Board Thread:Inclusion debates/@comment-31010985-20190928203157/@comment-24894325-20191003211117

The assumption underlying the following part of the OP is incorrect.

"Arcbeatle Press [...] is really best treated as a small publisher. There has long been a precedent on this wiki that small publishers like Arcbeatle, BBV, or Telos are not treated differently from larger ones."

- OP

The difference between Arcbeatle and, say, Telos, or Thebes Publishing is very simple: Telos and Thebes Publishing have published books, whereas Arcbeatle Press has not.

In order to explain why it is wrong to call Arcbeatle Press a small publisher or small press, it is first necessary to explain the jargon used by the publishing industry, including the technical meaning of terms such as publisher, publishing imprint and ISBN.

The OP is correct that an ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is not necessary for a story to be valid here on the wiki, partly because many types of stories cannot have ISBNs, which are primarily reserved for books. It is de jure not necessary to supply a book with an ISBN in order to publish it either. It is, however, de facto necessary for selling this book, whether through online or brick-and-mortar retailers. At any rate, all books listed on Arcbeatle website as its publications (from now on "Arcbeatle books") are supplied with ISBNs.

The main purpose of ISBNs, which is the main reason retailers demand it, is to uniquely encode the metadata of a book, including its publisher. Thus, in book trade, the publisher(s) of a book supplied with an ISBN (ISBNs) is not determined arbitrarily (or by publicly claiming the publication as one's own) but is read from the book's ISBN(s). Moreover, ISBNs cannot be transferred from one publisher to another. For instance, the above-mentioned example of Resurrection of the Daleks is simply a mistake on the wiki. The publisher there is Penguin Books, Limited, not BBC Books. The OP is right, however, that it plays no role for the validity of that book as both Penguin Books, Limited and BBC Books are well established publishing imprints of the same publishing conglomerate, Penguin Random House, which has a well established history of publishing licensed commercial Doctor Who products.

It should be noted that, in commercial publishing "publisher" means the imprint under which a publishing company wishes to market a book (it can also be the name of the publishing company/individual). Imprints need not be separate legal entities. 

So why is Arcbeatle Press not a small publisher? The problem is not that some Arcbeatle books are published under a different imprint of the same publishing company, as is the case with Resurrection of the Daleks. The problem is that no Arcbeatle books are published by Arcbeatle Press (or its imprints). Instead, they are published by various imprints of Amazon, not by Arcbeatle Press.

As a US-based publisher, Arcbeatle Press would be within the purview of, the exclusive source of ISBNs for US publishers. In addition to supplying ISBNs, Bowker also registers them in a professional commercial database Books in Print (published for 70+ years, originally on paper, now also online). Here is how this database is described in Start Your Own Self Publishing Business by Cheryl Kimball "...the bible of the publishing industry, R.R. Bowker's Books in Print. Booksellers and librarians, as well as everybody else in the trade, use Books in Print as the source for information about titles in print and their publishers. If your book is not listed here, it might as well be lost in the ether."

- C.Kimball, Start Your Own Self-Publishing Business, p.84. Entrepreneur Press, 2012

The Books in Print database also allows to search for publishers and provides information about them. According to this "bible of the publishing industry", Arcbeatle Press does not exist either as a publishing company or as a publishing imprint.

(Full disclosure: the last of the Arcbeatle books, "Sheffield Steel" is not currently in the database; most probably, it will be added there soon.)

This is what distinguishes Arcbeatle Press from Telos or Thebes Publishing. The latter are publishers, whereas Arcbeatle Press is not. Although Telos is a UK publisher, it is still represented with 250+ books (including some out of print titles) in Books in Print under the name Telos Publishing, Limited. Similarly, Thebes Publishing, again despite its UK origins, can be found, though with only 4 titles.

In other words, even non-US publishers are represented in Books in Print, though not necessarily with all their books. For instance, BBC Books, another UK publisher, is listed twice as an imprint: once of Ebury Publishing and once of Penguin Random House (the former is a division of the latter), even though no books are assigned to either imprint.

As a US publisher, if Arcbeatle Press existed as an commercial imprint or a commercial publishing house, it would have been entered into Books in Print database.

All Arcbeatle books are there. But they are not published by Arcbeatle Press. Why? Who decided who would be the publisher?

The decision not to be named as the publisher was made by Arcbeatle Press itself. Here is an extended explanation from KDP (Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing), the service used by Arcbeatle Press, with emphasis by me: "Paperbacks An ISBN is assigned to every published book. An ISBN identifies a book's edition, publisher, and physical properties like trim size, page count, binding type.

...

Can KDP provide me with an ISBN?

KDP can provide you with a free ISBN to publish your paperback. We'll also automatically register your ISBN information with BooksInPrint.com®. This [sic] a global database of print books maintained by Bowker (the U.S. ISBN agency) and consulted by publishers, libraries, and booksellers. The "Publisher" field on your paperback's Amazon detail page will read "Independently published." This free ISBN can only be used on KDP for distribution to Amazon and its distributors. It cannot be used with another publisher or self-publishing service.

Can I provide my own ISBN?

You can buy your own ISBN from Bowker or through your local ISBN agency. ISBNs purchased from Bowker can be used to publish titles in any language. KDP authors can buy an ISBN at a discounted rate from Bowker. If you use your own ISBN, KDP will check whether your book's imprint matches what's on file with Bowker. You will not be able to publish your book if there is a mismatch. If you are reprinting your book, the title, author name, and binding type must stay the same. A new edition requires a new ISBN.

Should I provide my own ISBN or use the free one from KDP? It's important to some authors to provide their own ISBN because it allows them to choose their book's imprint of record. An imprint is a trade name that a publishing company uses to publish a work. If you use your own ISBN to publish your paperback, you'll be prompted to enter the imprint name as well. The imprint you enter must match either the imprint or publisher name that appears in Bowker (the U.S. ISBN agency).

Can I change my ISBN? In keeping with industry standards, your ISBN cannot be changed once assigned. Your ISBN is associated with your book's trim size, title, and author name. That means the ISBN cannot be changed after publication."

- International Standard Book Number (ISBN)

Here is the description of the same process from Bowker, again with my emphasis: "I got my ISBN from my printer and now I want to make sure it's in my name, how do I transfer the ISBN?

ISBNs cannot be transferred on an individual basis. If a self-publisher wants to be identified as the publisher, the self-publisher must get their own ISBN. A printing company or publisher services company cannot sell, give away or transfer one of their ISBNs to a customer.

If I'm using a print-on-demand company (POD), whose ISBN goes on my book?

Whoever is to be identified as the publisher obtains the ISBN. In most cases, the POD is the publisher and puts their ISBN on the book. In very rare cases, due to the contractual arrangements between the POD and the self-publisher, the self-publisher is the publisher. Most of the time, the POD is the publisher because the POD fulfills orders."

- ISBN Help - FAQs by Bowker

Arcbeatle Press chose not to create "a trade name that a publishing company uses to publish a work". They chose to let the publisher be an Amazon imprint. Thus, unlike Telos or Thebes Publishing, Arcbeatle Press itself chose not to be a publisher.

To summarise, as explained by Bowker, in the terminology of US publishing industry, Arcbeatle Press is a self-publisher that lets a POD, in this case Amazon, publish its books. The above quote from KDP clearly shows that KDP provides self-publishers an option to be identified as the publisher. Arcbeatle Press simply decided against this option.

To the best of my knowledge, there are no valid stories on the wiki at this time that originate from self-publishers. This debate is unprecedented. This alone warrants additional scrutiny of this case.