Home/Publishing/ISBN & Copyright
Copyright exists when the book is written down. An ISBN is a product number, and it names a publisher of record. Registration with the Copyright Office is a third thing: a filing, a deposit, and a certificate. We keep those three from being written as if they were one.
Three different records
In the United States an ISBN you buy from Bowker can name you as the publisher. A free ISBN from KDP names Amazon as the publisher of record for that edition, and that number cannot be reused at Ingram or Barnes and Noble. Both are legal. They are not the same plan. Each format needs its own ISBN: paperback, hardcover, and audio. Kindle will sell an ebook on an ASIN without an ISBN. A wide ebook is cleaner with one you own.
The copyright line inside the book tells a reader who holds the text and which year you are claiming. It does not file anything. Registration is a separate application at the U.S. Copyright Office, with a deposit copy. We can prepare the page so the name, the year, and the ISBN match, and we can walk the filing if you want it in your name. We do not register the book to ourselves.
Order of the work
What stays straight
A copyright page that names a press you do not own is a problem you will meet again at the next printer.
What you leave with
If you register, the certificate is yours. We do not keep the only copy.
Decisions
Fast, and fine if that edition will only live on that retailer. You are not the publisher of record. You also cannot take that paperback to Ingram under the same number.
You are the publisher. The same print ISBN can go to KDP and Ingram if the edition is the same and both accounts are yours. This is the path if bookstores matter.
Worth doing before a dispute, not because the book is unfinished without it. We file only when you ask, in your name, with a text you are willing to deposit.
House rule
A copyright page is a record. It is not a place to look more published than you are.
Before the number
Mailing a manuscript to yourself is not registration. If you want the filing, we use the Copyright Office. If you do not, the copyright page can still name you. We will not sell you a ritual.
One ISBN is one edition. Paperback, hardcover, ebook, and audio each need their own if you are assigning ISBNs. An ebook can sometimes ride on an ASIN alone, on Amazon only.
If you bought it, you do. If a retailer assigned it free, they are the publisher of record for that edition. We do not buy a block in our name and rent you a number.
Before the cover
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The shelf
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