When writing a novel for publication, it's a given you'll have to get an ISBN for sale and cataloging purposes for your printed version. But what about your e-pubs or serialized e-versions? The unfortunate answer is yes for all the above.

Whether in hard or electronic copy, your published works if intended for sale and inclusion in library catalogs will require ISBN numbers. What most of you don't know, is you'll need separate ISBN's for each format version (i.e. print, pdf, e-pub, etc.)

Some outfits like Nook will forgo you purchasing an ISBN and will give you one (with your purchase) when you distribute with them. However (there's always one of those in there), they own the ISBN catalog number as it is associated with their company, not yours. Which BTW is BS, since they all claim not to be 'Publishing Houses'. If they did, then you the author would be within your rights to expect similar benefits authors attached to publishing houses receive.

On the other hand, though it's an additional investment on top of the money you'll spend on producing your book, you can purchase single or block ISBN's which will be associated with your company (provided you have one, which I recommend you do.) Cheapest blocks of ISBN's come in chunks of 10 for $250 which boils down to $25 bucks a piece. Though it's the better option, it can add up and use up significant numbers if you're doing individual short stories. Not to mention, if for some reason you get tired of writing and publishing your own titles, there are no refunds for the left over numbers and there will be issues if you sell off the remaining.

So what to do in the case of an episodic series? Should you associate individual ISBN's for each episode? Good question. If you're doing print versions, yeah you're probably going to need that. For an online series, maybe not. In an online series, you have the option of putting out episodes and then compiling them into one volume, which of course could be covered by a single ISBN.

I'm on the fence about the whole 'ISBN for each format too.' When I published my first novel "Tales from the Long Road" back in 2005, I had both a print and pdf version which had the same ISBN which nobody had a problem with. However, when the now defunct Booksurge stopped doing pdf versions, mine went with it.

Flash forward to now and there is some merit to the prospect of getting separate ISBN's for your different formats if you decide to go with multiple e-publishings. Mostly though, I believe it's just a way for the creators of ISBN's to rake in more cash. Which again is why I say if you self-publish, you form a publishing company so that it can be associated with your printed and e-pub books. With all the BS you have to run through just getting your dang royalties, the last thing you want is to have to hassle over who owns what when it comes to your ISBN's.