You know the thirteen-digit number on the back of every book? A Speccy Man Has a Breakdown doesn’t have one. I thought about it. Then I thought about it some more. Then I realised I was thinking about it for no reason.
An ISBN is plumbing for the book trade, and does five things. It lets bookshops order a book to put on a table or shelf. It lets libraries catalogue a book. It puts a book online with Amazon and Bookshop.org. It gives distributors a number so they can move stock around. And it signals “this is a real publication” to a certain kind of reader.
This book isn’t going to bookshops.
It isn’t going to libraries.
It isn’t going on Amazon.
There are no distributors.
The plumbing has nothing to plumb.
As for the fifth thing: this is “real”. Well, it’s a numbered, signed, limited first edition of 250 copies. Each one comes with an art print. If that doesn’t seem real, a barcode isn’t going to help.
Putting an ISBN on this book would be like putting a barcode on a love letter – at least, that’s what I’m telling myself now.
If I do a trade paperback later, that one gets an ISBN. Different book, different job. This one is the opposite of trade. It’s direct, small, specific, and it knows who it’s for.
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