ISBNs and legal deposit

Setting up as a publisher is bound to mean a certain amount of paperwork. It's the stuff the books are printed on after all but even if you're into e-books (and I intend to be, dreckly) there's some to deal with. Or with which to deal if there are any grammar world champions out there.


I've registered my business - Anarchadia Publishing - with the authorities but HM Revenue and Customs are even more convinced than I am that I will make a loss this Financial Year. I have mixed feelings about this reaction but I am happy it was so simple to apply for an exemption for National Insurance contributions.

When I bought my ISBNs from Nielsen UK, I bought a block of ten for just over a hundred quid. I could've had a hundred ISBNs for just under £200 but that seemed greedy to me. As a direct result of this, I had a listing on Amazon and on Waterstones websites and they're just the ones I know about. Having an ISBN means anyone can order my books and they will be listed on any bibliographic database.

I was talking about publishing to another self-publisher the other day and the question of ISBNs came up. After buying just one ISBN , which is possible, he discovered the book depositary people required copies of his book. It's a legal requirement to let the national libraries have a copy of any book published in the UK.

I had already sent one off to the Legal Deposit Office of the British Library in West Yorkshire but he reckoned there were five of them and they all wanted four copies each! Consequently, he decided not to bother with ISBNs and I'm happy to say it doesn't seem to have held him back. He writes non-fiction and is renown as an expert in his subject so his customers seem to find him.

I decided that an ISBN was A Good Idea because it gets my titles listed in all sorts of out of the way databases but having to send out 20 copies simply as a legal deposit did seem a bit excessive to me. So I did a little digging and found out that there's an Agent for Copyright Libraries in London who represents all five - that's the Bodleian Library in Oxford, the University Library in Cambridge, the National Library of Scotland, the Library of Trinity College in Dublin and the National Library of Wales. There was no mention of having to send their agent four apiece so I boxed five up, sent them off and waited to see what would happen.

In the course of my enquiries, I also learnt about CIP cataloguing, which is run by Bibliographic Data Services Ltd. CIP stands for Cataloguing In Publication and is a means of alerting libraries to new book titles and ought to be done four months ahead of publication. "Oh well," I thought, "better late then ever - I'll register The Horsepower Whisperer and The Wormton Lamb at the same time." It's free to register and means that libraries can order my books. I've downloaded the forms from the website and sent them off but in the run up to releasing The Wormton Lamb I shall target libraries specifically. That's another of those things that I should have done prior to publishing The Horsepower Whisperer. Some of my readers work in the local library service and they tell me it's not quite a case of me pitching up with my book at each branch and saying "Would you like to buy one?" Funds are short and library sales depend on reviews in library journals just as much as general book sales do.

Anyway, I'm CIP registered now.

Today I received my first letter to Anarchadia Publishing's Box Number. It's another bit of admin but I think the novelty of having lots of screaming girls outside my front door would soon wear off. It was from the Agent for Copyright Libraries.

"Aha!" I said to myself, "here's a demand for another fifteen copies with a threat of legal action."

Nothing of the sort - they thanked me on behalf of the national libraries and confirmed receipt of my legal deposit copies, adding "Thank you for helping us preserve our heritage", which was nice.

I have yet to come to terms with The Horsepower Whisperer being part of the UK's literary heritage.

Maybe they know something I don't...