On first glance, the CoreSource metadata template can seem to be an unwieldy beast, with fields scrolling as far as the eye can see. Luckily for time-pressed publishers, it’s pretty easy once you get the hang of it. We’re starting from the top, and looking at the Title Group and Asset Type fields in this tutorial.
The CoreSource Template + the ONIX Specification
The CoreSource metadata template is based on the ONIX standard. The Excel spreadsheet basically enables publishers that don’t have the requisite software or skills to create ONIX to input data in a spreadsheet format that conforms to the ONIX standard. Once you upload the spreadsheet to CoreSource, it parses the spreadsheet and converts the data into ONIX in order to send to retailers.
Title Group ID
This is a proprietary term that CoreSource uses to describe an identifier that groups all of the assets related to one book. You can use the ISBN-13 for one of the formats of the book (most publishers use the print ISBN, if the book exists in print format), or a code that’s used internally to categorize your books. The Title Group ID must be the same for each format of a book.
Asset Types
Each different format is considered a different Asset Type by CoreSource. So if you have your book converted into ePUB, Web PDF, and Mobi, that’s three different Asset Types. Each Asset Type needs its own record in the CoreSource template (a record is a row on the spreadsheet).
You can select the appropriate Asset Type from a pop-up menu that will appear when you click on the cell in the Asset Type column.
For each Asset Type, you’ll need to set a corresponding Price Type. You can learn more about that in our CoreSource Metadata Templates: Price Types tutorial.
