ISBN Resellers Explained: Understanding the Legality and Legitimacy

There is a global non-profit organization called GS1, which is responsible for standardizing goods around the world. ISBN is one of the GS1 initiatives, which is responsible for the standardization of books worldwide. The main body of ISBN is located in London, called ISBN International Agency (isbn-international.org), a non-profit organization.

Each country has one official ISBN agency. Certain nations have privatized their ISBN agencies, while others are run by the local government. Some nationalized ISBN agencies offer ISBNs to their citizens free of charge.

Book publishers have to obtain an ISBN from their home country’s ISBN agency. This becomes problematic for international book publishers with an official presence in multiple countries. There are no clear rules on obtaining ISBNs for multinational organizations.

Book publishers prefer obtaining ISBNs in a country where ISBNs are privatized due to the ease of obtaining ISBNs. In addition, international book publishers usually purchase ISBNs in bulk from a privatized ISBN agency, since buying in bulk saves them a lot of money.

So the hierarchy of ISBN distribution is as follows:

1. GS1
2. ISBN International Agency
3. ISBN Agency in a country
4. Book publishers
5. Book title and its format.

ISBN Acquisition Methods

A book publisher or author who wants to self-publish their book can obtain an ISBN from an ISBN agency in their country. Moreover, self-publishing authors can obtain an ISBN for their book from a self-publishing platform like Amazon KDP. Self-publishing platforms obtain ISBNs under their imprint name and offer ISBNs for free to authors self-publishing on their platform. This also helps authors publish their books hassle-free on their platform.

As the self-publishing platform has paid for their ISBN and their goal is to promote their platform, they don’t allow use of their ISBN outside their platform.

There are three methods for obtaining an ISBN.

1. Official ISBN agency
2. Self Publishing Platforms
3. ISBN Reseller

ISBN service provider or reseller, which falls in the middle of official ISBN agency and self-publishing platform ISBN. Instead of obtaining an ISBN from an official ISBN agency, an author can purchase an ISBN from a third-party seller. This works only for authors who want to self-publish their book.

What is a third-party ISBN seller?

As there is only one official ISBN agency in a particular country, an ISBN agency becomes a monopoly business when it is privatized. When the ISBN agency is nationalized, then it’s become a victim of bureaucracy. Third-party ISBN sellers buy ISBNs from privatized ISBN agencies as obtaining ISBNs from privatized ISBN agencies is easy and offer ISBNs in bulk. Then they sell ISBNs to authors who want to self-publish their book. The third-party ISBN sellers call it an ISBN assignment service, as ISBNs are registered to the seller’s imprint name.

Third-party ISBN sellers fall into a gray area of business practice, as reselling ISBN rules are not clear, and ISBN agencies don’t like ISBN resellers taking their business. Below are the benefits of buying an ISBN from a third-party seller for self-publishing authors.

6 Reasons Why Choose ISBN Reseller

1. Right to use their imprint name: Indie authors have three options: create a unique imprint name and obtain ISBN from an official source; use a self-publishing platform ISBN with a generic imprint name; or buy ISBN from a reseller and use reseller imprint name. Using ISBN reseller imprint name doesn’t transfer ownership of the book. Authors can use the reseller imprint name just like the Amazon KDP imprint name “Independently Published’ but without restriction on ISBN use.
2. Lower cost: Buying ISBNs from a reseller is a better option for indie authors who want 1 to 4 ISBNs. One ISBN in the US from the official source costs $125. The indie authors can get the same ISBN for just $39 or less, depending on the reseller.
3. No upsell: A privatized ISBN agency sells several unnecessary services such as ISBN barcodes, book publisher addresses, etc. The self-publishers end up spending more than they should be.
4. Global service availability: Book publishers and indie authors are limited to one ISBN agency in their country. With the help of an ISBN reseller, indie authors from anywhere in the world can obtain ISBNs from countries such as the US and UK.
5. Easy to obtain: Depending on the author’s nationality, some ISBN agencies require authors’ personal ID, phone number, etc. to obtain an ISBN. And their personal information gets added to the global publishers database. Well, authors can protect their privacy by buying an ISBN from a reseller.
6. Customer support: Resellers are usually small book publishing service providers, helping authors self-publish their books at an affordable cost. Authors can get more personalized support and care than anywhere else.

Legality of Reselling ISBN

Some nationalized ISBN agencies define the ISBN as the legal identification number of a book. This gives them a reason to tightly control the distribution of ISBNs. It also shifts people’s understanding of what ISBN is for. People from such countries think only the government can issue ISBNs.

Furthermore, there is a big misunderstanding: ISBN resellers or third-party sellers don’t issue ISBN, they assign ISBNs that have been issued to them by an official ISBN agency. In a way, resellers charge authors to use their imprint name and ISBN to self-publish a book. Authors benefit a lot from this ISBN assignment service. People think only ISBN agencies can sell ISBNs. However, ISBN resellers are not selling an ISBN but an ISBN assignment service.

ISBN Legitimacy

The question of legitimacy comes into play when buyers (authors) ask if their book information will be added into the ISBN database, and how can they verify if the ISBN has been registered legitimately? ISBN validation is easy to check as it consists of mathematical calculation, but showing them proof that the ISBN has been obtained from an official source becomes difficult.

Another difficult part is that authors expect to see their book information publicly available in the ISBN database just after an ISBN is assigned to a book. But the ISBN database only includes book information into their database when a book is published. ISBNs are assigned to a book using the ISBN agency website; most ISBN agencies don’t have a publicly accessible database of assigned ISBNs.

To help authors with legitimacy concerns, ISBN resellers, like FreeISBN.com, offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. To be clear, authors who want a refund after ISBN purchase have to return the ISBN unused and before the ISBN is assigned to the author’s book.

Authors can validate the ISBN using a validation tool online. Authors can also look for reseller imprint name in the global database of publishers. The global database of publishers includes the imprint name, book publishing contact information, and ISBN publisher digits they own. This may help authors understand the ISBN is from a legitimate book publisher.

We, as an ISBN reseller, help concerned authors with a screenshot of the official ISBN assignment form filled with author book information. Just ask us to provide you proof of the ISBN assignment.

Basic book information in the ISBN assignment form can’t be changed. Some information, such as book pricing, contributor names, etc. can be added and changed later.

Please contact us if you have any questions and concerns regarding our ISBN services.