The Importance of Maintaining Your Book Data

The publishing industry calls it metadata. What is metadata? Simply stated: data about data. Your book has information, and that information has information. NOTE: metadata is not independent of the information in the book since it describes the book In fact, our full content indexing metadata is pulled directly from the content of the book. If the book is about wilderness travel, for example, the metadata will reflect that. It is true of course that metadata also describes other attributes of a book that are not directly linked to the book's content: number of pages, e.g., or the date of publication.

Why is book metadata important?

Metadata or bibliographic data provides buyers information about your titles. It is the information you want to see displayed on a retailer’s website. Here are more details:

Enriched Metadata This is the marketing information that allows your users to decide if they want to read or purchase the book. Think of it as providing an in-store browsing experience to a reader. IWhen visiting a physical book store, buyers are able to flip through the pages of your book, read the back cover, or scan the first chapter. Browsers become potential buyers when they have the opportunity to discover if your book is right for them. By storing information ("metadata") about the book electronically, you are allowing online browsers to share the same experience in discovering if your book is right for them. Examples of the types of content you may make available electronically are:

• Cover images
• Table of contents
• First chapters/excerpts
• Author bios
• Series title information

For What Products Should I Provide Metadata? Bowker requests that you supply data for all materials of interest to retailers, libraries, and school systems, where you have applied a unique ISBN13 to them. Types of items include:

• printed books including print-on-demand titles
• e-books
• audio books and spoken word audio
• video, both educational and trade titles
• maps
• calendars and diaries
• mixed media such as book + CD or textbook + student workbook + teacher’s guide
• novelty books such as bath books and sound books
• wall charts, flashcards and other educational materials

How Can I Enter My Metadata?

After entering your titles into Bowker’s online portal, here are some steps you can take to maximize the sales of your product:

• Click My Account in the top right corner of this page. From there, you will select the ISBN you wish to edit.
• Larger retailers have specific requirements that publishers and authors must follow before they will consider stocking a title in their stores. Bowker will supply your metadata to these retailers as well as distributors and wholesalers automatically once your titles have fed to the Books In Print database. bWhile we cannot guarantee that your book will be purchased, by providing us with good metadata about your books, you increase your chances that potential buyers will find it in one of their searches. This is especially true for e-books where good metadata is absolutely key to discovery. Bookstores cannot carry every title listed in Books In Print, but even so many of them will use the Books In Print database to identify books to stock or special order for customers.

Tips To Consider When You Are Planning To Sell Your Book