Book metadata is all of the information and pieces of data that describe a book. It is important to your book's categorization, discovery, and overall book sales. It should be part of any author's overall book marketing strategy, and successful publishers know how to incorporate as much quality metadata as possible into their sales plans.
Book metadata consists of basic information such as the title, subtitle, author name, author bio, book description, publication date, etc. Keywords are also metadata. These are one or more words used to describe the content of your book. Metadata and keywords are information that help your book reach its audience.
Search engines use metadata as an information retrieval system to connect searchers with content and products more efficiently than ever before. Having the most accurate and complete metadata for your title will help customers find your books.
Some important pieces of metadata include:
Book Description
A book description is a brief description of the content of the book. It is provided to distribution partners who use it to describe and market the book on their websites. This is a required field when setting up a title in Lightning Source's system. The description is one of the most important pieces of information about your book because it helps booksellers when marketing your book to their customers.
The book description should be attention-grabbing, keyword-rich copy that sells your book. It should be at least 40 characters but should not exceed 4,000 bytes including spaces. In addition, no HTML tagging, bullets, or any other special formatting should be embedded.
We encourage our distribution partners and their customers to use this descriptive text on their sites, however, we cannot guarantee that it will appear in the manner in which it was submitted.
Publication Date
The publication date is the official release date of your book. This should ideally be set far enough in the future that you will have time to order a printed copy or proof, apply any revisions that arise from the proofing process, and have your first print run produced at least a month before your publication date. In the traditional publishing world, new books are typically released on Tuesdays.
List Price
The list price is the suggested retail price of a title. It is important to offer your book with a list price that is considered a fair and reasonable price for each market the book is being sold into, taking into account the nature and type of content of the book. While you provide a list price, please note that pricing on retailers' websites is at their discretion so it can vary from the publisher's suggested retail price.
Industry best practice suggests setting your prices so that they end with .00, .95, or .99.
Titles submitted with a list price greater than 250.00 (USD, CAD, GBP, EUR, AUD), will be reviewed by the Customer Support team to determine availability through our distribution channels.
If you believe your book is appropriately priced and exceeds 250.00 (USD, GBP, AUD) please contact Customer Support for assistance.
Please note: Lightning Source reserves the right to immediately remove a title(s) from availability from any market(s) or all market(s) for any violation of this pricing rule.
BISAC Codes and Keywords
BISACs and keywords are essential pieces of metadata because they help categorize and describe the subject matter of a book. For more information about BISACs and keywords please visit this page.
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