ISBN should be managed by the Library of Congress and offered to


Target: 200
Signatories:
24
Start petition: 2022-08-27 17:54:53

#writing    #ISBN    #author rights    #monopoly    #animal wefare    #dog lovers    #Animal Welfare Act 2006    #Dog walkers   

In the United States, independent authors are being taken advantage by Bowker Identifier Services, which has a monopoly on assigning and managing ISBNs. They gear the pricing model to hurt the small independent author without a big budget. Raising prices over 8,233% for a single ISBN versus what a larger publishing company would pay ($1.50 each) . This puts a barrier to entry that hurts the less fortunate and those without institutional wealth. To be published widely and have a good chance to have your book in stores, you need an ISBN. The Cost of a sole ISBN is $125 and there is almost no value for what you pay for. The system used to track ISBNs and link them to books is simple and would take a competent software developer days to create. In addition, Bowker uses authors’ Intellectual Property without compensation, using keywords from their books to sell the third parties. This further makes the cost insulting and predatory.

If that was bad enough, Bowker tries to convince authors they need additional services that are of zero value or are readily found for free elsewhere. One such services is a barcode charging $25 for something that is FREE elsewhere.

There are alternatives that provide ISBNs for free, like Amazon, but these free ISBNs lock you into only selling on their platform. If you want to sell to more platforms, you need an ISBN you own.

Some companies will offer you cheaper ISBNs but they then own the ISBN and thus would be the official publisher of your intellectual property, which could complicate things when you wish to break ties with the publisher or sell on more platforms or from your own website.

Canada, Mexico, and New Zealand have adopted a model of giving out ISBNs to citizens. The USA should use these as examples.

I propose the Library of Congress takes over the management of ISBNs for the greater good and offers them free for US citizens. This should require a very minimal staffing investment but is the greater good for lower income independent authors.

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Last Comments

Michael Nicotero   ( 2022-09-16 02:42:38 )

Your use of this example moves your argument forward!
Susan M Carr Terry   ( 2022-09-30 07:23:18 )

You are talented!
Louis Gutierrez Jr    ( 2022-09-19 19:59:25 )

I really love how creative you get with your descriptions!

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Wolfgang Laratro: 122 $
( 2022-09-09 07:42:55 )

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