edition. There has been heated debate about this practice in the industry. Many small and independent publishers say they simply can’t afford to use so many ISBNs for each title, and that a single ISBN for all e-book formats is appropriate.
Others remain firm in their opinion that different numbers for each format is the best way to help sales channels and consumers know what they’re getting. Industry consultant Laura Dawson, who runs a weekly Twitter chat about ISBNs, states it succinctly:
ISBNs are for saying “this one is not that one”.
So which way should a self-published author go? We recommend giving each format a different number. A block of 10 ISBNs, which now costs just $250, should be enough to handle all the different versions of a single first edition title. It’s a worthwhile investment to keep confusion to a minimum.
