ISBNs

An ISBN, or International Standard Book Number, is a unique identifier for a book that’s issued by an ISBN registration agency.
If you provided the ISBN for a book, you can find it in the Book Catalog or in your book’s Metadata tab. 
  • For printed books: A “P” is included after the ISBN for paperbacks and hardcovers.
  • For digital books: Letters that aren’t part of the identifier are included after the ISBN.

GGKEY

An ISBN isn't required to submit a book to Google Books or to sell a book on Google Play. We assign a unique identifier with the prefix GGKEY to any book that doesn't already have one. GGKEYs are only used internally within Google.

10-digit & 13-digit ISBNs

We accept both 10-digit and 13-digit ISBNs. If you enter a 10-digit ISBN, the Partner Center displays the 13-digit ISBN for consistency.

Valid & Invalid ISBNs

The last digit of any ISBN is a "check digit" that’s generated by a complex calculation performed on the other digits. If this digit doesn't match the result of that calculation, the ISBN is considered invalid and the Partner Center won’t permit you to create a book with it. 

Legacy 10-digit ISBNs have a 13-digit equivalent that begins with 978, followed by the first 9 digits of the 10-digit ISBN.

For more information on check digits, go to the ISBN Wikipedia entry.

Partners using ONIX

When ISBNs are for the digital version of books, we only accept ebook prices provided by ONIX.

Multiple ISBNs for a book

Different editions of a book may have different ISBNs. You can add each ISBN as a separate entry in your Book Catalog. To minimize the number of entries, we recommend that you use one of the following methods to indicate multiple ISBNs.

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