Toward Efficient Practices That Impact Your Bottom Line Impact of Quality Product Information on Efficient Distribution Practices June 2005

Book Industry Study Group Impact of Quality Product Information on Efficient Distribution Practices Page 2 Focus on impact of quality product information and efficient distribution practices. IPI ISTC This year the BISAC Metadata Committee, in cooperation with BookNet Canada, developed the Product Metadata Best Practices document. To download this document go to

Book Industry Study Group Opportunity Scope Impact of Quality Product Information on Efficient Distribution Practices Page 3 Nearly 200,000 new books and audio books will be added in According to Bowker, there are 85,000 US publishers with active ISBNs. Ingram carries over 1.1 million titles today. Approximately 150 publishers provide ONIX files to Ingram today.

Book Industry Study Group Publisher Discount Code Impact of Quality Product Information on Efficient Distribution Practices Page 4 A code taken from a proprietary list (maintained by the vendor of the product in question) that indicates the class of trade a given product falls within. The publisher discount code is NEVER a value indicating a discount percentage off of list price. Mandatory, should be supplied 180 days pre-publication. The publisher discount code substantially reduces the cost of new title setup.

Book Industry Study Group Strict On Sale Date Impact of Quality Product Information on Efficient Distribution Practices Page 5 The date on which a retail customer may purchase and take possession of a given product when there is an embargo on sales to consumers before this date. An increasing number of publishers are moving to strict street dates, including Random House, Harper Collins, Penguin (hardcover), and Holtzbrink. Ingram currently has approximately 6% of new titles with a strict on sale date. Accurate information is critical to control laydown delivery schedules.

Book Industry Study Group Replaces and Replaced By Impact of Quality Product Information on Efficient Distribution Practices Page 6 The product identifier for the previous edition of a current product and the product identifier for the successor edition of a product that has been superseded, respectively. This data should be supplied for all products that are revisions or previously released products. In some segments of the market (e.g. textbooks, travel guides, test preparation books, etc.) having the current or correct edition is imperative. Ensuring that customers, booksellers and librarians can easily jump from the record for an older edition to the record for the current edition helps ensure that the correct books are being ordered, and that they are being ordered in quantities based on the demand for the previous edition.

Book Industry Study Group Case Pack and Carton Quantity Impact of Quality Product Information on Efficient Distribution Practices Page 7 Numeric value indicating the number of units of a given product that are packed in that products standard shipping container. Mandatory, needed 180 days pre-publication. Provides significant distribution efficiencies for publishers, distributors and wholesalers, and retailers. Approximately 20% of Ingram receipts are in full carton quantities.

Book Industry Study Group Weight and Dimensions Impact of Quality Product Information on Efficient Distribution Practices Page 8 Height, Width, Depth and Weight Allows supply chain to properly plan their inventory management and visual merchandising programs Weight data is important in planning for freight costs and is useful for quality control purposes. Each of the wholesalers and major retailers are redundantly capturing this information at receiving. Publishers often think of this in terms of trim size, where distributors and retailers are more interested in footprint. Random House has begun providing this information.

Book Industry Study Group Relevant Ingram Initiatives Impact of Quality Product Information on Efficient Distribution Practices Page 9 Expanding Book-in-Hand operation to focus on core fields on all of the more than 150,000 newly published titles we expect to receive in Working with Bowker to ensure that this important data is updated in the key industry bibliographic databases. Providing bibliographic support including ONIX best practices compliance for our Ingram Publisher Services clients. Providing bibliographic support, including ONIX best practices compliance for all of the over 200,000 titles available for Lightning Source. Offering comprehensive bibliographic delivery in ONIX 2.1 via FTP or iPage. Publisher may use iPage to maintain their data and then download an ONIX 2.1 format file to share with other trading partners.

Book Industry Study Group Contact Information Impact of Quality Product Information on Efficient Distribution Practices Page 10 Kent Freeman Senior Vice President, Business Development Ingram Book Group (615) Wendell Lotz Vice President, Product Database Development Ingram Book Group (615)