How to get an ISBN in Australia

What an ISBN actually is

An ISBN — International Standard Book Number — identifies one format of one edition of one book from one publisher. That definition is the whole thing: every part of it decides how many you need. It is a retail and library identifier, nothing more. It confers no rights, protects nothing, and is not required by law.

What it does do is make your book orderable. Retailers, distributors and library suppliers all work from it, and most will not list a title without one.

Where Australian ISBNs come from

In Australia, ISBNs are issued by Thorpe-Bowker, the national agency, through its identifier service. You buy them as a publisher — which, if you are self-publishing, means you — and whoever buys them is recorded as the publisher of record.

• A single ISBN costs roughly $45, and a block of ten roughly $90, so the block is almost always the better buy.
• There is no annual fee. An ISBN is bought once and does not expire.
• You will also want a barcode for the print cover, generated from the ISBN. Most cover designers produce it as part of the jacket.

Prices change. Treat the figures above as the order of magnitude rather than a current quote, and check the agency before budgeting.

How many you need

One per format, because each format is a separate product:

• Paperback — one ISBN.
• Hardback — a different ISBN.
• Ebook — a different ISBN again. Some retailers will list without one, but your own record is cleaner with it.
• Audiobook — its own ISBN, and some audio retailers require it.
• A reprint of the same format — no new ISBN.
• A second edition with substantial changes — a new ISBN.
• A new cover with no text changes — no new ISBN.

So a typical first book that publishes in paperback, ebook and audio uses three, and a block of ten covers your next two books as well. If you would rather not deal with the agency at all, registration is part of our ISBN and copyright service, and we do not mark the ISBNs up.

The free ISBN question

Amazon and some other platforms will give you a free identifier. It works, and it costs nothing, and there is a catch worth understanding: the platform is then recorded as your publisher, and the identifier is tied to that platform. Moving the book elsewhere later means a new ISBN and a new bibliographic record.

For a single ebook you do not expect to move, that may be fine. For a book you intend to keep selling, or a series, buy your own. The cost is trivial next to the inconvenience of being tied to one retailer.

Choosing a publisher name

When you buy ISBNs you are asked for a publisher name. You can use your own name, or invent an imprint — both are legitimate, and an imprint costs nothing to create. An imprint looks more conventional on a copyright page and in a library record, and it lets you publish several titles under one identity.

Two cautions: check the name is not already in obvious use, and do not let a service provider register the ISBN under their imprint unless you have decided that is what you want.

Copyright: nothing to register

In Australia, copyright exists automatically the moment a work is created in material form. There is no copyright register, no application and no fee. Anyone offering to register your copyright in Australia is selling you something you already have.

What is worth doing is asserting it properly on the imprint page, and keeping dated drafts and correspondence somewhere safe in case you ever need to show when a work existed. Copyright in Australia generally lasts for the author’s life plus 70 years.

What goes on the imprint page

The page nobody reads, and the one most likely to carry a visible error:

• The copyright notice: © your name and the year of first publication.
• A moral rights assertion — that you assert your right to be identified as the author.
• The ISBN for that specific format.
• The publisher or imprint name, and the place of publication.
• An edition statement, if this is not the first edition.
• Credits for the cover designer, illustrator and editor, which is both good manners and useful provenance.

Legal deposit: the step people miss

Legal deposit is a requirement under the Copyright Act 1968 for material published in Australia. A copy of your book goes to the National Library of Australia, and a copy to the deposit library for your state or territory. Electronic deposit arrangements also exist for digital-only publications.

It costs you two copies and the postage, and in exchange your book is permanently in the national and state collections, catalogued and findable long after it goes out of print. It is the cheapest piece of legacy a self-published author can buy, and the one most often skipped.

The order to do it in

1. Decide your publisher or imprint name.
2. Buy a block of ten ISBNs from the Australian agency.
3. Assign one per format, and have the barcode generated for the print cover.
4. Lodge the bibliographic record — title, contributors, subject codes, format, price, publication date — because this is what libraries and retailers read.
5. Typeset the imprint page with the correct ISBN for each format.
6. Publish, then lodge your legal deposit copies.

It is an afternoon of administration, and doing it yourself is entirely reasonable. If you would rather it was handled alongside everything else, it is included in our self-publishing service, and it is relevant to every genre we work in — including the non-fiction titles that libraries are most likely to order.