/publishing

Metadata Checklist

Retailers, libraries, and search engines know the book only through its metadata. Fill these story.md fields, then run story build . --format metadata and work through its readiness checklist.

Fields

Use authors: instead of author: for a co-written book. language is a BCP 47 tag (en, en-GB, es, fr-CA, pt-BR). Prefer an ISBN-13; the checksum is validated. publisher is the imprint name, or the author's name when self-publishing. Keep comments out of the block itself: text after # on a value line becomes part of the value.

title: The Last Ember
author: Jane Doe
language: en
isbn: 9781234567897
publisher: Ember Lane Press
publication-date: 2027-03-02
description: "The retailer description, on one line; see the Description section."
keywords:
  - cozy fantasy found family
  - dragon bakery romance
subjects:
  - FIC009000
  - FIC027030
copyright: © 2027 Jane Doe
cover: images/cover.jpg
cover-alt: A lantern-lit bakery on a cliff with a small dragon asleep on the roof.
ai-disclosure: No generative AI was used in writing this book. The cover was designed by a human artist.

Series books also need series and book-number; retailers link series pages by them. series is a kebab-case id, not the retail name: set series-title (such as The Ember Cycle) for the name the metadata sheet prints, and keep it identical in every book. book-number accepts 0 for a prequel published later and a decimal such as 1.5 for a novella between books.

ISBNs

• One ISBN per format and edition. Paperback, hardcover, ebook, large print, and audiobook each need their own. A new edition with substantial changes needs a new ISBN; correcting typos does not.
• Who issues them depends on the publisher's country. The agency is national: for example Bowker in the US, Nielsen in the UK and Ireland, Thorpe-Bowker in Australia, and Library and Archives Canada, which issues them free to Canadian publishers. Many countries' national libraries issue them free. Find the agency for the author's country on the International ISBN Agency's site. Buying ISBNs from resellers other than the national agency can register the reseller as publisher.
• Free retailer ISBNs (KDP, Draft2Digital, IngramSpark in some countries) cost nothing but usually list the retailer or "Independently published" as publisher, and often cannot be used on other platforms. Owning the ISBN keeps the author's imprint on the record and lets one ISBN follow the print book to every distributor. Check each platform's current terms.
• Ebooks: some retailers do not require an ISBN for ebooks (Amazon assigns an ASIN). Libraries and some wide retailers expect one.
• Barcode: print covers need the ISBN as an EAN-13 barcode, often with a price add-on. Printers' cover templates or the ISBN agency can generate it.

CIP and Library of Congress

• In the US, Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication (CIP) data is usually unavailable to self-publishers. A self-publisher can apply for a Preassigned Control Number (PCN) before publication for print books and print the LCCN on the copyright page; the program expects a copy of the published book. Check the Library of Congress's current eligibility.
• Some vendors sell publisher-prepared cataloging data (P-CIP). It is optional; libraries that want the book can catalog it anyway.
• Other countries run their own CIP and legal-deposit schemes through the national library. See copyright-page.md.

Description

• Start from submission/blurb.md. The first two lines show before the "read more" cut: hook first, no throat-clearing.
• The sheet counts characters against common limits (KDP 4000). Most good descriptions run 150-300 words, well under any limit.
• Some retailers accept limited HTML (bold, italics, paragraphs); check the platform. Keep a plain-text version in description.
• No review quotes, prices, time-limited offers, or other books' titles unless the retailer allows them and the author supplied them.

Keywords

• Think like a reader typing into a search box: sub-genre + trope + setting + mood (enemies to lovers space opera, small town cozy mystery with cat).
• Do not repeat words already in the title, subtitle, or categories; most search engines already index them.
• Never use other authors' names, other books' titles, trademarks, or claims like "bestseller" or "free". Retailers prohibit them.
• Phrases beat single words. Seven slots is the common limit.

BISAC Subjects

• BISAC codes (FIC022000 is Fiction / Mystery & Detective / General) come from the Book Industry Study Group's list. Look up the current list; codes are revised.
• Pick the most specific code that fits. Two or three codes is typical; check each platform's current limit.
• Amazon uses its own browse categories and may not take BISAC directly. Choose those in the KDP dashboard to match these codes.
• Category and keyword choices should agree: a book in the wrong category ranks badly with readers who expected something else.

AI Disclosure

• Ask the author exactly how AI tools were used: writing, editing, cover, interior art, translation, narration, marketing copy.
• Retailers distinguish content an AI generated (text, images, translations) from AI assistance on work the author wrote. Some require disclosure of generated content during upload. Check the retailer's current policy.
• Write ai-disclosure as one or two plain sentences that would survive a reader asking follow-up questions. The same statement serves agents, publishers, and grant applications.

Before Upload

• story validate . has no errors
• The metadata sheet's readiness checklist is clean
• Title and author match the cover and the interior title page
• The ISBN on the copyright page matches the ISBN in the upload form
• Price set per market (see launch-plan.md)
• Age range or content warnings set where the platform asks
• Cover meets the retailer's current size and file specs