Selling Your Book and ISBNs
Whether you need an ISBN to sell your book, how to get one for your country, and where to add it
Do I need an ISBN?
Not to use ToonyStory. The ISBN field is optional, and leaving it blank changes nothing about creating, downloading, or ordering a printed copy of your book.
You need one only for certain ways of selling:
| How you sell | ISBN needed? |
|---|---|
| Copies you sell yourself: in person, from your own site, at markets and fairs | No |
| Gifts, family orders, school or club copies | No |
| Bookshops and distributors | Yes, almost always |
| Large online retailers such as Amazon | Yes, almost always |
| Library catalogues | Yes |
An ISBN is a catalogue number, not a licence or a copyright registration. It identifies one edition of one book so that shops, wholesalers and libraries can order it. Nothing about your rights changes when you add one.
Where to get an ISBN
ISBNs come from a national agency, and each agency issues only to publishers based in its own country, so there is no single worldwide shop. The link under the ISBN field in ToonyStory points at the agency for your country. If you would rather look it up yourself, the International ISBN Agency directory lists every national agency.
Two things worth knowing before you buy:
- One ISBN per edition and format. A hardcover, a softcover and an ebook of the same story each need their own number.
- Agencies price in blocks. A single ISBN often costs nearly as much as a block of ten, so buy the block if you expect to make more books.
Adding it to your book
The ISBN lives on the book, so you can set it in either place and it is the same field, saved to the story:
- In the editor. Open your story, click the front cover, and find the Book Details box below the title. It holds the author, dedication, copyright and ISBN.
- At checkout. On the customize step of a print order, open Title page details and fill in the ISBN there.
Type it with or without hyphens. Both ISBN-10 and ISBN-13 are accepted, and a green check appears once the number passes its check digit. A red message means the number has a typo in it, most often in the last character.
What gets printed
Once the field holds a valid number, ToonyStory does the rest:
- The ISBN prints on the title page, under the copyright line.
- An EAN-13 barcode is generated from it and printed on the back cover, on a white panel so it scans over any artwork.
This happens on both the printed book and the downloadable PDF. You never need to make or upload a barcode image.
Add the ISBN before you order, then check pages 1 and 2 of the proof PDF along with the back cover. A book that is already printed cannot have its barcode changed.
Are you allowed to sell what you make?
Yes. You keep ownership of the stories and illustrations you create, and our terms allow commercial use, including selling printed copies. Two responsibilities stay with you:
- Real people. If your characters come from photos of real people, get their permission (or a parent's or guardian's) before selling copies.
- Other people's characters. Anything you do not own the rights to, such as film or cartoon characters, cannot go in a book you sell.
Content ownership and rights covers this in full.
Selling as a business
Selling a few copies to friends is one thing; running it as a business is another, and the rules depend on where you live. Registering as a publisher, legal deposit copies for a national library, and how you handle tax are all local questions. A local accountant or your national ISBN agency can tell you what applies to you.