While I wait for Tax Office administrative detail to resolve and the editors tear my book apart looking for final problems, I’m delving into the wonderful world of ISBNs. For those who don’t know, each book and each variation of that book have a separate ISBN. While this used to mean two codes, one for hardcover and one for soft, this means at least three for digipub: MOBI, EPUB and PDF. I find this fascinating, from an informational perspective, as I can see why soft and hardcover are different because of the significant structural changes that would lead to repagination, but the idea that two free-flowing text formats aren’t informationally equivalent is not something I’d thought about. Fortunately, the Australian arm of Bowker sells blocks of ISBNs and I’m going to buy enough for two books.

I am, apparently, madly optimistic. Or in deep denial.

It’s worth noting that Canadians get ISBNs for free as part of cultural enrichment, while most of us have to pay for them! Canadians, you have no excuses for not writing lots and lots of books.