ISBN vs. ASIN: The Self-Publishing Secret Every Author Must Know!

Did you know that without a simple string of 13 digits, your book might never make it into libraries, bookstores, or even onto the radar of your ideal reader? And while this number costs money to get in most countries, it's an investment in your discoverability. Yep, I'm talking about ISBNs. And if you have questions on this number or whether you need to buy one or a free one will do well. Good news. This video is for you.

Hey there. I'm Julie the Book Broad, founder of Book Launchers. Your first choice for all things nonfiction, book publishing and book marketing. Today, we're diving into ISBNs. What they are, why they matter, and how indie authors can use them to maximize their book's reach and success. Whether you're self publishing your first book or adding another to your library, understanding ISBNS is critical for your author journey. So what is an ISBN? Well, it stands for International Standard Book Number. It's a unique numeric identifier that acts as a book's fingerprint. Every format, hardback, paperback, ebook, audiobook, large print, gets its own ISBN. Think of it as like a passport for your book, enabling libraries, stamp, bookstores, stamp, and even online retailers to catalog and track your book accurately. Now, this is different than the number Amazon gives your book. That is an asin. Asin, which is the Amazon Standard Identification Number. And of course, that's different than the International Standard Book Number. Both are unique identifiers for a book, but they serve different purposes. Now, the ISBN is a 13 digit or older 10 digit format for books published before 2007. It includes metadata about the book, country, publisher, title, edition and format. It's a globally recognized standard for identifying books and related products in in the publishing industry. And it's used across all the platforms, including bookstores, libraries, distributors, international markets. It is required for books that will be sold commercially and added to the publishing trade database. Compare that to the asin, which is a 10 character alphanumeric code unique to Amazon products, including books. It is not tied to international metadata standards. It's an Amazon specific identifier used to track products, including books on the Amazon platform. It's exclusive to Amazon and cannot be used for distribution or identification outside of Amazon's ecosystem. So yes, if you'll only ever publish on Amazon, the ASIN is all you need. But most of us have dreams that go beyond Amazon, even if it's libraries and a few bookstores. So if you do get an ISBN right from the start, and actually you'll probably need multiple because again, you need one for every format. An ISBN is issued by an official ISBN agency, Bowker in the us, Nielsen in the uk. An author or publisher needs to purchase an ISBN unless their country provides them for free, which is the case in Canada, but not in the United States. Your ASIN is automatically assigned by Amazon to every product sold on the platform, including books, free of charge and again exclusive to Amazon. Again, because this question always comes up and was really the inspiration for this video because I do have other videos on ISBNS on this channel, like this one and like that one. But I wanted to emphasize that if you want to sell your book or have it distributed beyond Amazon, you need an ISBN. Now we'll talk about what to do if you've already got a free asin. And ISBN allows books to be distributed and sold globally through bookstores, libraries and multiple platforms. It is required for participation in systems like OverDrive, which gets you into libraries or IngramSpark for wide distribution. And ASIN is only functional within the Amazon ecosystem for cataloging, sales, tracking and searchability on Amazon. Now, this does get a little weird for some authors is because you might have an ISBN and it coexists with an ASIN on Amazon. That's okay. You still will use a unique ISBN for each format of your book, and Amazon, for their own purposes, assigns an asin. Now, the other question that comes up is when do you need to get a new ISBN? Well, if you make significant updates like a new chapter or major rewrite, it's a new addition and that needs a new ISBN. If you're just making minor changes like removing a line or changing the COVID design or fixing a few typos, that's not enough of changes. That needs a new ISBN. All right, so I've kind of emphasized these points already, but let's talk about three mistakes to avoid as a self publishing author when it comes to ISBN. Number one, don't use the free ISBN unless you're okay with that platform being listed as your book's publisher. It doesn't mean the platform has any rights over your book, but it does mean you're not the publisher of record for your work. If you're new here, well, welcome. I hope you've subscribed and said hello, but if you're new, you might not know that I have a slight obsession with owning my rights and having control and encouraging you to do the same thing. So. So buying an ISBN to make sure I have my publishing company on all my work is an important thing to me. Number two is to avoid ISBN resellers. They're not Official and could compromise your credibility with your book. Always go through your country's official supplier, which as I said, you can find it through Bowker in the us or you see the websites My Identifiers and Nielsen in the uk. In Canada, you go through the government of Canada's website to get your free ISBN. The third mistake to avoid is not keeping track of your ISBN and using them consistently across platforms. Put a spreadsheet together for yourself that says ISBN and the format so you know which format gets which ISBN. And you're going to use that everywhere you upload your book. Again, you have to use those ISBNs consistently across platforms so that the same format has the same ISBN on each platform. Now here's the million dollar question. Because so many people get the free one and regret it after the fact. Can you change from a free ISBN to to an official ISBN? Yes, but it's treated as a new addition. Once an ISBN is assigned to a book, it cannot be replaced or reused. If you want to change from a free ISBN to your own purchased ISBN, you must create a new edition of your book. So what do you do? Well, number one, purchase the ISBN. So get it from the appropriate agency for your country. Then assign the ISBN to the new edition of your book. Okay, so now you have a new ISBN again one for each format. You're going to treat the book as a new edition. So you need to now update the title metadata on all platforms to reflect that it's the second edition. You also are going to want to get a new barcode with this new ISBN so that you can upload the print files. And when you step three re upload your book, it has the new barcode on the back with the proper ISBN. On platforms like Amazon's KDP or Ingram Spark, you're re uploading the book as a new title with the new ISBN. But you first must make sure the old version with the free ISBN is unpublished so there's no confusion. Then four. Preserve reviews if possible. Some platforms like Amazon will allow you to link reviews from the previous edition to the new one, but you have to reach out to their customer support and request this linking. When you do this, there are some limitations. First, sales history does not transfer. The new ISBN will start fresh in terms of sales data and rankings. Previous sales under the free ISBN do not carry over two library listings. If a library already had the book with the free ISBN in their category, the new ISBN won't replace it. This rarely is an issue, but it does happen from time to time, depending on where you got that original ISBN. So it will be treated as a separate edition and so you have to get it relisted in the library system. Now, hopefully you know the importance of these numbers. Well, really, ISBNs are more than just numbers. They're a key to unlocking your books full potential in the publishing world. By owning and using them correctly, you set your book up for success and professional credibility. Now this is the next video YouTube recommends and this video is the one on book printing to show you some of the different options you have as a self publishing authority.