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EAN (photo by BillPe - CC-BY)

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a unique 10-digit number used to identify books and other products, such as calendars and greeting cards. It does not include a bar code, it is just a number.

The EAN, or Bookland symbol, is 3-digits + the ISBN, making a 13-digit number and includes a bar code for scanning. It is the most widely used bar code format in the publishing industry worldwide. To the right of the ISBN bar code is often a smaller bar code which includes a 5-digit number encoding the retail price.

The Universal Product Code (UPC) is the standard barcode printed on retail merchandise and is used by scanners to identify an item but is not specific to the publishing industry.

One unique ISBN is issued to each title or edition and is used by libraries, booksellers, educational institutions, wholesalers and distributors for marketing and cataloging.  Books aren’t required to have an ISBN but it’s often a requirement for selling your titles through major retailers. Each 13 digit number is divided into five sections with hyphens between each.

For example, the ISBN-13: 978-1-86197-876-9 means:

• 978: identifier for a Bookland EAN

• 1: identifies the country of publication

• 86197: identifies the publisher

• 876: identifies the title or edition

• 9: the “check digit” to validate the ISBN

There are 160 ISBN Agencies worldwide which issue ISBNs to publishers, Bowker being the only agency in the United States. If a book is self-published, the author can apply for an EAN from Bowker’s IdentifierServices website, the cost today is $150.00