| In these days when an aspiring writer can publish | | | | ISBN became part of the universal product |
| their work easily for themselves on their own | | | | numbering scheme known as the EAN, which |
| website, there is nothing like seeing their book | | | | numbers product from around the world. An ISBN |
| published in physical form. Nothing compares to | | | | consists of five parts or elements. |
| holding in your hands and feeling the cover and | | | | The first element is the prefix element, consisting |
| touching the pages, especially if it is your own | | | | of three characters which in the case of the ISBN |
| work written within. But there's a lot to learn | | | | are always either 978 or 979. The prefix element |
| about publishing first, including an understanding of | | | | of the EAN signifies which country an article |
| the ISBN system. While the fortunate few writers | | | | comes from. In the case of the ISBN, all books |
| enjoy being published by the more mainstream | | | | come from the fictitious land of Bookland, which is |
| publishers, many more turn to self-publishing as a | | | | allocated the numbers 978 and 979. |
| means to get their book out for the world to see | | | | The second element of an ISBN is the registration |
| and enjoy. Self-publishing means different things | | | | group element and shows the country, |
| to different individuals. To some it may simply | | | | geographical area or language area of the book. It |
| mean nothing more than vanity publishing, while to | | | | may be one to five characters in length. |
| others it means employing and paying a publisher | | | | The third element is the registrant element and |
| that may specialise in self-publishing to take their | | | | shows the publisher of the book. The registrant |
| manuscript and turn it into a real book. The author | | | | element is up to seven character long. |
| may also hire a publisher that will help them | | | | The ISBN system is so arranged that larger |
| distribute their book and get it onto the bookshop | | | | countries with lots of publishers are designated |
| shelves. | | | | shorter length registration group elements and |
| Publishing a physical book involves a good deal of | | | | longer length registrant elements in order to suit |
| different operations, some or all of which the | | | | the larger numbers of publishers in larger |
| would-be author may not feel qualified to handle. | | | | countries. Countries with lower numbers of |
| And that is ok, there are companies that will take | | | | publishers, and needing fewer characters in the |
| those scary tasks away and deal with all of them | | | | registrant element can be apportioned a longer |
| - for a price. Some writers, however, want to go | | | | registration group element. |
| it alone and handle everything themselves, | | | | The fourth element in the ISBN is the publication |
| becoming in effect their own publisher - that is | | | | element and stands for the actual publication or |
| self-publishing in a very literal sense. | | | | book. It can be up to six characters long. As with |
| One of the many publishing tasks that that last | | | | other elements, the available length depends upon |
| sort of self-publisher needs to deal with is getting | | | | the registration group element and the registrant |
| an ISBN - an International Standard Book Number | | | | element. |
| - in order to make their book available to the | | | | The final element, which always consists of one |
| widest possible audience through the book trade. | | | | character, is the check digit. The function of the |
| The ISBN organisation is organised on an | | | | check digit is to help in confirming the validity of |
| international scale to give every published work its | | | | the other characters in the ISBN, to help with |
| own specific identifier. Since 2007 the ISBN has | | | | detecting transcription errors. |
| been a 13 character number. At that time the | | | | |