ISBN, banderole, and the publisher's certificate: a guide to official publishing procedures in Türkiye

Every newly founded press in Türkiye — and every university about to print its first book as an institution — faces three official thresholds: the publisher’s certificate, the ISBN, and the banderole (the mandatory anti-piracy hologram sticker for books in Türkiye). Each belongs to a different authority, a different system, a different rulebook — and the information online is scattered. This post pulls the process together end to end, anchored to the current official sources; at the end we turn to the tracking side of the job inside the press.

Note: Regulations and fees change; before applying, always check the official page for each step. This post is a roadmap, not an official source.

1. The publisher’s certificate: the precondition for everything

If you are going to publish as an institution, the first stop is the publisher’s certificate from the Directorate General of Copyright (Telif Hakları Genel Müdürlüğü); the application runs through the provincial directorates of culture and tourism. Without the certificate you cannot obtain ISBNs in the institution’s name — self-publishing authors can take an individual route, but institutional publishing requires the certificate.

Practical notes: the certificate is issued for a fixed term; tie the renewal date into your institutional calendar. Printers are subject to a separate certificate type of their own; confirming that your chosen printer’s certificate is valid also falls within your responsibility.

2. The ISBN: the book’s identity number

ISBN applications in Türkiye are free of charge and are made through the Publication Standards system (ekygm.gov.tr) of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s General Directorate of Libraries and Publications. The institution first registers as a “new publisher” (this is where the certificate comes in), then requests an ISBN for each publication. Serials run on a separate track: the ISSN is issued by the ISSN Türkiye Centre at the Millî Kütüphane (Türkiye’s National Library), and it is free as well.

The essential thing to understand is that an ISBN is assigned not to “the book” but to the publication:

• The print and ebook versions of the same book get separate ISBNs.
• A revised new edition gets a new ISBN; a straight reprint with unchanged content does not.
• Format differences such as hardcover versus paperback require separate ISBNs.

These seemingly small rules are the foundation of catalog discipline. With a five-book catalog you can run on memory; at a hundred and fifty titles, three formats, and reprints, “which ISBN was which” becomes a record-keeping problem. In Nasirus, ISBNs are held on exactly this logic, aware of the edition-and-format distinction — a mistyped or duplicate number is caught at the door, and the catalog stays tidy. The Ministry issues the number; the system’s job is to make sure the issued number lives correctly inside the institution.

3. The banderole: the seal of going to market

The banderole is the security label that copies of intellectual and artistic works carry as an anti-piracy measure, and it is mandatory for books. Applications go through the Directorate General of Copyright’s system; certain publications, such as promotional catalogs, are exempt — and exempt publications must carry the standard notice stating the exemption.

Where the banderole touches press operations is the print run: the number of banderoles is managed together with the number of copies printed. When a reprint decision is made, a fresh banderole need arises with it — in a system where print-run records are kept properly, that need surfaces by itself at the moment of decision. For a sense of scale: according to YAYFED figures (YAYFED being the Turkish publishers’ federation), banderoles were obtained for over 413 million books in Türkiye in 2024; inside that system, millions of small transactions turn over with discipline.

A sample timeline for a new press

For an institution running the process for the first time, a realistic sequence looks like this:

1. Week 0: Publisher’s certificate application — via the provincial directorate of culture and tourism. Preparing the corporate paperwork (signature circulars, certificates of activity, and so on) is the real duration of this step; close the checklist completely at the outset.
2. Once the certificate arrives: “New publisher” registration on ekygm.gov.tr. The institution’s details are entered into the system once, and correctly — the spelling you use here will live on in all your ISBN records.
3. While the first book is in typesetting: the ISBN application. Do not finalize the cover and imprint-page design before the number arrives; the ISBN and barcode are part of the back cover.
4. With the print decision: the banderole application — once the print run is settled. Banderoles are scheduled to reach the printer before printing finishes.
5. After publication: put the post-publication obligations on the calendar too, such as delivering the legal-deposit copies to the designated libraries; a forgotten deposit obligation is the kind that causes trouble later.

The total duration of this timeline varies from institution to institution; what is critical is the order of the steps relative to one another. The most expensive mistake is planning the printing date independently of the official processes — “the book is printed, waiting on banderoles” is capital sitting in a warehouse.

Frequently confused points

“I have the ISBN — does that cover the banderole?” No — they are separate processes at separate authorities. The ISBN is the identity; the banderole is the seal for going to market.

“Does an ebook need a banderole?” Banderoles are affixed to physical copies; but the e-publication must still have an ISBN of its own. Across the digital-print divide, the two processes have different requirements.

“Does a journal issue get an ISBN or an ISSN?” The serial itself carries an ISSN. If a special or thematic issue of the journal is also to be published as a book, that volume can additionally receive an ISBN — it is an exceptional case; consult the agency.

“We’re a university — are we exempt?” Institutional identity creates no exemption; university presses are subject to the same certificate-ISBN-banderole track.

The tracking side: the in-house life of official numbers

Once the official processes are complete, the work does not end; it begins. You need a record-keeping order in which ISBNs are matched to editions, banderoles to print runs, and certificate terms to the calendar. In institutions where that order lives in a spreadsheet, the typical accidents are well known: the same ISBN written onto two books, an old number reused on a reprint, a certificate renewal forgotten.

If you would like to see how catalog, editions, ISBNs, and stock records sit in one system, book a demo. We cannot file the official applications on your behalf — but we can make sure the applications you have filed are never lost inside the institution again.