Placing a book on All Romance....

PortableHal said:

My writing partner has not yet joined AW, so on her behalf....

Some people have reported strong sales on All Romance ebooks and my partner has her own self-published story she'd like to sell. However, she reports that AllRomance requires an individual ISBN # and she's used one of Smashwords free ISBN'ers.

Will Smashwords automatically offer Renee's story on All Romance? If not, can she use the Smashwords ISBN or should she purchase a separate one?

Thanks!

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ARe (allromanceebooks) will send you a number you can use in lieu of an ISBN. Read about that in the FAQ for publishers: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/faq-2.html

"Q: What if I don’t have ISBNs for the work?
A: If we are going to distribute your titles to the Apple iBookstore for you, an ISBN is necessary. If you are going to sell only through the All Romance and OmniLit retail sites and don’t have and ISBN, please write to us and request a 13 digit convention that you can use for your house as a substitute."

Smashwords prefers (strongly) that you do not publish under the ISBN they assign you. Smashwords publishes to IBookstore as well.

Dani,

Could you clarify?

Do you need ISBN for Amazon or just for the Apple sites?

Aren't there free ones?

BAY said:

Dani,

Could you clarify?

Do you need ISBN for Amazon or just for the Apple sites?

Aren't there free ones?

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Sorry the question was for ARe so I didn't answer about AMazon.

Amazon gives a free isbn when you publish, if you request, for both Kindle and for createspace. The ISBN number belongs to your kindle book and should not be used when publishing versions outside of Amazon.

Smashwords also offers a free isbn - which you do not need unless you plan on letting them distribute to B&N and Ibookstore. They also do not want the ISBN they assign your book to be used outside of their website. This means that you should not use their ISBN number if you publish directly to B&N, Amazon or Ibookstore.

For example:

My book (below-Shattered Glass) I published with Amazon and received an ISBN for that Kindle edition.

I then have another ISBN for my print book from createspace. Because a print copy has its own ISBN.

I have a third ISBN from Smashwords which they in turn publish to B&N and Ibookstore - because I could not use the EBOOK ISBN from Amazon to publish it outside of Amazon.

And then I have a special number, assigned by ARe, which I use to publish directly on ARe's website because I could not use my Amazon ISBN outside of Amazon, nor my Smashwords ISBN outside of Smashwords.

Hope that explains it. =)

PortableHal said:

Dani, thanks for the help. I'm still a little confused, though. Your book, Shattered Glass, is distributed through Amazon and Smashwords and each has assigned a catalog number for the book. Then you add --



I understand the folks at ARe will provide their own 13 digit # but it sounds like this is for writers who are not going to be distributed via anyone else. Am I misreading this?

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That was how I read it as well. I was confused about this policy also.

I believe each sales channel offers their own identification number. Amazon issues an ASIN. Barnes and Noble issues a BN identifier. Unless you purchase your own ISBN through Bowker, it seems that your title may receive different identifiers through individual sales channels.

I think the Amazon number isn't a real ISBN, just an Amazon identifier. So you can't really use it in place of an ISBN.

Anjasa, if you're in Canada, you can get your ISBNs for free, so you might as well, right? Do you know how to do that?

Captcha said:

Anjasa, if you're in Canada, you can get your ISBNs for free, so you might as well, right? Do you know how to do that?

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Oh my... do I live under a rock? I even looked this up, I guess I was only getting US information!

No, I had no idea about that or how to go about it!

Yeah, it's a definite perk of being Canadian! Gay rights, health care, and free ISBNs!

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/ciss-ssci/index-e.html

PortableHal said:

Dani, thanks for the help. I'm still a little confused, though. Your book, Shattered Glass, is distributed through Amazon and Smashwords and each has assigned a catalog number for the book. Then you add --



I understand the folks at ARe will provide their own 13 digit # but it sounds like this is for writers who are not going to be distributed via anyone else. Am I misreading this?

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The number you receive at ARe can only be used at ARe. If you plan on submitting anywhere else, you need an ISBN of your own. But it also depends on where you submit. The only companies who require a book to have an official ISBN are B&N and Ibookstore (iirc. There may be others that require it, but I haven't submitted to them.)

Hope that clears it up =).

Dani said:

The number you receive at ARe can only be used at ARe. If you plan on submitting anywhere else, you need an ISBN of your own.

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The way this reads says to me that you can't use the ISBN assigned number outside of ARe. That makes sense.

But I'm still horribly confused. Will you need an ISBN of your own to distribute through ARe if ARe is not the only place you are distributing through?

And so you are only able to get the ISBN through ARe if you are only distributing through them?

The disconnect for me occurs here:

Dani said:

"Q: What if I don’t have ISBNs for the work?
A: If we are going to distribute your titles to the Apple iBookstore for you, an ISBN is necessary. If you are going to sell only through the All Romance and OmniLit retail sites and don’t have and ISBN, please write to us and request a 13 digit convention that you can use for your house as a substitute."

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That's reading, to me, that you get the ISBN through ARe only if you are distributing through them. Implied: not distributing anywhere else at all. And, of course, you can't use the ISBN assigned through ARe outside to any other distribution area.

Maybe I'm just parsing this conversation wrong and confusing myself needlessly.

bearilou said:

The way this reads says to me that you can't use the ISBN assigned number outside of ARe. That makes sense.

But I'm still horribly confused. Will you need an ISBN of your own to distribute through ARe if ARe is not the only place you are distributing through?

And so you are only able to get the ISBN through ARe if you are only distributing through them?

The disconnect for me occurs here:



That's reading, to me, that you get the ISBN through ARe only if you are distributing through them. Implied: not distributing anywhere else at all. And, of course, you can't use the ISBN assigned through ARe outside to any other distribution area.

Maybe I'm just parsing this conversation wrong and confusing myself needlessly.

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ARe does not supply an ISBN. They supply an inhouse number that's specific to your book in their store (For example: My "isbn" at ARe is ISBN # DNLXND0000001 - which, you can see is not a real isbn). If you plan to submit outside ARe you will either need an ISBN or use the services provided by each individual supplier.

You cannot use the numbers for the ebook that ARe, Amazon or Smashwords provides you outside their platform.

BUT Smashwords submits your work to the other sites, for a fee.

=/ sorry if I'm just making this more confusing. I think in my attempt to be thorough, I've lost ya somewhere LOL.

And you'll need an ISBN for the print version as well.

Dani said:

=/ sorry if I'm just making this more confusing. I think in my attempt to be thorough, I've lost ya somewhere LOL.

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heeee...I think I understand now. Thanks!

So: Smashwords & Amazon will supply their own personal tracking number for your story.

ARe will supply it's own personal tracking number for your story.

Smashwords will not offer your work to ARe and ARe will not offer your work to Smashwords. Both Smashwords and ARe will offer your work to Apple, assuming you have an ISBN specifically for such a purpose.

None of these organizations expect you to offer your work through them exclusively. Did I get it right?

MartinD said:

Did I get it right?

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100% =D LOL

The only exception to the last part:

MartinD said:

None of these organizations expect you to offer your work through them exclusively.

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If you join Amazon's KDP select program, then you cannot offer the book anywhere else. But you have to enroll in that program.

PortableHal said:

To everyone who responded, many thanks.

To Dani, many, many thanks.

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I helped someone! \o/