Revising A Title A new ISBN or not?

As with what happened to me, what happens if you have a book accidentally posted for distribution with your title on it and the book up there only half done. Then what?

First thing I learned is the ISBN is a way of tracking your sales and also who it is publishing the book. If you use a free ISBN such as is now being offered with many Indie printers, there are catches.

For instance, what if Ingram Sparks didn't get around to taking my book out of distribution. Hell, if they can put it out there, then who is to say when it would be dealt with. Indeed, they have no one to talk to in person any longer, and most times the chat doesn't work and everything is with email responses. You will get an email saying your email has been seen, then another usually saying it is being handed off to someone else to fix it and so on. Indeed my book wasn't even distributed by it's name on Amazon.ca, it was by the sub title and by the title in Amazon.com so what the hell? Who knows what would have happened.

If you have a book title with their code on it, then that book title is tied to that ISBN. What I did was write the place that gives them out for Canada and explained the situation and it was advised I put revised edition on the cover as well as a new ISBN. I didn't have to change the title however that is because it was MY ISBN, I am not so sure it would have been so if it was TIED TO THE PLACE THAT GAVE YOU THE ISBN.

Indie writers choose this path because they want creative control and I think it would have been a real tragic thing to happen if my title that I spent so much time doing was tied to somewhere or someone else!

Same with putting revised edition on it. This is not the same as second edition or reprint. Each thing is slightly different.

A revised edition of a book is any book that been edited without necessarily being brought to date with material added.

A second edition is any book that if someone owns it, they would benefit by the updated information making it still of use.

A book reprint on the other hand is a book that is in production and is simply having more copies printed with absolutely no changes.

So, I have learned it is worth the effort, unless they are cheap low content books, to have your own ISBN. For those outside Canada, you can buy ISBNs as a group with a group rate that is cheaper. Best to shop around also. I have noted differences in cost for the number.

Good luck in this navigation of the pitfalls in loop holes of being an Indie Publisher.