I will assign an ISBN and LCCN for your book and a barcode for printed books. Having both the barcode and ISBN on the back of your printed book ensures that your book is ready to be sold in stores.

ISBN
The ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is a 13-digit number that uniquely identifies published books. The ISBN identifies a title from one specific publisher and is unique to that edition. The ISBN allows for more efficient marketing of products by booksellers, libraries, universities, wholesalers and distributors.

Barcode
While the assignment of unique ISBN numbers to each title and version (paperback and eBook) is often a requirement for selling your titles through major retailers such as Barnes & Noble and wholesalers and distributors, these same booksellers prefer to use a machine readable or scannable version of that number in their systems and processing. The ISBN number and the suggested retail price are encoded.

Registration with Library of Congress
The LCCN is a unique identification number that the Library of Congress assigns to titles prior to publication. It is not a copyright registration.  An ISBN is required before getting an LCCN.  Librarians use the LCCN to access the associated bibliographic record in the Library of Congress’s database or to obtain information on various book titles in other databases. Publishing Partners prints the LCCN on the copyright page along with the ISBN.

eBook only? Although an ISBN is not required by eBook retailers like Amazon, you should plan to identify your eBook with a unique ISBN. Your LCCN applies to the eBook version, but bar codes are not relevant to eBooks.

Metadata
Enhanced metadata can increase discoverability of your book and provide marketing information to the entire publishing supply chain by providing a trail for search engines to follow to find your title. There’s Google, Chrome, Safari, and the rest.  Amazon and other online retailers have their own proprietary search engines and their own way of associating metadata with your book. Bookstores also use search engines to buy inventory. Search engines are constantly updating their algorithms making metadata even more important. READ MORE

 

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