Julie Broad (havemoreinfluence.com) explains how Canadian self-publishers can get ISBN numbers for free through Library and Archives Canada. She walks through creating an ISBN account, using the Manage Logbook interface to assign new ISBNs (use "forthcoming" if the publication date is unknown), and generating a barcode from a free website to provide to a book designer. She notes that you need a separate ISBN for each format (ebook, print, audiobook), initial account setup can take up to 10 business days, but once the account exists additional ISBNs are issued instantly.
Questions this video answers
Up to 10 business days.
Yes — one ISBN per format (ebook, physical book, audiobook).
Chapters
Are you a Canadian and you're self publishing? Good news. ISBN numbers are free and I'm going to show you exactly how to get one today. So stick around. Hey there. I'm Julie Broad with havemoreinfluence.com a few months ago, a woman came to me who had spent $5,000 US on a package to get her book self published. They didn't write the book for her, she had to do it, but they provided few services, including ensuring it was for sale on Amazon and it gave her an ISBN number. And so she was really excited because she said, you know, I would have had to go through a big hassle to get an ISBN number. And they just gave me one. Getting an ISBN number in Canada is free and it's pretty darn easy to do. So I want to show you today exactly how to get one for whatever it is you're doing. So I've already shot a video on what is an ISBN number, so you might want to go check that out. I also have an article that I'll link to in YouTube below on these done for you book packages and whether it makes sense for you. Today, I just want to focus solely on where to go and what to do to get your ISBN number. But you will need a different ISBN number for every kind of publication. So if you're doing an ebook, a physical book and an audiobook, you're going to need three different ISBN numbers. And so here's exactly how you're going to get them. Okay, so first thing I recommend, just go to Google and type in ISBN Canada or Library and Archives Canada ISBN. And you're going to get to this website with this link and go to create an ISBN account. These are the fields that you'll need to fill in. And so I'm just walking you through. I'm not going to fill them in right now because I already have an ISBN account and I can now easily request multiple ISBN numbers. Now, just a couple things you should note is initially, when you set up your account, it can take up to 10 business days for you to get your ISBN number. So think about that well before you're going to need it, apply for it. You can change the title and change other details once you have everything firmed up. But if you know yourself publishing in the next few months, go ahead and fill this in and get your account so you've got it set up and you can request ISBN numbers. Once you have this account, it's super easy to request multiple ISBN numbers and you get them instantly. So for my latest book that I'm about to publish, it took me all of 10 minutes to get the ISBN number for the Kindle version, the physical version, as well as the audio version, which I haven't even started working on yet, that will be coming out a few months after the printed version. Okay, so once you have your account, you'll just go and log in and you'll go to the left and you'll go to Manage Logbook. So you can actually see a list of the ISBN numbers that I have and that I've created, as I mentioned. And all you're going to do is click on Assign new ISBN and then you just fill in these fields that you see here. And if you don't know the exact publication date yet, then you just put in forthcoming. So once you have the ISBN number, the next thing is you need to create that barcode. I found this free website that does it and it creates the barcode. It's what I used for my first book and I'm using it for the products that I'm creating now. So all you do is you follow the instructions on this website. I'll include the link down below, but you can see the link here as well. And you just copy and paste your ISBN number into the spot here. Follow the instructions if you want to include a price point and other details you can see here. And then, voila. Now you have your barcode that you can send to your designer who's creating your book covers and your book images. And you've got that done. Hope this helps. And hope that you realize that we're lucky to be Canadian because this ISBN number can work anywhere in the world. And I'm pretty sure that other countries have to pay for their ISBN numbers. And it can be a little trickier to get have a question, come on over to havemoreinfluence.com Sign up for the Broad Thoughts newsletter. Ideas and inspiration to create your personal brand help you have more influence and impact, which of course will help you sell some of the books that you want to sell. And in every issue there's a little button called Reply. You can hit that Ask a question, and I just might shoot a video to help you out. See you next time. Bye.
