Connect your public identity records
Find or request your ISNI
Search ISNI (International Standard Name Identifier) under every version of your published name before requesting a number. If the record is missing, duplicated, or wrong, take the evidence to an official registration agency.
Why it matters
A correct ISNI lets libraries, retailers, and rights organizations connect your work reliably, which matters most when your name is common, when you publish under more than one name, or when your books cross borders and languages. Duplicate records are harder to clean up than missing ones, which is why the search comes first. Knowing your number also gives you a durable identifier to put in structured data, publisher forms, and library correspondence.
Your part
- What you do
- Do it. You normally do this yourself.
- Who normally owns it
- Author. Author searches and requests; a publisher or library may already have contributed a record
- When
- Any time; check again after your first library records exist (Connect your public identity records: any time, and before libraries start cataloging your book)Checked September 14, 2026 (opens in a new tab)
How to do it
The full walkthrough
An ISNI (International Standard Name Identifier) is a 16-digit number that identifies a public identity, such as an author, across databases. It is the name equivalent of an ISBN (International Standard Book Number): it lets systems agree that the person who wrote this book is the same person who wrote that one, even if the name is common or spelled differently in different records.
Search first. ISNIs are created by registration agencies and data contributors, including large libraries and publishers, often without the author's involvement. A traditionally published author with a few years of publishing history may already have one; hybrid and self-published authors are less likely to, but national libraries and retailers contribute data too. Search the public database at isni.org (opens in a new tab) by every form of your published name, including pen names. Look at every match: the record lists titles and contributing sources, so you can tell whether it is you, a namesake, or a mess that mixes the two. Record the number if you find a clean match.
Then ask, if you need to. Individuals cannot create their own record, and nobody, this site included, can promise you an assignment. The official ISNI site lists the current registration agencies. They serve different countries and sectors, set their own requirements and evidence rules, and charge different fees, and some accept requests from individual creators while others work only through publishers, libraries, and rights organizations. Start from the ISNI registration agencies list (opens in a new tab) and pick one that accepts an author in your country. A request is a request: the agency decides. Traditionally published authors should first ask the publisher whether it contributes author data to ISNI or to a national library that does, because that route is often free and produces a better-sourced record. Hybrid and self-published authors are more likely to need a direct request; read the current terms on the official page, because agencies, fees, and turnaround change.
Corrections follow the same path. If your search found two records for you, or one record that mixes your books with a namesake's, that is a correction, not a new request. Note the ISNI numbers involved and contact a registration agency with the evidence; your bio page and book list help here.
If this is your first book, it is normal to find nothing yet. Check again after the first library records for the book exist.
Common mistakes
- Requesting a new ISNI without searching and ending up with two.
- Searching only the exact cover spelling and missing a record under an initial or a middle name.
- Assuming the ISNI is a profile you log in to; it is a database record maintained by agencies.
- Paying a third-party service that promises an ISNI. No one can promise assignment; check the agency against the official list before paying anyone.
- Confusing an ISNI with an ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID), which is a separate system used mainly in academic publishing.
Identifiers for Find or request your ISNI
Set a status on any record and it joins this step. All author identifiers.
| My status | Identifier | Why this matters | Yours |
|---|---|---|---|
| ISNI The International Standard Name Identifier: a sixteen-digit number that says which creator you are when several people share a name. | Without a shared number, databases across publishing and libraries have no agreed answer to which person wrote what, which is how one writer's books end up grouped with another's. It matters most if you have more than one book, share a name with another writer, or work with a publisher that already carries these numbers in its metadata; a first-time author with an uncommon name and one title can reasonably do nothing. You may have one already, because many are created from data that libraries and other contributors feed in, so on every route the first move is normally to search the database rather than to request anything, and a traditionally published author can also ask whether the publisher requests them as part of its metadata practice. Record the sixteen-digit number only after checking that the works under it are yours. | Add your ISNI |
What done looks like
- A search of isni.org (opens in a new tab) by every form of your published name, including pen names.
- The ISNI recorded in your Book Identity Sheet if a correct record exists, and shared with the publisher.
- If none exists, a request sent through an agency listed on the official ISNI site, or through the publisher's or a national library's route, with your published name, book titles, and any identifiers already known.
- Any duplicate or mixed record raised with a registration agency as a correction.
- The number added to your website's structured data and to profiles that accept it once confirmed.
Evidence. Done means someone says the work happened. Verified means you checked the confirmation, link, or public record yourself.
Sources and last checked
- Official source
- Official source (opens in a new tab)
- Other sources
- Last checked
- September 14, 2026
- How confident we are
- Needs verification
Rules and deadlines change. We last checked this information on September 14, 2026. If you see something that needs updating, please tell us.