Essentials of Metadata Management

Over the last few years, there has been a satisfying push across the industry to finally adopt the ONIX 3 standard for metadata delivery, the result of over a decade of promotion (and some cajoling) by metadata experts around the world. As data recipients have started adopting this modern metadata standard, publishers are revisiting (or even engaging for the first time) how their own metadata practices might also benefit from an update.

If you’re one of those publishers, allow me to offer practical advice that will help you plan an upgrade to your metadata management process. You may already be doing some of these things, but I have found, after talking with thousands of publishers in my career, that there is always room for improvement when it comes to metadata.

Break Down Silos

The first step in any internal discussion about metadata is to get buy-in from the entire team. Metadata is your most important non-people resource, and every department within a publishing company, whether big or small, will have an impact on the success or failure of your metadata program. The most effective publishers I have encountered over the years have worked hard to break down silos and deal with their metadata cohesively, bringing all of the key internal stakeholders to the table and establishing clear workflows and expectations.

Workflow is especially important. Metadata is created, adjusted, and enhanced throughout the entire publishing process—from acquisitions all the way into the long tail. Establishing a clearly defined workflow for specific data elements and assigning responsibility for those elements to relevant stakeholders (sometimes at multiple steps in the process) can make a big difference in the quality of your metadata program. 

Let’s take accessibility as an example. The accessibility of your ebooks start with the editorial and print production processes, and can even go back into the writing and development processes. Books with complex charts and graphs, images of any kind, fonts or styles that express information, and other potentially difficult formatting will benefit from special attention during those earlier stages of the process, sometimes even requiring alternative ebook designs or separate downloadable addenda. Waiting to address those complexities until the files are sent to your ebook vendor or handed off to an internal team can lead to inaccessible ebook files and delayed publishing schedules. All of those accessibility processes also impact your metadata, both the metadata internal to the EPUB file itself and the ONIX metadata that goes out to your trading partners. You can have a wonderful, accessible ebook, but if you don’t provide the proper metadata then no one will know.

So, it’s incredibly important to develop a publisher-wide plan for your metadata, and to get the broadest buy-in possible for that plan.

Tools Matter

Many smaller publishers (and even some mid-size publishers) use Excel or Google Sheets to manage their metadata. I recall sitting on a panel at a publishing conference a few years ago and hearing a VP of sales share how he managed the metadata for more than 1,000 titles in Excel, spending more than 20-hours every week copying and pasting data from one sheet to another, to create the different formats he needed to send to different retailers.

Excel is great for some things, but it is not optimized for the increasingly complex needs of publishing metadata. As small publishers expand and begin to publish more books, it is imperative that they start using tools that will help manage data more effectively. The publishing industry is unique because of the collective effort we have expended over many decades developing metadata standards that are unique to our supply chain. While there is still room for growth in how we communicate metadata (follow that work in BISG’s Book Publishing Next project), other industries are jealous of our ability to send data in a dedicated format that is widely accepted.

Of course, flavors of ONIX still exist (and are not likely to go away anytime soon), and some trading partners, especially retailers who are tangential to the standard publishing supply chain, still require Excel files or custom formats. However, there are many publishing-centric metadata management tools available, and any of them would be better than using Excel. Choose a tool or service that works well for your process, and one that will allow you to grow and expand your metadata availability over time. Even better, choose a service that doesn’t just create the metadata files, but one that can handle all of those different flavors and variations.

Also, while there are some benefits to creating your own custom tools to generate ONIX files, I can’t tell you how many times I have talked with publishers who created their own metadata tool only to realize that keeping up to date with the latest standards and requirements was more work than it was worth. In the long run, working with a professionally developed and maintained system will pay numerous dividends. 

Document Everything

As you develop your new metadata plan and begin working in your new metadata management tool, be sure to document your processes, your best practices, and any variables or custom work that others should know about. Many publishers, even large ones, place one person in charge of the entire metadata program. That person then becomes the only team member with any knowledge of the workflows, processes, best practices, and tools being used. There is certainly significant value in having a metadata expert in house who can help everything flow smoothly and who can keep up with changes in the industry. (Joining the BISG Metadata Committee is a great way to do that!) However, roles change, people advance in their careers, and it is not uncommon to see publishing professionals move around the industry as they pursue new opportunities. That is why documenting everything related to your metadata management is imperative.

As you create that documentation, be sure to include:

• all the steps you take when developing the metadata
• which roles are responsible for various tasks
• when data should be sent out
• best practices for specific metadata elements
• style guides for formatting
• and more.

An added benefit of this documentation process is that it encourages transparency and helps break down internal silos. 

Prepare for the Future

The rise of AI search and the need for generative engine optimization (GEO) over the last few years has reinforced the need for expanded metadata. One general rule of metadata is that more is always better, and those publishers who have been adding more data are better prepared for the GEO revolution. As you develop new metadata management workflows and processes, it is important that you find ways to expand on the amount (and the quality) of the data you provide.

This is especially true for data that is captured on your website. While you can’t control how much metadata is shown on retailer sites, your website is the perfect place to add additional content that readers and search engines want to see, includuding:

• character bios
• links to resources mentioned in the book (footnotes are a great place to find these)
• printable tables and charts
• articles
• reading guides
• blog posts
• author interviews
• downloadable PDFs

These additional resources make your website a more valuable resource and can have a direct impact on your SEO and GEO. 

Metadata management does not have to be difficult, but it does require some thoughtful planning and consistent execution.

I hope you have found these suggestions helpful, and I wish you the greatest success in your efforts!

JOSHUA TALLENT  is the Director of Sales and Education at Firebrand Technologies, where his focus is on helping publishers of all sizes learn about, and find solutions to, their workflow and metadata problems. Joshua serves as the Immediate Past Chair of the BISG Board of Directors and is the host of the BookSmarts Podcast, which features practical discussions and interviews about publishing data and technologies. In his spare time, Joshua enjoys teaching Bible studies, playing complex board games, and fiddling with his home automation system. 

Read the posts in our Workflow blog series: 

• Adding or Improving the Workflow of a Digital Product? Start at the End. by Shelby E. Jenkins
• On the Same Page: Building Strong Publisher–Vendor Partnerships by Rebecca Burgoyne and Tyler M. Carey
• Clear Lines, Smooth Workflows: Mastering Communication with Editorial Vendors by Michael Haskell
• From Style Sheets to Space Limits: Talking to Your Indexer Pays Off by Gwen Henson

BISG's Workflow Committee is all about getting things done, as easy and efficiently as possible. We create a standard definition of workflow for the industry, documenting best practices, and identifying and creating resources to improve existing approaches. Click here to learn more or to view the meeting schedule.

Learn more about BISG’s committees here, and participate in the dialogue in our industry for your own personal growth and to help address industry challenges.