Simple Book Catalog — A WordPress Plugin for Real-World Book Lovers

A clean, powerful, no-nonsense way to catalog your physical books inside WordPress.

Built by MadWonko. Born out of an overflowing bookshelf and a very late night.

Why this plugin exists

Most catalog plugins are bloated, clunky, or focused on ecommerce.
This one is made for actual readers and collectors.

Simple Book Catalog gives you:

  • Google Books lookup

  • Barcode scanning

  • Classic Editor simplicity

  • Authors & Genres taxonomies

  • CSV/JSON export

  • Bulk import via ISBN list

  • Curated “shelves”

  • Beautiful front-end grids

If you want your WordPress site to double as a personal library, this is your new best friend.

Key Features

Auto-Fill From Google Books

Enter an ISBN. Click fetch.
Boom — title, author, description, categories, cover image URL.

Barcode Scanner

Uses your device camera to scan barcodes directly into the ISBN field.

WordPress Taxonomies

Automatic assignment to Authors and Genres, perfect for filtering.

Front-End Shortcodes

  • [ book_catalog ] – searchable catalog
  • [ book_detail ] – dedicated book page
  • [ book_shelf author="…" ] – curated horizontal shelves

Import / Export

  • Import lists of ISBNs
  • Export the whole library as CSV or JSON

Optional Local Cover Download

Automatically pulls cover images into the Media Library when supported by your host.

Download & Links

→ Download from WordPress.org (coming soon)
→ View on GitHub (optional)
→ Documentation & Shortcodes