Managing your inventory

Bookhead provides a platform for connecting your local store inventory with various sales channels. We store your inventory securely in our database, and this gives us the ability to list this inventory on whatever sales channel you want to sell your products on. Because we keep an up-to-date copy of your local inventory, we also have an interface for you to explore and manage the inventory.

Accessing the inventory

To access the inventory, visit https://<store>.bookhead.net/staff but replace <store> with the store identifier we gave you upon onboarding. Email [email protected] if you forgot this.

Creating inventory

Bookhead can create a book product enriched by an automatic bibliographic creation process with just a few simple pieces of information: isbn, quantity, and price.

You can create books three different ways:

1. Automatically via FTP

We have an FTP server that can accept files automatically from your point of sales provider. Contact [email protected] to set this up, because it requires coordination with your point of sales provider.

Each data source has a slightly different way of doing things, like with different column names or capitalization schemes, and Bookhead can work with a variety formats. Our system is designed so it's easy for us to add a new customer or point of sales.

2. Upload a file via the admin

Visit https://<store>.bookhead.net/staff/books/import/ to upload a file.

The file must be a CSV file type, and the file is required to have these column names:

• isbn
• quantity
• price

We can accept these additional, optional fields:

• sku
• ean
• cost
• first_edition
  • can be True or False. Defaults to False
• signed
  • can be True or False. Defaults to False
• advanced_reader_copy
  • can be True or False. Defaults to False
• notes
  • text field about the copy's condition or anything notable
• book_condition
  • choices: as-new, fine, very-good, good, fair, poor
• jacket_condition
  • choices: as-new, fine, very-good, good, fair, poor

3. Manually in the admin

Visit https://<store>.bookhead.net/staff/books/new/ and you can use the form to create a new book.

You can search bibliographic data by ISBN or title. The ISBN search has better bibliographic data. The title search uses data from Open Library, which can be handy when your edition predates ISBNs (also, this search doesn't always return complete data, but it can still be helpful for filling out some basics of your title).

About Bookhead's data model

Our bibliographic data model drives everything about Bookhead. Within the context of storing bibliographic metadata about your inventory in a database, a book doesn't exactly describe the object you're trying to sell. Instead, a "work" can have multiple "editions", and each edition can have unique "copies" with altering attributes. Solving this bibliographic data problem has a long history in library science, so we created a bibliographic data model inspired by the Open Library's database design and Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records. We applied our own take that is simple for the needs of online book retail. This is still a work in progress as we continually encounter new sources of bibliographic data and prioritize missing parts (for example, we currently don't support BISAC codes because it's not been a priority, but it would be easy to add once a new data source or customer requires this). We've found this data model has been reliable and flexible to change as this application has evolved over time.

Critically, this data model makes it easy for you to sell both new and used books on the same online sales channels, which isn't common in bookselling software. Bookhead doesn't care if your copy is used or new. That is an attribute on the copy.

Relevant models and their fields

WORK
├── Title 
├── Authors
└── Subjects

    EDITION
    ├── ISBN/ISBN-10/ISBN-13
    ├── Publisher
    ├── Publication date
    ├── Binding type (Hardcover, Paperback, etc.)
    ├── Pages
    ├── Cover image
    ├── Synopsis
    └── Language

        COPY
        ├── Price
        ├── Condition
        ├── Quantity
        ├── Signed status
        ├── First edition status
        ├── Advanced reader copy status
        ├── Jacket condition
        └── Notes

Moby Dick example

For the book Moby Dick:

• Work: Moby Dick by Herman Melville
• Edition: Penguin Classics, 1987, ISBN 9780140430370, Paperback, 720 pages
• Copy: Very Good condition, $17.00, 1 in stock

Work

The Work represents the intellectual or creative content - the story, ideas, or information created by the author(s).

Field	Description
Title	The name of the book
Authors	The people who wrote the book
Subjects	The topics or categories the book covers

Edition

The Edition represents a specific published version of a work. The same work might have many editions (hardcover, paperback, illustrated, etc.).

Field	Description
ISBN	The International Standard Book Number identifying this edition
ISBN-10	The 10-digit ISBN
ISBN-13	The 13-digit ISBN
Publisher	The company that published this edition
Publication date	When this edition was published
Binding	Format (Hardcover, Paperback, Large Print, etc.)
Pages	Number of pages in this edition
Cover image	Picture of the book cover
Synopsis	Summary of the book's content
Language	The language this edition is written in
Dimensions	Physical size of the book
Weight	How heavy the book is
MSRP	Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price

Copy

The Copy represents the actual physical item you have in your inventory - what customers will purchase.

Field	Description
Price	How much you're selling this copy for
Cost	How much you paid for this copy (your cost)
Quantity	How many of this specific copy you have in stock
Book condition	Quality (As New, Fine, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor)
Jacket condition	Condition of the dust jacket, if applicable
Signed	Whether the book is signed by the author
First edition	Whether this is a first edition copy
Advanced reader copy	Whether this is a pre-publication copy for reviewers
Notes	Any special information about this specific copy
SKU	Your internal product identifier
Promoted	Whether this copy is being featured or highlighted

Model relationships

These models have relationships:

• A Work can have multiple Editions (paperback, hardcover, illustrated, etc.)
• An Edition can have multiple Copies in your inventory (different conditions, prices, etc.)

Detailed Moby Dick example

Work

• title: Moby Dick
• authors: Herman Melville
• subjects: Fiction, Adventure, Whaling

Edition

• isbn: 9780140430370
• publisher: Penguin Classics
• publication date: 1972
• binding: Paperback
• pages: 720
• synopsis: "The story of Captain Ahab's quest to avenge himself upon the great white whale..."
• language: English

Copy

• price: $17.00
• quantity: 1
• book condition: Very Good
• signed: Yes
• first edition: No
• notes: "Small tear on back cover, otherwise very good condition"

How Bookhead uses this data

The Copy will be what you are selling online. This is the product that you can hold in your hands at your store and ship out to customers. Combined with bibliographic data about the Work and Edition, your Copy will be listed on your sales channels with the bibliographic data that describes that particular product.

A Copy of a book is a powerful thing

The Copy can be listed on multiple sales channels, like Squarespace, Biblio, and eBay. For more information about that, see our documentation about channels.

Data privacy and control

We only share your inventory data with the third party platforms which you explicity consent to. We're able to share your inventory data with Squarespace, Biblio, eBay, and Shopify. We will share your data if you choose to share the data with a specific platform, and the data will only be shared with an account on the platform that you control.