BOOK PROMOTION

National Book Trust

ISBN

INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BOOK NUMBER (ISBN)

ADVANTAGES OF ISBN

ISBN is a unique international identifier for monographic publications; assigning a number replaces the handling of long bibliographic descriptive records. Time and staff are saved and copying mistakes are avoided.

The ISBN allows compilation and updating of book trade directories and bibliographic databases, such as catalogues of books-in-print. Information on available books can be found easily.

Ordering and distribution of books is mainly executed by ISBN; that is a fast and efficient method.

The ISBN is a machine-readable in the form of a 13-digit EAN.UCC bar code. This is fast system and avoids mistakes.

 The ISBN is needed for running of electronic point-of-sale systems in bookshops.
Rights management is mainly done on the basis of ISBN.

The ISBN does the accumulation of sales data. This enables the varying successes of different product forms and editions of publications to be monitored, as well as enabling comparisons between different subject areas and even different publishing houses.

The national lending right in some countries is based on the ISBN. Such schemes enable authors and illustrators to receive payments proportionate to the number of times that their books are lent out by public libraries.