ISBN Archives | The Digital Reader

Bowker’s ISBN Site Has Been Down for the Past Week

30 October, 20182 November, 2018Publishing10 Comments

It’s not just you. MyIdentifiers.com, the site in charge of ISBN registrations and sales in the US, has been down for the past week. What was...

The Case for ISBNs

9 October, 20169 October, 2016Self-Pub9 Comments

Yesterday’s story about Bowker’s doomed efforts to measure the ebook market through ISBN registrations reminded me of a related story which had been languishing in my...

Bowker Now Claims 625,327 US Indie Books Published in 2015, and Other Meaningless Factoids

8 October, 201622 October, 2018Publishing4 Comments

When Bowker released its annual report (PDF) on ISBNs used by indie authors in the US in 2015, it didn’t tell us anything useful besides the...

Why PRH Sold Author Solutions: Business Dropped by a Quarter in 2015

7 September, 201622 October, 2018Publishing8 Comments

Penguin Random House bought the vanity press Author Solutions (ASI) in 2012, they made sure everyone knew about it, but when Author Solutions was sold in...

Kobo Expands KWL’s Author Services With Editorial, Conversion, Design Services

13 April, 20169 October, 2016Kobo, Self-Pub4 Comments

Kobo announced on Wednesday that it had negotiated deals with digital publishing service companies to offer discounts to authors and publishers who contract through Kobo Writing Life‘s...

Kobo Plans to Add POD Services to Their Publishing Portal

25 February, 20169 October, 2016Kobo, POD, Self-PubLeave a comment

Kobo sent out an email today to KWL users, inviting them to fill out a survey and explain what features they want: Hi, You indicated interest...

Scammers Are Using Createspace to Spam Amazon With Pirated Textbooks

10 September, 201520 February, 2018Amazon, Piracy, POD, Textbooks & Digital Textbooks13 Comments

A reader has tipped me to the news that Amazon’s own website is a great source of pirated books. Scot Schad discovered that pirates had been...

BookFinder Reports that More People Were Searching for Fly Fishing in 2014 Than for “Sex”

4 February, 20159 October, 2016Best-Seller List5 Comments

BookFinder offers one of the best search engines for finding rare and out of print books, and every year this Amazon sub releases a new list...

Author Earnings Report Reveals that 30% of eBooks Sold on Amazon Don’t Have ISBNs

29 January, 20159 October, 2016surveys & polls8 Comments

The fifth Author Earnings Report was released this week, and it tells a starkly different tale about the state of the ebook market. As an independent survey...

No, You Can’t Track the Growth of Self-Pub by Counting ISBNs

9 October, 201411 May, 2017DeBunking, Self-Pub29 Comments

The most accurate statement I can make about the growth rate of the indie/author segment of the publishing industry is that it is nebulous at best....

Stats Geeks Rejoice – Bowker Releases More ISBN Data

12 November, 20139 October, 2016UncategorizedLeave a comment

If you’ve been frustrated by the general lack of accessible info on ISBN usage in indie publishing then I have some good news for you. Bowker,...

Three Possible Problems With Bowker’s Self-Pub Stats

10 October, 20139 October, 2016DeBunking5 Comments

Did you catch the hot self-pub story today? Bowker released the stub of a new report which analyzes the ISBNs registered to self-published titles in the...

eBooks Made Up 12% of ISBNs Registered in the US in 2011

9 April, 20129 October, 2016UncategorizedOne Comment

Late last week Amazon announced a Spanish language Kindle Store for the US and world market. Neat story, and I followed it up that with a...

A Quarter of All Spanish ISBNs Are Used for eBooks

5 April, 20129 October, 2016statisticsOne Comment

Here’s an interesting footnote to Amazon’s new Spanish language Kindle store. The ebook market is growing by leaps and bounds in the US and UK, that...

Smashwords bought 50k more ISBNs

14 July, 20119 October, 2016eBookstoreLeave a comment

Starting in March 2010, Smashwords has been buying ISBNs from Bowker (the company who manages the system) on behalf of the authors and publishers who distribute...