When it comes to previewing content on CataList, BookNet’s online catalogue service and order management tool, excerpts and interior images have done most of the heavy-lifting, but they don’t give you the full picture, do they? Or at least they shouldn’t — excerpts and interior images are intended to provide the book buyers with just a sample of the book, after all!

In this instalment of Easier with BookNet, we show you the CataList tools that are available to help you share ARCs and full digital copies of your book with potential buyers and readers. Here’s a rundown of our favourites for this year:

Advanced reading copy (ARC) request tool – The ARC request tool lets book reviewers (think Goodreads, TikTok, blogs, and traditional media) and book buyers request ARCs of your forthcoming books. You can choose which account types can request ARCs.
NetGalley integration – The NetGalley button next to a forthcoming title tells the book buyer that the title’s ARC is available on NetGalley. CataList also allows users to search for titles available on NetGalley by using the NetGalley search on CataList. The requester completes their ARC request through NetGalley.
Full previews for children’s books – This is a new tool made for children’s books, and is available only to booksellers, libraries, wholesalers, and sales agents. Use this tool to share full digital previews of your forthcoming children’s books with buyers to help them make more informed purchasing decisions.

Viewing a full preview

Book buyers don’t need to request access to the full preview of a children’s book; the full preview is available right on CataList for them to view immediately. Full previews are provided by publishers for forthcoming children’s books, with rules on when the content is available and who can view it:

Once uploaded, the full preview is available up to the title’s publication date.
Only logged in booksellers, librarians, wholesalers, and sales agents can access full previews.

When the content is available, a book buyer can find the View the full book button for a title in a catalogue’s scrolling view or on the title detail page.

The content is read-only, and cannot be downloaded or printed from the site. You can, however, adjust the PDF viewer to suit your viewing preferences.

Uploading a full preview

Publishers looking to upload full previews for their titles must upload the PDF to the CataList FTP. Find out how in our help manual. Not sure which CataList FTP credentials you should use? Get in touch with us at catalist@booknetcanada.ca and we’ll sort it out for you.

Find more tips and tricks to using BookNet Canada’s products in the Easier with BookNet blog series.