

Ask HN - why is ISBN so expensive, compared to a domain name? - vijayr

This is a question for those who've written and published books on their own.  Just saw the prices for ISBN - at isbn.org, it is 125, I didn't expect it to be this expensive.  Isn't it the equivalent of domain names, to books?  Why does it have to be so expensive?
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dholowiski
Old vs New... basically because they can. I looked into ISBN's once too and
that's not a bad price, as far as ISBN's go. I ended up using LuLu's
'published by Lulu' service, which put my name on the book, but the official
publisher was Lulu... they gave me a free ISBN. An ISBN makes your book
'official' and opens up all kinds of distribution channels that aren't
available to plain old ebooks.

This turned out to be a great move, because I forgot about my book but lulu
didn't... it got listed on Amazon.com and sold several copies, and (completely
without my intervention) made it into the iBook store and I've sold literally
dozens of copies (well, 92 copies).

They hide it pretty well, but if you use their 'extendedreach' free
distribution package, and if your book meets the requirements (mostly size and
page count) you can get a free ISBN. [http://connect.lulu.com/t5/ISBN-
Distribution/What-Distributi...](http://connect.lulu.com/t5/ISBN-
Distribution/What-Distribution-Services-does-Lulu-offer/ta-p/33503)

Sorry to make this sound like an ad... just a very happy customer here.

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vijayr
iBook store? Doesn't lulu sell only physical copies?

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dholowiski
Nope... think of them as a distributor. So yes, they sell physical copies, but
if you have an ISBN they'll get you into the book catalogue and real book
stores can order your book. They'll also make a downloadable version of your
book that you can sell direct from their web site, or from yours. They'll also
(apparently) get it into the iBook store for you. They take a pretty good cut
of the money, but for me, it's been well worth it - and I haven't bought any
services from them, only paid them commission on my sales.

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vijayr
oh okay, got it. Thank you

