It is imperative that bibliographic information be delivered to Ingram Book Group (IBG) as early in the publishing cycle as possible. IBG’s preference is that bibliographic data and images be delivered six months in advance of street date.
We require that new title information be submitted via the methods outlined below to IBG’s Title Information Management Systems (TIMS) no later than two weeks prior to a buy session with your buyer.
Basic Bibliographic Information
Please send bibliographic information in one of the following formats. Formats are listed in order of preference.
- ONIX International, Version 3.0 via FTP or email
- Proprietary Bibliographic Excel Format via FTP or email
Note: Data delivered via email should be no larger than 2MB in size. Anything larger should be delivered via FTP.
For more information about ONIX please visit www.bisg.org or contact the Book Industry Study Group at 646-336-7141.
To request a copy of our Proprietary Excel format for bibliographic data, please use the contact information at the end of this document.
For data corrections, please use ONIX or the Proprietary Excel format. If you have one or two minor corrections, you may also email datafix@ingramcontent.com (not for large quantities of changes nor can titles be added via this address).
Jacket/Cover Images
Publishers can help us get their titles’ covers on the web and into our databases by providing pre-scanned images.
All digital images must be sent in the following format:
- JPEG or TIFF
- RGB colorspace (No CMYK images will be accepted)
- Clean, clear, and sharply defined
- 72-300 dpi
- At least 1000 pixels on the longest edge required
- Images must be supplied via FTP.
- Email is not an acceptable form of transmission
Note 1: All images must be named by EAN. Images must be named by the 13 digits of the EAN with extension. No hyphens or other characters should be present. If an image can be used for two separate EANs, please save the image once under each EAN. We are unable to use images named in any other manner.
Example: 9781234567890.jpg or 9781234567890.tif
Note 2: All book images must be a two-dimensional (flat) scan of the front cover without borders or drop shadows. Multi-volume boxed sets and non-book product images may be three dimensional photos with a white background.
Descriptive Information
We request that descriptive copy be delivered via electronic methods. The following formats are available for delivery of descriptive data:
- ONIX International, Version 3.0 via FTP or email
- Proprietary Bibliographic Excel Format via FTP or email
Note 1: The Proprietary Excel Format is restricted to descriptions of no more than 1000 characters in length. Descriptions delivered that are longer than 1000 characters may be truncated.
Note 2: Please do not cut and paste descriptions from word processors or other programs into the Excel format unless the data is first converted to ASCII text. Doing so may result in hidden or special characters being incorrectly represented in our system, on ipage, and in our feeds to online retailers.
Note 3: For more information on these delivery options please refer to the “Basic Bibliographic Information” section on page 1 of this document.
Price Status Information
Price and status information are the most fluid pieces of information about a product. We request notification of price and status changes via the following methods, listed in order of preference:
- ONIX International, Version 3.0 via FTP or email
- Proprietary Bibliographic Excel Format via FTP or email
- By emailing the change to datafix@ingramcontent.com (not for large quantities of changes nor can titles be added via this address).
Special Note
Due to increasing security risks involved with physical media, we are no longer accepting images or files delivered via CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, thumb drives, etc.
If you have any questions about these guidelines and formats or to request an FTP account or proprietary format, please contact:
Product Metadata Corrections
P.O. Box 3006
14 Ingram Boulevard, MS #691
LaVergne, TN 37086-1986
Email: datafix@ingramcontent.com