Hi, i purchased a block of ten ISBNs, but am never going to use the rest , so I thought I may as well offer them to someone who might need one.

I hope this is allowed? if its not, let me know.

Obviously you keep all rights etc. I promise there is not a penny involved.

If you're interested, bear in mind the publishing name is my surname, so nothing too dodgy please, as I don't want to receive fan mail.

Please email me links or outlines, nothing too long please

cardayff@gmail.com

Looking forward to hearing from you

Yours,

Rob

I'm sure this is not allowed. The purpose of ISBNs, apart from identifying a publication, is to provide traceability. They are assigned to you as the publisher, and I'm pretty sure you can’t just give them away willy-nilly.

Have you checked with the ISBN Agency?

Dee

Thinking about it, this would only be suitable for a small (tiny) project, which is not expecting trade inquiries, and just needs an ISBN to access a restricted service like LS. Obviously, I am not committing to any responsibilty regarding correspondence. I can't imagine the ISBN agency will be concerned if its infrequent and no money is being made.

ISBN's make a book look more the biz and are mandatory for some retailers e.g. Waterstones.

If someone uses one of your numbers I think that makes you the de facto publisher. And you would be at risk if anything dodgy did appear in print from your "House".

I don't think I'd take the risk unless I had some editorial input at proofing.

Anyone using the ISBN numbers would have to put your address on the copyright page, Rob, since you are the registered publisher.

ISBN numbers are only neccessary if you wish to sell the book through Amazon or via bookshops, or make library deposits.

You do not need an ISBN number to publish a book. Anyone can sell their book directly - eg. at craft fairs or off their own website - without an ISBN number.

- NaomiM

The second part of an ISBN - after the country code (UK is 0 or 1) - identifies the publisher. So if you're registered as the publisher with that pre-fix, any of those ISBNs will be identified as yours. I'm sure they're not transferable. And I would say, don't be so sure that you'll never need the rest: the third part is specific to that edition of that title, so if you ever re-issued it in another binding or format, or updated it in the future, you'd need another ISBN.

Emmma

The second part of an ISBN - after the country code (UK is 0 or 1) - identifies the publisher.

Is this still true now we are on 13 digits? All the ISBNs I see now begin with 978. Often this is followed by a 0. What does the 978 stand for?

I'd forgotten about ISBN-13: I think it's the digit after that 978, isn't it - because that doesn't seem to change on the books I've got that give both.

Emma