Nathan Bransford - The Forums

you've probably noticed that ISBN pricing is intentionally designed to create a cost-prohibitive barrier to entry for smaller publishers. It's been pointed out privately that the actual intent is to keep the issuing agency from losing money; I should have said "seem to be designed" and no...

You won't need this if you're in a country with reasonably-priced (or free) ISBNs. You won't need this if you're only publishing through CreateSpace, or if you're only publishing digital formats directly through distribution channels (Amazon, Nook, Kobo) instead of through an aggregator. However, if...