METADATA: The Foundation of Book Sales

Learn how to get 55% more book sales with one simple strategy.

Do you want to sell well? Then you must master your book’s metadata.

Metadata. Metadata is the data about your book: title, subtitle, categories, ISBN, CIP data, cover photo, description, keywords, and so on. 

Creating Metadata for Your Book

When you created your copyright page, you already decided on categories, ISBN, CIP data. 

In a 2017 Nielsen Book US Study, titles with metadata averaged 75% more sales than those without metadata. Children’s books with complete metadata sell 55% more.

They group the data into these basic data points:

• ISBN

• Title

• Format/Binding

• Publication Date

• BISAC Subject Code 

• Retail Price

• Sales Rights - World rights, or limited to certain territories.

• Cover image

• Contributors

Why Metadata Can Make or Break Your Sales

According to a 2017 Nielsen Book US Study, titles with complete metadata average 75% more sales than those without complete metadata. Children’s books average 55% better sales.

They studied the importance of each piece of data, looking at sales figures when the data is present or missing. What do you think is the most important piece of metadata?