technology
How XML and ONIX looks after books
Part of my role is manage the bibliographic data of all the books we have published and will be publishing here at Dundurn Press. Because of all of the questions and queries I usually get, I figured I should describe what I do so that people understand how it differs from pure sales and marketing. I’ll try and keep it simple.
What is bibliographic data?
First let’s face reality, every product in any market contains many elements and characteristics. These elements and characteristics need to be conveyed throughout the supply chain — from the producer to the distributor to the retailer and finally to the consumer. These may be lists of ingredients, sizes, quantity and price for food products or with computers, there would be specifications, colour and dimensions included. There are many more details involved — I just wanted to highlight a few examples.
For books we deal with almost every tiny detail of the book — just to list a bunch — the type of production (format), the categories, the title, the depth, the weight, the number of books that fit into a box, the publication date, and even the type of barcode that’s on the back of the book! All of these details are inputted into a database. Each week I gather up this information together for many of our books and export it into what we call an ONIX file.
What’s an ONIX file?
ONIX files are XML based files that are structured accordingly to a standard set out by an international body containing various stakeholders in the book industry. These files contain all of the information pertaining to each book that has been or will be published. Feel free to read more about the ONIX file here.
What do we do with these … ONIX files?
We then submit this ONIX file to various retailers, data aggregators, wholesalers, and distributors so that the customer will find the book. We also upload any new or updated cover images with this ONIX file. Of course each recipient of each ONIX file has some slightly different requirements but they are generally all standardized.
Why ONIX files?
Try working with many many Excel spreadsheet files — each recipient having their own way of setting up rows and columns. Enough said.
How do we keep up with what details are required?
Thankfully we’ve got friends at Booknet Canada who are looking out for any major changes to the ONIX data standard. They keep us not only up-to-date but also up to par with regards to the standard to ensure order amidst the craziness that is metadata for books.
The Biggest Challenge
The biggest challenge is monitoring all of the details for the forthcoming books and backlist titles and making sure book covers and descriptions are up-to-date. Thankfully everyone generally chips in and authors provide a little help by keeping watch over their own title every so often too. If you like to work with details, this stuff will provide you with your regular fix!
I could keep talking about ONIX data but I’ll stop now. Just wait till we get to the e-books…
Tags: About the author
Ehren is the online marketing specialist at Dundurn Press. He's an avid reader of YA novels, graphic novels, and non-fiction titles. While he's not necessarily a fan of literary fiction, he will literally latch on to the few that seriously catch his interest.
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Hi,
Nice summation of ONIX! It took us a while to get on top of fortnightly updates, but its worth it.