[FM Discuss] [IAEP] ISBN Numbers Summary.

[C. Scott Ananian]

On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 8:50 PM, David Farning <dfarning at sugarlabs.org> wrote:
> A second level of confusions results because in addition of buying a
> block of ISBNs a publisher must register a book's the title in 'Books
> in Print' Database.  It is via accessing the Books in print database
> that other wholesaler and resellers can order and sell the book.
>
> In addition to the 'Books in Print' publishers can register with other
> services to raise their profile.  To extend the phone metaphor past
> its useful life.... Every phone number is listed in the white pages.
> The more you pay the bigger your add in the yellow pages.

I'd be wary of paying for there "other services".  Really, Books in
Print is more like the white pages, not the yellow pages.  It's free
(more or less) and just provides a <isbn number> to <contact
information for distributor> mapping, so that if you want 500 copies
of a particular ISBN, you look up the right phone number and call up
the distributor to order them.  That's it, it's easy.

The trick is that many large retailers don't like dealing with small
distributors.  So even though the "number's in the book" for the ISBN,
they won't pick up the phone and call, because their ordering systems
aren't integrated, or they've have bad experiences with billing, or
they've been scammed in the past, or it's just more trouble than it's
worth.

People offer lots of suggestions for how to "make it worth their
while" (these "other services") but in my experience and opinion,
they're mostly scams -- and often counter productive scams, which will
cause businesses to avoid lulu-printed books even more when the hook
is discovered.  It's not that hard to get your book listed, and Amazon
*will* stock your book if people are buying it.  Your task is to get
people to buy it.  "Just being listed at Amazon.com" doesn't make
people buy the book.
  --scott

-- 
                         ( http://cscott.net/ )