Digital Pubbing

Exploring the ins and outs of the publishing industry

Metadata

Enriching Ebooks with Semantic Vocabulary

by

Metadata is very important when it comes to categorizing and even marketing and finding readers for a book. Now that EPUB3 is around, authors/publishers can add really granular data to ebooks, which can help define target audiences, among other things. The concept of structuring data using markup is not new. Schema.org “ provides a collection of schemas that webmasters can … [Read more...] about Enriching Ebooks with Semantic Vocabulary

New(ish) trends: Book data analytics and metadata

by

Last week an article in the New York Times caught my eye. It highlights the company Next Big Sound, which was founded in 2009 and analyzes music data. The company has launched a new division called Next Big Book, which will work with Macmillan to “draw sales, publicity, events, social media, web traffic, and web trends data together on a daily basis.” The idea is not new. In … [Read more...] about New(ish) trends: Book data analytics and metadata

Webinar: Bridging the Digital Revenue Gap; Semantic Strategies for Fueling Sales and Marketing

by

Recently I attended an online seminar by Aptara, Bridging the Digital Revenue Gap, that focused on the benefits of semantic strategies. Semantics focuses on the meaning of words. For example, the word orange can mean a color or a fruit. According to the webinar, "with semantic technologies, content can more easily be found extracted combined reused monetized" Here is … [Read more...] about Webinar: Bridging the Digital Revenue Gap; Semantic Strategies for Fueling Sales and Marketing

Marketing with Metadata and Algorithms

by

In our digital world, data is becoming increasingly important, both for creating content and finding content. Major companies use algorithms for these purposes. However, this strategy is not new.  For books, data has always played a role in marketing. Best seller lists are compilations of data, created based on algorithms, and some people have been taking advantage of this … [Read more...] about Marketing with Metadata and Algorithms

BookVibe: A Natural Recommendation System

by

I love how in the past year or two, more and more book related startups have popped up. Last week I had the pleasure of speaking with the co-founder of Parakweet, Ramesh Haridas. Parakweet is a company that extracts valuable information from different social media streams and makes that data accessible and understandable. One way to do this is through BookVibe, a site that … [Read more...] about BookVibe: A Natural Recommendation System

Trends and Startups in Book Publishing

by

The last couple years have been a time of change for the publishing industry, and I expect this year to be the same. Every few weeks I've been hearing about new startups and ventures that expect to--and probably will--disrupt publishing. I think it's worth sharing some of them here, and what their success could mean for publishing, both traditional and indie. … [Read more...] about Trends and Startups in Book Publishing

More on Metadata

by

If you have some free time, you should watch the Making Your MetaData Better video. Around the 30 minute mark, Bob Oeste, Senior Programmer/Analyst, Johns Hopkins University Press starts his presentation, and he makes the whole concept of metadata entertaining. So, if you want to learn more about metadata, I highly recommend watching this video. … [Read more...] about More on Metadata

ONIX and Metadata

by

This week was the last of the BISG's series of webinars on metadata. The third and last webinar was Navigating the transition from ONIX 2.1 to 3.0, presented by Graham Bell, Chief Data Architect of EDItEUR. (You can read about the other two webinars on my posts The BISG's Metadata Research Project and Understanding Metadata).  … [Read more...] about ONIX and Metadata

Understanding Metadata

by

Yesterday was part 2 of the BISG's 3-part webcast series, Evolving Metadata Practices: Latest Research on Workflow, ROI, and the Transition to ONIX 3.0. Part two was called, Understanding Metadata ROI: Inisghts from Nielsen's White Paper, The Link Between Metadata and Sales. Jonathan Nowell, from Nielsen BookData, presented data about the findings described in Nielsen's white … [Read more...] about Understanding Metadata

Understanding Metadata

by

One of the first talks I went to at BookExpo America (BEA) this year was called, Understanding Metadata in the Digital Age. Bill Newlin, the publisher of Avalon, an imprint of Perseus, and Fran Toolan, the chief ignitor of Firebrand, presented. For this blog post, I will be focusing on external metadata (that goes in to feeds and on websites, for example) for ebooks (metadata … [Read more...] about Understanding Metadata