Glossary
What is an ASIN?
An ASIN is the 10-character code Amazon assigns to every product in its catalogue, including books. It is Amazon’s own identifier — it works nowhere else, and Amazon creates it for you automatically.
ASIN and ISBN are not the same thing
An ISBN is an industry-wide number that every shop, library and distributor in the world recognises. An ASIN is Amazon’s internal one. Both identify a book; only one of them means anything outside Amazon.
For print books the two often line up: Amazon frequently uses the 10-digit form of the ISBN as the ASIN. For Kindle ebooks it does not — a Kindle edition gets a fresh ASIN that usually starts with B0.
Where to find it
- In the URL of the product page, after
/dp/. - In the “Product details” section further down that page.
- In your KDP bookshelf, next to the title, once the book is live.
Why you end up caring
Mostly for links and ads. An ASIN is the shortest unambiguous way to point at your own book — a URL of the form amazon.com/dp/YOURASIN resolves everywhere Amazon operates. It is also what Amazon’s advertising tools ask for when you target your own listing, and what a reader is asked for when they report a problem with a file.
Related terms
- ISBNAn ISBN is a 13-digit number that identifies one specific edition of one specific book. Bookshops, libraries and distributors use it to order the right thing; it is a product code, not a copyright registration.
- KDPKDP is Amazon’s free self-publishing platform. You upload a manuscript and a cover, set a price, and the book is on sale in the Kindle store — and, if you want, as a print-on-demand paperback — usually within 72 hours.
- Book metadataMetadata is everything about your book that is not the book itself: title, subtitle, author, description, categories, keywords, price and language. In a store with millions of titles, it is most of what decides whether yours is ever seen.
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