ISBNs
One of the many publishing basics I researched in the course of producing Eureka was ISBNs — international standard book numbers. I knew I needed one for the book to get into retail stores, but not much else. Here’s a quick lowdown that may be useful if you’re just starting out in publishing.
In the U.S., ISBNs are obtained from just one place: R.R. Bowker. You can get them online through their website, and the process is pretty straightforward. Every unique title needs its own unique ISBN, and technically you also need one for each edition of a given book — so if you put out a hardcover and a softcover version of a particular title, you need two distinct ISBNS.
If you know in advance that you’ll be publishing more than one book, it pays to buy ISBNs in bulk. A single ISBN will run you $125, but a bundle of 10, which has the added advantage of including a similar numbering structure, is only $250. Because Eureka was Gnome Stew‘s first book and we had no idea how it would do, we bought a single ISBN for that project. I’ll be buying a bundle next time around.
Bowker will also try to sell you a host of other things that, in my opinion, the average small-press publisher is highly unlikely to give a shit about. YMMV, and all that. The one exception is a Bookland EAN barcode, the internationally standardized white block on the back of books that includes the ISBN, a barcode, and a price code; that costs $25, but there’s more than one way to skin that cat.
In exchange for about three minutes of work, you can generate your own barcode block for free using this free generator. I used this tool for Eureka (one of many free tools for publishers that were invaluable), and it turns out a totally legit barcode block. The generator also includes helpful guidelines on choosing the font, the format for your price code, and more.
Most PDF retailers don’t care if you have an ISBN, but physical game stores, fulfillment houses, distributors, and the other players in the traditional print publishing chain all do. For example, Engine Publishing couldn’t sign up for a Lightning Source account without at least one ISBN.
Not a huge topic, but if you’re considering publishing I hope that it’s saved you a bit of time, a couple of steps, and possibly some money!
