Got ISBN 978-93-5311-652-1 for "Who am I? I am I - Ultimate Existential Reality Answer; ..." free ebook; Should ISBN number be put on the ebook front cover page?

Last updated on 10th July 2018

Yesterday (6th July 2018) I saw that I had been allotted an ISBN number 978-93-5311-652-1 for my e-book titled "Who am I? I am I - Ultimate Existential Reality Answer; Vedanta; God and Science conversation" which is the iami1.wordpress.com blogbook.

The pic below shows the search result for above ISBN on isbn.gov.in. Note that the book title uses . instead of ? as ? is not allowed in book title field in isbn.gov.in web form for ISBN application.

[To open pic in higher resolution, right-click on pic followed by open in new tab/window. In new tab/window you may have to click on pic to zoom in.]

This ISBN number has to be added in the Verso page of the ebook. That's a simple change.

But should the ISBN number also be on the ebook cover (front) page? Note that the paperback version has the ISBN number (different number from ebook ISBN number) and associated barcode image in the bottom right section of the cover back page. The cover back page picture is included in the ebook as its second page (after the front cover page picture as the ebook's first page) but the ISBN barcode image part of the cover back page picture is blanked out.

The User Manual of isbn.gov.in (at http://isbn.gov.in/usermanual.pdf) has a relevant section titled, "13. Location and Display of the ISBN on Publications" starting from Page 22.

It states, "In the case of digital publications, the ISBN must appear on the:
• Title display; the first display (compact discs, online publications); or on the screen that
displays the title or its equivalent (e.g., the initial screen displayed when the content is
first accessed and/or on the screen that carries the copyright notice)".

I think the above indicates that the ISBN number should be on the front cover page (first page) of the ebook. But where exactly should it be placed? And yes, we don't need a barcode image here. We only need to print the ISBN number.

When I checked out some ebook front covers on the Internet, I did not find any ebook with front cover mentioning ISBN number! I may have looked at ten to twenty ebook front covers.

But I do think it is not a bad idea to mention ISBN number on the front cover page of the free ebook. It gives a degree of respectability to the free ebook. Further, the Indian ISBN agency recommends putting it in the "Title display".

However, I do not want to do something that may be viewed as very inappropriate by major free ebook websites like Open Library (and associated archive.org) and Project Gutenberg which list the previous version of my ebook. I don't want them to feel odd or reject my update to the ebook because I did the possibly very inappropriate thing of putting ISBN number on the front cover page!

Here's the Open Library link for the current version of this free ebook: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL26445400M/Who_am_I_I_am_I_-_Ultimate_Existential_Reality_Answer_Vedanta_God_and_Science_conversation which also shows the front cover page (first page) of the ebook.

So I need to do some thinking on this and try to get some views from people in this line. I intend to ask Pothi.com which lists my free ebook too, besides the at-cost paperback version.
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From the feedback I got coupled with what I checked on the Internet myself, it seems that ISBN is typically not specified in the front cover page of an ebook. So I have decided NOT to specify ISBN on front cover page of this ebook.

Next I had a question:

In verso page, how do ebooks of PDF format, typically specify ISBN? As (example):

ISBN: 978-93-5311-652-1

OR

ISBN: 978-93-5311-652-1 (PDF)
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The info. I got indicates that the normal style used is the first option but that the second option is acceptable.

I don't want to go against the normal for this ISBN stuff as I am new to self-publishing. So I have decided to go with the first option above.