When self publishing with CreateSpace (for Amazon), and choosing the 'free' assigned ISBN, what if you wanted to have the book published elsewhere? Or, what if you wanted to have the book printed by a local printing company and see the book yourself? Can you do this with their ISBN?
Good question. I researched all this two years ago when I was looking into ISBNs, but I can't remember what the answer was. But I did do an Excel spreadsheet on the various options. And I ended up going to Bowker to buy my own (there was a 10-for-$250 sale going on at the time, which was nice). But now you've made me curious. The people over at Stack Exchange had a conversation about this and the answer seems to be no, you can't. If you want someone other than CreateSpace to print and distribute your book, you have to get another ISBN.
ISBNs are free in Canada to Canadian publishers (even self publishers) through the Library And Archives Website.
They are also free in Mexico and various other places - you have to pay for them in the US and UK . Eotd the createspace isbn is only good for createspace (and makes them the publisher of record), if you get your isbn through an aggregator like D2D its free but can only be used on services accessed through that aggregator - if you want full freedom to use it where you like you need to get your own isbn
I have two books through CS. I used a free ISBN for the first and purchased a second through their Gowker link. The CS free ISBN identifies your book as having been published through CS, therefore stuck with the self-published stigma. The difference between the two is that CS expanded distribution option to educational institutions is not available to purchased ISBNs, though the B&N and Ingram distro is. However, I have found that expanded distro jacks up the price of the paperback a lot, with or without the educational institutions. I tried it, made exactly one sale on B&N in two months, and dropped back to regular distro at a much lower price. If I were to do it again, I would stay with the free one, and republish with a purchased ISBN (if necessary) and only if I saw some advantage in that. As to getting your book separately printed, I don't know what the legal ties to CS are. You can call their tech support and ask, if you have established an account with them. If you are looking to have a publisher pick up your book after self-publishing, that is extremely unlikely. If you have a local printer, will they be distributing your book for you, or just printing up copies for you to distribute? The latter can be extremely expensive, as you are going to have to purchase many copies (hundreds, probably) in order to make the setup costs reasonable. In fact, if they are going to distribute them for you, they are likely to do the same, and charge you a bundle up front, whether they sell or not. I would look very carefully at using that local printer, legal issues with CS propriety apart. For the typical sales volumes of self-published paperbacks, varying from months per book sold to a book every few days, print-on-demand from CS is a very much better option. If you want a batch of books for book signings, you can order your titles as author at production plus shipping costs from CS, but only as many as you need. My understanding is that the CS ISBN is yours, whether you remain with CS or not, but I may be wrong. In any event, you can simply buy another ISBN and republish if necessary.
Above all, if you want to stand out from the self-published crowd, make sure that you book looks as professionally done as you can possibly make it. Part of that is the ISBN and copyright page. Don't take shortcuts or you may find your book languishing in the Amazon ranking dungeon. The highest compliment you can get as an indie is when someone flips through your book and asks "Who is your publisher?" If a local store wants to sell your book, supply them with production copies from CS through your own download. E&D costs $15 on Amazon, but I can get it about $9 at my wholesale rate. I have a few out that way on consignment. But if it is a local store, count on selling handfuls, ten or so, not hundreds. And make sure that they will even carry it. Chain stores will generally not; B&N is more indie-friendly but requires CS extended distro. BAM will carry it only if you publish through them. Independent bookstores will carry it but most require you to go through Ingram, which you also do by the CS extended distro I talked about above... mainly because Ingram has some sort of return policy for vendors on unsold books. Bookstores are not going to make up the bulk of any indie's sales.
Hell print sales of any type aren't going to make up the bulk of any indies sales , they are worth having, not least because they make the ebook look like a deal, but I wouldn't worry about getting them into bookstores. (Incidentally if you are anywhere other than the US It can work out cheaper to just buy your copies on amazon, instead of getting author copies , because of the difference in shipping cost ... author copies are printed in the US wherever you are, but POD copies are generally printed in the country they are bought in (at least in first world countries)
@bigsoft moose is right. I sell about ten Kindles, both download and pages read through Kindle Unlimited, for every paperback. I believe that is typical. And, @big soft moose, I downloaded Rapax, so you have a US sale
