Everything You Thought You Knew About Metadata…
Sadly, when you reach intermediate status as a metadata technician you'll need to learn the idiosyncrasies of each online reseller's handling of the main metadata elements—if indeed they handle them at all. Keeping up with these changing idiosyncrasies is another reason to find an able partner.
My pet peeve is Amazon's handling of subtitles for self-published ebooks. Amazon insists they be included in the same data field following the title. For example "The End of the Line: Romney vs. Obama: the 34 days that decided the election: Playbook 2012 (POLITICO Inside Election 2012) (Kindle Single) [Kindle Edition]" They're then treated as part of the title, rather than their lesser role. It leads to all kinds of trouble in findability.
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.