DIY Publishing questions

External Since: Jul 11, 2003 Posts: 179

In article ,
Grant wrote:

> AUWG wrote:
> >>What are the consequences of not getting ISBN's at all?
> >
> >
> > Limited placement. Do you want your stuff in Amazon, Powell's, and
> > elsewhere in which ISBNs are expected or required?
>
> Even an ISBN doesn't guarantee Amazon will list it. Apparently it has to
> also be carried by a distributor like Baker and Taylor.
>
> My own book turns up in searches on a number of web sites, including
> Barnes and Noble, but not on Amazon. And if I submit my book's ISBN to
> amazon's "recommend this book in addition to..", it kicks back an error
> claiming it's not a valid ISBN.
>
> Oddly enough, if I enter my name into Amazon's search engine, it turns
> up lots of other documents, like NASA technical reports I was involved
> with, that were never intended for commercial dissemination. It's a
> mystery to me why (and how) Amazon picked up those kinds of documents to
> include in their data base (though they don't actually sell copies), but
> they won't list my textbook.

Amazon will "carry" your book if you sign up for the "Amazon Advantage"
program. (The advantage is to Amazon-- but your book will show as
"available immediately")

It sounds like your ISBN has been corrupted in the data base. You might
try to contact Amazon .... (Good luck ... the only way is via email and
it's hard to get a human to answer.)

Double check your listing in Books in Print to ensure that the book and
ISBN are listed correctly.

External Since: Jul 27, 2003 Posts: 69

Grant wrote in message ...
> Edward Casey wrote:
> > I assume
> > that the publisher can print its own barcodes
>
> There are on-line vendors that will sell you a bar code for about $10.
> You enter the ISBN, choose a couple of other options, and they e-mail
> you an encapsulated PostScript file with your bar code, which you can
> then place (e.g., inside Illustrator) on your back cover.
>
> The order form for ISBN blocks appears to also offer the opportunity to
> purchase bar codes, but at the significantly higher price of $25 each.

A single ISBN from Bowker is different in kind from a block of 10 or
100, in that the prefix does not identify your publishing house
uniquely. How Bowker handles their database for such entries I do not
know.

Some other vendors such as Luli have broken up their block of ISBNs
and offer them for sale individually but this is against bowker rules.
It is the same thing as going to a subidy press. The ISBN identifies
the subsidy house, not you.

To publish and market a book adequately will cost several thousand
dollars, when one adds in the cost of a professionally dedigned cover
and the cost of
interior layout, editing etc. Given these necessary costs (necessary
for success, failure is very cheap) the expenditure for a block of 10
or even 100
ISBNs seems worth while.

John Culleton
Able INdexers and Typesetters