"E-book ISBN Mess Needs Sorting Out," Say UK Publishers
By Liz Bury - Publishing Perpectives

LONDON: The subject of how book digitization is affecting the future of the ISBN may not be as sexy as say pricing or sequencing issues, but it is just as important. Right now, publishers around the globe are taking different approaches to assigning ISBNs to e-books, that is if they are assigning them at all. The situation is like it was back in the 1960s, in the pre-ISBN days of printed books: a bit of a mess.

On March 3, a group of publishers focused their minds on the challenge at a meeting in London organized by the UK Publisher's Association and tried to answer the following question: Should publishers assign a different ISBN to each e-book format, or will a single ISBN suffice?

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Do We Need Separate ISBNs per E-book per Format per Region?

By Edward Nawotka

In today's lead story Liz Bury considers the state of the ISBN debate as regards to the proliferation of e-books in various formats. The debate going on is whether or not it is necessary to issue separate ISBNs for each e-book in each format. More ISBNs mean better analytics on the retail end, but require added logistics. What's more, there have been suggestions that e-books sold in different regions each need their own ISBNs, and if this happens, could it to the possibility of issuing individual ISBNs for each format in each region?

(read on ...)