CN Central: Do I need a new ISBN for a new edition of my book?

Oliver - Lord of the reads: +3087

Hi Kevin,

An ISBN is a unique identifier of a book in a certain configuration. According to the ISBN agency each edition and publisher should have a new ISBN.

By ‘edition’ they mean a book which has changed it’s language, dimensions, number of pages or cover.

However these aren’t hard and fast rules and you can generally get away with changing the cover and number of pages under the same ISBN (and even the size if it hasn’t gone into mainstream distribution).

I would recommend a different ISBN for each continent, printer, book size and language you publish as this will help customers find the right book for them. I recommend a new ISBN for each continent as it ensures the book is printed and distributed locally when using print-on-demand.

So if you have the same book and one version for the USA and one for the UK I would get two ISBNs. If you wish to publish a Demy version and a Crown version I would get two ISBNs. If you are just updating the content then I would stick to the ISBN you have.

I’m afraid we can’t put the same ISBN on two editions as each ISBN is supposed to be a unique identifier for that edition.

Hope that helps, as ever if you have further questions please comment on my answer (and vote it up if it is useful :P ).