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HC gets metadata award

08.11.12 | Joshua Farrington

HarperCollins has been awarded a top industry accolade for the quality of metadata on its titles.

The publisher has been given the Book Industry Communication (BIC) Excellence Plus Award with a Digital Tick, despite being below the BIC Basic standard only 18 months ago. Now more than 90% of HC’s titles are compliant with Online Information Exchange (ONIX) standards at the point of publication.

A spokesperson for HC said: “The drive to improve our metadata has been spearheaded by Online Content Consultant Lana Beckwith, who has travelled from New York to San Francisco and worked with HC Australia to get HC to the level it is currently at. Ably assisted by John Bell, Alan Trewartha and the Publishing Systems team’s work with Plan G, Lana’s project consisted of detailed analysis of metadata for our frontlist and backlist across the business, as well as running workshop training sessions here and in the US, focusing on improving the quality of our online copy.”

In January 2012, Nielsen Book president Jonathan Nowell said books with complete BIC Basic metadata and a cover image sell 98% more copies than those without, with books with enhanced metadata seeing sales rise 178% through online retailers.

The recognition means HC is the only publishers aside from two Hachette imprints to have reached the top level.

BIC m.d. Karina Luke said:  “I’m very pleased…that HC has been awarded the BIC Excellence Plus Award with a Digital Tick. This is the highest award we offer and demonstrates a truly outstanding performance.”

• Book Industry Communication
• HarperCollins
• Joshua Farrington