Fulfilling Personalized Books

What do we mean by transient?

With personalized books, Bookvault assumes a new file is to be provided with every order. To avoid having to create a new title for every order, we use something called a transient title. This is a title which contains no files, but is simply a placeholder for the specifications. At present, we're only able to fulfill transient orders in the UK, whilst the process is still in its infancy.

How to submit a transient order

At present, transient orders can be submitted via the Bookvault API. If you have a larger project you wish to discuss, you can always get in touch with our support team here.

Setup API Access

To get started, you will first want to setup API access to your Bookvault account. A guide on how this can be done can be found here.

Generating a Product SKU

As previously mentioned, transient titles are handled a little differently. You won't need to pay a title upload fee and you also won't be able to see them on your Bookvault account. A transient title is defined by a product SKU. This is a short line of text defining how to produce your title. We've put together an Excel calculator for you to help define SKU's, or alternatively you can form it using the below logic:

Example SKU: 150CWMSB234H156W

Paper Stock [150CW]

This is the interior paper stock your title will be printed on.  A current list of our stocks and codes can be seen below:
 

Paper	Paper Weight	Coating	Colour	Code
70gsm Cream	070	U	C	070UC
White 80gsm Bond	080	U	W	080UW
80gsm Premium Cream	080	U	C	080UC
100gsm Coated	100	C	W	100CW
115gsm Coated	115	C	W	115CW
150gsm Coated	150	C	W	150CW
170gsm Premium Bond	170	U	W	170UW

Lamination [M]

The next part of the code is the lamination. This defines what lamination the cover will have. All current lamination codes can be seen below:

Lamination	Code
Gloss	G
Matte	M

Binding [SB]

This is the binding of the final product. Current examples below:

Binding	Code
Paperback	PB
Hardback	HB
Spiral Bound	SB
Wire-O-Bound	WB
Saddle Stich	SS

Book Size [234H156W]

This defines the final size of the book in millimeters. At present it is only possible to supply it as such. The above example would produce a 234mm tall by 156mm wide book. It's important that each field is zero filled to 3 characters, so 99 would become 099. Other examples could include:

• 210H210W - 210mm tall by 210mm wide
• 210H297W - 210mm tall by 297mm wide

It's best to make sure the sizing you wish is available first by using our quote tool, to avoid any errors.

Placing an order

Placing a transient order is done in the same way as a normal Bookvault order, just instead of supplying an ISBN, you supply the transient request. An example payload can be seen below:

Url

POST https://api.bookvault.app/v3/Order

Headers

Authorization: basic bv_YOUR_API_KEY

Body

 

Some fields to note:

• ProductSku is the string we formed in the earlier section
• MonoPages is the number of black and white pages in this book
• ColPages is the number of colour pages in this book
• MonoPages + ColPages should total the number of pages in the text file
• LineTitle is a title for the book. I.e. if it's a personalized story of Alex's first day at school, it would be "Alex's first day at school"
• Files is a list of the files for the order. This is required for each order, even if a file is always the same, transient orders require a file for each item on every order. It is important to ensure the URL provided is publicly accessible.

Testing

Once you have placed an order, you'll be able to see the order on your Bookvault dashboard. If you view the order, at the bottom of the page, you'll be able to see the order lines you submitted and an outline of the specifications received. At present, there isn't a way to view processed files, but this is an imminent update. If you have any doubts, you can reach out to the support team who will be able to confirm.