On the publisher page of a book, what do the numbers (usually towards the bottom of the page), mean?

Question

For example: 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1. Or 0 11 10 9 8 7 6. Sometimes there's letters next to them like UNV (or WCD) 10 9 8 7 . Most of the books I own have these numbers, so I assume they must mean something, but what?

Answer 1

The numbers you are mentioning are usually how to tell what printing a book is in (not edition). For instance, some books being sold say "full number line" which means it's a first printing of the book (your first group of numbers). The book with the second group of numbers is a later printing - there's no zero or 1. Problem is, all book companies don't do this uniformly I found when doing some research, but if you aren't collecting, shouldn't be an issue.

ISBNs are either 10 digits or 13 digits and usually say ISBN beside it. As for the letters you mention, I'm not positive, though it could be particular to different publishers.

Hope this helps some.

Answer 2

There are ISBN numbers, which are a registry of published books. The letters indicate which category the book falls in -eg fiction, non-fiction, bio, autobio etc.etc.

Answer 3

Or ISBN, something like that. They are kinda like our social security numbers. They identify the books so, I believe, for example, when they get put in a library they have a distinctive identifier.