ISBN Follow-up and Publishing Weekend

Today I finally received my international book numbers! At first I didn't see them in this booklet they sent me, but luckily I found them before I set about actually reading the whole thing. From what I've read in it, there is a lot of information I already learned in English and I expect there is far more information I just don't really need. I've had to read longer, drier manuals than this for my work, but I still don't relish the thought of wading through a hundred pages of bureaucratic Japanese.

Really dodged a bullet on this one. This looks unbearably boring.

Anyway, I thought before I get to finalizing my first book's publication, I'd do an update on the rest of the application process that came after I filled out the internet form. Actually, let me back up just a little bit. To even get the form I had to apply to apply, as strange as that sounds. They sent a URL to my email address and I had 96 hours to complete that and send it in. After I sent their form back (the one I wrote about last time) I received an email with that information in a PDF. That had to be printed, signed and a copy of the receipt for the bank transfer they requested needed to be glued to it. Then I mailed it to their office in Tokyo.

A few days later I got a phone call while I was at work. When I called them back, they said they had called the house, but that no one was home. They needed to ask something that they wouldn't ask me unless I was on my home phone and so I asked them to call the next day. Then I had my wife call them since she had plans. Again, they just need to ask a few questions and they scheduled something for the next day. Well, the next day finally comes and they forgot to call. When Haruna called them, it turned out they just wanted to verify our home phone number. Bureaucracy at its finest.

That turned out to be the last actual hurdle. I was finally waiting on them to process my request. They said it would take up to three weeks, but it only took about two. Maybe a little less than that. I don't know if I might come across some other snags this weekend, but if not then I'll post again when I have the book up for sale. My hope is to have both the English and Japanese versions out this weekend. This has been a neat first adventure and I'm glad to have been able to share it with you. I'll be looking forward to the others that will follow.

Getting Started with ISBNs

Last night I applied for international standard book numbers through the Japanese ISBN agency. Truth be told, I didn't even realize these were a thing you apply for. I don't believe there is a rejection system in place, barring errors in the information you give them; still, I had expected it to be more like a toll gate where you fork over the money and they let you through. There were a lot of surprises as I made my way through this process and I thought I'd share some of what I learned.

Before I'd started I had no idea what an ISBN is. I had seen the letters on the back covers of books, but never thought about it. An ISBN, as it turns out, is a unique serial number that identifies the book. That's it. Since more than one book might have the same name, or perhaps very similar names, ISBNs are used to identify books precisely.

If publishing, do you really need an ISBN? That depends on how and what you're publishing. Here you can find a PDF which lists the media that ISBNs can be attached to. In my case, I want to put one on my eBook. I don't actually have to, but there are some eBook retailers that do require them (namely Apple and Sony). In order to distribute my work through them I need the numbers.

Getting the codes has proved somewhat complicated. Like I said, I thought I'd just hand over some money and be done with it, but the first sign that it wouldn't be so easy was not finding a field for "country" in the address form on Bowker's website. That had me searching on Google to find out that ISBNs may be international, but they are administered locally. The participating countries each have their own agency that processes inquiries for publishers whose business are stationed in their locality. There is only one agency for each country and ISBNs can only be issued by official agencies. I didn't happen to turn up any scam sites, but I can't imagine they don't exist.

I had a lot of questions when I first started. Can Japanese ISBNs be used for works distributed world-wide? Do you need to attach seperate codes to foreign language editions? Can ISBNs be transferred or sold? There are answers to almost every conceivable question in various FAQs that can be found around the net, including here, here, and here.

There are a few last details worth mention. The information required by the ISBN agency includes an address and land line phone number in the country over which they preside. I also needed to enter the name of the publisher and its legal business status. This cannot be changed once registered with them. I haven't established an official business, as I have yet to look into my options regarding registering here in Japan or in the US. In any case, this means deciding on a name that will appear in the official records before doing business. I have chosen Stern Publishing. It sounds official and the tag-line is just too good to pass up. Stern Publishing: we're serious about books. I crack myself up...

I have a file to mail back to the agency and then it's back to waiting. Fifteen business days according to their email, so unless there are any other snags, it looks like I can publish Bear with Me around the middle of September.