Friday, July 29, 2011

Why Metadata is the Key to Your Digital Future

Publishing Perspectives
We might not know what the publishing landscape will look like in five years, but metadata is the one thing you can confidently take control of now to future proof your business.
Metadata is all of the information associated with a book or publication that is used to produce, publish, distribute, market, promote and sell the book. This includes very simple things, such as the title, author of a book, cover and format, to much more complicated data, such as the terms of the publishing contract, rights information, print run, sales data, reviews, etc.
Metadata needs to be a part of everyone’s job description. The problem comes when a house instills a “digital director” and everyone else starts to think “well, that’s not my job anymore.” Metadata is a tool that everyone can use to help make a book a success and keep it alive in the marketplace much longer. Many people outsource their metadata for e-books to the service providers who also convert and/or distribute their e-books, which can also work very well — provided they are one in the same.
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