International Standard Book Number

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n International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is simply a product code, used by publishers, booksellers and libraries for ordering, listing and stock control purposes. It enables them to identify a particular publisher and allows the publisher to identify a specific edition of a specific title from their product range.

You only need an ISBN if you plan to sell your book in shops or if you wish to distribute it to libraries.

Some companies, such as so called ‘vanity publishers’, may offer to supply an ISBN free as part of their service but you should note that if you do not buy the ISBN yourself from the UK Agency then you are not the publisher and you may find yourself in a situation where you do not have control over what happens to your book.

If you are self-publishing and decide that you need an ISBN then you should buy it yourself.

International Standard Book Numbers are issued in the UK by Nielsen UK ISBN Agency. Unfortunately the minimum quantity available is 10 ISBNs which currently cost £118.68 including VAT.
For further information you can visit the UK ISBN Agency. It is quite a large website dealing with other areas than ISBN so to make life easier we have provided three links for you below:

More about purchasing ISBNs

FAQs for new (self-)publishers

FAQs for existing (self-)publishers

Once you have an ISBN for your book, we can convert it into barcode for you and incorporate it into the cover artwork.

From January 1, 2007 ISBN numbers are 13 digits long. However if you happen to have leftover 10 digit ISBNs from a previous project we can still use them as it is an easy matter for us to convert to 13 digits.

If you are producing your own artwork and have an old 10 digit ISBN then here is the conversion tool which you may find of help if you want to do the conversion yourself:

Free online ISBN 10/13 converter

An ISBN makes a book look “more real” but perhaps it is not worth the money if you don't really need it.

Online ISBN 10/13 converter help
Self Publish Books / Gilmour Print
This will only be of interest to you if you have an old 10 digit ISBN and need to convert to the new 13 digit version because you are supplying your own cover artwork with barcode.
We will be happy to do this for you and supply the barcode, either for you to place on your cover or for us to place for you once you send us the cover artwork. The charge for supplying the barcode is the same either way – £18.00

Contact Information for Self Publish Books

Address: Irvinehill Farm, Stewarton, Ayrshire KA3 3EL, Scotland, UK

Telephone: 01294 850217.
You can contact us during normal business hours and also during the evening and weekends. If there is no one in the office calls divert to a mobile.

Email:

Uploading files: Files up to 5mB can be emailed to us.

Fax: If it is necessary to fax us, this can be done by arrangement. Please telephone first.

If you need to send larger files to us you can do this via www.mailbigfile.com – it’s free. If you click on the link the website explains what to do, using our email address above. If you have several small files that together come to more than 5mB it is probably more suitable to compress them together into one file using compression software and then send via mailbigfile.com. If in doubt call us!

For further details on all of the above plus a contact form to email us from click here.