Self-publishing and ISBN's: Are they really worth buying?

[Amelia Faulkner]

So from my little experience of these things, libraries can request books from CreateSpace. But AFAIK it's also not uncommon in the US for people to donate books to libraries and for those libraries not to pay you for anyone who borrows it like wot they should. I don't know if that's just not a thing in the US.

 

[Cathbad]

How would the libraries pay authors? If they charge for your library card (many are now), it's very minimal fee.

I have seen libraries purchase some of my books (very little royalty on those, I'm afraid), and I donated two of my first novel. I enjoy knowing my books are in libraries! I know I won't make money there (though it might get me more readership), and I hope my books are read often!

Then again, I'm one of those not really trying to earn a living on my writing...

 

[Overread]

In the UK there's a nominal fee for a library card, but otherwise the library is free to use. So there's no profit for an author in a library system beyond the initial purchase of the book(s) for the library stock. There might be some libraries that charge an annual fee for use, but they tend to be bolted onto universities and as such the fees tend to go into things like journal subscriptions and higher priced textbooks. Ergo its looking at a much more niche market - and again the authors are only getting the normal sale royalties from each sale.

I think library copies can generate sales if your book is of good quality because people like to own things. They like to have it on their shelf and own it themselves; especially if they like the item in question. We know this to be true otherwise the retail book market would have shut down years back in order to compete with libraries. If anything libraries, at least public/non university ones, are suffering these days and have really had to open up to being more social centres (ergo allowing noise!) in order to keep getting people coming through the doors.

That said you've also got Amazon's unlimited system and a myriad of other ways to sell your book for free. I think any author has to be careful; you want to tempt people with the free into buying the paid. If you fail or put too much for free people won't get hooked. It's like baiting a fish, you put enough on to get the fish interested, you're not putting a whole meal on the hook.

 

[Amelia Faulkner]

In the UK, the government pays borrow fees to creators (authors, illustrators, etc) whose works are borrowed from a public library.

What is PLR?

 

[Overread]

I had no idea that they did that - very neat

 

[Astro Pen]

What I am reading is that brick and mortar stores will not buy from amazon (ie books having the amazon imprint/ isbn). So ideally having your own ISBN and imprint helps with, say Ingram Spark or Amazon moving books out to retail stores.
It is a matter of likely sales ratios.
I am about to roll with self publishing a novel and all this complication is adding to the burden, but I don't want to screw up. So decision time is here. I gather it is easier to move the book to Ingram Spark (in parallel) if it has its own isbn. and imprint.
The Nielsen ISBN pricing policy is bonkers BTW.
Needs looking at by trading standards. 1 costs £91 1000 cost 98 pence each.
Nielsen UK ISBN Store

 

[Brian G Turner]

What I am reading is that brick and mortar stores will not buy from amazon (ie books having the amazon imprint/ isbn). So ideally having your own ISBN and imprint helps with, say Ingram Spark or Amazon moving books out to retail stores.
It is a matter of likely sales ratios.
I am about to roll with self publishing a novel and all this complication is adding to the burden, but I don't want to screw up. So decision time is here. I gather it is easier to move the book to Ingram Spark (in parallel) if it has its own isbn. and imprint.
The Nielsen ISBN pricing policy is bonkers BTW.
Needs looking at by trading standards. 1 costs £91 1000 cost 98 pence each.
Nielsen UK ISBN Store

Unless you are expecting to release a bestseller, or have a big local market who want to support a number of local book shops, then in all honesty you don't need to worry about these issues.

If you're self-publishing for the first time I strongly recommend you just keep it simple by going through Amazon and ignoring everything else - forget ISBN's, forget Ingram Spark, ignore expanded distribution - Amazon KDP does everything you need for you. And no one should have any trouble buying from Amazon.

I did the same as you in the beginning - researched all the options, bought a block of ISBNs, looked at how to get my books into bookshops - but in the end, it all turned out to be a monumental waste of time and money. Amazon has positioned itself to be the most author-friendly self-publishing platform out there. Whatever else anyone may say about Amazon, Amazon KDP is the self-published author's best friend. They make it so simple to publish through them, and you will make almost all of your sales through them no matter whatever other steps you take to make your book available elsewhere.