Helpful Links
Getting a finished manuscript onto a shelf takes you through printers, barcodes, retailers and one or two legal obligations, and almost none of it lives on the same website. These are the pages we send people to most often, including our website and other websites, grouped by the stage you’ve reached.
Legal deposit
By law, one copy of every UK publication must go to the British Library within a month of publication. Five other libraries can request copies too.
- Legal deposit (British Library) — the official requirements
- Agency for Legal Deposit Libraries — handles the other five libraries
- Legal deposit in Ireland (Trinity College Dublin) — different rules apply
Our legal deposit page has the addresses and what to send.
Getting your book printed
UK printers who handle short runs and print on demand:
Get quotes at several quantities before you commit. More on choosing a print run.
Publishing an e-book
- Kindle Direct Publishing — Amazon’s self-publishing platform
- Creating e-book files for KDP — converting your manuscript into a usable format
Use your own ISBN rather than KDP’s free one, which is tied to their imprint and only works on KDP.
Copyright
In the UK, copyright is automatic as soon as you create the work. A notice in your front matter is optional.
Barcodes for things that aren’t books
- Books need an ISBN and barcode image. We supply both.
- Magazines and periodicals need an ISSN, available from the British Library. Barcode images for ISSNs come from Buy Barcodes UK.
- Any other retail product needs an EAN-13 barcode, or a 12-digit UPC for the USA. Available from Buy Barcodes UK.
Barcode scanning apps
Phone apps don’t access the NielsenIQ BookData, so your book may not appear when scanned. If you want it to, you can add your details to additional databases through International Barcodes. This is optional and separate from Nielsen.
- Zebra — checks multiple databases rather than just online shops
More on scanning an ISBN barcode.
Publishing outside the UK and Ireland
Our ISBNs are for UK and Ireland residents. If you’re elsewhere, find your national agency through the International ISBN Agency.
New to all this? Start with our guide to self-publishing.