Lesson 13

 ISBN; Lesson 13
 Another week has come and gone. Thank you for coming back to class. I know your time is precious, so let me get right into it. ISBN; a number placed on your book so a person can find it, and so a register can scan and ring up the price. I have heard that when using a vanity publisher where you paid them, they will set a price and buy the ISBN for you. Each book needs one for each type. For example; you need one for a paperback, one for a hardcover, one for an ebook, and one for an audiobook. That’s four different ISBNs that I know of. Four different numbers, because they are all priced different.

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Along with the ISBN comes a barcode, the up-and-down lines that can be scanned. There are only two places that sell the ISBN. One is for Europe, and one covers all of the U.S. The one that works for the US is Bowker.com. There are many sites that pop-up on the Internet that will sell you the ISBN, but they have to buy them all from Bowker.
I don’t know why, probably because they can, because they have a monopoly, but if you only need four, the price is pretty steep. One ISBN will cost you $125. If you buy a ten pack, it drops to $295. That’s $29.50 each. If you buy 100/$575/$5.75 each, 1000/$1500/$1.50 each. So, these companies buy in bulk and then try to make money by selling them to you.
Now you may ask, why should I buy one when a publishing company or Amazon or Smashwords will give me one for free? Again I say, “I Don’t Trust People.” Some companies will release the ISBN and say you have total rights to your book and your sales. Other companies give you the ISBN and control your book and your sales.
I have read that whoever controls the ISBN can place your book on Amazon and Kindle, and you will receive the money profit from these places in your book sales. But they can also send it to their own sites, their own little nook bookstores for sale. When it sells on their sites or bookstores, they can keep all the profit. Is this what you want? Hey, my book is out there. It’s on bookshelves in stores. It’s being sold. People are loving me as an author. But are you making any money? No. I have heard that Amazon does the same exact thing if they supply you with an ISBN. They will buy a bunch of your books from Print on Demand and place them in their own little bookstores, retaining total profit. Is it right? It is their ISBN. They can.
Another problem I have read about is that if Amazon gives you the ISBN, they control the price, and where your book can be sold. You cannot post your book on ten or fifteen different sites in order to get more sales in other places other than Amazon, unless you have their written permission, because it’s their ISBN. Maybe this isn’t a big deal and you only want to sell on Amazon, anyway. Let’s face it, Amazon is the biggest seller when it comes to the computer age. The chances of being in a bookstore is far and few between.
Vanity publishers give you an option for book sales in stores whereas if your book does not sell, the bookstore can return it, not losing any money. This is an incentive for a bookstore to choose your books. Amazon’s ISBN is classified as a non-return book, so a bookstore may not choose that book. Let me explain. A bookstore has to buy a fifty book minimum. That’s not a mixture of other authors, that’s fifty of your one book. If they don’t sell, they’re stuck with them, because they can’t return them. Through the vanity publishing houses, they can return the books, cutting their losses. The vanity house can either destroy the books, or try to sell them elsewhere, and probably keeping the profits for themselves. If you do have any sales, some vanities will take the return postage out from your net sales. It’s all one BIG game.
If you have your own ISBN, you control it. You can post it on any site you want unless you sign an agreement with Amazon. Not to worry, I have heard that Amazon’s agreement only lasts for three months at a time. As far as bookstores, your ISBN is still nonreturnable. If your book is selling on Amazon and has a five-star rating, bookstores may pick them up anyway. Then again, most bookstores will put them on sale or give them away instead of paying return postage. This is the gamble that they take.
I have my books set up both ways, and in the last four years, none of my books have made it into a store, anyway. I was told by others that my book prices were set too high, but the vanity publisher set the prices and they have control until the end of the contract, and don’t ask me how it can be changed. I haven’t ventured that far yet, but I need to real soon. I was trying to put all my books on Ingram Sparks, but I had to sign them a release form which they in turn have to get the vanity publishers to release my books, which they haven’t done, and probably won’t until the contract runs out.
Again, let me say that I don’t know much, and this is what I have heard or read. I take my lumps and try to press on. I for one will buy my own ISBN’s for my other fifty books or so. If any of you have better knowledge then me, I would love to hear back, so I can share also.
Another thing I have heard is that DO NOT include the price in the ISBN, because if you want to place your book elsewhere or change the price to cheaper (not on sale) you will have to reprint the whole book buying and using a different ISBN. This can become costly, where if when you do not, you can change the price by just a submission and it is done. No new ISBN.
Next week I am taking a break, but will post a rant that I want to share and may be you can see where I am coming from. April Fools! No wait, that’s tomorrow. No, really, next week is just a rant, but might have some insightful information. So until then, enjoy your week, post me a hello or something you have a question about, and I’ll see if I can find an answer. Meanwhile,
 
Happy Writing from rickkurtisbooks.com
       This is totally up to you. After I wrote this lesson I decided to just go with amazon for free and post all my books. They are the biggest and most well known. They give a free ISBN. After checking things out, Bowkers does not sell to individuals in bulk and it is sold in a package deal with a bar code. I could not afford that for 50 books. Also I have learned that an ISBN is not needed on an Ebook. More news about this in the future. Give me your thoughts, and see you next week.