The evidence against:
1) Nielsen, Bowker et al apparently would prefer to receive Onix files but do nothing to give a tangible benefit to any publisher who goes through the hoops. Time and time again we see small (under resourced) publishers trying hard to get all their title information together as required only to have it bounced back by Nielsen with long lists of issues such as incorrectly formatted telephone numbers when just two weeks previously they were getting a photocopied AI in the post – huh?
2) The BIC people seem to have no interest in ‘developing and promoting’ the standard. Their website offers little if any real help to publishers.
3) The IPG (the organisation for independent publishers in the UK) doesn’t even mention Onix on their website. And have failed to even respond to an email offering them free Onix software to all their members.
So I think what I may do is continue the policy in the new year of simply going direct to the publishers and helping them with software and support/advice in stepping up to the plate. In the same way I did with the quite frankly marvelous Snowbooks of Pentonville Road in London. Who have taken the ball and ran with it in a big way – Making sure their title information is as complete as possible and intelligently spotting that in doing that they have an excellent XML feed which they can use for all kinds of other things – In their case using their Onix feed to populate their AI template in Adobe Indesign.
As well as helping as many small, independent (interesting!!!) publishers as I can I will also make it my new years resolution to get as many of the UK publishers who have purchased Onix software from me in the last few months able to send Onix and level the playing field with some of the big guys. Publishers such as:
I.B Tauris
Pindar Press
MQ Publications
Scripture Union
Searchpress
Royal Society of Chemistry
Luath Press
Mercat Press
Bible Reading Fellowship
Turnaround Distribution
Crowood Press
Edward Elgar
Dunedin Press
GMB Publishing
Lutterworth
And so on. So that is my new years resolution. If you would like to learn more about Onix then just go to our website.
Filed under: Onix, Onix Central, Publishing
Absurdity 