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Archive for the ‘ONIX’ Category

BNC 101: BISAC Classification

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 by Meghan MacDonald

What are BISAC codes? How should you use them? Where are they used?

Book Industry Standards and Communications (BISAC) Classification Schemes are used to communicate subject information about a book.  This information gets communicated through your ONIX file and is used to help identify where the book should be shelved in a physical store and how it can be found via search or browse in an online store, catalogue or other discovery platform.

BISAC Classification Schemes come in three forms: BISAC Subject Headings, BISAC Merchandising Themes, and BISAC Regional Themes. This post will focus on Subject Headings and Regional Themes.

BISAC Subject Headings

BISAC Subject Headings are the North American standard for describing subject information for your books. Each heading is actually made up of a code and a heading. The code is what is included in the ONIX file and is computer-readable, while the heading is the human-readable version of that code.

Each code is 9-characters long and is made up of 3 letters followed by 6 numbers.

Each heading is broken up into a minimum of 2 and maximum of 4 levels, getting more and more specific as you add levels.

Tip

Always make your codes as specific as possible. Using a general code means that your book will only be found when a reader browses in that general category. Specific codes, on the other hand, will be found in both the specific and general browse results—making it easier for readers to find your books.

Example

FIC000000    FICTION / General
FIC009020    FICTION / Fantasy / Epic

If you have a book that is an epic fantasy fiction, it should be classified as FIC009020    FICTION / Fantasy / Epic. (Side note: this is my favourite BISAC Subject Heading. I like to think it’s telling me the book is epic, instead of being an epic, like “Oh, dude, that fantasy fiction book is epic!”). If it’s only classified as general fiction (FIC000000    FICTION / General), readers who are looking specifically for epic fantasy fiction won’t find it in their browse results. The book will only appear if a reader is looking at browse results for fiction in general. So basically, if your reader knows what they want and you haven’t specified that your book is it, they won’t find it. If a reader were looking for an epic fantasy, why would she search general fiction?

BISAC Regional Themes

BISAC Regional Themes can be used when the subject of a book is tied to a specific region. That way, someone who is looking for all books about Vancouver Island can find all books about Vancouver Island.

These themes are numeric and are broken up into 7 levels:

  • Level 1  - Continents
  • Level 2 - Subcontinents
  • Level 3 - Countries
  • Level 4 - Subcountry regions
  • Level 5 - States, Provinces, Counties
  • Level 6 - City, Town, Area
  • Level 7 - Borough, Neighborhood, District

Example

4.0.2.0.2.2.0 is Vancouver Island, where:

  • Level 1 - Continents = North America (4)
  • Level 2 - Subcontinents = 0
  • Level 3 - Countries = Canada (2)
  • Level 4 - Subcountry regions = 0
  • Level 5 - States, Provinces, Counties = British Columbia (2)
  • Level 6 - City, Town, Area = Vancouver Island(2)
  • Level 7 - Borough, Neighborhood, District = 0

Once again, this information is becoming increasingly important as we discover books digitally—don’t get left behind!

Links

BISG Classification Schemes

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Posted in BNC 101, Biblio, Bookselling, Data Exchange Tips, Education, Metadata, ONIX | 1 Comment »

Give the Backlist a Chance

Monday, July 12th, 2010 by Samantha Francis

Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. This has me thinking about backlist. We spend a lot of time talking about the future and worrying about the frontlist, but what can set a publisher apart from the rest is a profitable backlist and arguably what can set a bookseller apart from the rest is thoughtful curating of backlist titles.

As much of our business goes electronic and online, publishers need to pay attention to their backlists. Backlist titles have a better chance of selling when they become infinitely more discoverable by being searchable and available online. While we are fussing over the frontlist, it would be wise to invest a bit of time into making backlist titles easier to find.

Embedded author videos and other fanfare are not necessary. But a complete ONIX file is. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve come across an older title online that doesn’t have more than a title, author, cover, price and publisher attached to it. Publishers can’t rely on the back cover to sell backlist because we often don’t stumble upon backlist titles on a shelf.

A book description and author bio are crucial in generating interest. Publishers don’t acquire a book without these so why would we expect readers to be any different? Awards and reviews are also powerful tools when swaying a skeptical buyer to purchase a book. BISAC codes would also help. How else am I to know the difference between an out-of-date science book and a classic sci-fi novel? (Google it? Nah, most of us won’t bother.)

So grab your customer’s attention right away and seal the deal. If you think it’s worth having a backlist title in print, give it chance at survival by filling out a killer ONIX file for it, because not every backlist title is as easy to sell as To Kill a Mockingbird.

 

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Posted in BiblioShare, General BookNet, Metadata, ONIX, Online Marketing | No Comments »

Increase Sales and Lower Costs With Better Metadata

Thursday, July 8th, 2010 by Meghan MacDonald

BookNet Canada teamed up with the Canadian Bookshelf to bring you Increase Sales and Lower Costs With Better Metadata: A Step-By-Step Guide for Publishers [pdf].

More and more digital platforms are sourcing their content from ONIX files, which makes it easy for publishers to take part without increasing their workload. The catch, though, is that the information needs to be in the ONIX files to be shared, and currently most publishers are not including enough information in the files they’re creating.

The types of gaps we’re seeing are often related to marketing information: is the contributor Canadian? Has the title won any awards? Is the subject matter related to a specific region? Did you include a description and an author bio? What about reviews, endorsements, tour information… ?

The point is that this is all information you already have, and it should be added to your ONIX file by everyone who touches the book throughout the life cycle. If you include this information in your ONIX feed then it will be visible (and, more importantly, discoverable ) in places such as a publisher’s website, online bookstores, library catalogues and systems, electronic catalogues like BNC CataList , and search and discovery platforms like the Canadian Bookshelf , a project of the Association of Canadian Publishers in collaboration with the Canadian Publishers Council.

To help you get started, we joined forces with the Canadian Bookshelf team to create this guide that we hope will help you do more with the information you already have. Take a look and let us know what you think — it’s a living document, so it can be updated and re-exported on the fly to ensure you’re always getting accurate, up-to-date information (but more on that, later!).

Links

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Posted in Biblio, Bookselling, Data Exchange Tips, Metadata, ONIX, Online Marketing | No Comments »

Midlist: I will survive!

Monday, July 5th, 2010 by Samantha Francis

Chelsea wrote about James McGrath Morris’s piece in HuffPo last Tuesday and made some really enlightening observations (”Every title is ‘face-out’ online’—Chelsea, you’re blowing my mind!).

It’s true that metadata, a.k.a. the ONIX files that publishers craft so carefully and thoroughly, can actually make midlist authors more visible online. This not only impacts ebooks, but regular books too. If I can find a book’s info online, I can order it online or go down the street and buy it at my local bookstore. Not only that, but if I wander into a bookstore and think of a very specific subject I’d like to read about (for example, cheese difficulties), the bookseller can look it up and find it for me, no matter how obscure (order Cheese Problems Solved edited by P.L.H. McSweeney).

But I think there’s more to contend with in Morris’s piece. His assumption is that midlist authors will become extinct. I think that’s a little melodramatic, especially given his definition of the midlist author as someone who earns out a modest advance. Modest advances will still be given and still be earned out by some. It is probably more accurate to say that the midlist might change, that some authors will no longer qualify while others will join the club. And that’s nothing new.

Going online does not mean that the book-buying public will only have eyes for bestsellers. In fact, it is the backlist that stands to benefit the most from online discoverability. Our market will not narrow, but it may break up into specialized sections. Our tastes will not suddenly homogenize, instead we will be empowered to find and buy what we truly want.

How carefully do you tag your book’s ONIX files? Are you sure I can find it? Better be, if you want it to be part of the midlist.

LINKS:

Chelsea’s BNC blog post

James McGrath Morris’s piece in HuffPo


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Posted in BiblioShare, General BookNet, Metadata, ONIX, Online Marketing, eBooks | No Comments »

BNC 101: What is ONIX?

Thursday, June 24th, 2010 by Meghan MacDonald


ONIX for Books is an international standard for exchanging important information about books and related products.

ONIX stands for ONline Information eXchange and is an XML-based language used for computer-to-computer communication. Since it is XML-based, it follows the same rules we outlined last week in BNC 101: What is XML?

ONIX doesn’t do anything; instead, it lets you describe what something is.

ONIX is a way of tagging information about your books — such as the ISBN, title, contributor, description, price, and availability. All of this data is needed to support the sale of your books in the supply chain, but it is also becoming more and more visible as websites and catalogues can use this metadata to populate their pages.

Where can you see ONIX?

Look at any major online retailer: all of the information that’s there is from an ONIX file. ONIX is also the information you see about a title in BNC SalesData . Soon, you’ll also be able to see it in BNC CataList and the ACP’s Canadian Bookshelf .

Why is ONIX important?

ONIX is crucial for effective marketing and for communicating with retailers and the customer.

The Sales Side

ONIX is how you transfer all of the information about your books that is needed to support sales. Here, I’m talking about information, such as:

  • Availability
  • Embargo dates
  • Expected shipping dates
  • Prices in different currencies
  • Publication dates
  • Rights information
  • Suppliers for countries and territories

Example: Have you reduced a price? Updating it in your ONIX file lets a retailer know about it and could influence them to increase their order.

The Marketing Side

ONIX is also important for marketing since it allows you to include information that goes beyond the basics, such as:

  • Awards
  • Canadian authorship
  • Descriptions
  • Excerpts
  • First chapters
  • Headlines
  • Initial print runs
  • Links to images, video, and audio
  • More titles from the same author
  • Other formats that the book is available in
  • Promotions information
  • Reviews and endorsements
  • Series and sets
  • Similar titles
  • And the list goes on…

Example: Neglecting to include Candian authorship and other regional information means that your titles will not appear in important discoverability platforms like the Canadian Bookshelf.

Everything you should be including in an ONIX file is information you already have, but for some reason a lot of publishers leave it out.

How can you make your ONIX files better?

  • Don’t make the ONIX file the responsibility of the one techy person in the office. Instead, make it something everyone is responsible for throughout the life cycle of the book. An editor, publicist, rights associate, and sales manager all have different material they can add and update in an ONIX file.
  • Put the information in as you get it instead of creating the ONIX file at the end of the process. You can create the ONIX file at acquisition and fill it out as material comes in.
  • Update your file when something changes and send it to your trading partners again — it should always be up-to-date.
  • Proofread your ONIX files. I’m serious — the sloppy errors that can be found in ONIX files are horrendous.

Some History

ONIX was originally developed in 2000 by the Association of American Publishers and EDItEUR . The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) in the US and Book Industry Communication (BIC) in the UK joined the team after that, and now there are representatives from around the world, including: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden and the Republic of Korea.

More Information

You can find all of our introductory blog posts in the BNC 101 category .

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Posted in BNC 101, Biblio, BiblioShare, Education, Metadata, ONIX | No Comments »

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