Which ISBN Should I Choose?

Today is a Hit splits episode for Author Audience.

Welcome to the Author Audience show, the podcast that helps you reach more people with your message. Create a book, connect with your audience, change lives. Here's your host, Shelly Hitz.

Hi, this is Shelly Hitz, owner of Author Audience Academy. And in this edition of Ask Shelly, I have a question about Create Space ISBNs. Deanna writes, I published my first book on CreateSpace using their ISBN. I will be publishing volume 2 and want to use a non CreateSpace ISBN. Is this okay to do? So I want to answer Deanna's question about ISBNs. I think this is a common question a lot of authors have when they're using CreateSpace to publish their print book. And so I wanted to talk about the four different type of ISBNs you can use through CreateSpace and and how that works. So the CreateSpace assigned ISBN is free and the imprint will say CreateSpace. Now I do not recommend using the free CreateSpace ISBN any longer because they have a really affordable option. It's called the custom ISBN. And if you're not planning to publish through IngramSpark or other platforms, then this would really be the best option for you. It's only $10 and you still purchase it through myidentifiers.com and then you can put your publishing company imprin on there. So that's what I do. I choose that option and I use Body and Soul Publishing as our imprint and then it looks more professional. It has your publishing company on there. However, if you do have any thought that you may want to publish through other ways, I recommend then getting the custom universal ISBN. It's a little more expensive, $99, but it gives you a lot of flexibility. With the $10 ISBN, you cannot use that same ISBN to publish anywhere else. So if you want to bookstores, if you want to have more of an international audience and you want to get onto IngramSpark, then you'll want to choose the custom ISBN. Or you can buy your own and use your own ISBN from myidentifiers.com so Deanna, back to your question. Yes, it is okay to do that. I did that before because when I first started publishing I did the same thing. I just used the free ISBN. I didn't realize the differences. And once we established our publishing company, in the beginning it was through a self proprietor through my my Social Security number. But once we established the once we established Body and Soul Publishing as our publishing company, I then started using the customized band. So you'll notice a couple of my early Books still say create space in the imprint. I would actually have to, I would actually have to retire those print books and then publish it under a new ISBN to change. And I just haven't seen the need to do that at this point. But yes, you can do that. You can go ahead and publish volume two under the new ISBN and you'll be completely fine. And I recommend that. And you know, now that we have established an LLC with our publishing company and our business, you know, I want to have that custom imprint all the more because you know, we have that publishing company. But no matter where you're at in your process of starting, starting your publishing, I recommend starting at the minimum with a custom ISBN. It's only $10 per book and it's well worth it. It just raises the professionalism of your book. It gives you just an ability to then establish a publishing company. And even if you're starting at the beginning and using.

Your Social Security number and self proprietor, go ahead, establish that publishing company, choose a name and it just raises the level of your publishing all the way around. But to be the safest, definitely, if you think you may want to publish on IngramSpark or anywhere else, then use that custom ISBN or the custom universal ISBN so that you will have all the options available to you. Again, this is Shelley and if you want to ask me a question about writing, publishing or marketing books, or even about growing an online business, submit your question@shellyhitz.com ask thanks and I'll see you in the next edition of Ask Shelley.

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