ISBN Services

By obtaining an ISBN you will be able to take the necessary steps to ensure that your book is widely known and to maximise its sales potential.

If you are a publisher or bookseller it is in your interest to use ISBN as it is likely to help you to sell books. Books that cannot be ordered and distributed by ISBN and that are not listed in Books in Print type listings may not sell as many copies as they could. People will assume that the books do not exist, and even if they do know they exist, they may consider it is too much bother to handle them since they will need to do so using lengthy manual ordering processes.

If you have published a book that you think can be successfully marketed in other countries as well as your own, then you should contact the National ISBN Agency in Azerbaijan for details about how your book can be included in their national catalogue for books in circulation (books in print).

As well as catalogues of books in circulation, you may also want to ensure that you are listed by internet retailers such as Amazon. Again, you will need to contact each of these organisations directly (including each separate international branch) with details of your book. You can contact Amazon UK, for instance, through the publisher section of their site.

The benefits of ISBN include:

• The ISBN is a unique international identifier for monographic publications; assigning a number replaces the handling of long bibliographic descriptive records, thereby saving time and staff costs and reducing copying errors.
• Correct use of the ISBN allows different product forms and editions of a book, whether printed or digital, to be clearly differentiated, ensuring that customers receive the version that they require. 
• The ISBN facilitates compilation and updating of book-trade directories and bibliographic databases, such as catalogues of books-in-print. Information on available books can be found easily. 
• Ordering and distribution of books is mainly executed by ISBN; this is a fast and efficient method. 
• The ISBN is machine-readable in the form of a 13-digit EAN-13 bar code. This is fast and avoids mistakes.
• The ISBN is required for the running of electronic point-of-sale systems in bookshops. 
• Many publishing and supply chain systems are based on ISBN. 
• The accumulation of sales data is done by the ISBN. This enables the varying successes of different product forms and editions of publications to be monitored, as well as enabling comparisons between different subject areas and even different publishing houses. 
• The national lending right in some countries is based on the ISBN. Such schemes enable authors and illustrators to receive payments proportionate to the number of times that their books are lent out by public libraries. 

In principle, publications that are monographic (i.e. one-off publications not periodicals or serials etc), text-based (or predominantly text-based) and available to the public are considered eligible within the scope of the ISBN Standard. 

Some examples of the types of publication that qualify for ISBN are: 

• Printed books and pamphlets (and their various product forms) 

• Braille publications 
• Publications that are not intended by the publisher to be updated regularly or continued indefinitely 
• Audiobooks (talking books) either on a physical carrier or accessible on the Internet for download or streaming 
• Digital publications (e-books) either on physical carriers (such as machine-readable tapes, diskettes, or CD-ROMs) or on the Internet (for download or streaming) 
• Digitised copies of printed monographic publications that are available in the supply chain 
• Microform publications 
• Educational or instructional software, films, videos, DVDs, transparencies either on a physical carrier or accessible on the Internet for download or streaming 
• Mixed media publications where the principal constituent is text-based, e.g. book with CD or book with DVD 
• Individual articles* or issues of a particular continuing resource where these are made available separately (but not the continuing resource in its entirety) 
• Art books and illustrated books with a title page and/or text or captions 
• e-book apps provided that they have a significant textual content and can be considered a monographic publication and are available to the public. Pictures, moving image and sound may be included 
• Maps and atlases 

*Where individual articles are made available separately by a publisher, they qualify as monographic publications and shall be assigned an ISBN. This does not apply in the case of offprint or preprint copies that are ordered by the author(s) of the article for their own distribution purposes. 

Publishers should contact our national ISBN agency for advice as to whether or not a specific product is eligible for ISBN. 

Ineligible products 

Any publication that is without a defined end should not be assigned an ISBN. For example, publications that are intended to be regularly updated and to continue indefinitely (such as journals, serials, magazines, newspapers, updating looseleafs, updating websites) are ineligible for ISBN. 

Some examples of products that do not qualify for ISBN are: 

• Continuing resources treated in their entirety as bibliographic entities (individual issues may qualify for ISBNs) 
• Abstract entities such as textual works and other abstract creations of intellectual or artistic content 
• Printed or digital materials that are intended for marketing or promotional purposes only such as advertising matter, widgets and the like
• Printed music 
• Art prints and art folders without title page and text 
• Personal documents (such as a digital curriculum vitae or personal profile) 
• Greetings cards 
• Music sound recordings 
• Software, films, videos, DVDs or transparencies that are intended for any purpose other than educational or instructional 
• Digital bulletin boards 
• Emails and other digital correspondence 
• Games 
• Customized or personalised books not intended for general availability 
• License key vouchers to access digital monographic publications on the Internet 

Sometimes, other types of items are produced such as stationery items or toys that are based on characters in particular books, etc. These types of materials cannot be identified by ISBN but should be numbered by other systems such as EAN UPC bar codes. Modern scanning equipment reads and processes the different kinds of bar-coded numbers. 

For further information including clarification about whether or not a particular type of product may qualify, please contact our national ISBN agency. 

Principles of assignment 

Displaying the ISBN on publications  

When an ISBN has been assigned it should always be displayed on the publication concerned. This is important for easy identification and, when the ISBN is displayed in bar code format, libraries and bookshops for example will be able to process incoming stock and outgoing sales quickly and accurately. 

There are particular places on a publication where the ISBN should be displayed:

• On a printed book an ISBN should be included on the copyright page (also called the title verso page) or at the foot of the title page if there is no room on the copyright page. If there is no bar code, then the ISBN should also be on the back cover or jacket preferably on the lower right.
• In the case of digital publications (such as compact discs, online publications, etc.), the ISBN must appear on the title display, that is the first display page or on the screen that displays the title or its equivalent (e.g., the initial screen displayed when the content is first accessed and/or on the screen that carries the copyright notice). For more information on using ISBN with digital publications, click here.
• For eligible educational/instructional films, videos, and transparencies, the ISBN must appear on the credit titles.
• If the publication is issued in a container that is an integral part of the publication (e.g., a compact disc, cassette, or diskette), the ISBN should be displayed on any labels included with that container. If it is not possible to display the ISBN on the container or its label, then the ISBN should be displayed at the bottom of the back of any permanent packaging for that container (e.g., the box, sleeve, or frame).

More details about how to assign ISBNs 

 Assigning ISBNs to different language editions  

Each different language edition of a book will need its own ISBN. Publishers should apply for ISBNs from the ISBN agency where they are based and not to the country of the language of the book. 

Assigning ISBNs to multi-format/multi-volume works  

An ISBN must be allocated to the whole set of volumes of a multi-volume work; also, if the individual volumes of the set are sold separately, each volume must have its own ISBN. Even when each volume is not sold separately, the allocation of an ISBN to each volume is advisable. It facilitates the handling of returns (damaged volumes) and eliminates the possibility of confusion over specific publications. Each volume should list all ISBNs. 

Similar rules apply to kits (e.g. a CD-ROM with accompanying booklet). If any of the parts are available separately, then each part that qualifies for ISBN assignment should be given a separate ISBN, in addition to the ISBN for the kit as a whole. 

 Identifying series  

The series may receive an ISSN (provided it is envisaged as continuing indefinitely), while the individual items should receive ISBNs. ISSN is a separate international standard and the International ISSN Centre is the registration authority for that. 

Assigning ISBNs to joint publications  

In the case of a joint publication, both publishers are entitled to have an ISBN on the book. It should be made clear which number identifies which publisher. However, if only one publisher is to hold stock and distribute the publication, then it is recommended that the ISBN of the publisher who is responsible for distribution appears in bar-coded form on the back cover of the book. 

“Out of print” editions  

Publishers assign “out of print” status when they no longer have any copies of a particular book and they have decided they will not reprint it again. An ISBN identifies a given title and its edition and binding for all time. Although a book may be out of print, it will still exist in some shops, and will certainly still exist in libraries. The ISBN will continue to identify the out of print edition and should not be reassigned to different publications. 

Assigning ISBN to individual chapters or other parts of a book that are made available separately  

If you are making chapters or other parts of a book separately available through the normal supply chain and want to have them listed in trade databases then you should regard them as individual publications and assign ISBNs to them. If they will only be available through a single source, such as the publisher’s website, then proprietary internal identifiers will be adequate. 

When to assign a new ISBN  

A revised edition of an existing book  

A (substantial) change of text requires a new ISBN, and if revisions have been made then the reverse of the title page should state that the book is a revised edition, and the new ISBN should be printed there. 

A new language edition of an existing book 

Each different language edition of a book needs its own ISBN. 

A change of format 

Different formats need different ISBNs in order, for example, that a customer who wants to buy a book in hardback rather than paperback can be confident that they will receive the correct format. Different formats of digital publications (e.g. pdf, html) also need separate ISBNs.  

A change of title 

Even if the content of the book is the same, because a change in title is such a substantial change it will require a new ISBN to identify it. 

A change of publisher 

The ISBN identifies not only the particular publication but its publisher. If there is a change of publisher, then the new publisher must assign one of their own ISBNs to the new publication. 

A change in usage constraints 

Usage constraints are used to set the limit(s) of what a user can do with a particular digital monographic publication, for example whether it is possible to print a certain percentage of the pages, whether it is possible to lend the book and whether it is possible to enable text to speech functions. Usage constraints for a digital publication are usually set within the DRM software. If the same content is available separately with different sets of usage constraints then each of these sets will constitute a separate monographic publication. 

 When to keep the same ISBN 

 A change in price 

A change in price does not require a new ISBN. 

 A reprint 

The original ISBN must be retained, provided the publisher remains the same and there are no changes to text or binding. 

 Marketing or promotional changes 

No, a new ISBN cannot be issued solely for marketing or promotional reasons. A new ISBN can only be issued where there are changes of text, format or binding which would justify this.