Support for Indie Authors discussion

I want to replenish my ISBNs soon and I wonder whether I should buy barcodes as well. In the past, I have used my own ISBN but left Amazon or Ingram Spark to supply the barcodes.

Can someone clarify to me on the best way to do it?

Thanks.

If you buy barcodes, don't you have to put them on as stickers, yourself? I don't see the upside of that.

You print the barcode as part of the back cover.

But...unless you get a distribution to stores, where the customer takes it to the register, why do you need a barcode?

In general, for self-pub books you'll not get national distribution, and will appear only in those stores you can personally convince to carry them.

There are multiple sites where you can get a free barcode, but I like those from Ingram-spark. You only need them for printed books. I use my own ISBNs because I publish wide and publish under my own imprint BAM publishing. If you are only doing Amazon, you can use them as your publisher but do remember, you can't put the books in other book stores like B&N or most libraries.

Again, you don't need barcodes except for print books. If you do paperback and hardcover, you will need a barcode and ISBN for each one. Same with mobi and epub...you need an ISBN for both. Then another for Audio....I hope you see where I'm going with this. If you use all formats you will need 5 ISBNs for the book, and two barcodes for the printed editions. So plan what you are doing so you have what you need.

B.A. wrote: "There are multiple sites where you can get a free barcode, but I like those from Ingram-spark. You only need them for printed books. I use my own ISBNs because I publish wide and publish under my o..."

Thank you.
The confusion lies in the barcode.
I have my own imprint and I pub in print, ebook, and audio, and issue ISBN accordingly and leave Kdp to issue the barcode.

But now, when I go to Bowker to buy more ISBNs, it seems as if I need to buy barcodes, too, and I'm not clear on how I should go about that in relation to book cover designer/upload to Kdp.

Don't buy them from Bowker. You can make them through free sites. and have you cover designer put them on or you do it. I've gotten mine from Ingram before and they are free. Google bar codes for books and several sites will pop up. Bowker charges way too much for them and I already feel like they are taking me to the cleaners for the ISBNs when other countries charge nothing or very little for them.

B.A. wrote: "Don't buy them from Bowker. You can make them through free sites. and have your cover designer put them on or you do it. I've gotten mine from Ingram before and they are free. Google bar codes for b..."

That's a good idea. A marketing lady I watch on Toutube recommended Register Your Book by David Woghan. I've just bought it.

My Wide distributor Draft2Digital furnishes free ISBNs. the ISBN they give away free is acceptable on sites like Amazon and others who sell printed books. As I understand it, a bar code is simply the ISBN in a format that can be read by a cash register reader. I've never had an issue using an ISBN not being acceptable (Unless I have put the wrong one into the text)