8. Descriptions and Cover Images

By the time you've come to the Blurbs Tab, you have completed what is considered the mandatory data for a title's individual record. However, it is considered best practice to include both descriptions and cover images in order to ensure that your title sticks out from all the others already in the market, and bibliographic data agencies strongly recommend you have these. There is further information available regarding the bibliographic data agencies.

Descriptions: 

In order to add long and short descriptions to your title's record, navigate to the Blurbs tab and scroll down to the section called Other Text, as shown in the image below:

You have many options available to you here, but the most commonly used descriptions will be the short, main and long descriptions. Don't forget to click on the blue Update button when you are done so the information saves. Please note that you may have localised data for particular territories, for instance descriptions that are only to be sent to North America. If this is the case, then you can find instructions for adding localised data here.

For more information on what data you can include in the Blurbs tab, please visit this page.

Cover Images:

In order to upload a cover image to the system, you will need to navigate to the Media tab. As shown in the image below, you will need to choose the cover image from within your computer. Please note that images should be saved as JPGs at a minimum 100 dpi and in RGB. TIFFs are too heavy to upload onto the Stison system and should never be added.

Click onto the Choose File button within the Cover Image field, which we have circled in red below. In some systems, it may be called Browse. The system will then take you to your computer, prompting you to browse for the relevant image.

Select the image from your computer, bearing in mind that it will still not appear on your screen immediately. You must hit the Update button at the bottom of the screen in order for the thumbnail to appear as it does in the screen above.

In the screenshot above, you can see that there is a red/white cross in the corner of the thumbnail. This indicates that a cover is not yet final. If this item is a green check mark, then it is final. Please note that the system uploads covers automatically as final, and so in our example above, we've made sure to tick it specifically to reflect that it is not. You'll notice as well in the example above that there is space to add notes. In this particular case, we've specified that the cover image is not to go out anywhere yet.

It is also possible to bulk upload several cover images at one time, should you have several to add.

For information on the other fields available in this tab, please see this page.

You have now successfully completed the process of adding a new title to your system, incorporating all of the mandatory data and what we know to be best practice for the various bibliographic data aggregators.