What is an ISBN?
The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a 13-digit number that uniquely identifies books and book-like products published internationally.

What is the purpose of an ISBN?
The purpose of the ISBN is to establish and identify one title or one unique edition of a title from one specific publisher. An ISBN allows for more efficient marketing and cataloging of products by booksellers, libraries, universities, wholesalers, and distributors.

Most Independent Publishers will include ISBN’s with their publishing services. Some will provide an ISBN for FREE while others will charge you a modest fee. So you may not need to concern yourself with the application process.

However, if you plan on publishing under your own publishing label or want to maintain full ownership of the ISBN (which doesn’t affect your copyright) you can contact BOWKER directly.

As the Official ISBN Agency for the United States, BOWKER is exclusively responsible for the assignment of the ISBN prefix to those publishers with a residence or office in the U.S. As part of its duty to the International ISBN Agency, Bowker collects information about books published in the United States. Bowker also provides information and advice on the uses of the ISBN system to publishers, self-publishers, authors, and the book trade, and promotes the use of the Bookland EAN bar code format.