Imprint is usually understood as the "branding" a publisher applies to a book – what's on the spine of a print book – but it's a marketing tool and may change as the publisher's need needs change.
Publisher is the name of the company that owns or holds rights to a product. They receive the money from sales of the book and pay royalties to the copyright holder. Another way to understand it might be that it's the name of that appears on the Title Page of the book, and on the reverse of that page you would expect to find copyright and Cataloging In Publication information.
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Imprint codes are a means for end users to map and follow the continuity of a publisher's imprints which, as they are means of branding, may change over time. For example a publisher's 2010 imprint "Baker's Dozen" may in 2013 be presented in their list as "A Baker's 13". The continuity of the code would allow the end user to know that their records on both names should remain linked even though the formal branding has been updated. The code's consistency allows the end user to know the publisher has done this intentionally and not randomly set up a new Imprint and transferred old titles into it.
- Imprint codes are a "proprietorial" identifier and like any proprietary identifier relies on the metadata sender using a consistent self-chosen code. End users can only believe what you send.
- Amazon requests that publishers supply a proprietorial imprint code in their metadata. Other companies may use them as well.
What makes a good Proprietary Imprint Code?
It should be a code, meaning a continuous string without spaces or atypical characters in it. And it should be used consistently. After that it's up to you, but generally a string of 4 or 5 letters and numbers is probably as much as you need. If you know your Baker & Taylor imprint code you can use that. The above example might be BakDoz or BAKER, or BAK05.
It's a very poor practice to repeat the Imprint Name, spaces and all, as a code.
It's a very poor practice to repeat the Imprint Name, spaces and all, as a code.
The need for accuracy
Publisher and Imprint names are often misspelled or have subtle differences introduced into them. Simply adding a period -- Ltd vs Ltd. -- will make a difference for computer selects. That in turn can cause your business partners to lose their associations to your records. Yes they will find them eventually, but why make it hard?
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