How to Self-Publish Your Book: Part Two

If you plan on selling your book through any retail store--online or off-- your book will need an ISBN (International Standard Book Number). These can be acquired through Bowker.com, the official U.S. ISBN agency. Note that you cannot buy just one ISBN from Bowker--a batch of ten is the lowest number of ISBNs you can purchase. The current price for 10 ISBNs is $269.95.

All ten will be assigned under your publishing name and your name only.

Once you assign a particular ISBN to your book (there is an area on Bowker's site where this is done) that ISBN belongs uniquely to that creative work. ISBNs are not reused. If you revise a book and publish a second edition, that new edition will have to have its own ISBN.

Sometimes printing companies and publishing companies will offer to sell individual ISBNs. You need to know, however, that although the ISBN is assigned specifically to your book, the publishing company name will be that of the company who sold you the individual ISBN.

Here is what Bowker says about this

"You may encounter offers from other sources to purchase single ISBNs at special offer prices. Companies that provide limited services such as distributing, retailing, bar code services, printing, and/or marketing should not assign ISBNs from their company to your publications unless you allow them to also hold publishing rights."

You can read more about this important information at:

www.isbn.org/standards/home/resellers.asp

You can order your barcodes from Bowker--they will come in a file which you then send, unopened, to the company printing your book. Barcodes must be placed in the lower right-hand side on the back cover. Barcodes can also be ordered from other companies.

Registering Copyright:

The moment you attach any material (words, art, photos, etc that originates with you) to any medium, including the internet , you automatically own the copyright to that material (until/unless you sell the rights). However, in case any copyright infringements occur in the future, you should register your book with the copyright office.

A form can be downloaded from copyright.gov. The fee is $45 and you will also need to send two of the best copies of the book you are registering. That means, if you have published the book in hardback and in paperback, you need to send two hardback copies. According to the website, people will soon be able to apply online and the fee will only be $35 in those cases.

After you have sent the form, along with the fee and the copies of your book, be prepared for a long wait before you receive your certificate of registration. It took several months before I got mine through the mail--in fact, before it finally arrived, I had decided that they had probably received the book, had laughed that someone was going to the trouble of registering such a humble little thing, and had thrown it in some pile for "Nice try!" books. The moral of this story is: Be Patient. They are trying to speed up the process with the implementation of an online form. That is supposed to take effect this summer.

I wish you the best of luck in publishing your book and I hope this article has been helpful.