A NEWSLETTER FOR
PUBLISHERS OF BOOKS, JOURNALS, MAGAZINES, NEWSLETTERS & CATALOGS

Barcode Ultimatum!

Use it or face penalties now! Yes, this is what you are faced with from the bigger wholesalers and retailers. It is now down to the wire for any publisher to have their titles imprinted with Bookland EAN bar codes (which include the ISBNs). Some wholesalers have begun to hit the stragglers for up to $0.50 per title to sticker their own barcodes onto the publications.

We here at Marrakech have for some time now been advising any publisher that submits a title without a barcode of the impending problems and fees they can incur in the future if they do not conform. For already printed publications, it is easy to print barcodes on pressure sensitive labels to affix onto titles before they are sent to the distributors. The problem in the industry is to conform titles already in distributors' inventories.

As no one today who wishes to distribute their publications through the established commercial channels will publish a title without an ISBN number, no one will in the future publish without a bar code. If you want to learn all there is on the machine readable coding guidelines, BISAC publishes this for $7.50; call 212-929-1393 to order a copy. Or send a check to BISAC 160 5th Ave NY, NY 10010.

 

Marrakech Express Inc

Book and publication printing

Copyright © 1994 Marrakech Inc. All rights reserved.
Revised: April 17, 2001