Find and control the metadata source
Find the metadata source
Find the person or team that controls your book's master metadata and sends its ONIX (ONline Information eXchange) feed. When the same error appears in several places, that's usually where the correction belongs.
Authors often hire help with this: metadata or distribution.
Why it matters
Most metadata frustration comes from fixing the wrong copy. An author who edits a retail author page sees the fix vanish when the feed updates; an author who knows the source gets the fix made once and watches it propagate. Knowing the feed owner also tells you how long a correction should take, which is the difference between patience and a follow-up.
Your part
- What you do
- Ask. Someone else normally owns it. Get an answer, then record it.
- Who normally owns it
- Publisher and Distributor. Publisher or distributor owns the feed; author asks and records
- When
- About six months before publication, when the first metadata feed goes out (Find and control the metadata source: twelve to six months before publication, then whenever a correction is needed)Checked September 13, 2026 (opens in a new tab)
Your part changes with your publishing route.
How to do it
The full walkthrough
Book metadata travels from one master system, through an ONIX feed (ONIX for Books is the international standard for sending book product information electronically; release 3.x was current when this was written), to wholesalers, retailers, and library vendors, who each load it into their own systems. Somewhere there is a single source of truth, and someone owns the feed. When a listing is wrong, a fix made anywhere else will be overwritten the next time the feed runs.
Ask four questions: which system is the master, who sends the feed, how often it runs, and who to contact to correct a field. At a publisher the master is usually its title management system, and the feed goes out from the publisher or its distributor to the big data aggregators and directly to major accounts. If you publish the book yourself, each platform you upload to is its own source and its own feed, and an aggregator sends ONIX on your behalf to the retailers it serves. Either way the point is the same: know which system feeds which retailer, so a correction goes to the place that actually propagates.
Record the source system, the feed owner, the feed frequency, and the correction contact in the Book Identity Sheet.
Common mistakes
- Correcting a retail listing directly and not the source, so the error returns.
- Assuming the publisher sends the feed when a distributor does, or the reverse.
- Not knowing the feed frequency and escalating a correction that was already in the queue.
- For self-publishers, uploading to two platforms that both feed the same retailer, producing conflicting records.
Identifiers for Find the metadata source
Set a status on any record and it joins this step. All book identifiers.
| My status | Identifier | Why this matters | Yours |
|---|---|---|---|
| ONIX for Books ONline Information eXchange: the standard file that carries your book's details from your publisher or platform out to retailers and libraries. | If your subtitle is wrong at one retailer, that is one mistake; if it is wrong at a retailer, in a library catalog, and on Google Books, that is usually not three mistakes but one, in the feed, copied three times. It also explains why correcting it in one store often does not stick, because the next feed writes the old value back over your correction. Nobody acts on the feed directly: traditionally and hybrid published authors normally find out who owns it, which is the publisher's metadata or operations team and sometimes a separate distributor, and send corrections there, while a self-published book's feed is generated by the platform from the fields you filled in on its dashboard. Find the person or team that owns the book's feed so a correction goes to the source that can keep it fixed. | Nothing to record | |
| Ingram The wholesale catalog most bookstores and libraries order from, plus IngramSpark, the self-publishing platform that feeds into it. | This decides whether a bookstore or library can order your book through the channel most of them use, and on what terms, so when a shop says it cannot order your book this is usually where the answer sits. Ingram's data also reaches many retailers and library vendors, so an error in the record can surface in several places. Traditionally and hybrid published authors normally ask whether the title is in Ingram wholesale, at what wholesale discount, and whether it is returnable, since those are the two terms a bookseller checks before ordering; if you publish the book yourself, you set the discount and the return policy in IngramSpark, and both have real money attached. Get the discount and return terms in writing, then check that the title record matches the other major listings. | Nothing to record | |
| Baker & Taylor (closed) A former U.S. library wholesaler that closed in January 2026; this record is kept for history, not as a route to libraries. | Older advice tells authors to get their book into Baker & Taylor, and following it now costs you time for nothing. The live question is which wholesaler each library uses today and whether your book is orderable there. Ask the library which wholesaler it uses now. Common current routes include Ingram, Brodart, and Bookazine, but the library's own answer controls. Traditionally and hybrid published authors normally ask the publisher or distributor which library wholesalers now carry the book. A self-publisher normally checks that Ingram availability is in place, since that is the usual route into library wholesale. The useful answer now is the name of a wholesaler through which a library can actually order your book. | Nothing to record |
Templates for this
Publisher responsibility confirmationA short, routine note asking your publisher to confirm which publisher-handled items are done, and to send the identifier, link, date, or confirmation for your records.
When to use it: Use this when several checklist items belong to the publisher and you have no record that they happened. It works best a few months before publication, then again after launch for anything still open. Do not use this when you only have one question, or you already have the confirmation on file. Ask the single question directly instead.
Metadata correction requestA precise correction request that names the field, the current value, the correct value, and where the error appears, sent to whoever controls the master record.
When to use it: Use this when a detail about the book is wrong in a retailer, library, or database record and the error comes from the publisher's or distributor's metadata feed. Send it to the party that controls the source record. Do not use this when you control the source record yourself. Fix it in the distributor or platform dashboard first, and write only about what the dashboard will not change.
What done looks like
- The name of the master metadata system and the person or team who maintains it.
- The name of the company that sends the ONIX feed and roughly how often it runs.
- A contact and a process for reporting a metadata correction.
- For self-published books, a map of which platform or aggregator feeds which retailers and library vendors.
- All of it recorded in the Book Identity Sheet next to the correction log.
Ask your publisher
Copy this into an email. Replace the bracketed parts with your details.
Sources and last checked
- Official source
- Official source (opens in a new tab)
- Last checked
- September 13, 2026
- How confident we are
- Verified
Rules and deadlines change. We last checked this information on September 13, 2026. If you see something that needs updating, please tell us.