ISBN 10&13 Digits. identifiying

The 10-digit ISBN 

for example :

ISBN  X-NNNNNN-AA-C

You’ll notice this sequence is actually divided into 4 number combinations but only three have any usefulness to us. First is the initial digit, in this case “X″:

X-xxxxxx-xx-x

The “X″ is the “language group identifier” which here indicates English. 

Next is the six digit series “NNNNNN″:

X-NNNNNN-AA-C

This is the “publisher identifier.

 the third part of ISBN, in this case “AA″:

X-NNNNNN-AA-C

This is the “title identifier,” and it’s assigned by the publisher to a particular book or a sprecific edition of a book. For instance, I might assign this ISBN to a softcover edition, and another ISBN to an ebook edition.

The last digit,"C"

X-NNNNNN-AA-C

This digit is mathematically calculated and helps assure that the rest of the ISBN has been recorded or scanned accurately.

The 13-digit came into use in 2007.

The format is the same, but it adds “978″ at the beginning, and identifies the following string of numbers as an ISBN. 

This ISBN would become 978-X-NNNNNN-AA-C 

(different string of numbers generates a different check digit at the end).

Publishing Professionals Can Read ISBN Details

Book sellers, publishing professionals, and others who know how to “read” the ISBN, can tell for instance that you are publishing your first book. If your title identifier is “0″ or “00″ obviously you have started at the top of your ISBN logbook and just assigned the first number. If your publisher identifier is 7 digits, leaving only 1 digit for book identifiers, you are only planning to publish a few books. All these little clues from the ISBN give some insight into a publisher and their books.

For ISBN 5-digit add-on

Per BISG:

• First digit is "5" for $US
• First digit is "4" for $CAN
• First digit is "0" for GBP
• Last four digits are price * 100
• use 59999 (or 49999 etc.) for price of $100 or more
• 90000-98999 for internal use (BISG recommends 90000 if no price designated and 5 digit code not used for internal use)
• 99000-99999 reserved for industry-wide use.
• 99990-99999 reserved for Nat'l Ass'n of College Stores (NACS)
• 99990 = NACS used books
• 99991 = NACS desk copies 

 if you have a book and the price is USD $20.99, you will need to fill in 52099 in the 5 digit supplement, the first digit in this case is 5 for USD.

OCR-A and OCR-B

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OCR-A is the font used for the ISBNs on books; and OCR-B is used for the human-readable digits on UPC/EAN bar codes. A book with a standard bar code label uses both.

ISBN is also known as

• International Standard Book Number
• Bookland EAN
• ISBN-13
• ISBN-10
• ISBN+5
• ISBN+2
• ISBN Supplement 5/Five-digit Add-On
• ISBN Supplement 2/Two-digit Add-On