Image – Getty: Janaka Maharage Dharmasena
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Wellmann and Anta Named to Two-Year Terms
Media messaging today from Frankfurt tells us that Monical Wellmann is joining the board of the International ISBN Agency, in a two-year term.
Wellmann is the director of the digital business unit with MVB, a technology and information provider based in Frankfurt. She is one of two new members of the ISBN board, serving as the German representative to the agency.
José Manuel Anta
Familiar to Publishing Perspectives readers, José Manuel Anta of Madrid is the second of two new board members. Anta, whose term will cover three years, is managing director of the Federación de Gremios de Editores de España— the Spanish Book Publishers Federation. He’s the longtime general manager of the Federation of National Associations of Distributors of Editions, FANDE, and the International Publishing Distribution Association (IPDA).
The eight-member ISBN management team is now complete, MVB’s report tells us, having been down two members since the summertime departures of two members for professional needs.
Wellmann is to finish her term in 2026, just before the IIA’s (International ISBN Agency) annual general meeting, while Anta will go on for a third year.
The agency “promotes and coordinates the worldwide use of the ISBN system,” according to the MVB announcement. “It is responsible for the further development of the rules and regulations for the worldwide allocation of ISBNs, advises national ISBN agencies and, if necessary, appoints new ISBN agencies to allocate ISBNs.”
The International Standard Book Number is the fundamental book-registration standard, and the IIA has regional chapter agencies in several parts of the world.
Wellmann: ‘The Backbone of Digital Book Marketing’
Monica Wellmann
In a comment on today’s news, Wellmann at MVB says, “A book without an ISBN is like Alice without Wonderland.
“Worldwide, the standard is the backbone of successful digital book marketing.
“It’s therefore a great honor for me to be able to support the continuation of this success story on the board of the International ISBN Agency. I’m very much looking forward to working with my new colleagues.”
Wellmann has been with MVB since 2008 and became director of the digital business unit in 2022, responsible for the operation and further development of MVB’s platforms, which chiefly are known to provide efficient processing between publishers and booksellers.
Those platforms and services include the metadata database Verzeichnis Lieferbarer Bücher (VLB) and VLB-TIX, a marketing platform for new releases.
Wellmann is also the manager of the German ISBN agency.
More from Publishing Perspectives on the ISBN and its use in book publishing is here, more on the German market is here, more on the Spanish market is here, and more on international publishing is here. Publishing Perspectives is a brand of Frankfurter Buchmesse, operated through MVB US, Inc.