The Book Importer theme block shows authors, ISBN, publisher, and more on your product pages. Configure it from the theme editor with no code required.
TL;DR: The Book Importer for Shopify includes a theme block that displays book details (authors, ISBN, publisher, page count, language, binding, and more) directly on your product pages. You configure it from the Shopify theme editor. No code. No manual copy-pasting into descriptions. The data comes from your imported book metadata and updates automatically.
You’ve used ISBN lookup to add books to your Shopify store. Each product has a title, description, cover image, and a dozen metadata fields stored behind the scenes. But visit one of those product pages and what does the customer actually see?
The title. The description. The cover. Maybe a price. That’s it.
All the structured book data you imported (authors, publisher, ISBN, page count, binding type, language) sits in metafields, invisible to shoppers. Shopify doesn’t display metafields by default. Most themes don’t know what to do with book-specific data. So the information is there, just hidden.
Book buyers are detail-oriented. They want to know the binding before they buy. Hardcover or paperback? How many pages? Which edition is this? Is it in English or the original French?
These aren’t edge cases. They’re basic purchasing decisions. A customer comparing two editions of the same novel needs to see whether one is the 2003 paperback (288 pages) and the other is the 2019 hardcover anniversary edition (336 pages). Without structured details on the page, they can’t tell.
There’s an SEO angle too. Structured product data gives search engines more to index. A product page that mentions “ISBN 978-0-14-028329-7” and “Published by Penguin Classics” and “Paperback, 328 pages” has richer content than one with just a title and a paragraph of description. More specific content means more specific search matches.
The Book Importer app includes a theme app block called “Book Importer Product Details” that you add to your product pages through the Shopify theme editor. It reads the metadata stored in your product’s metafields and renders it as a clean, styled section on the page.
No Liquid code to write. No metafield references to figure out. You drag the block into position, toggle which fields you want visible, and it handles the rest.
The block supports 12 fields. You enable or disable each one individually:
By default, the most commonly useful fields are enabled: title, authors, publisher, published date, language, page count, and ISBN-13. You can add or remove any combination. Selling children’s board books? Enable binding type. Running an academic bookstore? Turn on subjects and edition.
Different stores have different aesthetics. The block ships with three layouts you can switch between in one click:
List layout: A two-column grid with labels on the left and values on the right, separated by subtle dividers. Clean and scannable. This is the default and works well for most themes.
Table layout: A traditional table with a label column and a value column. Alternating row backgrounds for readability. If your store already uses tables for product specs or size charts, this fits right in.
Rows layout: Each field in its own bordered card, stacked vertically. More visual weight per field. Works well if you’re only showing three or four key details and want each one to stand out.
All three layouts are responsive. On mobile, they reflow to single-column views so nothing breaks on smaller screens.
The block exposes over 20 settings in the Shopify theme editor. You don’t need to touch any code. Everything is visual, with live preview.
Colors: Background color, text color, label color, border color. Match your theme exactly, or use contrast to make the book details section stand out.
Spacing: Padding, margins, gap between rows, gap between labels and values. Fine-tune how much breathing room the block gets on the page.
Borders and corners: Border width, border radius. Want sharp corners and a thin border? Done. Rounded corners with no border? Also done.
Width and alignment: Set a maximum width on desktop and choose left, center, or right alignment. Useful if your product page layout is wide but you want the book details block narrower.
Optional effects: A subtle box shadow or gradient overlay, both off by default. There if you want them, invisible if you don’t.
Heading: Show or hide the section heading, and choose whether it renders as an H2, H3, or H4. The heading text itself is configurable in the app settings.
Every label in the block supports English and Dutch. The block detects your customer’s locale and switches automatically. A Dutch visitor sees “Auteurs” and “Uitgever” and “Aantal pagina’s.” An English visitor sees “Authors” and “Publisher” and “Page count.”
You can customize every label in both languages from the app’s settings page. Want “Writer” instead of “Authors”? Change it. Want “Pagina’s” instead of “Aantal pagina’s”? Your call. The defaults are sensible, but nothing is locked.
When you import a book by ISBN, the app stores all metadata in product metafields under the book_importer namespace. The theme block reads those metafields at render time.
No duplication of data. No manual syncing. If you update a metafield value in Shopify (say, you correct a publication date), the product page reflects the change immediately.
The block is smart about empty fields. If a book doesn’t have a subtitle or an edition number, that row simply doesn’t appear. No blank rows, no “N/A” placeholders. The display adapts to whatever data exists for each specific book.
Here’s the setup process:
That’s it. Every product page that has book metadata will now display the details block. Products without book data (non-book products, or books you haven’t imported yet) show nothing. No awkward empty sections.
Before the block: Your product page shows a title, a description paragraph, a cover image, and a price. The customer has to read through the description to find the author’s name or page count. ISBN? Nowhere visible. Binding type? Buried or absent.
After the block: Below the description, a structured section lists authors, publisher, ISBN, page count, binding, language, and published date. All formatted consistently. All scannable at a glance. The customer knows exactly what they’re buying without hunting through prose.
This is the difference between a book listing that looks like it was thrown together and one that looks like a real bookstore built it. Professional details build trust. Trust builds sales.
The block uses Shopify’s theme app extension system, which means it works with any Online Store 2.0 theme. Dawn, Debut, Craft, Sense, any third-party theme that supports app blocks. You don’t need a specific theme or a custom build.
The CSS is self-contained and uses CSS variables for all customizable properties. It won’t conflict with your theme’s styles. The block sits in its own visual container and respects whatever spacing and width you configure.
One small feature worth calling out: the publisher field can optionally link to Shopify’s vendor filter page. When a customer clicks “Penguin Books” in the book details block, they see all products from that vendor in your store.
This turns the book details section into a discovery tool. A customer buying one Penguin Classics title might browse the rest of your Penguin catalog. For stores with deep inventory from specific publishers, that’s a meaningful conversion path.
Any Shopify merchant selling books. But especially:
The book details block isn’t a standalone feature. It’s the final step in the import chain: you import books by ISBN, the app fetches metadata from multiple databases, creates a draft product with all fields mapped, and the storefront block displays the details to your customers.
Import the data once. Display it everywhere. No copy-pasting, no reformatting, no maintaining parallel information in different places.
The Book Importer for Shopify includes 15 free book imports. Import a few books, enable the storefront block, and see how the details look on your product pages. The setup takes five minutes. The difference in how your listings look is immediate.
