By Astra Crompton, FriesenPress

Metadata is a series of keywords and codes embedded in an online listing that allows search engines to efficiently search and sort results. This type of information is easy for writers and publishers to overlook because it acts invisibly behind the scenes — but it matters.

Retailers (both online and brick-and-mortar stores) use this information to shelve books appropriately. Those sections for Crime, Mystery, Religion, etc., link up with which Book Industry Standards and Communications codes (universally known as BISAC codes) have been assigned to a book. When readers browse a shelf based on genre or topic, it’s the BISAC codes that have designated whether your book belongs on that shelf. Likewise, when potential buyers search for books online, BISAC codes are one of the metrics used to determine which books are returned as appropriate results.

If you don’t select a BISAC code — or choose ineffective ones — you’re missing out on an opportunity for your audience to find you. To set your book up for success, it’s crucial to tag and catalogue your book appropriately.

Here, we’ll dig into how to pick effective BISAC codes so you can be discovered by the right readers.

What Are BISAC Codes?

 

A BISAC code comprises two parts: 3 letters that represent its main category, such as Nonfiction, Fiction, Poetry, Juvenile Fiction, etc., and 6 numbers that represent a specific subcategory within that category. Each resulting code leads a user to a specific grouping of books. For example:

• BIO026000    BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Memoirs
• The category is adult nonfiction biography & autobiography, represented by BIO, where the specific subcategory designation for “memoir” books is 026000. Note that these codes cannot be edited or mix-and-matched.
• You can get even more specific as some subcategories have subcategories of their own. For example:
• YAF024170   YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Historical / United States / 20th Century

Periodically, the BISG (Book Industry Study Group) who maintains the BISAC codes conducts reviews to ensure that the list of available codes accurately reflects the categories currently being published. They may add new codes to cover emerging categories, update the language of existing codes to reflect evolving terminology, or reroute certain topics to default to another suitable category. Depending on how frequently a specific retailer updates their database, some of the newest codes may not yet show up in their system at the store level.

You can find a full listing of the current BISAC codes here. These codes are specifically in English, so even if your book is printed in another language, the code is not translated.

Aim for Specificity over Generalizations

How do you determine which BISAC code is best for your book? While there are codes for “non-classifiable” and “general” topics, this tells a potential bookseller or reader nothing useful. Wherever possible, it’s best to choose codes that are highly specific to your book’s subject matter and (in some cases) your identity as the author.

Ask what makes your book unique? Within your category, what key themes do you cover, what kind of knowledge are you trying to impart, what kind of professionals or hobbyists might you be trying to attract? You can then search those keywords in the BISAC code lists to see if there are any matches.

For example, for a business book written by an accountant working for a private equity fund, rather than use:

• BUS000000   BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / General

You could choose:

• BUS001010   BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Accounting / Financial or
• BUS017010   BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Corporate Finance / Private Equity

Alternatively, you can scan the full list looking for your category. The lists are organized by Adult Nonfiction (including Artbooks, Cookbooks, Poetry, and all manner of topics) versus everything else (including Adult Fiction, Juvenile Fiction/Nonfiction, and Young Adult Fiction/Nonfiction). Select your top category and scroll through the subcategory options to shortlist the codes that feel most specific and appropriate to your book’s themes. Then pick the one that’s most accurate for your primary target audience.

Finally, you can open (or look up) some of the books that you feel belong next to yours on the shelf and check which BISAC code(s) they have selected. Inside the book, the initial code may not be printed, just leaving the subcategory designations. Online listings should show the full code.

(Note: depending on where you are in the world or which retailer you’re checking, you may encounter other types of book identification codes, like Thema or Amazon listing categories.)

Select Alternate Codes for Better Discoverability

What if you have more than one target audience? While most printed books include only one BISAC code on the copyright page, your book’s metadata can store up to 3 different codes. The first one should match the code in your book. The other two are your opportunity to potentially find your readers through a different avenue.

So, consider you’ve written a history book about the founding of Toronto and some of its most famous buildings. Your BISAC codes might look like:

1. HIS006070    HISTORY / Canada / Provincial, Territorial & Local / Ontario (ON)
2. HIS006010    HISTORY / Canada / Pre-Confederation (to 1867)
3. ARC024010   ARCHITECTURE / Buildings / Landmarks & Monuments

In this case, two of the codes focus on the history audience. However, due to a heavy focus on the architecture of Toronto, including a number of photos and etchings of historical monuments, your book might also interest architects with an eye for history.

Aside from subject matter, those alternate codes could give you the chance to speak about your background as an author. The BISG provides codes specifically for authors who are women, Indigenous, LGBTQ+, or have other cultural identities that might further distinguish you within a broader category. If appealing to readers or curriculums trying to broaden their reading lists, this can be a good way to stand out from the crowd.

However, note that you can’t mix Fiction codes with Nonfiction codes, and you can’t mix age brackets (like JUV with FIC). Regardless of who is purchasing the book, the code should speak to its intended audience.

Depending on your publisher’s requirements, you can request that they print all three codes on your copyright page instead of just the first one.

What Happens After You Make Your Selection?

As mentioned at the outset, BISAC codes are considered part of your book’s metadata. This is the “identifying information” needed for a retailer to be able to sell (and shelve) your book. Your distributor (or yourself, if you’re working on consignment) will provide all of this identifying information to any retailer that wants to carry your book. Alongside your BISAC code, your book title, author name, contributor names (like a co-author or illustrator), book format, trim size, ISBN (barcode), about the book and about the author blurbs, and keywords are all saved as the book’s metadata information. Search engines — both online and at the store level — trawl this data to help match the best-fit books with a reader’s request.

If you need to make changes to your BISAC codes after your book is already published, you will have to talk to your publisher and/or distributor to update your metadata. Note that making changes after the fact can cause disruptions to your distribution, the accuracy of your online listings, and may no longer match what’s been printed inside your book. That’s why it’s best to ensure that this information is honed before you dig into your promotional efforts.

Armed with appropriate BISAC codes, your book will show up in the most advantageous sections, which means potential buyers who didn’t already know about you or your title might stumble upon their new favourite read: your book.

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Astra Crompton (she/they) is an eclectic writer, editor, and illustrator with over twenty-five years of publishing experience. Her work has been published in anthologies, table-top RPG books, magazines, and in several novels. They have also successfully completed NaNoWriMo six times and counting. Astra is currently the Editing & Illustrations Coordinator at FriesenPress, where they manage, coordinate, and vet FriesenPress’s industry-leading editing and illustrations teams.