Book lists
Bookhead lets you build curated lists of books and publish them to your website and sales channels. Use lists for staff recommendations, seasonal themes, section displays, or to define exactly what your online store sells.
Everything happens on one screen: go to Lists in the staff menu, then open or create a list.
Creating a list
- Go to Lists in the staff menu
- Click New list
- Give it a name (for example, "Summer Reading" or "Staff Favorites")
- Add books to it (see below)
Adding books to a list
A list is made of books you add by hand, plus any books that match rules you set. Open a list and use the Add to list panel:
Search
Search your inventory by title or ISBN and click Add to list on any result. These show up in the list as Added by hand.
Paste
Paste a batch of ISBNs to add many books at once. This is handy for rebuilding a list you keep somewhere else. Bookhead accepts:
- Plain text (a list of ISBNs)
- Bookshop (.csv export)
- IndieCommerce (.csv export)
- Libro.fm (.csv export)
Bookhead matches each ISBN to a book in your inventory and adds it. If an ISBN isn't in your inventory yet, Bookhead pulls in its details so it can still be added.
Rules (auto-include)
Instead of adding every book by hand, you can set rules so books are included automatically based on their attributes:
- Category (for example, Fiction, Children's)
- Condition (new, used)
- Location (a shelf or section)
- Stock (in stock only)
- Review (books your staff have reviewed)
Rules appear as chips on the list. Books that match a rule are labeled Auto (auto-matched), so you can always tell hand-picked books apart from rule-matched ones.
Exclusions
If a rule pulls in a book you don't want, remove it and it moves to Exclusions. Excluded books stay out of the list even if they still match a rule. You can Restore an exclusion at any time.
Working with a list
From an open list you can:
- See each book's source (Added by hand or Auto) and its publish status (Live, Draft, or Not in store)
- Select multiple books and Remove selected in one go
- Export ISBNs for the whole list
- Duplicate list to start a new one from this one
- Delete list
Changes save automatically.
Publishing a list to your store
Open a list and click Publish (this appears once you've connected an online store). There are two different ways to publish, and the difference matters:
Feature as a collection
Choose Feature on [channel] to add the list to your store as a collection you can showcase (on your homepage, navigation, or a featured section). Featuring never changes what your store sells. It just groups books you already offer into a named collection. Use this for staff picks, themed displays, and marketing.
Collections sync to Shopify as Custom Collections, usually within 15 minutes. Squarespace doesn't support collections through its API; for Squarespace, use categories instead.
Use as your storefront catalog
Choose Use as [channel] storefront catalog to make the list define exactly what your store sells. Everything in the list is listed; anything not in it is not. Use this when you want a single list to be the source of truth for your online catalog.
Because this changes what's for sale, Bookhead protects you: if using a list as your catalog would remove a large number of books that are currently listed, it asks you to confirm first. This prevents accidentally shrinking your whole storefront down to a small list.
In short: Feature adds a collection on top of your catalog. Use as storefront catalog is your catalog.
Staff picks
Staff picks are books your team recommends, connected to reviews. When a staff member writes a review for a book, it's added to that reviewer's picks and can be featured on your store like any other list.
To add a staff pick:
- Go to Staff Picks in the staff menu
- Click New review
- Search for the book, write your review, and save
The reviewed book is now available to feature.
Lists vs. categories
It's easy to confuse lists and categories. Here's the difference:
| Lists | Categories | |
|---|---|---|
| What they are | Curated groups of books (hand-picked and/or rule-matched) | Organizational groupings based on genre/type |
| How they're built | You add books and set rules | Books are included automatically from their bookstore category code |
| Use case | "Staff Picks", "Holiday Gifts", your storefront catalog | "Fiction", "History", "Children's Books" |
| Publishes to | Shopify (as a collection, or as your storefront catalog) | Shopify and Squarespace (as tags/categories) |
Use a list when you want to hand-pick books or define what your store sells. Use categories when you want to organize books by genre or type.