How to add a barcode to your book or other published work

You need an ISBN # to purchase a barcode.  If you don’t have an ISBN #, check out my blog How to add an ISBN number to a book or other published work.

I purchase both my ISBN numbers and barcodes from Bowker.

https://www.myidentifiers.com/

Since you need an ISBN number to get a barcode, I’ll assume you have an account and simply need to log in.

Once you log in, click on your name at the top. This will take you to ‘My Account’. Click on ‘My Identifiers’.

Here you will see a listing of all the ISBN #’s you’ve purchased (I struck out my un-used and inactive ISBN #’s because I don’t know for sure if there is any theft risk) 

Anyway, find your title and click Generate under the barcode column.

This will take you to the purchase screen where Bowker is kind enough to offer other products and services.  Unlike ISBN #’s unless your publishing more than one manuscript in multiple formats at the same time, it makes financial sense to purchase them as needed. 

As you select your products and prepare to check out, you’ll notice that the barcode you’ve purchased along with the ISBN # you have already assigned to the title is just above the barcode.  Click Checkout.

You will see the above warnings.  Honestly, I don’t know how you could purchase a barcode without an ISBN -perhaps if you purchase more than one it queues them like it does the ISBN #’s.  It also mentions there is no need for a barcode with eBooks.  A helpful tip for rookies.

Check out and wait for the email...

And here it is! (sort of…you’ll need to scroll down to see the ‘Assign your barcode(s)’ box.

It will have you return to My Identifiers.

And click on the Generate button beside the title you’d like to assign your barcode.  At this point, I believe, the barcode you purchased is floating out there available to assign to any of your titles so take care to click the ‘Generate’ button beside the correct title.

It will take you to the Barcode Manager where you will be asked what price you would like to assign to the barcode.  I highly suggest you enter the retail price at which you would like to sell your book at this point.  I believe when you assign this price, a scanner at a book store will automatically pick up the price through the barcode.  If you enter zero, it does not assign a price and you cannot change the barcode once it has been saved.

You’ll get this notice.  Click OK

In the Manage Barcodes it says, Once a bar code is configured, it cannot be changed….so make sure you get it right (really, there is only one thing to get right, the price)

In this screen you can download the barcode and send it to your cover designer to fix to the back of your book…or whatever.

If you click on My Identifiers now you will see your ISBN # listing and beside the title you’ve assigned the barcode will be the word Manage rather than Buy Barcode or Generate Barcode. 

Now, any time you need to download a copy of that barcode, you can log in and click Manage on your chosen title….or download all of them and save them in a safe place on your computer (recommended).

How to add an ISBN number to a book or other published work.

I purchase my ISBN numbers and barcodes from Bowker.

https://www.myidentifiers.com/

If you have an account, log in.  If not, create an account.

Once you’ve set up your account, you can purchase ISBN #’s either individually or in groups. Unless you plan to publish one manuscript in one format (eBook, hardcover etc.) you will need more than one.  If you foresee needing more than three, it makes financial sense to purchase a group of ten. You may assign them to whatever you’d like to publish whenever you’d like.

Regarding barcodes, you first need an ISBN before you can assign it a barcode.

This is my group of ten ISBN #’s. (I have no idea if there is a theft risk in showing anyone my un-used ISBN #’s so I scratched out my unused ISBN’s.

As you can see, during the ‘Assign Title’ process it will ask you about format, allow you to upload a cover image as well as other things.  I’ll walk you through it.

1. Click ‘Assign Title'

You only need to fill out the fields with the red *’s and truthfully, I’m not sure whether filling out more gains the title any SEO exposure….another blog topic, perhaps. 

2. Enter your title, any other info you’d like and click Go to: Contributors

4. In Contributors I seemingly always make the mistake of adding myself (the author) the first time around so…do that FIRST.  You can also add illustrators, editors etc. You can also add your cover designer -don’t forget to show them some love! When finished, click Go to: Format & Size

5. Here you need to enter the Medium (I selected E-book for this example) and Format. You’ll also need to choose a primary subject. It can’t hurt to choose a secondary subject if there is one that fits your manuscript.  Again you can add more information however at this point you most likely won’t know everything regarding packaging etc. 

When complete, click go to Sales & pricing

6. Nothing you enter here is in stone so don’t get stressed about getting the price right, limiting where the title will be sold etc. etc. If you don’t know the publication date, put a date in the future. Select your target audience and choose ‘Forthcoming’ as the Title Status.

7. Click submit and return to ‘My Identifiers’ page

The ISBN you just assigned should show up with your title and a little yellow and blue arrow in the status column.  Once the title is processed, it will turn into a green and white check (like below)

The good thing is you can, if necessary, go back and change your entries. Just click on the title to do so. There is also a cool feature called CLONE.

This allows you to duplicate the information you’ve already filled out onto another ISBN #, which is handy when you are getting ISBN #’s for multiple formats (eBook, hard copy etc.)

To add a barcode, check out my blog post ‘How to add a barcode to your book or other published work'. 
(coming soon)

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Writing. Funding. Publishing