Konst-ig has been the #1 art and design bookstore in Northern Europe for 20 years and named one of 12 booksellers worldwide as an indispensable part of the creative community. Now it’s time to monetize our proprietary +100 000 book database by launching our B2B metadata service. We view this as the next step in becoming the #1 go-to hub for art and design books worldwide.
A specialized bookstore for architecture, design, art and photography, Konst-ig opened in 1994. In addition to traditional in-store book selling, we have long served as a distribution consultant to publishers. We have developed the online store Konst/ig Books, that we plan to expand.
Konst-ig has also built and managed our own title database, adapted for professionals and those generally interested within the subjects. Our proprietary database consists most importantly of a +100 000 enriched book titles catalogue and is a system developed to meet the specific needs and requirements of our customers. We will now monetize this by developing a B2B metadata production service (Boost).
A worldwide audience of art industry professionals creates the entire visual universe. Architects, fashion designers, city planners, photographers, graphic designers, advertising professionals, landscape architects, as well as educators and researchers within these fields, rely on these books for professional growth, inspiration, and staying on top of trends and movements in their fields.
Metadata helps books to be found and discovered.
Today it is almost impossible to find what you are looking for online. If you do find a book, there are so few details provided by online retailers that it barely helps you in making a purchasing decision.
In our segment, the art and design field, detailed and important information is rarely found. It is more often like buying a music cd without knowing how many songs are on it.
Meet Charles Koroly…
• Metadata is a marketing tool and metadata is content management.
• Today’s service providers don’t seem to handle specialized information. What you usually get is ISBN, publisher’s name, publication year, binding, language, price and number of pages.
• A growing market: As online retail grows, metadata becomes an important factor in retail sales since it has searchable keywords, subject heading classifications etc.
• Research by Nielsen shows enormous increases in sales for books possessing thorough accurate metadata the boost for online sales is a striking 178%(seemetadata white paper-the link between metadata and sales in our documents section).
For close-up click here to download the image
But ultimately this is all to help the book buyer. It’s all in the details.
Boost is a customized digital platform for cataloguing and refining bibliographic information (i.e. metadata) delivered in ONIX for Books – standard.
Konst-ig continues to boost art and design books world-wide by introducing a bibliographic metadata service that allows publishers to make their books visible in the digital realm. We add subject-specific keywords and topics as well as categories and subcategories that speak directly to the specialized art and design book consumer market. The service includes production, enhancement and export of bibliographic metadata to subscribing book distributers and publishers worldwide.
Konstig plans to export enhanced metadata to the large international distributors (Libri in Germany, Gardners in England, Ingram and Baker&Taylor in the USA) as well as later to specialist libraries. The need is:
With this growing trend we see that even the role as sales channel has changed:
The traditional book world faces big challenges due to: – the digitalization of bibliographic data through the new ONIX standard which facilitates information flow of metadata worldwide. – the new digital publishing tools available.
We are pleased to be one of the first cases out when FundedByMe launches it’s new tool of crowdfunding for business. We believe that our core principle has always been to involve our customers and treat them like long term friends and family, and they have become epic fans during the years. Therefore we are convinced that crowdfunding for this type of project is an optimal tool since we want to grow with you. This loan is a first step of funding allowing us to take a first important step ahead with our bibliographical metadata service, Boost.
We will soon open an equity investment round aiming toward the next steps. We invite you here to book your early interest.
The art & design book market is valued at EUR 3.62 billion (IBISWorld, 2014) and grows at a rate of 4.2% annually even as the overall book market declines by 8.7% per year (Bookscan, 2012). What if we could take 1% of that market down the road? EUR 362 million ! We are ready, are you? E-mail us.
Together with system designer and programmer Nicholas Wiig, Helene has spent many years examining the possibilities of digital communications for art and design books. After master studies at New York University, she produced a series of academic symposiums relating to the arts and IT. Since the late 1990s her focus has been on her passion: art books. She leads the technical side of Boost.
Charlotte has worked with retail, distribution, logistics and marketing of art and design books since the 1980s nationally as well as internationally. Perhaps one of the most knowledgeable people in her field, she has a large and extensive international network of contacts among publishers and distributors. Founded Konst-ig in 1994.