PUBLISHED NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 by Diane Vallere, author — Learn how author Diane Vallere tripled book sales after experiencing IBPA’s Metadata Makeover program. Everybody loves a makeover, right? Picture Tess McGill in Working Girl: “You want to be taken seriously? You need serious hair.” The implication is simple: Success equals looking the part to the audience …

PUBLISHED MARCH/APRIL 2020 by Ian Lamont, Founder, i30 Media– You can target competing or similar titles on Amazon using its advertising service, which allows you to select keywords you can’t in metadata. Article Synopsis: Amazon’s search engine can only show a limited number of items on the first page of search results, and it’s hard …

PUBLISHED JULY/AUGUST 2018 by Joshua Tallent, Director of Outreach and Education, Firebrand Technologies — Is your book’s metadata hurting or helping your sales? IBPA Board Member Joshua Tallent explains the importance of getting your metadata right. IBPA Publishing University 2018 was, by all measures, a complete success. We had record attendance, powerful engagement, and some …

PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 2017 by David Wogahn, President, AuthorImprints.com – A five-point checklist for metadata maintenance and a case study using a two-year-old book. The days of releasing a book and never revisiting or monitoring its metadata are long gone. Instead of being a one-time task in the pre-launch countdown, ongoing sales success will increasingly rely …

PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 2017 by Joshua Tallent, Firebrand Technologies, and Chris Sim, Kadaxis – Two case studies on how keywords and reviews impact book sales. As you have probably heard, a book’s metadata has a tremendous impact on how well it sells. Studies have shown that books with the most essential metadata elements have average sales …

PUBLISHED MAY 2017 by Margaret Harrison, Director of Product Metadata, Ingram Content Group — When people come to talk to me about metadata, a lot of times they’ll ask me about XML or industry standards. Don’t get me wrong; I love taxonomy as much as the next geek. But if that’s what metadata is to you, …

1. Refresh Metadata Regularly Develop a regular process for revitalizing your metadata by timing it around recurring events, such as the annual implementation of new Book Industry Standards and Communications (BISAC) codes from the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) or seasonal promotions such as back-to-school campaigns. Prioritize your titles for review, starting with your frontlist, …

Independent publishers are known for their innovation in many areas. The David and Goliath metaphor is probably overused in our community, but it does apply pretty well. However, one area where I don’t see independent publishers innovating very often is metadata management.

PUBLISHED MAY 2016 by Jenny Bullough, Senior Digital Content Strategist, Cineplex Entertainment Conventional wisdom has long held that your metadata—the information about your book—should be finalized as soon as possible in a book’s production cycle, sent to metadata recipients, and updated only if absolutely necessary. While it’s true that your critical points of metadata will …

PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 2016 by Linda Carlson, IBPA Independent staff reporter Here is a crash course on Machine-Readable Cataloging records—and why they matter What are MARC records? How important are they in making sales to libraries? How can they be acquired? These are the questions posed by IBPA member Tordis Isselhardt, publisher at Vermont-based Images from …