Through the self-service site, you can access to monthly catalogs and weekly FOC pages featuring upcoming comics, graphic novels and manga that can be purchased through Penguin Random House. You can add titles to your FOC carts from the Catalog page, the FOC page, or both.
Viewing Catalogs
Catalogs can be accessed from your homepage, where the latest catalog is featured along with links to additional active catalogs. For the featured catalog, title metadata files and cover images can be accessed by selecting the “Download” button. Click on “Browse Now” to navigate directly to the catalog page or select “Browse” from the top navigation menu to select from a list of active catalogs or view the catalog archive page.
Selecting Titles within a Catalog
Catalog pages will show only the titles unique to each month. The early catalog confirmation date is displayed at the top of the page and indicates the recommended date for submitting orders to ensure quantities.
Additionally, ISBNs/UPCs within a catalog are sorted by Publisher A-Z by default. You can download and sort titles in a catalog using the drop-downs that appear at the top of the page. More information on downloading monthly is included below.
Titles can be sorted in a variety of ways including–Upcoming FOC, Publisher, or Title.
You can further filter the titles in a catalog using the selections from the left-hand bar.
Filters include:
- On-sale Date
- FOC Date
- Format
- Publisher
- Series
- Title Collection
- Age
- Media Rating
To select a title from a catalog, users with multiple store locations will need to select a location from the location banner before adding a title to their cart. You can select your quantity and click on “Add to FOC Cart.”
You can also use the “Add ISBNs/UPCs” button at the top of the Catalog page to add titles in bulk. More information on adding multiple ISBs/UPCs to your cart can be found here.
You can reference your Series Order History from the catalog. More information can be found here.
Adding Multiple Titles from a Catalog to your Carts
Multiple titles can also be added to your carts at once. Before adding multiple titles to your carts, you will need to select a location from the location banner.
All quantities will initially be set to 0. If there is already a quantity in your cart, it will display in a circle. Add quantities for each title you want to order.
Quantities save automatically as you go, so if you leave the page and return later, your entries will still be there. Keep in mind that quantities are tied to your individual account and are not shared with other users. They are also page-specific and will only appear on the page where they were entered.
A banner will automatically appear at the bottom of the screen displaying the number of items selected and a count of the total quantities to be added to your carts. There is also the option to cancel or clear all quantities.
Multi-cart Confirmation from Catalog Page
Once you have made your selections across all FOCs, click on the “Add all quantities” button at the bottom of the page.
It is important to note that ratio variant restrictions are still applicable. If you do not meet the variant ordering requirements, you will receive a message after you click on “Add all quantities.” You can either choose to continue (ineligible quantities will not be added to your cart) or select “No, go back” to make changes to meet the requirements.
If you select, “No, go back” all titles that do not meet the requirements will appear with a red box.
When you click, “Yes, continue” you will see that items were added to your carts. Note that these are not yet confirmed. You have the option to download your cart data, stay on the page, view all your carts, or proceed to confirm multiple carts.
Clicking “Yes, confirm cart” will take you to the Multi-cart Checkout page. More information on Multi-cart Checkout can be found here.
Viewing FOC Pages
Each FOC has its own page displaying all titles included in that FOC, allowing you to build your order week by week. FOC pages can be accessed from your homepage. Upcoming FOCs are displayed along with the number of days remaining to confirm. Click on a FOC to open its FOC page, or select “Browse” from the top banner to select from a list of active FOCs.
To view a FOC that isn’t listed, you can select “View all Catalogs and FOCs.” This will provide a list of FOCs grouped by catalog. You can click on any FOC to go to that page.
Selecting Titles from a FOC Page
The FOC page includes a countdown to the FOC date and links to the catalogs represented within that FOC.
ISBNs/UPCs are sorted by Publisher A-Z by default.
The FOC Metadata file can be downloaded by clicking on the “Download” button. You can download and sort titles on a FOC page using the drop-downs that appear at the top of the page.
The FOC page functions much like the catalog page. You can add multiple titles using the “Add ISBNs/UPCs” button and use either the Single or Multi-add to Cart options. Quantities entered on this page are also saved automatically, so you can navigate away and return without losing your entries.
Once you have made your selections, click on “Add all quantities” to add them to your cart.
Cart Confirmation from FOC Page
Once quantities are added to your cart from the FOC page you will receive messaging to confirm your cart. You have the option to download your cart data, stay on the page, view the unconfirmed cart, or confirm the cart.
Clicking “Yes, confirm cart” will take you directly to the checkout page for that FOC. This process allows you to more quickly confirm your cart.
From the Checkout page, you can click “Submit Confirmation” to confirm the FOC cart. More information can be found here.
Downloading CSV Data File and Cover Images
Penguin Random House provides downloads of both publisher data as well as cover images for use in the Direct Market. These downloads are grouped by catalog month and can be accessed via the Catalog page once you login to your selfservice.penguinrandomhouse.biz account.
The Catalog Metadata file, Weekly Catalog Delta files, and Cover Image downloads can be found when a user is viewing a particular catalog via the dropdown menu. The FOC title metadata files can be downloaded from each FOC page.
Title data will be supplied via a CSV file, and the cover images will be available via a zip file. Penguin Random House provides metadata feeds according to the following schedule:
Monthly Title Data File (CSV)
SCHEDULE
- Monthly Catalog CSV files are updated at 12:05 a.m. EST each night, with the most up-to-date data elements for all items in that month’s solicitation catalog.
- Penguin Random House will continue to update data for catalogs dated 2 months prior to the current calendar month, in addition to the current month and newest future month’s solicitation catalog data.
- For example, as of July 23, 2021, PRH will update the August, July , June, and May 2021 catalogs each night.
- Weekly Catalog Delta CSV files are updated at 12:05 a.m. EST on Fridays each week. These files are identical in structure to the Monthly Catalog CSV file but only include items in that month’s solicitation catalog that have experienced a data change since the prior Friday. A separate Weekly Catalog Delta CSV file will be created for each solicitation catalog month.
- For example, as of July 23, 2021, PRH will create separate weekly catalog delta csv files for the August, July, June, and May 2021 catalogs every Friday at midnight.
On occasion, off-cycle immediate updates may be transmitted by Penguin Random House and will be present within the catalog data file.
CSV DATA FILE INFORMATION
- The CSV file is UTF-8 encoded.
- The file will contain blanks and will not contain any “0” placeholder values. If there is no value for a data field, an empty (null/blank) string will be present and not a “0” value. If a “0” is present in a data field, it is an intentional value.
- The header row will always be present in each CSV file; each column header will not contain any spaces (for example, Cover Available will represented in the header row as CoverAvailable).
- Note that if attempting to use Excel in order to review the CSV data file, proper steps must be taken to import the file into Excel in order to preserve key data fields (Main Identifier, UPC, ISBN, Order Requirement UPC). PRH strongly suggests loading and transforming these fields as text within Excel in order to ensure data integrity.
- Any descriptive data fields (Descriptive, Contributor Bio) are stripped of HTML, and double quotes have been escaped to preserve data integrity.
- All dates within the file should be displayed as MM/DD/YYYY. Note that if attempting to use Excel in order to review the CSV data file, leading zeroes before a date (for example, 05/01/2021) may be omitted by Excel formatting (5/1/2021),
- Withdraw Notifications occur when an item may become postponed, canceled, or otherwise made inactive and withdrawn from active solicitation. In these cases, the Monthly Catalog CSV file and the appropriate Delta Catalog CSV file will include the relevant information (Sales Status Code and Sales Status fields will reflect the appropriate inactive status, e.g. PP– Postponed).
- Please see the attached Implementation Guide for a full description of fields and data values present within the CSV file.
Cover Images
- Cover images are updated at 12:01 a.m. EST each night, and are presented as a single zip file containing all image files for titles in a given solicitation catalog month.
- Images within the zip file will have the consistent naming convention of MainIdentifier.jpg (either UPC.jpg or ISBN.jpg)
Technical Support
For technical assistance with the Penguin Random House CSV data file, or cover images, please email dmdistrosupport@penguinrandomhouse.com.
