Create and connect the book's identity
Establish the exact title and subtitle
Settle the final title and subtitle, character for character, before anyone sends metadata to retailers or libraries.
Why it matters
A title that differs by one character between the publisher's feed, the retailer listing, and the library catalog can produce duplicate records and split reviews and sales. Fixing it later means asking several systems to change, each on its own schedule. Setting it right before metadata distribution avoids all of that.
Your part
- What you do
- Verify. Someone else may do it. Inspect the result yourself.
- Who normally owns it
- Publisher and Author. Publisher sets the final title; author confirms and records it
- When
- Before metadata is distributed to retailers and libraries, which is usually six to nine months before publication (Create and connect the book's identity: twelve to six months before publication, and kept current after that)
Your part changes with your publishing route.
How to do it
The full walkthrough
The title and subtitle are the first two fields in every record your book will ever have, and they are surprisingly easy to get wrong. Punctuation, capitalization, a colon versus a dash, whether the subtitle is part of the title or a separate field: each choice needs to be made once and then copied exactly.
Whoever decides the final title, you need the exact text as it will appear in the metadata feed, including how the subtitle is separated, and you need it in writing. At a publisher the title is usually the publisher's call, often with your input and sometimes after sales and marketing weigh in, so ask for the final wording and check it against the cover proof and the metadata sent to distributors. If it is your call, search retail sites first so you know what you are competing with, and keep the subtitle useful rather than decorative. Then treat the text as frozen.
Record the title and subtitle in the Book Identity Sheet as plain text, with a note of any deliberate styling (an ampersand, a lowercase word, a number written as a numeral).
Common mistakes
- Sending metadata with a working title and assuming it will be updated everywhere later.
- Letting the cover designer style the title one way while the metadata says another.
- Putting the subtitle in the title field on one platform and in the subtitle field on another.
- Choosing a subtitle so long that retailers truncate it.
What done looks like
- Final title and subtitle written out in plain text, with capitalization and punctuation exactly as intended.
- A note of which field the subtitle belongs in for metadata purposes.
- Confirmation in writing from the publisher (or your own decision recorded) before the first metadata feed goes out.
- The same text on the cover proof, the copyright page, and the Book Identity Sheet.
Ask your publisher
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Sources and last checked
- Official source
- No single official page for this step.
- Last checked
- Not checked against its source yet.
- How confident we are
- Verified