Everything You Thought You Knew About Metadata…
2. Know which metadata matters the most.
You've got to walk with metadata before you run. Metadata mastery takes time. Title and author are searched more often than publisher, subtitles more than the number of pages.
Different national organizations that oversee book metadata have different names for the most important metadata. The U.S.'s BISAC/BISG talks about the "Core Metadata Elements." There are 31 in all. Some are mainly important to resellers—like "Case Pack/Carton Quantity"—rather than to readers. BIC in the U.K. is more down-to-earth with its 11 BIC Basic elements. They're mostly what you would expect: title, price, pub data, ISBN, and so on.
Thad McIlroy is an electronic publishing consultant, analyst and author, and principal of The Future of Publishing. Since 1988, Thad McIlroy has provided consulting services to publishing and media companies, printers, prepress shops, design and advertising agencies, as well as vendors serving the publishing industry.