HTML Guide for Metadata

Including basic HTML formatting in the text fields of your ONIX ensures that your listings are validated and that they display properly online. Not including them can result in poor quality listings, which may be suppressed from search or excluded.

At the bare minimum, your descriptive text fields such as Catalogue Copy, Bios, Reviews, and Excerpts must be enclosed in <p> … </p> tags! 

The Basics:

Every HTML tag comes in pairs — an opening tag like <p>, and a corresponding closing tag, with a forward slash added, like </p>. 

You must start each paragraph with a <p> tag, and close each with a </p> tag.

<p>This is what that looks like.</p>

The only exception to this closing tag rule is the line break — the <br />. You only add a single tag, where the line should break.

<p>This is a new paragraph<br />

with a line break in the middle.</p>

The <p> tag is the most important. You can also <b>bold</b> or <i>italicize</i> text. If you forget a closing tag, the formatting will continue. For example, if you forget the </i> at the end of a book's title, the rest of the text will also be in italics.

If you do not include <p> and </p> tags at the very least, your text will display as one huge block without paragraph breaks, making it harder for readers to browse your books online. 

Tags to Use:

Use these formatting tags where appropriate to make your listings pop, as you would with your book jacket copy and catalogue pages.

Paragraphs and line breaks: <p> and <br /> 

Italic and bold: <i>, <b>

A few more advanced options are commonly accepted. Remember that simpler is almost always better with text formatting, and use these judiciously:

Block quotes: <blockquote>

Bulleted (ul) or numbered (ol) lists: <ul>, <ol> and <li> 

(More about making Lists)

Headers and subheads (for excerpts): <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <h5>

Sub- and superscript: <sub> and <sup>

While individual systems might take additional tags, not all systems will. The above list is common to almost all retail display systems and can be reliably used.

A Note about Special Characters:

Special characters should be in Unicode. Sometimes characters can become garbled when pasting from MS Word or other software, but with modern software that is less of a concern than it once was. If you are uncertain as to how to include these characters, or you note that your text is displaying incorrectly after submission, it's best to reach out to your data manager to understand their system's specific formatting needs.

A Note about Backlist:

While LitDistCo has taken measures to ensure that backlist data still validates for vendors, I recommend spot-checking your available backlist titles online and refining the formatting as needed in order to ensure that you get the most out of long-tail sales opportunities.