Last Updated on January 3, 2021 by David Wogahn
If you went through the trouble and expense of buying an ISBN for your eBook or print (or audio) book you need to return to Myidentifiers.com and complete the registration process. Until you do, your book won’t be listed in Books in Print® or any of the databases that retailers, libraries and schools rely on for information about books.
There are four sections:
- Title & Cover
- Contributors
- Format & Size
- Sales & Pricing
Which fields to complete
There are 13 required fields and 5 additional fields that I believe every publisher should complete to maximize the SEO for their book. You can certainly complete them all but these 18 are what I'd call required.
I’ve listed them in the table below along with important notes about each.
(Other posts on ISBNs you might be interested in: ISBN Essentials and How to Choose 1 of 3 ISBN Options When Using Amazon.)
*indicates a required fields
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Book title* | You can use a working title until you submit the final record. |
| Subtitle | Always helpful for SEO purposes |
| Description | 350 word max. Measure this ahead of time because their system will only produce a error if you exceed 350 words. |
| Cover | Cover image in JPG (only) format: file size between 4KB and 5MB. |
| Contributor* | The name of the author, at a minimum. |
| Contributor function* | Author, Illustrator, Editor, etc. |
| Medium* | Print, eBook and Audio are the most common. |
| Format* | These options are based on your choice of Medium. |
| Primary Subject* | I've noticed that the drop down box of potential book categories doesn't always appear. Open a new browser or start over if this happens to you. |
| Secondary Subject | Not required but helpful. |
| Where is the title sold?* | Choose from a country in the drop down. |
| Title Status* | Select from drop down. |
| Publication Date* | Date you plan to release the book. |
| Target Audience* | Choose Trade if the book is for the general adult market otherwise pick an appropriate category. |
| Currency* | Choose your currency. |
| Price* | Use the price you plan to launch with even though it may change later. |
| Price Type* | Choose Retail if you entered a retail price for Price. |
Quite helpful. Thank you!
Extremely helpful, thank you so much.
I’m in my bowker identifier account for ISBN’s and I do not see all the fields you say to fill in. Where are They?
I see title, isbn-13, format, cover, barcoding widget.
Where do I find description, format, and all the other fields? Thank you
Once logged in, you click My Account, then Manage ISBNs. Then click the Assign Title next to the ISBN you want to use. Description is on the first page as is cover. Every number has fields, divided into four tabs on the left. Here is the phone if you need more help: (877) 310-7333
I tried to purchase an ISBN number from the website and got the following error message in the credit card payment section – “Checkout cannot be completed without any payment methods enabled. Please contact an administrator to resolve the issue.
Continue with checkout to complete payment.” It won’t let me continue to the checkout and the left side options don’t respond like the one that says “billing information”.
Is something wrong with the website. Also, it has my address wrong and when I fill in the correct address and click the “save changes” box, it keeps reverting back to the wrong address. Hopefully I can order the ISBN by phone on Monday.
I assume you are referring to Myidentifiers.com. Since this is a separate company, unaffiliated with AuthorImprints, you should call them: Customer Support: (877) 310-7333 techsupport@bowker.com
I registered my isbn, but bookstores are unable to find my book when searching. What do I need to do?
Contact the company where you registered the ISBN. I assume that in this case it is Bowker so call myidentifiers.com.
I purchased 10 sequential ISBNs and assigned 3 to my e-book, paperback, and hardcover. I’m ready to publish my books via Amazon KDP; and when I attempted to upload the hardcover manuscript, I get this error message: “This ISBN has already been assigned to another title.”
Could you advise me as to what’s wrong?
I have a clone designation beside my 3 assigned ISBNs. In the Bowker world, what does “cloned” mean?
Two possibilities. If you used the ISBN for a proof and didn’t publish, KDP keeps track of this and won’t let you use it, but probably not an issue for you. The second is KDP is flat out wrong. I’ve had this happen and had to keep arguing with them. It was an error at their end. Good luck.
The basics of your book’s information was copied to a new ISBN. Once you complete all the required fields, and submit, it will process.
Hi and thank you for this website!
Using myidentifiers.com it doesn’t give me the option of hardcover for my isbn! Or is hardback the same? It only shows available as formats these:
Bath book
Big book
Board book
Globe
Hardback
Leather / fine binding
Loose-leaf
Novelty book
Pamphlet
Paperback
Rag book
Sheet map, flat
Sheet map, folded
Sheet map, rolled
Slide bound
Spiral bound
Please help!
Adriana
hardback
Thank you for setting this up to help people. I am trying to upload a book cover in Bowker, but the cover is landscape and the only option for book covers appears to be portrait. Is there a way to switch this so it doesn’t have the bands above and below the book cover? Thank you.
No but you might change the orientation and then upload it. I don’t believe this will impact sales or distribution one way or another.
Thank you so much for this information. Would I purchase the ISBNs under my real name or a pen name? That is, if I’d like to remain anonymous, am I able to register for a Bowker account with my pen name vs. my real name?
Use your real name, in fact it might be against their terms of service to do otherwise. To my knowledge, the name you use is not public, but the publisher name is.