[lvcabbie]

I have a question about the ISBN: International Book Standard Number. I know it's purchased by a "publisher" to catalog books and book dealers usually won't stock books without one. In addition, a book without an ISBN won't be logged in the Library of Congress.

So, what I cannot find out is - what happens to that number when the publisher removes the book from its publications list?
What can the author of that book do with it? Can they re-write or revise it and have it published under another ISBN?
[No, the author did not copyright the work.]

That work was also published in digital format without the author giving up ANY rights to it.Can the author also self-publish the work on other sources such as Kindle or Nook?

DRM: Digital rights management - and yes, I understand what this is.

Thanks in advance for your advice and help.

Check out my blog: http://lvcabbie.blogspot.com

 

[kempton.mooney]

A couple of things. As soon as you write something down, it is technically copyrighted unless you relinquish the copyrights (for example declaring the work under creative commons).

When a publisher publishes a book with an ISBN, the ISBN stays with that book forever. Even if a publisher lets the book go out of print, the ISBN stays with the book so it can be identified in systems as the out of print edition. If the author then decides to republish the book once the rights have reverted back to them, they can do so under a different ISBN.

So in the case you describe, if the author has not sold the rights for the digital format, the author retains hose rights and can publish the title in the digital format (kindle or nook). It would be under a different ISBN than the previous edition.