Administrative
- Copyright registration – You actually don’t need to register a copyright in order for your book to be copyrighted. In the act of writing it, you copyrighted it automatically (though you can’t actually copyright your book’s title, or any names or short phrases in your book). Still, a copyright is only as good as its enforcement, and registering with the U.S. Copyright Office will help on both a protection and compensation level if you ever have to sue for copyright infringement. To register your copyright, go to www.copyright.gov or ask us to do it. Copyright certificates usually arrive at least four months after filing.
- ISBN – If you’re planning to sell your book through a distributor or a major bookstore, you’ll need to obtain an ISBN (International Standard Book Number)—the 13-digit identification number and related EAN bar code—that identifies the publisher and book title. It’s used by booksellers, libraries, universities, wholesalers and distributors to order, manage and market inventory. The information includes:
- Group or country identifier which identifies a national or geographic grouping of publishers;
- Publisher identifier which identifies a particular publisher within a group;
- Title identifier which identifies a particular title or edition of a title;
- Check digit is the single digit at the end of the ISBN which validates the ISBN.
Note: Since the ISBN identifies the publisher, whoever buys the ISBN is the publisher of record. If you want Incubation Press to be the publisher, let us buy the ISBN for you (see below). If you want to be the publisher of record, then you need to buy your own.
To order an ISBN yourself, go to www.bowker.com or www.isbn.org. (Note: Bowker is the only company authorized to sell blocks of ISBNs in the United States. Your publisher can provide an ISBN from the block that they’ve purchased, but you cannot legally buy a single ISBN from a resller.) Two things to keep in mind: Every new edition of a book, as well as every adaptation and/ or format (ie: hardback, paper, audio, CD/DVD download, etc…), needs its own IBSN. ISBNs, which can only be used once and can never be reassigned, are sold in increments of 10, 100, 1000, and 10,000, so you’ll want to estimate how many publications (or variations) you will be publishing during the next five years, and then order the block that best meets your needs. This way you retain a single publisher prefix for all your publications.
If you prefer, we can supply you with an ISBN, saving you time and money since you won’t have to buy a block of 10 or more. (Either way, we’ll incorporate the ISBN bar code on the back cover of your book unless you already have.) If we do, you’ll also receive an application for an Advance Book Information (ABI) form as part of our service. Since this is what allows your book to be included in Books in Print, the industry directory used by distributors, wholesalers, and bookstores to order copies of books, you’ll want to make sure to submit that out whether or not you have us handle your ISBN.
- Library of Congress (PCN) – If you want your book listed in the Library of Congress—or if you plan to market your book to libraries—you’ll need a Library of Congress Control Number. Your book needs to be over 50 pages to qualify, unless it’s a genealogy or children’s book. Make sure you get this number before you publish your book, since it won’t be eligible for a number post-publication. And since this comes from the government, do it well ahead of time since it’ll take at least three weeks. To apply for the number yourself, go to www.loc.gov. Or let us to the clicking for you.
- UPC Bar Code – Not to confuse the issue, but there are two types of bar codes. The EAN bar code is what you get along with your ISBN number in order to be able to sell your book through bookstores. If you want to market your book through other types of retail stores—often an excellent proposition—you’ll need a Universal Product Code (UPC) bar code. So yes, your book may actually require two bar codes. You can order a UPC bar code or we can do it for you. A word of warning: it’s expensive.
