Scanning an ISBN Barcode
Most authors scan their own book the moment the first copies arrive, and a good number of them get a fright when nothing comes up. That’s almost always normal, and it isn’t a fault with your barcode. Here’s what’s actually happening.
A barcode holds a number, nothing else
There is no title, no author and no price stored in those bars. All a barcode carries is your ISBN.
The details live in databases, filed against that number. Scanning just looks the number up. So whether anything appears depends entirely on which database the scanner is searching and whether your book is in it.
Test-scan before you go to print
This is the check worth doing, because a barcode that doesn’t read is only a problem once you have a thousand copies of it.
Print a single copy of your cover and scan it. You can use a handheld scanner, a phone app, or ask a local bookshop to run it through their till.
What you should see is your 13-digit ISBN, not any book details. That’s a pass. The number reading cleanly is the whole test; the missing details are expected, for the reasons below.
While you have the printed cover in front of you, check the bars under a magnifying glass. They should look crisp, with no ink spread or blurring.
What happens in a shop
The first time a shop scans your book, your ISBN will come up with nothing attached to it. Staff then enter the title, author, format, and price themselves and link them to your number. After that, scanning brings up your book in that shop.
Each retailer does this in its own system, which is why they each control the price held against your ISBN and can change it whenever they like.
What happens with a phone app
Phone apps don’t read the Nielsen Book Database. This catches people out, because Nielsen registration is what puts your book in front of bookshops and libraries — but it does nothing for someone scanning your cover in their kitchen.
Apps search online databases and retail sites instead. Some only check shops like Amazon, so they’ll draw a blank if your book isn’t listed there.
If you’d like your book to appear in a phone scan, you can add your details to additional barcode databases through International Barcodes. This is optional and entirely separate from your Nielsen registration.
Testing your own barcode
Zebra is the most thorough of the free apps, because it checks several databases rather than a single shop. It runs in your browser, so save it to your phone’s home screen rather than hunting for it in an app store.
It’s worth using twice: once now, to confirm the printed barcode reads cleanly, and again after you’ve registered on any additional databases, to check your details have gone through.
If the bars won’t read at all
That’s a different problem, and it’s usually the artwork rather than the number. Check that the barcode on your cover is:
- At least 30mm wide × 20mm high, including the white margins on either side and the ISBN printed underneath — both are part of the barcode
- Not cropped. Trimming the margins or the number stops it from scanning
- Not stretched. Resize proportionally, or the bars distort
Full guidance on placing your barcode.
Already printed without a barcode? You don’t need a reprint — self-adhesive barcode labels solve it.
To get your book into bookshop and library systems, you need Nielsen registration, which is included in every membership package. More about what registration does.