Our clients, like most new self-publishers, rely on the internet as tool to learn about the various facets of publishing. Unfortunately, there is a sea of misinformation online and deceptive businesses prey on uninformed authors. Recently there has been increase in companies offering Cheap ISBN or Low Cost ISBNs. Many of these companies offer 30-day money back guarantees. In the same manner a license plate identifies a particular car, an ISBN uniquely identifies a book or ebook. How comfortable would you be buying a “cheap” or “low cost” license online for your car? In addition, could you ever imagine a company re-assigning a returned license plate? These are real challenges many new publishers face.

In 2004, Publisher Services entered into an agreement with Bowker, the US ISBN Agency, to provide assistance to new self-publishers. Our background was originally in barcode identification and we worked with most of the major publishing houses. A critical component to our relationship was furnishing book data from self-publishers to Bowker’s global book database. Today, book data can be located at www.bookwire.com. Through our online portal, self-publishers can upload their book data and cover art (optional) and this information is dynamically submitted to Bowker. Since these assignments are unique and published within weeks to the global database, it is impossible to “return” or reuse ISBN assignments from Cheap ISBN providers.

Please visit https://www.bookwire.com and enter the ISBN 978-1-4951-0537-1 in the upper right hand search screen. This author submitted her work a few weeks ago and her book is already discoverable online.