I've been looking into this myself as I'm writing a cookbook to help raise money for the restoration of our local lighthouse. It seems that if you want an ISBN number for a work published in the U.S. you have to go through R.R. Bowker and pay their huge fee. We've decided to forget about it since we'll only be selling them locally. We can always get one for the next printing if it seems like a good idea. The question you need to ask yourself is: Do you want this book to be sold through places like Amazon.com, Borders, etc.? If so, you'll need an ISBN number or they won't carry your book.

Bev (of Bev and Jerry)