The April 7 Book Industry Study Group half-day seminar on "Making Information Pay" drove home to publishers the importance of providing complete data when supplying books to retailers. In a series of presentations filled with numbers and lists, here are some of the highlights.

  • There are some 5,627,889 titles in the B&N database, with 3,497,347 considered active and 2,130,542 inactive. Moreover, only 1,462,195 titles are actually present in the supply chain, meaning consumers can buy them immediately, said Joe Gonnella, v-p, inventory management and vendor relations. For the remaining 4,165,695 titles not in the supply chain, Gonnella said, B&N must tell the customer it cannot get a new copy of the book, which often leads that consumer to the used-book network.

  • Plenty of titles come in without all necessary elements, including a "commentary" on what the book is about: 3,593,484 books in the B&N database are missing commentary, and 532,193 in the supply chain are without commentary.

  • 3,810,267 books in the database lack cover images, and 445,932 in the supply chain are missing covers. A study of online sales by B&N found a 60.5% increase in sales after a book posted on its site added a cover image.

  • Other items that are frequently absent from books: BISAC subject code; ONIX audience code; and publisher discount code.

  • The lack of BISAC codes was also one of the top 10 mistakes made by publishers, according to Jean Srnecz, v-p of merchandising at Baker & Taylor. Other common mistakes cited by Srnecz include children's titles with the term "for all ages"; inconsistency in author name; "delusional" comparison titles; and late submission of data.

The importance of supplying correct information is not lost on publishers—about 200 people attended the April 7 meeting. No doubt many were there to learn ways to raise their grade in supplying data to B&N; only 45 publishers merit an "A" or "B" grade, and Gonnella noted that if a publisher doesn't get either of those grades, "then you are failing."