This is NOT a question. I answered another writer's question, but my comment appeared on the 3rd page of comments, hidden away, and I feel that this is something that new writers should know:
A short comment on a detail of --- -----'s point "they're going to risk the costs of registering for an ISBN [...]"
I contacted a "self-publishing agency" and this ISBN offer was presented as a BIG DEAL. I suppose that for inexperienced authors it seems so. Here are [some] facts:
(I'm a resident of Germany, so the amounts are German ones, but I'd guess that the general pattern holds for all countries.)
A self-publishing author is not obliged to buy an ISBN. It is, however, virtually necessary if you want to sell your book on amazon or in bookstores. In Germany, a single ISBN costs 89€. A 2nd (for your 2nd book... or a translation) will cost you 89€. A third will cost you... you're getting the picture: 89€.
A registered publishing house pays an initial "matriculation" fee of 139€. Once that hurdle is over, they can buy job lots of 1000 ISBNs for... 89€ - less than ONE CENT per title published. If we include the original (never to be paid again, even if they order 25000 ISBNs) 139€, it still works out as less than 2.5c per title.
So a "self-publishing agency" that charges you 499€ for a "special offer" that includes YOUR VERY OWN ISBN!!! is shelling out less than one cent for that detail. Of course, if you REALLY self-publish, you pay that 89€... But don’t let anybody fool you that they’re doing you this fabulous, very generous favour.
My Goodness! To think that I got a B in GCE A-level Maths!!!
With the 1000 ISBNs, I'm a decimal point out. The price per title is 8.9c, NOT 0.89c. Or 22.8c/title if we include the basic "publisher number" price.
I should, in honesty, add that there's an "A-team".
The standard ISBN comes with a bar-code (one reason why it's almost indispensable if you want to sell your book in bookstores: saves the staff from writing out by hand "Sold one copy of 'I Brought The Wild Asparagus To Its Knees' by Joe Bloggs", 36€60)
The ISBN-A system allows (from what I can understand) an electonic reader to access you to every web-site that mentions the book, a web-page for the book, with info about the writer, a synopsis, a photo, etc.
If you-re a self-publisher, one ISBN-A costs you 60€. As this is actually LESS than the price for an ISBN, I can only assume that that's in addition to the 89€... or maybe not? As a self-publisher, obviously YOU'RE
A registered
If it's a very small publishing house that decides to order only 100 ISBNs, that's 52€ (+139€ = 191€ altogether, or less than 2€ per title). Even smaller... 10 ISBNs cost 25€........ 16.40 per title. A commercial publisher CAN'T order less than 10 at a time.
As I said, those are the prices for Germany. Each country has its own ISBN agency that's responsible for handing them out. (i.e. You can't shop around to get a better deal.)
Thanks for that Jimmy - looks like my publisher's been lying to me...