Solving Publishing Industry Challenges, One Step at A Time

May 26th, 2005 · No Comments
by Booksquare

As always, the nuances of the publishing industry escape us. Maybe it’s because the things we think should be easy…aren’t. For example, accurate data about books. While we would expect various interested parties to update their databases throughout the life of a book, it doesn’t seem to be so. Luckily, Bowker and Ingram have stroked their chins and puzzled over the problem and come up with a solution to “provide the most robust and accurate bibliographic content in the book industry.”

As we understand it, Books in Print (Bowker) will talk to Book in Hand (Ingram) and somehow accurate data will result. This will end the messy problems of the past:

Though publishers regularly provide bibliographic information prior to a book’s publication, important details such as the book’s final cover, publication date and page count are sometimes inaccurate, or left out, because books evolve during their development. “With ‘Book in Hand’ processing, Ingram and Bowker are able to get superior, up-to-date descriptive content by going straight to the source — the finished book itself,” said Kent Freeman, Ingram’s Senior Vice President of Business Development.

Such is our relief that we won’t mention that it’s 2005 and they’re just now getting around to addressing this issue.

File Under: Square Pegs