Should I get a free ISBN or purchase one?

In today's video, we'll be chatting ISBNs - what are they? Should you use the free one from Amazon KDP or IngramSpark, or should you purchase one?
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[@patriciadanna7433]

I would only purchase ISBN's from Bower, never a reseller. If I make coloring books, I probably would use Amazon KDP's free ISBN's, though

[@IanHollis]

Free ISBNs, all the way. I had nothing pain and anguish with getting my ISBNs set up and what-not... I'll take freely provided by the system I'm going through all day, every day.

[@ShellysCreativeLife]

Thank you, Heather! I’m going to self-publish my nonfiction picture book biography with Book Baby so I will buy an ISBN. However, with my other books, I will use KDP and now Ingram Sparks. Thank you for that information.

[@mariannem8419]

Excellent video. Thank you.

[@nathaliemlromer]

As further explanation to the video, in the USA, you need to get ISBNs from Bowker. The ONLY place in the USA to get them from. They're the assigned ISBN agency for the USA. There's one similar agency in every country. You can only get ISBNs in the country where you live, so for example for me that's in Sweden where I live and work (as an author and independent publisher for disclosure). You need one ISBN per edition type (so one for paperback, one for hardcover, one for the audiobook and one for ebook) and you're the "vendor of record" as it's called of the ISBN if you get it yourself. Get one hundred ISBNs from Bowker as then they'd be $100 for one hundred ISBNs (and with the above type information listed you'd "use up" these hundred after just 25 books (quicker if you re-release where you'd need a new ISBN if you change more than 10% of the content through rewrites, but changing a book cover for marketing purposes doesn't need any new ISBN). Using Heather Cash Art as an example for the "vendor of record" ... If she buys her ISBN from Bowker, the publisher (aka vendor of record) lists on all sites selling her book as "Heather Cash Art" BUT if she gets the free ISBN from Amazon KDP the vendor of record will be "Amazon KDP" and the general consensus in the independent publishing world is NEVER to get the free ISBN. Not from Amazon KDP or from anywhere else. Getting your own ISBN makes it a business asset. In the USA I would suggest setting up an LLC and getting registered for tax with your publishing business (it separates this operation of business from personal finances that way). The issue with the free ISBNs is that it locks you into a system. A book on Amazon KDP will NEVER be distributed to independent stores or somewhere such as Barnes & Noble as they'd see Amazon as a competitor. You need your own ISBN to get books to sell wide (across 150 or so countries opposed to the fewer than dozen Amazon offers as a market), and the combined readership of "going wide" is several times larger than Amazon's billion customers (this is based on independent research by leading authorities in the publishing industry). If you use your own ISBN, you can transport it to different platforms, especially with a publishing name attached, so registering it in the LLC you created is more beneficial than having it in your own name (for a woman, the irony is if you registered in your own name and you did so in the married name you'd then have to get it altered to the maiden name AND because an ISBN can be seen as an asset there could be implications in any divorce - something a friend of mine had to deal with). So you can use the same ISBN on IngramSpark (which sells to about 40,000 stores across the world), then use it on Amazon KDP, and use it again on Draft2Digital, and if you do the research in niche markets you have a few other places to use it on as well. All of them with the same ISBN, combining the total sales recorded for your book in public records. The added bonus of both IngramSpark and Draft2Digital is they also sell to libraries which then can earn you an extra income from each time the book is borrowed. IngramSpark has introduced a "direct to consumer platform" (going international in the near future) that allows you to increase the number of book sales. Certain countries offer free ISBN assignment, such as Sweden where I live. In exchange for this ultimately I need to do a "legal deposit" of one edition version per title that I've assigned ISBNs to. There are other countries with a same system. The way you get ISBNs (Bowker or elsewhere) is to register with the agency with the intended vendor of record, such as for example "Heather Cash Art" for Heather, then you purchase or request the ISBNs (buy 100 at Bowker, or request however many you may need but I'd go with 100 in all cases so you got enough for 25 books - either as first editions or in case of re-releases, and then all you need to do is assign one of the numbers per book edition (as listed above) per title. You place this ISBN in the box on whichever site you're on (e.g. IngramSpark) where it asks for it. Once the book is published this number is then "used up" and cannot be used for any other title or edition. If your title was a paperback, you use another of the assigned numbers for an ebook, etc. Here's the place to check that you're dealing with the genuine ISBN agency for your country (such as Bowker for the USA): www.isbn-international.org/agencies

[@SheilandriaWells]

That was so helpful! Thank you so much 🥰

[@HeatherCashArt]

Yay I'm so glad!! 💕

[@ironicstaraurore]

Pays to be Canadian. They're free from the government.

[@HeatherCashArt]

I love that!