PCN: Why you Want One

Indie Publishing Secrets Series


On the title page of books published traditionally, you will see something like this-

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012932337
Hogan, Cindy M.
Protected/Cindy M. Hogan.-1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: When terrorists find Christy, she must enter the Witness Protection Program and become someone totally new while abandoning everything she has ever known.

You want this in your book, too and you can!

A PCN is a preassigned control number for print books only. The book must also be printed in the US and you must get the number before it is printed for the first time.

What is it exactly?


A Library of Congress catalog control number is a unique identification number that the Library of Congress assigns to the catalog record created for each book in its cataloged collections. Librarians use it to locate a specific Library of Congress catalog record in the national databases and to order catalog cards from the Library of Congress or from commercial suppliers. 


Why do you want one?


The purpose of the Preassigned Control Number (PCN) program is to enable the Library of Congress to assign control numbers in advance of publication to those titles that may be added to the Library's collections. The publisher prints the control number in the book and thereby facilitates cataloging and other book processing activities. The PCN links the book to any record which the Library of Congress, other libraries, bibliographic utilitites, or book vendors may create.

Are you eligible?

Only U.S. book publishers are eligible to participate in the PCN program. These publishers must list a U.S. place of publication on the title page or copyright page of their books and maintain an editorial office in the U.S. capable of answering substantive bibliographic questions.

When you get a PCN, you are assigned a particular person to take care of your needs. Find yours under Liaisons

How to get yours

It is a two-step process.

First you must complete an application to participate here.

 **Note-You must be a publisher to get this number. You are the publisher of your book if you are an indie publisher. You should get a license (doing business as license) and make it official.

Next, when the application has been approved, you, as the publisher, will be sent an account number and password. Then you can log-in and fill out the Preassigned Control Number Application Form to get your number.

Then you print it on the title page of your book.

Easy Peasy! Go get yours today! Don't let your title page be bare.

Are you convinced? Are you going to get a PCN for your awesome book?

Go here to see the cover reveal of Protected  Watched Series: Book 2

I'm so excited to share it with you. Release date: March 24th. Yahoo!

Indie Publishing Secret #12- Revisiting the Cover

Indie Secret #12-Your Cover....
Go check out Why Not? Because I Said So TODAY! 

And write a review of Watched in the comment section of my blog to be entered to win a $10 Amazon gift card. Yahoo!


I've had a lot of emails asking about Createspace's cover designer. I thought I'd go into a bit more detail.

1. Not all templates allow you to upload your own photo. If it doesn't give you the option to upload your own-then you can't use that one with your own design/picture. It will only the allow the background you see on the template. Only a few are like this.
2. One template is made for you to put your professionally done cover in. When you click on it, it lets you know it is that one
3. When you choose a template, you can use your picture or choose one from their gallery if you'd like.
4. You can not change the placement of the title, author name, author picture, and back blurb because it is a template. However, you can unclick "visible" for several of these and not have to worry about them. For example, I put my picture on the last page of my book instead of the back cover by unclicking the "visible" box. You could unclick the visible for the back blurb-but I don't suggest that. You want that.
5. If your picture doesn't work just right-you can edit it with free software like Picasa or use Photoshop or some other editing software to make it work. Just edit and reload until you get it right. 
6. The most important thing about your cover picture is that you remember the picture has to be high resolution. If it isn't it will send you a message telling you it may be blurry when they print your cover. Make sure you heed that warning-even if you love how it looks on the screen.
7. The spine does not show until you submit your cover. You submit by pushing the submit button at the bottom of the screen. This does NOT lock you into that cover. It only creates the entire cover for you. It takes a few minutes-but you could change it however many times you want. Just re-submit when you think you have it how you want it. 
8. Keep in mind as you look at the picture without the spine, that the ISBN is on the back of the book. So, check out it's placement to kinda know where everything is on the page. If it's too hard to understand that concept, simply press submit and get the whole view. No harm, no foul. You can do that as many times as you like.
9. Also, remember, you need to add your price on the back of the book somewhere. I used Photoshop. You can do it for free in Picasa or use a different edititing program. You can't, however, use Word. If you do, you end up with a Word document and you can't upload those for your cover.

I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.


Happy Covering!! And get to reviewing my book, Watched, so you can win the $10 Amazon gift card. Just put your review in the comments of either of my blogs to enter.