How does a publisher get Library of Congress information to include in a book?

February 7, 2007 10:33 AM

I'm publishing a book. How do I go about getting Library of Congress information to include behind the title page?

I already have an ISBN for the book, but don't know what information I would need to supply to the Library of Congress, nor do I know how I would go about submitting that information to the LOC.

Apologies if this question has been asked before, I may be searching on the wrong terms since "information" is pretty generic.

posted by RossWhite to media & arts (7 comments total)

You want the Cataloging in Publication program.
posted by Floydd at 10:41 AM on February 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

Yes, but take a close look at this item in their FAQ about self-published works. They don't catalog them.

You're not clear if you're actually self-publishing. If you are, you may be able to get a control number if not CIP.

If your book is being published by a house, it should be their responsibility to obtain and include the CIP.

Either way, the link Floydd provides above has the applications for both programs.
posted by lampoil at 10:50 AM on February 7, 2007

(Also see the "scope" section).
posted by lampoil at 10:53 AM on February 7, 2007

I decided not to do the LOC thing awhile back, and have pretty much forgotten about the issue. I do self-publishing, as I'm already well known in my field, and I know my audience far better than the publishers because I was in the trenches in their lines of work (I've sold about 12,000 copies of my titles). When I saw that weird LOC policy I decided to skip it. The issue of an LIC # or CIP # has never, ever come up at all. I think the worst thing that might be happening is I'm missing sales from libraries, but I seem to get a constant slew of orders from Baker & Taylor, which largely services libraries.
posted by zek at 11:22 AM on February 7, 2007

Also, for a publisher to qualify for CIP data, they have to have at least 10 titles in print.
posted by mattbucher at 1:11 PM on February 7, 2007

zek: I think the worst thing that might be happening is I'm missing sales from libraries

None of the acquisitions librarians I know has ever mentioned the existence of CIP data as being any part of their acquisitions criteria. The catalogers might prefer it to be there (assuming they are not just grabbing and editing someone else's original cataloging), but it has already been bought by the time they get it ;-)
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 3:11 PM on February 7, 2007

Thanks! I'm not self-publishing, but this is only the second book from my publishing house. We'll jump on CIP as soon as we're eligible.
posted by RossWhite at 9:29 AM on February 8, 2007