As you probably know, ISBN, the International Standard Book Number is one essential part of getting your book published. This unique number identifies each version (and edition) of your book to publishers and booksellers alike. Using this in conjunction with a bar code on the back cover of your physical book allows a retailer to categorize and determine a price. That price would be a “suggested” retail price that they might mark down further.

To present your book as something more professional, you ought to have an ISBN and a barcode on your back cover. For those looking to get ISBN numbers, they’d contact an agency and buy one for each edition. But, if you’re a Canadian book author, you can get this for free.

To get this go to ISBN Canada and read the basics. Ensure you qualify as a “Canadian Publisher”. Then the process involves creating an account, requesting an ISBN prefix and then defining each edition of your book. It’s free and simple. Then, with your new ISBN, use any one of the many online tools to create your book’s barcode.

In my case, I started with two editions I planned on publishing first: Print and ebook versions of From Rent to Ruin. Happy writing.