The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a 13-digit number that uniquely identifies books and book-like products published internationally.
The purpose of the ISBN is to establish and identify one title or one unique edition of a title from one specific publisher. An ISBN allows for more efficient marketing and cataloging of products by booksellers, libraries, universities, wholesalers, and distributors. Also, Digital retailers like Apple Books track and report sales according to ISBNs.
An ISBN is NOT the same thing as a barcode. The barcode you see on the back of a book is derived from an ISBN, but the two are not the same. An ISBN is only a number. A barcode is a visual method used to convey an ISBN to a computer using scanning technology during a sales or inventory transaction process.
A unique ISBN is required for the digital and print versions. For example, if your title already exists in print form and you are wanting to now create an eBook version, you cannot use the same print ISBN number for the digital version. A new number is required. (Similarly, the hard cover version of a title would need to have a different ISBN than the soft cover version.)
If you do not have your own ISBN, we can assign one to you for a fee of $49.