Metadata Management: A Team Sport

The Four Key Issues for Publishers

It used to be that metadata management was dropped in the lap of a junior clerk, hoping they would pick it up quickly and find the necessary inspiration. That may have been a good strategy when metadata was just a cataloging guide for libraries and retailers. Not so today, and in this age of digital discovery, it is now widely regarded as the key to success in marketing and selling books.  

Discovery

Where we actually buy our books is academic to this discussion. Our point is that for the consumer, the discovery work, the research, and the realization of all that pleasurable digging is done mostly on-line. For larger institutions, search engine optimization (SEO) is the critical component in ensuring a book appears in the appropriate search results. And for that, we are all indebted to the art-form of outstanding metadata management.  

Enhanced Metadata

Many publishers are sufficiently disciplined in creating basic metadata, but it is increasingly clear that it is the “enhanced” metadata that differentiates and sells. Sources suggest there are about 160 million books available globally, and so your enhanced metadata had better be good! Captivating metadata such as attractive bios, reviews, keywords, thumbnails, and intriguing long descriptions are the real arbiters of whether a book is going to grab our attention or not.  

And to create and maintain this super-metadata, publishers need a team of people with a wide range of skills and interests, to create – and keep metadata refreshed. It requires more than a strong editorial group. It takes everybody at the publisher to make their own valuable input. It takes a village! 

Connecting the right reader to the right book is the name of the game in marketing for example. The more a publisher understands the audience, the more they can tailor the metadata and the messaging to the reader’s preferences. SEO algorithms are getting smarter all the time, and as AI (Artificial Intelligence) is added to the mix, we can almost guarantee that the emphasis on enhanced metadata will become even more pronounced. Connection with the consumer may be the main goal here, but equally importantly, collaboration with all parties within the publishing organization is necessary for successful sales. 

Collaboration for All

It is not just the editorial department, and it is not just the marketing people who create and need excellent metadata. ALL departments in the publishing organization need to collaborate to maximize the organizational benefit. For instance: 

The production department ensures that accurate metadata is included and followed in the creation of the book, printed or otherwise. Metadata for e-books are significantly different from that for printed books, and require data on formatting, DRM settings and compatibility details, among others. These data requirements were first recognized in ONIX 3.0 standards and continue today in later releases. 

The distribution and warehousing functions need metadata to ensure the right books reach the right channels. Rights management need metadata related to licensing, translations, and permissions for negotiations and tracking purposes. And the author relations team needs good metadata for communicating accurate royalty rates, and payments schedules for example, to authors and their agents.  

Metadata Maintenance

It is also important to note that good metadata management means more than a one-time creation effort. The saleable life of a book can embrace multiple different world and local events, so good metadata management demands constant attention to any changes in circumstances relating to the book, its contents, and the consumers of it. Amazon, for example, increases the number of keywords for a book when they see it is selling well, with the intention of gathering more sales. 

Information Integration 

So, in conclusion, internal and external collaboration and data coordination are necessary components of success in metadata management, and application integration is a significant part of the challenge in creating a smooth multichannel customer experience and in generating a seamless experience for customers, partners, and employees alike. And as companies add more applications into their operations, they typically spend a significant percentage of their IT resources just managing those interfaces.  

Siloed data is a barrier to collaboration. And so, avoiding those expensive pitfalls is essential and we have found that the most successful publishers have deployed integrated, publishing-specific software that contains built-in best practices and the ability to gather, secure and present data in a shared, collaborative manner. Those systems provide easy access to all the necessary information for those employees involved in maintaining excellent metadata, i.e., marketing and sales, editorial and production, rights, royalties, and distribution employees. 

For a publisher, the four key issues in metadata management are: 

  • Know your book and the key reasons for its allure 
  • Know your consumers who are likely to be attracted to the book 
  • Know how to communicate and collaborate with all internal and external parties 
  • Use the right software tools to make it easy  

An integrated publishing-specific information system that allows for this collaboration of all the parties is the way to successfully accomplish those objectives.