My first ISBN lesson, aka What’s an imprint?

I recently purchased my first set of ISBNs from Bowker for my Living Between Dreams novel series. When I went to assign my first number to book 1, I realized then that I haven’t done enough with thinking about my business “resurrection” as a publishing entity (I once was a freelance writer and editor, not so much anymore) in order to effectively fill out the metadata on my ISBNs.

The biggest issue I had was with my Imprint Name. I thought Imprint name is not a publisher name. Hmm. Well my business was set up with another name I don’t really use, but my dba name for my publishing business wasn’t appropriate either.  What do I put then? How do I at least start this publishing process (which is now moving faster than I thought it would) by using what I bought?

I found this great article by #JoelFriedlander  outlining his experience with imprints, ISBNs and matching the metadata that is like a passport or birth certificate: key ID stuff for your book that gets it out there and legitimized. Now that I’ve read this, I need to make some changes. 😮

Click here for the link to Joel Friedlander’s article.

What’s an ISBN? Learn about them here (US-Specific).

The US Small Business Administration website –a helpful tool for self-published authors, because if you weren’t aware before, you are now self-employed.