We have never had so much information and entertainment at our fingertips thanks to the Internet. So how do you get exposure for your books in the clutter of cyberspace? Easy – contact Nielsen Book!
Nielsen Book thought it timely to let you know why it is important to list your titles on the Nielsen Book database. In a nutshell, to gain access to thousands of customers worldwide. Publishers who supply Nielsen with new product information immediately gain visibility for their books on the international market. Nielsen Book licenses the book records that have been supplied to them via a range of BookData services to all major retailers in NZ, AUS, UK, Ireland and worldwide, including Amazon and Waterstones plus wholesalers, library suppliers and libraries so that your books are made available to the key book buyers in over 100 countries.
There are two main ways in which your titles gain exposure via Nielsen Book. Our first key service is Record Supply, all the major online retailers in New Zealand and worldwide subscribe to Nielsen data to populate their websites. We provide your book information to these online retailers allowing the reading public to find and purchase your books. Secondly, Nielsen helps your title with discoverability via BookData Online, our flagship database of books and related products currently holding over 26 million titles. This service offers bookstore and library subscribers fast and efficient search and discovery of up-to-date, comprehensive and content-rich book information. All the key retailers, libraries and library suppliers in New Zealand such as Paper Plus, Whitcoulls, Fishpond, and Wheelers et cetera, subscribe to this service to find their book information.
When supplying Nielsen with information about your titles ensure that you have given the data the best chance to sell your books – don’t just send a one sentence description for example – make it a complete and full book description. Our research shows that publishers that provide Nielsen Book with enriched metadata (a buzzword that means ‘data that describes other data’) for their title records will increase their sales up to sevenfold. In the digital world, metadata determines whether your book is found and by extension whether your book is bought. Up to 55% of a book’s sales could depend on having all the key enhanced metadata elements in place. Metadata is especially important for ebooks, because sales depend almost entirely on the discoverability that it enables.
Nevena Nikolic
Sales & Marketing Manager – New Zealand
Nielsen Book
The benefits of supplying Nielsen Book with rich content is self-evident and by doing so you ensure thousands of book buyers worldwide can find and purchase your books easily. So what constitutes good metadata for books? Here is a comprehensive list to help you when supplying us with information about your books: title, cover, word count, page count, weight, format, blurb, tagline, keywords attached to those (e.g. which words summarise the book best?), retail price (RRP), publication date, review quotes, sales points, territorial rights, BIC code, ISBN and of course, the author’s name.
Listing your titles with Nielsen Book is free and the service is available to all publishers, small or large. As soon as you have all the key metadata elements in place: ISBN, cover jpeg, book description, author biography, availability and RRP, get in touch with us. It is never too early to list with Nielsen Book − in fact the sooner the better − as many retailers receive ‘forthcoming’ title information to populate their websites for pre-orders. You can always supply any changes or updates closer to publication date. A little time spent planning and writing good book metadata now will repay you with increased discoverability and sales over the life of the book.
To list your titles with Nielsen Book, contact us in one of the following ways:
- Email Georgina.Main@nielsen.com – you will need to fill in a form about your titles and supply a cover jpeg(s). This option is only available for very small publishers.
- Register for Nielsen TitleEditor – go to nielsentitleeditor.com. For queries contact: pubanz@nielsen.com
- For larger publishers: please supply an ONIX feed, contact info@nielsenbookdata.co.nz
- If you are not sure, call 0800 447 029
