Obtaining an LCCN Number for Your Book

Posted on June 24, 2007
Filed Under Library of Congress, Self-Publishing with Lulu |

Is it necessary to obtain an LCCN Number to publish your book through Lulu? No, it isn’t. But if you want to sell your books to libraries, then you’ll need to get one.

Self-published books, as a general rule, are ineligible because the PCN (Preassigned Control Number) program is reserved for books that will be purchased by libraries from traditional publishing houses. You can solve this problem by establishing your own publishing company, and then setting up a website to display your books and company information.

Gregory Banks wrote an excellent article about how he obtained an LCCN. After reading his article, I visited the Electronic PCN site. The process looks very straightforward.