Can I add an ISBN to a Kindle DTP ebook after its been published?

Amazon does not use ISBNs for any ebook sales (neither does B&N right now). So you can't assign an ISBN to the book either at initial upload OR later on. Amazon uses ASINs (an internally generated number) to track ebooks.

You can assign an ISBN to the Kindle format of the book, if you want to (at least some larger publishers seem to be doing this, based on the ISBNs I am seeing on the first pages of their Kindle ebooks). To do this, you buy the ISBNs from Bowker (in the USA, or wherever you buy them if in another country), then go through them to assign the ISBN to that format of that book.

I can think of a couple of reasons to use an ISBN for a Kindle format... If you're selling it from your website, it might be worthwhile to do. If you're using that number to internally track your book (via your computer spreadsheets, etc.), then it might be worthwhile too. Probably others too, but that's what comes to mind.

But Amazon isn't tracking it. Bookscan isn't tracking Amazon ebook sales either. The only application of that ISBN will be inside the book, if you put it there, and in your computers.

Actually Smashwords retailers such as Apple and Sony will not accept your Smashwords book unless you have a unique e-ISBN.

Ken Hoss said:

Actually Smashwords retailers such as Apple and Sony will not accept your Smashwords book unless you have a unique e-ISBN.

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Yes - but that ISBN (there's no such thing as an "e-ISBN") has to be attached to the epub format for the book. The epub and Kindle formats should have different ISBNs, just like a hardcover and MMP should.

KevinMcLaughlin said:

Amazon does not use ISBNs for any ebook sales (neither does B&N right now). So you can't assign an ISBN to the book either at initial upload OR later on.

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Kevin, You've been called on this mis-information at least once before.

Amazon DOES include a field for ISBN, yes, even for self-publishers.

So does B&N.

I know because I just opened an account on both.

As others have asked, repeatedly, what is your background in commercial and self-publishing? Because so far, your comments come across as less than knowledgeable, which is worrisome, because you are making statements as if you were an expert.

Ken Hoss didn't mean e-ISBN literally. It was just a quick way of saying that you'll need an electronic ISBN. I got his point (notice, he put a hyphen there).

Bottom line, Todsplace, is that you'll need an ISBN number for your electronic books. I just had to recently purchase a new block of 10 numbers because I wanted to get into Apple and Sony who require a separate ISBN number (I already them for paperback). And then I went back to my Kindle uploaded books and placed them there as well (they didn't have any. I had left that field blank).

I used the same number for each eBook.

When you go to Bowker, there's a pull-down menu to select what type of ISBN number this will be assigned to. There's an option for epub and one for Kindle. I simply selected eBook.

I figure it's like this, if you got your ISBN number from Amazon itself for a Kindle book, then it will be an ISBN number for the Kindle format only and owned by Amazon. That was my thought process anyhow on how this is interpretted. I don't know for sure, so I understand why KevinMcLaughlin is stating that an ISBN number should be used separately for each type of format.

But honestly...I don't have the money for all that and I'm already upset having to keep track of 20 ISBN numbers let alone for EACH AND EVERY FORMAT.

Hopefully, it doesn't come to that. Hopefully, epub would become the standard and that's that. But for now, I don't see anywhere that says that you can not use the ISBN number for your electronic Book in different places. Only Smashword said that you couldn't use the KINDLE ISBN number, and I didn't select that. I selected eBook. So I figured I'm covered for everything.

As for the statement for Smashwords needing the ISBN and it has to be attached to the "epub" format...that' snot true because you upload the novel in .doc format and they break it out to SEVERAL formats, and they only require ONE ISBN number.

So be careful with giving information.

Kevin McLaughlin was a little confused, as eqb so kindly pointed out, and *completely forgot* that there was a little space on the Kindle DTP panel for an optional ISBN entry. *palmslap* I've never used it; never applied an ISBN to a Kindle book, so I'd forgotten. Again. Sorry!

I do have a related question... Bowker's guidelines for application of ISBNs to ebooks is one number per format, right? So, would you then want to put one ISBN to a mobi format (maybe sold from your website, for example), and another to the AMZ format sold on Amazon?

KevinMcLaughlin said:

I do have a related question... Bowker's guidelines for application of ISBNs to ebooks is one number per format, right? So, would you then want to put one ISBN to a mobi format (maybe sold from your website, for example), and another to the AMZ format sold on Amazon?

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Yes, that's the idea--one ISBN per format.

I briefly considered buying a block of ten ISBNs for my collection, but I haven't decided yet whether it's necessary. B&N and Amazon will assign their own numbers, and I'm not sure if I want to make a print version available. But if I do, then yes, I would assign a different ISBN to each one.