We’ve been hearing rumblings about publication date confusion when it comes to digital books. I’m going to cover publication dates here—for ebooks and print books—to settle the matter once and for all.
ONIX Is Easy
At BookNet, we sometimes find ourselves trying to defend ONIX . People are often asking, “Why can’t it be easy?” But it is. After the last time I heard this I thought that a review of why ONIX is easy was due.
BookNet Beta: BiblioShare Image Service
So you are looking for cover images for books available in Canada, or perhaps Canadian books? Well, as part of BookNet Canada’s (BNC) BiblioShare project we have been aggregating cover images from publishers/suppliers, and we are now making those same images available to you to use in your projects…free of charge…within reason.
BiblioShare by the Numbers
BookNet has been collecting/aggregating bibliographic information actively since January, 2010. It has been a tough, but interesting, slog as we build systems, recruit data providers, validate data and help publishers improve their metadata. We are not anywhere near done and we plan on continuing on all fronts, but I thought it might be a good time to share just where we are…
Give the Backlist a Chance
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.
Increase Sales and Lower Costs with Better Metadata
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.
Midlist: I Will Survive!
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.
BNC 101: What Is ONIX?
ONIX for Books is an international standard for exchanging important information about books and related products.Here we take you through the basics: what you need to know about ONIX and how to use it.
With Digital Publishing, Bad Data = Lost Sales
Kobo gives us some examples of how data issues can impact your book sales in the digital market.Sending good quality metadata in the first place will help you get your books to your readers on time. And that’s what we all want, right?
I asked Michael to list the most common metadata issues they see at Kobo. Here is his list (in order).
BNC 101: What Is XML?
What is XML? is the first in a series of BNC 101 blog posts where we’re going to try our best to break down some of the complex tech concepts we talk about all the time into plain language.
XML is a term that gets thrown around the publishing industry a lot, but what does it actually mean?
