uPublishU 2014--5 Easy Ways to Get Discovered
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This document provides tips for ensuring books are discoverable through effective metadata practices from several metadata experts. It recommends that metadata should look exactly how searchers want it when they search, have depth to interest potential readers, be present where discovery happens, and respect standards used by trading partners. The document outlines best practices for key metadata fields like title format, cover images, descriptions, keywords and author bios to maximize discoverability.
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uPublishU 2014--5 Easy Ways to Get Discovered
- 1. 5 Easy Ways to Get Discovered: Advice from Metadata Experts
- 2. • Rebecca Albani, Bowker • Randy Kuckuck, PublishNext • Angela Bole, IBPA • Laura Dawson, Bowker
- 3. Ensuring Maximum Discoverability • Look exactly how they want, when they want it • Have charisma and depth • Go where discovery happens • Be respected by your trading partners • It’s not about you
- 4. Look Exactly How They Want, When They Want It Rebecca.Albani@Bowker.com @rebeccaalbani Insert Image Here 3
- 6. ISBN Title/Subtitle Author 5 Metadata Musts for Every Title
- 7. $Format Price Status/Availability 6 Metadata Musts for Every Title
- 8. Metadata Musts for Every Title Cover Image Description 7
- 9. Metadata Musts for Every Title Audience Subject 8
- 11. Rich Metadata 10
- 13. BISG Metadata Best Practices
- 14. Everything in Title • This Heart Within Me Burns – From Bedlam to Benidorm (Revised & Updated) • Losing Hope: Book One of the Sienna St. James Series • #06 Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Sussex Vampire
- 15. Where the Data Should Go • Subtitle • Series Title • Translated Title • Series Number • Volume Number • Edition Number • Edition Info • Language
- 16. 15 Numbered Edition <title> <b202>01</b202> <b203>Bartending 101</b203> <b029>The Basics of Mixology, 4th Edition</b029> </title> <title> <b202>05</b202> <b276>40</b276> <b203>Bartending 101 (4E)</b203> </title> <b057>4</b057> <b058><![CDATA[Fourth Edition]]></b058>
- 17. 16 Standardization of Series Name <series> <b018>Immortal Beloved</b018> <b019>3</b019> </series> <title textcase="02" refname="Title" > <b202>01</b202> <b203>Eternally Yours</b203> </title> <series> <b018>The Haruhi Suzumiya Series</b018> </series> <title textcase="02" refname="Title" > <b202>01</b202> <b203>The Dissociation of Haruhi Suzumiya</b203> </title>
- 18. Have Charisma and Depth Insert Image Here 17
- 19. Crafting Metadata- Description 18 • Provide a detailed description • Include common keywords • Most important information at the beginning • Don’t copy text
- 21. Crafting Metadata-Author Biography • Information that will not change • No family or personal aspects of life • Degrees • Literary Awards • Recent Works • Series Titles • Journals or articles published • >100 words 20
- 23. Crafting Metadata- Keywords • No standardization • Unrelated hits Search word: Art Results: Etch A Sketch (product) The Art of Racing in the Rain (Novel) Artemis Fowl (character) • False positives Orange is the new Black (not about color theory) The Glass Castle (not about architecture) 22
- 25. Cover Images
- 27. Helping Each Other Achieve & Succeed Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) 26
- 28. Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) 27 Some Common Reasons a Book Might Not be Accepted by a Distributor… …Surprise! They’re almost all related to metadata.
- 29. Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) 28 • Cover art and design are not competitive • Title and front cover copy does not immediately identify the benefits of the book, the subject matter, or category • Interior design is not competitive • Title’s category is extremely competitive and only those with big-name authors or high-profile publicity campaigns are considered
- 30. Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) 29 • Author has no clear credentials for writing a book on the topic • Quotes used on the front and or back covers are not from people with impressive credentials • No spine (for print books…obviously) • While it may be a good book, it does not stand out as more salable among the books that are already on the shelf
- 31. Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) 30 • Book awards that carry no weight in the marketplace are touted on the cover • Book is inappropriately priced for the category and format • Fiction is a tough sell • Poetry is tougher
Editor's Notes
- Like it or not there are rules to follow. Most platforms are similar but you need to read the directions and understand what each platform is asking for before you enter you data.
- This is what Bowker considers must haves for every title in order to ensure your title gets discovered in searches.
- Not very inspiring. Does this make you want to buy this book? How can it, if you really don’t have a good sense as to what it’s about?
- This is much more fun to look at. It includes all the standard metadata about the title as well as the enhanced data such as cover image and description. This page basically gives you all the information you would need to make a decision to purchase this book.
- Also, ensure you make metadata unique per title. This example shows that title and author alone may not differentiate multiple books within a series. In this case, the only difference in the metadata supplied by the publisher to Bowker is the cover image. There is no differentiation in the descriptions. Since cover image is not a text field, there is no way to search on the differences in the cover images. Inspired Entrepreneurs should be noted as the series title and each individual book subject should be mentioned in the title field to allow users to search on the names of each entrepreneur featured.
- BISG has a list of core metadata elements for organizations sending out metadata to vendors and data aggregators.
- Here are a few examples of data that we have received in files where we had to parse out data to put in the appropriate fields.
- All data points have a specific field they should be in. When you are sending in the data or uploading them to different platforms, make sure you enter the appropriate data in their fields. This way the data aggregator doesn’t have to touch your data and parse out the info themselves.
- Here is an example of a title that included the edition number in the title field as well as the edition number field. You can see in the ONIX tags that is included numerous times. We remove this information and only keep it in the edition number field. If the title didn’t include the edition number field then we would still remove it and just put it in the edition number field so it’s not in the title.
- Here is an example of how the series name came in a file to us a few different ways. We went ahead and standardized the series name so they all show the same across all titles. You want to make sure you always send the series name the same way for all titles to avoid any confusion on what the series title name is.
- Now let’s move on to the next point which is have Charism and Depth.
- Creating your metadata is a very important aspect of selling your titles. Here are a few helpful hints to think about when creating your data.
- When looking at this title you would have to ask yourself why would you buy this book with just the basic title info? You wouldn’t. You would want to read the book description to make sure that this title is something you are interesting in reading and purchasing. Therefore you want to be sure your description is captivating enough to get the readers to purchase the title.
- Author biography is another point of data where you want to be sure you are including the right information in the biography to capture the reader and give them as much information as they need to know about the reader. Here are some helpful hints for this:
- Author biographies can be simple, include images, or be in the form of a discussion. Try to ensure basic information is included in your bio such as affiliated organizations, places of interest, award mentions, and previous book titles. This way even if a bookseller or library only features a paragraph as in the first example, your title will be discoverable via all of those appropriate keywords.
- Keywords is one of the newer types of data that you should be including in your data when sending it out. Keywords can help your titles get discovered and therefore boost your sales. Here are some tips when creating your keywords.
- Keywords can be used in addition to subject codes, but they should never replace them. Browse book retail sites to identify similar books and authors. Browse their metadata for keywords to incorporate into your metadata. Ask the author for their elevator pitch on their book and incorporate keywords into the metadata. Word cloud software, such as Wordle.net, converts an RSS feed from an author blog into an image where the most frequent words are the largest in the image. Then add these terms to your descriptions, author bios, and subjects. Example: Title--The Power of Habit.
- One of the main parts of enhanced metadata is the cover image. You should make sure you have a high quality decent sized cover image. Metadata recipients might have different guidelines for images. You should make sure you check with them to see what size and format they require the image to be in before sending it.
- Missing cover images may already cause frustration for buyers and put them on alert about a title. But the placeholder that the retailer puts in for your missing cover image may cause your record to look even worse. Ensure you supply your cover images as soon as they become available to all parties you send your basic metadata to in order to ensure your records are appealing to customers.