4 ms·

Might be different in the US, but in Canada, ISBN numbers are free. We have a different ISBN for each of our products (hard cover, soft cover, ebook version, pl

Might be different in the US, but in Canada, ISBN numbers are free. We have a different ISBN for each of our products (hard cover, soft cover, ebook version, plus english, spanish & french versions) and they were all free. However the rest of the list really paints an accurate picture of what selling an ebook and trying to get some market penetration is all about.

rst 15y ago
U.S. based pricing is here: https://www.myidentifiers.com/isbn/main https://www.myidentifiers.com/isbn/main And it's truly ridiculous. A single ISBN is $125. In lots of 1,000, they're a dollar apiece. I can't think of any principled way to justify this, other than as a way of sticking it to would-be self publishers and very small presses just because they can.
- JoshTriplett 15y ago
  I can think of quite a few straightforward ways to justify pricing like that, if you set pricing based on the involvement of a human in the processing of applications. Under such circumstances, it requires about as much work for the human whether you order 1 or 1000. Imagine ordering a paperclip: how much do you expect it to cost to order one paperclip, versus 1000 paperclips? Similarly, it requires about as much work for a business to issue a check for $10 as for $10,000, hence why many businesses say it costs them much more in accounting costs to issue a small check than the actual value of the check. The pricing for ISBNs makes zero sense given modern technology, where no human should ever need to get involved in the process. However, that assumes some degree of sense involved in the process...
- notatoad 15y ago
  being that the IS in ISBN means International Standard, how can they be free in one part of the world and cost in another? can't an american author just get an ISBN from canada?
- onemoreact 15y ago
  If those where the only options that would be one thing but 10 ISBNs for $250.00 does not seem that bad for a self published author. If you plan to publish a version in hard cover, soft cover, ePub, PDF, with or without illustrations, you will need more than one ISBN for each book title.

rst 15y ago

U.S. based pricing is here: https://www.myidentifiers.com/isbn/main https://www.myidentifiers.com/isbn/main And it's truly ridiculous. A single ISBN is $125. In lots of 1,000, they're a dollar apiece. I can't think of any principled way to justify this, other than as a way of sticking it to would-be self publishers and very small presses just because they can.

JoshTriplett 15y ago
I can think of quite a few straightforward ways to justify pricing like that, if you set pricing based on the involvement of a human in the processing of applications. Under such circumstances, it requires about as much work for the human whether you order 1 or 1000. Imagine ordering a paperclip: how much do you expect it to cost to order one paperclip, versus 1000 paperclips? Similarly, it requires about as much work for a business to issue a check for $10 as for $10,000, hence why many businesses say it costs them much more in accounting costs to issue a small check than the actual value of the check. The pricing for ISBNs makes zero sense given modern technology, where no human should ever need to get involved in the process. However, that assumes some degree of sense involved in the process...
notatoad 15y ago
being that the IS in ISBN means International Standard, how can they be free in one part of the world and cost in another? can't an american author just get an ISBN from canada?
onemoreact 15y ago
If those where the only options that would be one thing but 10 ISBNs for $250.00 does not seem that bad for a self published author. If you plan to publish a version in hard cover, soft cover, ePub, PDF, with or without illustrations, you will need more than one ISBN for each book title.