Adding your books

In Books & Extras, click Add books. One box takes all three:

• ISBNs. Paste up to 200 under Or paste ISBNs and click Look up ISBNs. We look up each book’s title and author. Best for a few books.
• Our books sheet. Click Download the books sheet, fill it in with Excel or Google Sheets, and drop it on the box as a CSV or Excel file (.xlsx). Best when you keep your list in a spreadsheet.
• An ONIX file. The book industry’s standard feed, the one your distributor sends to retailers. Drop the .xml (or a .zip of it). Best for a whole list, with the most detail.

Whichever you use, the books land in Your catalog under the box, private to your team. Nothing shows on your site until you make a page and publish it.

Before you choose a plan, you can paste ISBNs and drop a books sheet of up to 2 MB. ONIX files need a plan; the box says so, with Choose a plan. Teams on Inland before this rule came in add books as before.

Only ISBN and Title are needed. Every other column can be empty or left out, and the columns can come in any order. We match headers loosely, so “ISBN-13” or “EAN” works for ISBN.

One row is one format: a hardcover and its ebook are two rows. They join into one book when they share a Work ID, when one lists the other under Other format ISBNs, or when they have the same title and first author. Put several authors in one cell, separated by semicolons. Dates can be a year, a month (2027-03) or a day (2027-03-03).

After a sheet is read, Show notes lists any row we left out and why, by row number, so you can fix it and add the sheet again.

We read ONIX 3.1, 3.0 and 2.1, with long or short tags, as .xml, .onix or a .zip. Files can be up to 200 MB and 10,000 books. Big files take a minute; the box counts the ISBNs as we read them, and you can leave the page and come back.

Most small and mid-size presses don’t make ONIX themselves. It usually comes from one of two places:

• Your distributor (for example Ingram Publisher Services, PGW, Consortium, IPG or Chicago Distribution Center) already sends it to retailers for you.
• Your title management system (for example Firebrand, Biblio, ONIXEDIT, Booksonix or Klopotek), if you keep your metadata in one.

Ask your contact there for a one-time export. Something like: “Could you send me an ONIX 3.0 file of our active and forthcoming titles, as a single .xml or .zip? It’s for Inland, where we host author events and send galleys. Reference or short tags are both fine.” ONIX 3.1 is fine too. If they can only send 2.1, send that.

No ONIX at all? Use the books sheet, or paste ISBNs.

Each row in Your catalog is one book with its formats (hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook and so on), the cover from your file, its authors, publication date and imprint, and a status: New, Changed since last time or Already on Inland.

Narrow the list with the season picks (Spring is January to April, Summer May to August, Fall September to December), Any imprint, Any format and the search, which takes a title, an author or an ISBN.

If two formats of one book show as separate rows, or two books were put together, use the row’s Formats menu to split them or Join with another book. We remember your choice for later files.

Tick the books you want, or Choose every book on this page, then click Add N books (up to 100 at a time). Each becomes a draft book page. Nothing is published. Authors are never linked to your hosts for you: when a name matches one of your hosts, the results say so, and you choose them under Authors on the page.

Onto each draft: the title and subtitle, the authors by name, About the Book, the publisher, publication date and page count, every format with its ISBN, date and price, and review quotes under Praise. The imprint and the author’s bio go in the Press view.

The cover, when your file links to one: we copy it once, in the minute after you add the book. Links that need a password or have expired can’t be copied. A book with no cover is fine; add it in the editor.

Your file’s own rules come with it:

• Text your file marks for internal or trade use only never reaches a page. Text marked for the press shows only in the Press view.
• An announcement date (ONIX publishing date 09, or the sheet’s Announcement date) keeps the page a draft until that day. The editor says so, and Publish waits.
• A review embargo (ONIX publishing date 23, or the sheet’s Review embargo date) becomes the galley’s Reviews from date, which reviewers see on the galley and in their copy.

We match books by ISBN-13 only.

With galleys on your Access plan, Add galleys by ISBN, under your catalog on the Add books page (and on Reviewers › Galleys), takes many EPUB and PDF files at once. Name each file by its ISBN-13, with or without hyphens: 9780000000002.epub, 978-0-00-000000-2_arc.pdf.

Each file finds the book page with that ISBN. A file whose name has no ISBN, or an ISBN none of your pages has, waits for you to choose its book. The list says when a file will replace a galley’s current EPUB or PDF. Click Add N galleys and they go up one at a time, with the same checks as uploading in the editor. Galleys stay closed until you open them.

Add your file again whenever your list changes. Books already on Inland show Changed since last time when the new file says something different, and a banner above the list counts them.

Click See changes on a book to see each field: what the page has now and what the file says. Then Take changes or Skip. The banner’s Take all changes and Skip all do the same for every changed book, 100 at a time. A skipped book shows as Already on Inland until a later file changes it again.

• Your edits. Once you change a field on the page yourself, a later file never overwrites it. It shows as Kept your edit, with what the file says beside it.
• Books missing from a file. A book that isn’t in your newer file stays in your catalog and on your site, as it is.
• Withdrawn books. When your file withdraws a format (ONIX notification 05), your catalog marks it Withdrawn by sender, and the editor shows your team a quiet note. The page stays as it is; close or unpublish it yourself if you want to.

A team can add 20 files a day. Questions about your file? Ask us in the chat.