: Re: If I get a free ISBN through Amazon's CreateSpace now, will that impact any decisions about getting my own ISBN later? I am preparing my book for print-on-demand through Amazon's CreateSpace

@Kevin153

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CreateSpace ISBNs are real, legitimate ISBNs. You can use them to distribute your book anywhere in the world.

The key limitation is this: If your book has a CreateSpace ISBN, you must buy your copies from CreateSpace. That is, you can't use another printer to print books with an ISBN you got from CreateSpace.

You can find the "details" here: www.createspace.com/Products/Book/ISBNs.jsp
I put "details" in scare quotes because it is not obvious (to me, at least) what some of the terminology means.

CreateSpace Free ISBNs.
For the free ones, you have to use CreateSpace's imprint (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform). That has the disadvantage of making it obvious that your book is self-published. Some bookstores frown on stocking books with the CreateSpace imprint.

CreateSpace Custom ISBN.
CreateSpace offers a Custom ISBN, and you can use whatever name you want for the imprint. If you use that, CreateSpace will distribute your book to bookstores. They will not distribute it to libraries and academic institutions. This Custom ISBN is a ton cheaper than the Bowker price for a single ISBN. (And I think Bowker's price is going up by 50% in a few weeks, though maybe that's only for batches of 1000 ISBNs.)

Your own ISBN.
If you use your own ISBN (as I do), you can put your own imprint on the book. CreateSpace will handle the distribution through the channels you choose (with some limits), and will print the books for those channels. You can distribute the book yourself through other channels, and you can get them printed wherever you like (CreateSpace or elsewhere).

CreateSpace Custom Universal ISBN.
I'm not clear on the benefits and limitations of this one.
It looks like it has all the benefits of an ISBN you obtain from a registrar,
but at a slight discount from Bowker's single-ISBN price.
I'm not confident that I understand this option fully.

One ISBN per edition.
No matter where you obtain your ISBN, you may use it only for one edition of the book. If you publish multiple editions (audio, ebook, another trim size, a significant change of content), and you want ISBNs on those, you will have to obtain a distinct ISBN for each.

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