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I recently published my best seller How To Gain 100,000 Twitter Followers in paperback and immediately saw an increase in sales. I’ve come to realize traditions die hard, and print books are not going away anytime soon. Unlike what experts say, the paperback market is as big and vibrant as the ebook market; Many paperback buyers will not buy an ebook especially book clubs which can make a book hugely successful, and there's another 59% of readers that don't own a Kindle or know about the free reading app. Plus, there is something about the feel and smell of fresh paper that appeal to paperback readers. The bigger your audience, the potential for more sales. Also, having a paperback distinguishes you from thousands of other self-published authors and adds value to your Amazon page. The more buying options, the more attractive your book--perception means everything. And, paperbacks can be more profitable because paperback buyers don't complain about the price like ebook buyers.

Amazon is now offering paperbacks on Kindle, so you can have all your books on one platform instead of using Createspace for print books and Kindle for ebooks. There are some features not available yet on Amazon so check the options before making a decision. The first thing you need is an ISBN. Amazon provides free ISBN numbers, or you can buy your own. I was getting ready to say okay to the free ISBN, then I said, Naw, you better buy your own or at least research it. So, I found an article by Karen Myers who's an expert on ISBNs. It is a must-read for authors who are thinking about publishing a print book. Make sure to read the comments and replies which are even better than the article.

Disclaimer: If any author/writer objects to having their work published on multiple platforms Click Here. send me a message, and I'll remove your curated content. Just hit the Blue Contact Button. Thank you for the time, dedication, and sacrifices it takes to write these magnificent pieces. I hope I can do them justice by reposting, reblogging some of these timeless pieces and keeping them alive.

Why Indie Authors & Publishers Should Buy Their Own ISBNs by Karen Myers

“I would no more omit my ISBN from a book I’ve written than I would take away my name,” asserts indie author and publisher Karen Myers. Here’s why she believes depending on retailers’ own identifiers (ASINs, etc) is a false economy, long term.

The author Karen Myers

Independent publishers and author/publishers aren’t supporting corporate boardrooms, expense accounts, or Manhattan addresses (by and large), and frugality is a common theme. Avoiding the purchase and use of an ISBN number for their published work (if they are US-based) seems to many to be another opportunity to cut cost.

But let’s step back a minute. I write for many reasons but one of them is to communicate with someone else. I’m sure that resonates with many writers. Right behind that is the sense that I am joining that long river of communication that is the world of books, a stream that has flowed for hundreds of years, and I want my little drops to join in and make that stream just a little larger. Maybe I will communicate with someone who finds my work decades after my own death.

If you want your work to survive and be part of that river, you have to treat what you’re making as an honest-to-god book that could live forever, not just a document that gets thrown up in digital form somewhere and makes you a little money.

Using ISBNs to Future-proof Your Books

My name is my brand. My books belong to me, and my stamp upon them is an ISBN number, a unique and universal identifier that will bring them out of darkness to anyone’s search, years from now and in databases I cannot envision. It doesn’t matter whether the book is printed or in digital form – that’s just a detail. I would no more omit my ISBN from a book I’ve written than I would take away my name.

I’ve heard people comment, well, you don’t need an ISBN to publish an ebook at this site or that, and that’s a true statement. But when you’re caught up in the here and now of the latest development in the explosion that is new indie publishing, it’s easy to lose perspective.

Consider the following situation:

I publish a book, digital only. I don’t bother with an ISBN number.
I distribute it on Amazon, which assigns it an ASIN number, an Amazon product code.
I distribute it on Barnes & Noble, which assigns it a B&N product code.
I distribute it on Kobo, which assigns it an ISBN number owned by Kobo, so my book will appear to be published by Kobo, not me.

I distribute it on Smashwords, which assigns it an ISBN number owned by Smashwords, so my book will appear to be published by Smashwords, not me.
With the exception of Smashwords, none of these identifiers appear within the eBook itself.

And now, let twenty years go by… Barnes & Noble & Smashwords are out of business. Amazon changes its product code conventions and no longer uses ASIN numbers. There is no searchable database made available by Amazon for the old ASIN numbers. Kobo, which owns the ISBN it provided, controls what the Bowker Books In Print or successor database contains and updates the information about your book in ways you would not approve of, and since you have no ISBN number of your own that’s the only record of your book in Books In Print. Someone who chanced across a reference to your book based on an old copy from Barnes & Noble can’t find it because the B&N identifier is no longer alive, and may or may not connect it with a Kobo record in Books In Print which has a completely different identifier.

Does this seem like a good thing to you?

Image of Karen Myers' novel "To Carry The Horn"
One of Karen Myers’ novels, future-proofed via her own ISBN
Old Standards Die Hard

We forget how shallow the history of digital technology is and if we’re not in the information technology industry (I am) we have a natural human tendency to think that whatever’s available today will always be available. But the real world is limited by money and time, and databases, formats, and standards evolve or die on a daily basis. The older standards are the most stable, and the standards for books, embodied by ISBNs, are as stable as anything we have, because books have been around longer as cultural and commercial objects than any other medium.

When I publish a book, and it’s usually in both print and digital form, I always use my own ISBN and control all the Books In Print data about the book. I use a different ISBN (as required) for the print and digital editions. I have my doubts that the current practical divide of the digital format between MOBI and EPUB will last, and so I use a single ISBN for both of my digital format editions since the standards haven’t quite settled in this area and Bowker permits it. (I probably should pony up and do that right).

Think in the long term. Buy a batch of ISBNs (much cheaper in bulk), use them, and help your books speak to other generations for as long as they have anything to say.

Addendum: How big a block of ISBNs should you buy?

Here’s how I think about it…

Read the Full Story and Comments and Replies Click Here http://selfpublishingadvice.org/why-indie-authors-publishers-should-buy-their-own-isbns/

If you are interested buying my Best Seller How to Gain 100,000 Twitter Followers Click Here.