Barnes & Noble announced earlier this month that it will require its suppliers to follow Book Industry Study Group guidelines on bar codes starting July 1, 2005, for new books and July 1, 2006, for backlist. The bookseller announced the change at an Association of American Publishers—BISG meeting to discuss changes in bar codes and other standardization issues. The guidelines call for publishers and distributors to print only Bookland EAN bar codes on books.
After those dates, B&N will no longer accept books that have price-point UPC bar codes or other bar codes on them. (This applies mostly to mass market titles.) It is also requiring that the suggested retail price be encoded in the "add-on" portion of the Bookland EAN bar code. If the company has to take "corrective action," such as pasting on its own sticker, it will charge a fee of 25 cents per book.
When at least one publisher with a deep backlist complained that the deadline might be too tight, B&N's Doug Cheney said that the retailer "can be flexible," but would need to talk with suppliers about extensions.
