What is an ISBN?
The 13-digit International Standard Book Number (ISBN) has five parts: currently a 978 prefix, a group or country identifier, a publisher identifier, a title identifier and a check digit which is used to validate the number.
The number is used by booksellers, wholesalers and distributors to more efficiently market book products. It is assigned by ISBN agencies which are appointed as the exclusive agent responsible assigning the numbers in their country or geographic territory. A publisher cannot resell, reassign, transfer or split its list of ISBNs with other publishers.
Each ISBN number's prefix is the identifier of a publisher. Any book printed with that publisher's number will be identified through industry databases as belonging to that publisher. ISBNs are issued at the request of publishers, ebook publishers, audio, video and software producers as well as museums and associations with publishing programs.
ISBNs are sold in blocks of 10, 100, 1000 and 10,000. It usually takes 15 business days for processing from the time the application is made to the agency until the numbers are delivered to the publisher. There is also a non-refundable processing service charge involved.
The ISBN should appear on the copyright page and on the lower portion of the back cover above the barcode of every book a publisher prints.
Publishers assign ISBNs to all titles produced, which means a paperback and hardcover of the same title will have to have two ISBNs, and a revised edition will also need a new number. Once the numbers have been assigned, the author and title have to be reported to R.R. Bowker for entry into the database of record for the ISBN Agency. The titles will also be listed in the Books in Print directory.