Last update: May 2022
- ISBN
- Title
- Publisher
- Contributor (Author, Editor, etc.)
- Language
- Subject Code
- Sales Rights
- Price/Price Type Code (ONIX only)
- Price Effective Date & Price Date Role (ONIX only)
- Other Promo Price settings (ONIX only)
- Publishing Status
- Descritpion
- Publication Date
- On Sale Date (ONIX 2.1) / Embargo Date (ONIX 3.0)
- Related Product
- Series Name/Series Number (When applicable)
- Audience Age Range - From/Audience Age Range - To (Especially for children's, teenage and school books)
- Product Availability
- Imprint
- Kobo+ Subscription
- Subtitle
- Announcement Date
- Master Brand
- Preview Management
- Language localization and script code
- Product Form
- AudioBook Edition
- Contributor Type (Especially “reader” role E07)
- Duration
- File Size
ℹ️ ONIX files format accepted: .xml, .onix, .onx.
Your eBook's ISBN. Must be 13 digits in length.
In ONIX the ISBN must be unhyphenated.
| Info | Excel | ONIX 2.1 and 3.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Reference Name | eBook ISBN: 9780007322596 | <ProductIdentifier><ProductIDType>15</ProductIDType><IDValue>9780826110077</IDValue></ProductIdentifier> |
| Short Tag | N/A | <productidentifier><b221>03</b221><b244>9780826110077</b244></productidentifier> |
| Character Limits | 13 digits | 13 digits |
- 9781780000
- 978-1443424523
ONIX: ProductIDType 03 is mandatory as it represents how your books will be identified in universal trading transactions.
ProductIDType 15 is also mandatory if your product has an ISBN (and these two, GTIN-13/ISBN, will always be identical for book products)
Multiple Product Identifers are allowed per title. We parse ProductIDs of product types in this order: ‘03’, ‘15’, ‘02’, ‘01.’ Please note we will only use type ‘02’ in cases where neither type ‘03’, nor type ‘15’ is provided.
When supplying ISBNs to the library sector, the ISBN-13 ProductIDType 15 should be a distinct ISBN.
01 – Proprietary product ID
02 - ISBN-10
03 - GTIN-13
15 - ISBN-13
Your eBook's title as it appears in the book and as it should appear on the product page.
Please refrain from appending "A" or "The" to the end of the title as it might interfere with search functions. ONIX has a specific field for the "A" and "The":
<TitlePrefix>. Also, please refrain from adding the subtitle in the title field and use the appropriate Excel field or ONIX tag.
| Info | Excel | ONIX 2.1 | ONIX 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reference Name | Title: The Shark in the Park | <Title><TitleType>01</TitleType><TitleText>The Shark In The Park</TitleText></Title> |
<TitleDetail><TitleType>01</TitleType><TitleElement><TitleElementLevel>01</TitleElementLevel><TitlePrefix>The</TitlePrefix><TitleWithoutPrefix>Shark In The Park</TitleWithoutPrefix><Subtitle>Left Shark's Park Lark</Subtitle></TitleElement></TitleDetail> |
| Short Tag | N/A | <title><b202>01</b202><b203>Shark In The Park</b203></title> |
<titledetail><b202>01</b202><titleelement><x409>01</x409><b030>The</b030><b031>Shark In The Park</b031><b029>Left Shark’s Park Lark</b029></titleelement></titledetail> |
| Character Limits | 250 | 250 | 250 |
Incorrect: Fellowship of the Ring, The
Book titles, subtitles, series titles or author fields that include extraneous words that are not actually part of the official title, subtitle, series title or author name are not acceptable and lead to confusion and the corruption of metadata standards. We respectfully request that you ensure your catalog of titles does not include such details so that the overall Kobo catalog can offer the purest experience for our customers around the world.
Please consult BIC Statement on Best Practice for Subtitle Field in Metadata Feeds.
Your publisher name as it should appear on the Kobo store.
| Info | Excel | ONIX 2.1 and 3.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Reference Name | Publisher: Left Shark Editions | <Publisher><PublishingRole>01</PublishingRole><PublisherName>Left Shark Editions</PublisherName></Publisher> |
| Short Tag | N/A | <publisher> <b291>01</b291><b081>Left Shark Editions</b081></publisher> |
| Character Limits | 250 | 250 |
We read <PublishingRole> 01 and 04.
The author and/or editor name(s)
Please use the format: First Name + Last Name for this field. No commas or name order reversal.
ONIX: If your title does not have a contributor, you can now use the field
<NoContributor/>or<n339/>in your ONIX. We will instead list the imprint or publisher name as the byline.
| Info | Excel | ONIX 2.1 and 3.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Reference Name | Contributor 1: David Shubert Contributor Type: A01 |
<Contributor><SequenceNumber>1</SequenceNumber><ContributorRole>A01</ContributorRole><PersonName>David Shubert PhD</PersonName><PersonNameInverted>Shubert, David, PhD</PersonNameInverted><NamesBeforeKey>David</NamesBeforeKey><KeyNames>Shubert</KeyNames><LettersAfterNames>PhD</LettersAfterNames></Contributor> |
| Short Tag | N/A | <contributor><b034>1</b034><b035>A01</b035><b036>Ben Byrne</b036><b037>Byrne, Ben</b037><b039>Ben</b039><b040>Byrne</b040></contributor> |
| Character Limits | 250 | 250 |
Incorrect: Shubert, David (Excel)
Incorrect: Shubert, David (if not used in <PersonNameInverted> and/or not accompagnied by <PersonName>)
Excel: This is where you can list the names of your eBook's contributors. If the contributors are the same type (i.e. more than one author, or editor, etc), you can put them in the same cell separated by a comma.
Excel: The language code that indicates the language in which your eBook is written (two characters).
ONIX: Language role (language of text, language of original text, etc) and the three-character language code.
| Info | Excel | ONIX 2.1 and 3.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Reference Name | Language: EN | <Language><LanguageRole>01</LanguageRole><LanguageCode>eng</LanguageCode></Language> |
| Short Tag | N/A | <language><b253>01</b253><b252>eng</b252></language> |
| Character Limits | 2 | 3 |
Excel: BRL, English, Eng
Please note that currently we don't support multiple language codes for a single title. Please choose one specific language code for the text and include information about the bilingual nature of the text in the description. We suggest selecting the language code for the audience the title most widely serves.
You can specify the country of the language to allow customers to filter the content based on their local language preference. For instance, to differentiate Brazilian Portuguese from Portugal Portuguese.
Additionally, the script code indicates what alphabet/script a book is written in.
For Portuguese for instance, LATN (Latin) is what we would expect. For Chinese, we would expect HANS or HANT, respectively “Simplified Chinese Characters” or “Traditional Chinese characters”.
| Info | Excel | ONIX 2.1 and 3.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Reference Name | Language: pt-BR chi-Hans-CN (for the script code option, within the language cell) |
For the language localization:<Language><LanguageRole>01</LanguageRole><LanguageCode>por</LanguageCode><CountryCode>BR</CountryCode></Language>For the Script code: <Language><LanguageRole>01</LanguageRole><LanguageCode>chi</LanguageCode><ScriptCode>Hans</ScriptCode></Language> |
| Short Tag | N/A | For the language localization:<language><b253>01</b253><b252>eng</b252><x449>BR</x449></language>For the Script code: <Language><b253>01</b253><b252>chi</b252><x420>Hans</x420></Language> |
Excel:
CHINESE
Simplified Chinese
chi, Hans, CN
CN-chi-Hans
- 3 letters language code: ENG, FRA, POR, etc.
- 2 letters local code: BR, PT, CA, GB, etc.
- If needed, 4 letters script code: LATN, HANS, HANT, etc.
A subject category code from the scheme identified (BISAC, BIC, THEMA etc), which will help catalogue ebooks.
Please always include a subject code so customers can more easily find your ebooks. Category codes help discoverability on site. Your chosen codes correspond to our category stores on site, so the more specific you can be, the better.
While it's beneficial to have a main subject, you can include additional subject codes with increasing precision so your target audience will find your books.
| Info | Excel | ONIX 2.1 | ONIX 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reference Name | Categorization Code:JNF001100 Categorization Type: BISAC |
BISAC<BASICMainSubject>JNF001100</BASICMainSubject><Subject><SubjectSchemeIdentifier>10</SubjectSchemeIdentifier><SubjectCode>JNF028000</SubjectCode></Subject>BIC <BICMainSubject> YNU</BICMainSubject> |
<Subject><MainSubject/><SubjectSchemeIdentifier>10</SubjectSchemeIdentifier><SubjectCode>JNF001000</SubjectCode></Subject><Subject><SubjectSchemeIdentifier>10</SubjectSchemeIdentifier><SubjectCode>JNF028020</SubjectCode></Subject> |
| Short Tag | N/A | BISAC<b064>JNF001100</b064><subject><b067>10</b067><b069>JNF028000</b069><subject>BIC <b065>YNU</b065> |
<subject><x425/><b067>10</b067><b069>JNF001000</b069></subject><subject><b067>10</b067><b069>JNF028020</b069> |
| Scroll right to see entire table ->> |
Best practices recommend that books include up to 3 subject category codes if necessary to describe your book properly.
We do not yet accept Thema codes, but we highly encourage you to start using and sending it, for future support.
Kobo only supports BISAC, THEMA, BIC and CLIL categories codes. (Please note that the
CLIL codes are accepted but mapped to BISAC via our system).
2017 BISAC subjects codes are supported by Rakuten Kobo.
Your eBook's main description/synopsis.
Description is required for each book in the metadata file.
Codes Type supported are codes 03, 01, 02, 12, 18, 17.
In ONIX 3.0 use [...] - from list 156.
In ONIX 2.1 use [...] - from List 33.
| Info | Excel | ONIX 2.1 | ONIX 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reference Name | Description | <OtherText><TextTypeCode>03</TextTypeCode><Text>Text of the description</Text></OtherText> |
<TextContent><TextType>03</TextType><Text><p>Text of the main description</p></Text></TextContent> |
| Short Tag | N/A | <d102>03</d102> |
<x426>03</x426> |
| Character Limits | No Limit | No Limit | No Limit |
In order to make sure html is fully supported in your description, you may want to include it in a <CDATA> composite or use XHTML.
🔙 Table of Contents
Your eBook's sales rights.
To indicate sales rights use two-letter territory codes to specify where your ebook can be sold according to the rights your company holds.
<SalesRightsType>is important in indicating specific type of rights held (exclusive, non-exclusive, not for sale, etc). Please see correct usage for how to declare sales rights in ONIX.ONIX 2.1: Please use upper-case characters and separate each territory with a space in
<RightsCountry>US CA</RightsCountry>. World Rights should be indicated as<RightsTerritory>WORLD</RightsTerritory>
ONIX 3.0: Similarly, in<CountriesIncluded>please use upper-case characters and separate each territory with a space. World rights should be indicated as<RegionsIncluded>WORLD</RegionsIncluded>Good practice in 2.1 and mandatory in 3.0, you should also list countries where the book is not for sale (sales rights type 03)
Excel: Leave this field blank if you want your by default contract sales right info to be applied. If your eBook can only be sold in a specific list of countries, you must indicate their two-letter country codes in this field with each country code separated by a comma.
| Info | Excel | ONIX 2.1 | ONIX 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reference Name | US,CA,BR | <SalesRights><SalesRightType>01</SalesRightsType><RightsCountry>US CA BR</RightsCountry></SalesRights> |
<SalesRights><SalesRightsType>01</SalesRightsType><Territory><CountriesIncluded>US CA BR</CountriesIncluded></Territory></SalesRights><ROWSalesRightsType>03</ROWSalesRightsType> |
| Short Tag | N/A | <salesrights><b089>01</b089><b090>US CA BR</b090></salesrights> |
<salesrights><b089>01</b089><territory><x449>US CA BR</x449></territory><salesrights><x456>03</x456> |
Excel: Australia
Your eBook's price.
The Price Type Code specifies the type of price submitted (e.g. reommended retail price, agency, fixed retail price).
Price
In ONIX, please follow the 2.1 or 3.0 specification.
In Excel price:
- Must not contain commas. Use a period character as a decimal point.
- Must be formatted as a number.
- Must not contain currency symbols.
- Currency must be in upper-case format.
Price Type Code Please submit prices that correspond with your territory and contract type. For prices that don't have tax included (applicable to CAD, USD, INR, JPY, MXN, PHP and BRL), our system will automatically add taxes upon customer checkout. Please see below for a list of important price type codes.
Prices without tax included (CAD, USD, INR, JPY, MXN, PHP and BRL)
01 – Recommended retail prices in CAD, USD and BRL, without tax included
41 – Agency prices in CAD, USD and BRL, without tax included
03 – Fixed retail prices in CAD, USD and BRL, without tax included
Prices with tax included (EUR, GBP, AUD, NZD and ZAR)
02 – Recommended retail prices in the EUR, GBP, AUD, NZD, ZAR, JPY and MXN, with tax included
42 – Agency prices in the EUR, GBP, AUD, NZD, ZAR, JPY and MXN, with tax included
04 – Fixed retail prices in the EUR, GBP, AUD, NZD, ZAR, JPY and MXN, with tax included"
✔️ Please note that we do not support any other PriceTypeCode other than: 01/02; 03/04; 41/42
| Info | Excel | ONIX 2.1 | ONIX 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reference Name | Price: 7.99 Currency: CAD |
<Price> <PriceTypeCode>41</PriceTypeCode> <PriceAmount>7.99</PriceAmount> <CurrencyCode>CAD</CurrencyCode> </Price> |
<Price> <PriceType>41<PriceType> <PriceAmount>7.99</PriceAmount> <CurrencyCode>CAD</CurrencyCode> </Price> |
| Short Tag | N/A | <price><j148>41</j148> <j151>7.99</j151> <j152>CAD</j152> </price> |
<price><x462>41</462> <j151>7.99</j151> <j152>CAD</j152> </price> |
- Incorrect price: $3.99
- Incorrect price: 1,299.99
- Incorrect currency in Excel: cad, CA
- Incorrect/Unsupported Price Type Code.
Excel and ONIX: JPY prices must be listed as a whole number with zero decimal values. Hiding decimal places with values other than zero will cause your entry to fail.
MXN prices must also be listed as whole numbers with zero decimal values. For MXN pricing, if decimals are provided, the prices will be rounded up or down (e.g. 249.25 MXN will be rounded to 249 MXN, while 249.75 MXN will be rounded to 250 MXN).
In both Excel and ONIX free titles must be listed with a 0 or 0.00 value.
Price Effective Date (ONIX 2.1) and Price Date Role (ONIX 3.0) composites allow you to schedule promotional prices with your ONIX feed.
Rakuten Kobo supports the three price method:
- Ensure your starting regular price has an end date. Otherwise, our system won’t know to look for a new price.
- Ensure the promo price has both a start and end date.
- Ensure your regular price is reinstated by including a new start date. All dates are inclusive: they start at 0:00 and end at 23:59 EST of the specified start and end dates.
Example of a sample scheduled price reduction, with embedded comments for clarification:
ONIX 2.1 example (with embedded notes for clarification):
<price>
<j148>41</j148>
<j151>7.99</j151>
<j152>USD</j152>
<j162>20151222</j162>
</price>
--- the above price will end at 23:59 EST on Dec 22
<price>
<j148>41</j148>
<j151>3.99</j151>
<j152>USD</j152>
<j161>20151223</j161>
<j162>20151230</j162>
</price>
--- the promo price starts at 0:00 EST Dec 23 and ends 23:59 EST Dec 30
<price>
<j148>41</j148>
<j151>7.99</j151>
<j152>USD</j152>
<j161>20151231</j161>
</price>
--- the regular price is reinstated at 0:00 EST Dec 31
Onix 3.0 uses the PriceDateRole tags where PriceDateRole 14 = From Date and PriceDateRole 15 = Until Date
<Price>
<PriceType>01</PriceType>
<PriceAmount>10.00</PriceAmount>
<CurrencyCode>USD</CurrencyCode>
<PriceDate>
<PriceDateRole>15</PriceDateRole>
<Date>20151221</Date>
</PriceDate>
</Price>
--- the above price will end at 23:59 EST on Dec 21
<Price>
<PriceType>01</PriceType>
<PriceAmount>8.00</PriceAmount>
<CurrencyCode>USD</CurrencyCode>
<PriceDate>
<PriceDateRole>14</PriceDateRole>
<Date>20151222</Date>
</PriceDate>
<PriceDate>
<PriceDateRole>15</PriceDateRole>
<Date>20151230</Date>
</PriceDate>
</Price>
--- the promo price starts at 0:00 EST on Dec 22 and ends 23:59 EST Dec 30
<Price>
<PriceType>01</PriceType>
<PriceAmount>10.00</PriceAmount>
<CurrencyCode>USD</CurrencyCode>
<PriceDate>
<PriceDateRole>14</PriceDateRole>
<Date>20151231</Date>
</PriceDate>
</Price>
--- the regular price is reinstated at 0:00 EST on Dec 31
Since Spring 2022, Rakuten Kobo support a 2 prices method to schedule promotions via Onix 3.0:
- Ensure your price composite uses
<PriceQualifier>code 08 as "promotional offer price".- Ensure the promo price has both a start and end date. All dates are inclusive: they start at 0:00 and end at 23:59 EST of the specified start and end dates.
- Ensure your regular price does not contain any dates.
Example of a sample scheduled price reduction, with embedded comments for clarification:
Onix 3.0 uses the PriceDateRole tags where PriceDateRole 14 = From Date and PriceDateRole 15 = Until Date**
<Price>
<PriceType>01</PriceType>
<PriceAmount>10.00</PriceAmount>
<CurrencyCode>USD</CurrencyCode>
</Price>
--- the above price is the regular price. It does not contain any dates. The price will stop as soon as the below promo dates will be reached and be back at the end date.---
<Price>
<PriceType>01</PriceType>
<PriceQualifier>08</PriceQualifier> -- Mandatory
<PriceAmount>8.00</PriceAmount>
<CurrencyCode>USD</CurrencyCode>
<PriceDate>
<PriceDateRole>14</PriceDateRole>
<Date>20151222</Date>
</PriceDate>
<PriceDate>
<PriceDateRole>15</PriceDateRole>
<Date>20151230</Date>
</PriceDate>
</Price>
--- the promo price starts at 0:00 EST on Dec 22 and ends 23:59 EST Dec 30
--- the regular price is automatically reinstated at 0:00 EST on Dec 31
Your eBook's publishing status.
With Excel, to place your title for sale or preorder, indicate active. To remove your title from sale, indicate deactivated.
| Info | Excel | ONIX 2.1 and 3.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Reference Name | Publishing Status: active OR deactivated | <PublishingStatus>02</PublishingStatus> |
| Short Tag | N/A | <b394>02</b394> |
Excel: "inactive" instead of "deactivated"
ONIX: We are only reading the <PublishingStatus> or <b394> composite for activations and deactivations. A value of 04 will activate a book. A value of 02 will indicate that the book should be put on preorder (note that Rakuten Kobo also supports Public Announcement Date: code 09). Any other value will quarantine the book. Any titles listed as Forthcoming (02) or Active (04) will be activated. All others will be deactivated, so we encourage you to review and update all of your titles. Please pay special attention to any titles with value 00 (Unspecified).
Your eBook's initial availability date, as it should appear on the product page on the Kobo store. It is a display value only.
Excel: Please use the format: YYYY-MM-DD. If no publication date is included, the default date is set as December 2009.
| Info | Excel | ONIX 2.1 | ONIX 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reference Name | Publication Date: 2010-01-16 | <PublicationDate>20130315</PublicationDate> |
<PublishingDate><PublishingDateRole>01</PublishingDateRole><Date>20150219</Date></PublishingDate> |
| Short Tag | N/A | <b003>20130315</b003> |
<publishingdate><x448>01</x448><b306>20150219</b306></publishingdate> |
- Excel: 21/11/2013
- Excel: 2013
- Excel: 2013/11/21
The On Sale Date/Embargo Date is when your title becomes available to download from the site. If your book is available for preorder, it is the date it goes from preorder to regular sale. This is also the date the epub will be available for download to customer libraries.
If no On Sale/Embargo date is provided, the default date is the date metadata is ingested.
Excel: The required date format is YYYY-MM-DD.
| Info | Excel | ONIX 2.1 | ONIX 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reference Name | OnSale Date: 2010-01-16 | On Sale Date<OnSaleDate>20150219</OnSaleDate> |
Embargo Date<PublishingDate><PublishingDateRole>02</PublishingDateRole><Date>20150219</Date></PublishingDate> |
| Short Tag | N/A | <j143>20150219</j143> |
<publishingdate> <x448>02</x448> <b306>20150219</b306></publishingdate> |
- Excel: 21/11/2013
- Excel: 2013
This is the date on which products are available for purchase by customers. With ONIX, if you want to prevent early sales, EDItEUR insists that this date is provided along with Publication Date to distinguish between the date of publication and date of availability for sale. If the book is made available for preorder before the On Sale Date/Embargo Date, the On Sale Date/Embargo Date ensures the epub file is not delivered to customers until that date.
The ISBN of the print version of your book, that partners who sell print books can use to link print product page to ebook product page.
In Excel, use column C "Related ISBN".
In ONIX, RelationCode 06 equals "alternative format", you can also use Relation code 13 for specific "Epublication based on (print product)"
For example, and according to the correct format code from list 150:
- ProductIDType 15=ISBN-13.
- ProductForm BB=Book.
- ProductForm AC=Audio.
Multiple RelatedProduct could be linked to 1 title, as soon as the corresponding ISBN are different in each RelatedProduct composites.
| Info | Excel | ONIX 2.1 and 3.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Reference Name | Related ISBN:9782246731412 | <RelatedProduct><RelationCode>06</RelationCode><ProductIdentifier><ProductIDType>15</ProductIDType><IDValue>9782246731412</IDValue></ProductIdentifier><ProductForm>BB</ProductForm></RelatedProduct> |
| Short Tag | N/A | <relatedproduct><h208>13</h208><productidentifier><b221>15</b221><b244>9783540261698</b244></productidentifier><b012>BB</b012></relatedproduct> |
While Kobo Inc does not itself use the <RelatedProduct> composite, it is a useful and necessary tag for many of our partners who sell physical books.
Your eBook's series name as it should appear on the Kobo store and your eBook's number or sequence within a series as it should appear on the Kobo store.
Series Name
Please indicate this in the series fields of your metadata, not in the title of the your ebook. For the European book trade, if both Series and Publisher Collection (Collection éditoriale, code 11) are used in your metadata, please make sure to use the appropriate code (code 10 for Series, code 11 for Collection éditoriale)
Series Number
- Please indicate this as a numerical value, not as text.
- These should always be a numeric value, no text (e.g. 1).
- Novellas, short stories that bridge two parts together: Series number can be set to a decimal, no text (e.g. 1.5, 2.3).
- Collections/Omnibus Editions: Ranges acceptable (e.g. 1-3, 3-6, etc.).Please don't use the words "omnibus" or "collection" in Part metadata information.
| Info | Excel | ONIX 2.1 | ONIX 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reference Name | Series: Lord of the Rings # in series: 5 |
<Series><TitleOfSeries>Lord of the Rings</TitleOfSeries><NumberWithinSeries>Volume 5</NumberWithinSeries></Series> |
<Collection><CollectionType>10</CollectionType><TitleDetail><TitleType>01</TitleType><TitleElement><TitleElementLevel>02</TitleElementLevel><TitleText>Lord of the Rings</TitleText></TitleElement><TitleElement><TitleElementLevel>01</TitleElementLevel><PartNumber>5</PartNumber></TitleElement></TitleDetail></Collection> |
| Short Tag | N/A | <series><b018>Lord of the Rings</b018><b019>5</b019></series> |
<collection><x329>10</x329><titledetail><b202>01</b202><titleelement><x409>02</x409><b203>Lord of the Rings</b203></titleelement><titleelement><x409>01</x409><x410>5</x410></titleelement></titledetail></collection> |
| Character Limits | 250 | 250 | 250 |
- ONIX 3.0. Kobo system stores, but not make use of
<CollectionType>11</CollectionType>= Collection Editoriale, for now.
However, in order to make sure the series information is correctly displayed on the Kobo Store, please use the appopriate<CollectionType>10</CollectionType>. - Kobo supports only 1 series information.
Especially for children's, teenages and school books. The "From" age value for your eBook's audience age range. The "To" age value for your eBook's audience age range.
If your title has a specific age range, in this field you can specify the "from" or "to" values for the beginning age or age limit.
The "from" field can be left blank if you prefer to simply specify an age limit in the Audience Age Range - To field. Similarly, the "to" field can be left blank if your title has no age limit.
Please use a numerical value, not text.
| Info | Excel | ONIX 2.1 and 3.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Reference Name | Audience Age Range - From: 8 Audience Age Range - To: 12 |
Please note that although both "to" and "from" ranges are provided in the examples below, you have the option to use either of these values on its own. This example, tell us this title is for Interest Ages 6+ <AudienceRange> <AudienceRangeQualifier>17</AudienceRangeQualifier> <AudienceRangePrecision>03</AudienceRangePrecision> <AudienceRangeValue>6</AudienceRangeValue> </AudienceRange> |
| Short Tag | N/A | The following composite tells us that this title is for Interest Ages 8-12.<audiencerange> <b074>17</b074> <b075>03</b075> <b076>8</b076> <b075>04</b075> <b076>12</b076> </audiencerange>If you’re sending us Interest Age, Years or Audience Range Qualifier 17, then you can actually use just the “From” and “To” audience range precision tags. Here’s an example: <audiencerange> <b074>17</b074> <b075>03</b075> <b076>8</b076> <b075>04</b075> <b076>12</b076> </audiencerange>The above translates to ages 8 years old to 12 years old." |
Incorrect: eight
Rakuten Kobo system ingests and stores the Age Range information, but it's not used on our store currently.
Indicates if a product is available. <ProductAvailability> should carry a datestamp attribute to indicate how current the data is.
This field is mandatory when the
<SupplyDetail>composite is used.
ONIX 3.0 only.
<ProductAvailability datestamp="20110517">10</ProductAvailability>
Kobo reads ProductAvailability in Onix 3.
Mandatory in the <SupplyDetail> composite:
Code List: https://ns.editeur.org/onix/en/65
ONIX 3: SupplyDate with SupplyDateRole = '08' required when ProductAvailability = '10' (List 65).
Your eBook or its series' master brand. Used only for branded media properties carrying, for example, a children’s character brand.
Please list this as it should be displayed, without commas.
| Info | Excel | ONIX 2.1 | ONIX 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reference Name | Main Character (brand): Sesame Street | <OtherText><TextTypeCode>98</TextTypeCode><Text>Sesame Street</Text></OtherText> |
<TitleDetail><TitleType>01<\TitleType><TitleElement> <TitleElementLevel>05</TitleElementLevel><TitleText>Sesame Street</TitleText> </TitleElement> </TitleDetail> |
| Short Tag | N/A | <othertext><b102>98</b102><d104>Sesame Street</d104></othertext> |
<TitleDetail> <b202>01</b202><TitleElement><x409>05</x409><b203>Sesame Street</b203></TitleElement></TitleDetail> |
| Character Limits | 250 | 250 | 250 |
Your eBook's subtitle as it appears on the book and as it should appear on the product page.
Please refrain from appending "A" or "The" to the end of the title as it might interfere with search functions. Also, please refrain from adding the subtitle in the title field and use the appropriate Excel field or ONIX tag. For correct usage of Subtitle within the title composite please see the entry for Title.
| Info | Excel | ONIX 2.1 and 3.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Reference Name | Subtitle: Left Shark's Park Lark | <Subtitle>Left Shark's Park Lark</Subtitle> |
| Short Tag | N/A | <b029>Left Shark's Park Lark</b029> |
| Character Limits | 250 | 250 |
Book titles, subtitles, series titles or author fields that include extraneous words that are not actually part of the official title, subtitle, series title or author name are not acceptable and lead to confusion and the corruption of metadata standards. We respectfully request that you ensure your catalog of titles does not include such details so that the overall Kobo catalog can offer the purest experience for our customers around the world.
Please consult BIC Statement on Best Practice for Subtitle Field in Metadata Feeds.
The Announcement Date is when your title is available for customers to preorder before your eBook's official on-sale date.
Excel: The required date format is YYYY-MM-DD.
ONIX: The required date format is YYYYMMDD.
| Info | Excel | ONIX 2.1 | ONIX 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reference Name | Announcement Date: 2018-06-01 | <AnnouncementDate>20180601</AnnouncementDate> |
<PublishingDate><PublishingDateRole>09</PublishingDateRole><Date>20180601</Date></PublishingDate> |
| Short Tag | N/A | <b086>20180601</b086> |
<publishingdate> <x448>09</x448> <b306>20180601</b306></publishingdate> |
- Excel:
- Correct: 2010-02-16
- Incorrect: 20100216
- Incorrect: Jan. 16, 2010
- Incorrect: 01-16-2010
- Incorrect: 01/16/2010
- Correct: 2010-02-16
- If you want your book to be up for preorder, do not set the same date for announcement date and on sale date/embargo date. For your book to be up for preorder, the announcement date must be prior the on sale date.
If no announcement date is provided, the default date is the date metadata is ingested.
Your imprint, or the marketing brand you want to apply to your book, as you want it to appear on the product page on the Rakuten Kobo Store.
Strongly recommanded, especially if different from Publisher's name.
| Info | Excel | ONIX 2.1 and 3.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Reference Name | Imprint: Voyager | <Imprint><ImprintName>Voyager</ImprintName></Imprint> |
| Short Tag | N/A | <imprint><b079>Voyager</b079></imprint> |
Character Limits |250|250
Previews are a great way to promote your books. At Kobo, you can control the amount of content made available in the preview. This can be done either in your metadata feed or at in your Kobo account settings.
Kobo can set some preview settings to apply by default to all books loaded to your FTP.
At the publisher account level, previews are set to display 5% of the ePub’s content by default. The maximum percentage that accounts can be set to is 25%.
Your account can be set up so that previews for all books are automatically turned on or automatically turned off when you load a title.
You can set the preview amount on the individual title level. Previews can be set between 0% and 25%.
You can use the Rakuten Kobo Excel metadata template or ONIX 3.0 (only), using <EpubUsageType> (code 01 “Preview”), <EpubUsageStatus> (code 01, 02 or 03) or <EpubUsageLimit>.
| ONIX 3.0 only |
|---|
<EpubUsageConstraint><EpubUsageType>01</EpubUsageType><EpubUsageStatus>02</EpubUsageStatus><EpubUsageLimit><Quantity>5</Quantity> --where 5 is value 5)<EpubUsageUnit>05</EpubUsageUnit> --where 05 = percentage</EpubUsageLimit></EpubUsageConstraint> |
<EpubUsageStatus>:
- in case of code 01 - percentage is 25
- in case of 03 - percentage is 0
- in case of 02 - percentage set is based on epubUsageUnit and quantity
In the same way as stated above for adjusting the preview percentage, you can also deactivate the preview via the Rakuten Kobo Excel metadata file or via ONIX 3.0 using: <Quantity>0</Quantity>. This will set the preview display at 0%.
| ONIX 3.0 only |
|---|
<EpubUsageConstraint><EpubUsageType>01</EpubUsageType><EpubUsageStatus>02</EpubUsageStatus><EpubUsageLimit><Quantity>0</Quantity><EpubUsageUnit>05</EpubUsageUnit></EpubUsageLimit></EpubUsageConstraint> |
You can also upload custom previews by using the naming convention ISBN_preview.epub or ISBN_sample.epub in the preview files you distribute. Our system will automatically recognize it as a publisher custom preview and use it in place of the automatically created preview from your ePub.
Note: The Kobo system will only created previews for reflowable ePub, ePub 3, and ePub 3 fixed-layout files.
🔙Table of Contents
The availability information of your title regarding Kobo Subscription Program Kobo+.
| Info | Excel | ONIX 3.0 (ONLY) |
|---|---|---|
| Reference Name | Use the propriatery Excel Template for subs. We need ISBN, geo availability and start and end dates if necessary. |
3 Tags are to be used: * <SalesRestrictionType> (mandatory)* to opt-in for Kobo+, use code 13 or 99; * to opt-out for Kobo+, use code 12; * <StartDate> & <EndDate> (optional); * <CountriesIncluded> (mandatory) to indicate in which you want to opt-in (or opt-out) your book.* Use <RegionsIncluded>ALL</RegionsIncluded> to opt-in in all available Kobo+ countries.Example <ProductSupply><Market><Territory><CountriesIncluded>NL BE US CA PT</CountriesIncluded> </Territory><SalesRestriction><SalesRestrictionType>13</SalesRestrictionType><StartDate>20210625</StartDate> <!--optional--><EndDate>20250625</EndDate> <!--optional--></SalesRestriction></Market></ProductSupply > |
| Short Tag | N/A | <SalesRestrictionType>=<b381>13</b381> |
Notes
- A la carte global Sales rights will always take precedence for Kobo Plus activations. A title with no sales rights for Canada at the product level will not be activated for Kobo Plus in Canada, no matter of what the
<SalesRestriction>composite says. - If your agreement with Kobo allows for full catalogue opt-in for Kobo+, you do not have to resend ONIX metadata to activate your catalogue.
- ONIX 2.1 is not supported.
- If your account is configured for full catalogue activated for KoboPlus by default, just use above codes to change the status accordingly (code 12 to remove from KoboPlus, code 13 or 99 to put back into Kobo+).
For Audiobooks, specific metadata have to be added to your metadata feed.
Required Field - Based on Code List 150 (ONIX 3.0 - Code list 7 in ONIX 2.1) - If <ProductForm> begins with 'A', metadata.format will be automatically recognised as AUDIO.
Should be informed within the <DescriptiveDetail> composite.
| Info | Excel | ONIX 2.1 and 3.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Reference Name | Detected by use of the Audiobooks template | <ProductForm>AJ</ProductForm> |
| Short Tag | N/A | <b012>AJ</b012> |
Strongly Recommended - The Edition of your audiobook (Abridged or unabridged version). For unabridged, indicate UBR, for abridged, indicate ABR.
Because many audiobooks are abridged, it’s important to ensure the consumer knows what they are
buying. So it’s always best practice to state whether it’s abridged or unabridged.
Should be informed within the <DescriptiveDetail> composite.
| Info | Excel | ONIX 2.1 | ONIX 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reference Name | Audiobook Edition col. C of the Template | <EditionTypeCode>UBR</EditionTypeCode> or <EditionTypeCode>ABR</EditionTypeCode> |
<EditionType>UBR</EditionType>or <EditionType>ABR</EditionType> |
| Short Tag | N/A | <b056>UBR</b056>or <b056>ABR</b056> |
<x419>UBR</x419>or <x419>ABR</x419> |
Add explicit support for:
- E07 Reader
- E03 Narrator
- E08 Performed by
- E09 Speaker Of a speech
Base on EDItEUR Code list 17
| Info | Excel | ONIX 2.1 and 3.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Reference Name | Contributor Type col. T of the template 3 contributors max. |
<ContributorRole>E03</ContributorRole> |
| Short Tag | N/A | <b035>E03</b035> |
Parse the duration extent for time-duration information. Store both the ONIX values and the value normalized to seconds.
Base on EDItEUR
Code list 23 - <ExtentType> code 09 = Duration.
Code list 24 - <ExtentUnit> minutes; hours ; seconds etc… Only codes 04, 05, 06, 14, 15 and 16 are supported by Kobo as ExtentUnit values for duration extent. Other values will be ignored:
| Value | is supported by Kobo | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 02 | No | Words (will Fail ingestion for Audiobooks metadata) |
| 03 | No | Pages (will Fail ingestion for Audiobooks metadata) |
| 04 | Yes | Hours (integer and decimals) |
| 05 | Yes | Minutes (integer and decimals) |
| 06 | Yes | Seconds (integer only) |
| 11 | No | Words (will be ignored) |
| 14 | Yes | Hours HHH |
| 15 | Yes | Hours and minutes HHHMM |
| 16 | Yes | Hours minutes seconds HHHMMSS |
| 17 | Yes | Bytes |
| 18 | Yes | Kbytes |
| 19 | Yes | Mbytes |
| Info | Excel | ONIX 2.1 and 3.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Reference Name | N/A | <Extent><ExtentType>09</ExtentType><ExtentValue>457</ExtentValue><ExtentUnit>05</ExtentUnit></Extent> |
| Short Tag | N/A | <extent><b218>09</218><b219>0073600</b219><b220>16</b220></extent> |
Parse the size extent for file-size information. Store both the ONIX values and the value normalized to bytes
Information is stored in Rakuten Kobo system, but is not used.
Based on EDItEUR
Code list 23 - <ExtentType> code 22 = FileSize.
| Info | Excel | ONIX 2.1 and 3.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Reference Name | N/A | <Extent><ExtentType>22</ExtentType><ExtentValue>500</ExtentValue><ExtentUnit>19</ExtentUnit></Extent> |
| Short Tag | N/A | <extent><b218>22</218><b219>500</b219><b220>19</b220></extent> |