Do You Need an ISBN When Book Printing in China?
Dateline March 2015
Yes you need an ISBN when book printing in China.
Regardless if you will print a book overseas or domestically, if you plan on selling the books through a US retailer – the answer is YES, you need an ISBN when book printing in China.
In fact, there are 3 numbers you may want to include on your cover, in a scannable, barcode format:
1. ISBN – International Standard Book Number
2. Book Price
3. UPC – Uniform Product Code
The ISBN is a universally recognized, 13-digit identification number, comprised of five parts.
- The first part is a “978” prefix.
- The second part identifies the national or geographic grouping of publishers.
- The third part identifies the publisher.
- The fourth part identifies the particular title or edition of a title.
- And the fifth part is called the “check digit,” which is a single digit number that validates the ISBN.
Administered in the U.S. by R.R. Bowker, ISBN’s are issued in blocks of 10. While publishers are not required to obtain ISBN’s, distributors and most book stores will not accept a book without one.
You may also request an “add on” or “extension” so that the price of your book will appear in scannable barcode format just beside the ISBN.
Books that sell in mass quantities benefit from a Universal Product Code.
Some bookstores require or strongly urge that you place a UPC bar code on a book’s cover. For the most updated information, search “UPC”.
Barcodes most often appear on the bottom right-hand corner of the back cover.
Once you apply for an ISBN or UPC and provide these numbers to us, we recommend downloading a vector file of the barcode (not a bitmap Photoshop file) and having your designer place it exactly where you wish on the cover.