What is ISBN?

In this article we are going to treat one of the great unknowns as is the ISBN which is often confused with the registry of the intellectual property.

What is ISBN?

The most obvious but the most accurate question, refers to the abbreviations of International Standard Book Number and performs the bar code function.

The number is unique for each edition, which means that if we get three versions of the same edition, for example hardcover, normal and ebook, we will need three different ISBN codes. However it may be the case of two editions with the same ISBN, how is it posible? Because in this case will be equal to the last comma of the book.

Having it allows us to consult all the information in the book, we could see its original format, the author, translator (If it has been translated), etc. As for the libraries , it is very useful to be able to catalog it in their databases.

Do all books have an ISBN?

As we mentioned in another article, it is not essential. Editors like Amazon do not use it, although they do relate them on the web if it have one.

How is an ISBN interpreted?

The ISBN is composed of five blocks separated by a hyphen, not necessarily the same length.

1. The first block designates that we are talking about a book with ISBN-13. Currently it is always 978. In the future, when the numbering is exhausted, it will go to 979

2. The second block designates the country and language of the book. It can have a variable length, some countries have two codes and sometimes several countries with the same language share code. For Spain is always the 84.

3. The third block designates the Publisher. It is a variable length number and the same publisher may have several codes.

4. The four number is put by the publisher and designates that book. Remember that whenever the content changes (another translation, a revision, another presentation, other illustrations) or the format (size, type of book, number of pages) must have a different ISBN.

5. The fifth number is a check digit. It is always a single digit and is obtained from the previous digits. Bar code readers or computer programs can recalculate this digit and check for errors.

Where to get an ISBN?

In Spain, the ISBN costs € 45, until 2008 was the state, we must thank the current government to privatize it and allow a user to pay that money, but a great publisher only 2.6 €.

We go to the website of the organism and after a few simple steps we can get our ISBN.

If before you want to see the rates, they are also available. As you can see if you intend to publish more than one book or take several different editions, buying a single ISBN will not go to your account since for 95 € you have 10 ISBNs.

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