Global distribution
Availability is a set of decisions, not a switch.
Distribution determines where a book can be bought, in which formats, in which territories — and whether anyone searching for it can find it.
Why metadata is the whole game
A book nobody can find is not published, it is stored.
The description, categories, keywords and comparable titles attached to your book are what a retail search engine reads. They matter more to discoverability than almost anything else, and they are usually filled in at the last minute by whoever is uploading the file.
Metadata errors are also unusually persistent. Records propagate to wholesalers, aggregators and library systems, and correcting them everywhere afterwards is slow. Getting it right the first time is not perfectionism — it is the cheapest version of the work.
The record behind a book
- Identifiers for each format
- Title, subtitle and series information
- Author and contributor records
- Category codes and keywords
- Description and short description
- Comparable titles
- Territory and rights settings
- Format, extent, trim and publication date
Each of these is a field a retailer reads. Each of them can be wrong.
How it runs
Setting a book up properly
Channel plan
Which channels and territories suit this book, its formats and its readers.
Identifiers
ISBN strategy agreed and registered, with ownership consequences explained first.
Metadata
Categories, keywords and descriptions built for discoverability, per channel.
Live and maintained
Listings verified once live, then kept correct as editions and formats change.
Questions
About distribution
Getting the book's files and records into retail, wholesale and library channels, correctly and in the right formats, then keeping those records accurate. It is largely administrative work, and it is the part most often done carelessly.
Being available to order through wholesale channels and being stocked on a shelf are different things. The first is a distribution question; the second is a bookselling decision made by individual shops. We will not blur the two.
It depends on whose imprint it is registered to, and it has long-term consequences for how the book is recorded. We set out the options before anything is registered.
Usually, though it is disruptive and can affect listings, reviews and sales history. Better to make the decision deliberately at the start.