Send your books to Google Play with automated content fetching

Google has developed an automated content fetching system that enables publishers and service providers to easily provide book metadata, rights and content to Google Play. Publishers and service providers who use this content fetching system only need to make their content accessible via an HTTP/HTTPS/SFTP/FTP/Google Cloud Storage server. Google will then periodically retrieve that content on a predefined schedule and incorporate the content into the index of books on Google Play.

This document explains the guidelines for providing book content to Google in the form of:

metadata – ONIX files
rights and sales settings – ONIX files
book content – ePub/PDF/cover files

If you have any questions about this document or other questions about providing ONIX feeds to Google, please contact us.

Preparing the Content Fetching Process

This section explains how publishers and service providers should prepare and initiate the content fetching process.

Create a password-protected directory on your HTTP/HTTPS/SFTP/FTP server. This directory will contain the book content that you want to include in Google Play Books.
Assign a username to Google so that Google can access the directory. The username and password may only contain alphanumeric characters.
Directory listings should display the filename, file size and last modified date/time for each file in the directory, and should be readable by the Google user.
Prior to posting your files, fill out this form (available in English only). After receiving this information, Google will configure a crawler to periodically retrieve the content from your server according to the schedule that you have requested. When retrieving your content, the crawler will only download files that have been modified or added since the previous crawl.

Submitting metadata ONIX files:

Google Play ingests metadata, also known as "full" ONIX files, to enable book search as well as providing information on the "About this Book" page.

Please set up the following for delivery of full ONIX files:

Create a top-level directory on your server to store ONIX files that should be named onix, i.e., http://www.<server>.com/onix/.
Within this directory, create sub-directories for each publisher named using the following rules: <collection_code>-full which will contain ONIX files
Collection code: Please refer to this page for more details.
Upload the full ONIX files and follow the ONIX file convention.
For first-time ONIX submission, please add a ONIX file sample for validation
Provide the top-level directory information to the Google Books team using this form (available in English only). The Google content fetcher will pull all ONIX files under the top-level directory and process them using the subdirectory name (i.e. collection code).
When adding a new publisher's ONIX directory (i.e., <collection_code>-rights or <collection_code>-full), you must use the form (available in English only) to notify us of the addition.

Submitting rights ONIX files for books on Google Play

Google Play ingests sales settings for books in the form of a "rights" ONIX file to enable books for sale, setting prices and sales territories.

Please set up the following for delivery of rights ONIX files:

Create a top-level directory on your server to store ONIX files that should be named onix, i.e., http://www.<server>.com/onix/.
Within this directory, create sub-directories for each Collection Code named using the following rules: <collection_code>-rights which will contain ONIX files
Collection code: Publishers, please find your Collection Code on the Manage templates page under the Advanced button on the Book Catalogue page. Service Providers, please refer to this page for more details.
Upload the rights ONIX files and follow the ONIX file convention.
For first time ONIX submission, please add a ONIX file sample for validation
Provide the top-level directory information to the Google Books team using this form (available in English only). Google content fetcher will pull all ONIX files under the top-level directory and process them using the sub-directory name
When adding a new publisher's ONIX directory (i.e., <collection_code>-rights or <collection_code>-full), you must use the form (available in English only) to notify us of the addition.

Submitting book content (ePub/PDF/cover)

Create a top-level directory on your server to store ePub/PDF/cover files that should be named ebooks, i.e., http://www.<server>.com/ebooks/.
Under the top-level directory, create sub-directories for each of collection code (service providers, refer here), e.g., http://www.<server>.com/ebooks/<collection-code>
Upload the ePub/PDF/cover files follow the ePub/PDF/cover file convention.
Provide the top-level directory information to the Google Books team using this form (available in English only). Google content fetcher will pull all ePub files under the top-level directory and process the ePub files using the sub-directory name (i.e. collection code).
When adding a new collection code's ePub directory (i.e., <collection_code>), you must use the form (available in English only) to notify us of the addition. This enables us to configure the backend to accept and process ePub files based on the publisher's collection code.

For batches of more than 1000 files, your server must be on a T-1 line.

ONIX File Convention

File Naming Guidelines

File names must end with .xml or .XML.
Please name your file using only alphanumeric characters (accented characters are not supported)
File names should include your publisher name and a timestamp that uniquely identifies the file. For example, if Publishing Co. posted a feed created on 31 January 2005, an acceptable file name would be publishingCo_20050131.xml.
If your content spans multiple files, include a file count in your file names. Using the previous example, if Publishing Co. had two files, the file names would be publishingCo_20050131_1.xml and publishingCo_20050131_2.xml.
Google can process zipped files. If you are providing multiple files, we recommend zipping the files into a single archive. You can also use zip for a single file. Using the previous examples, Publishing Co. would create a zip file namedpublishingCo_20050131.zip.

File Requirements

Your ONIX files must be ONIX v2 or Onix 3.0 .

All records in your ONIX file(s) must include:

ISBN
Title
Author(s)
Imprint/Publisher Information
Date of publication

See our list of required fields. It is very important to follow the guidelines for required fields, as otherwise the ONIX files will fail ingestion.

If you have remaining questions about uploading an ONIX file not covered by this page, please contact our team.

ONIX Validation

If you plan to submit ONIX for books on Google Play, we need to do a one-time validation of the ONIX file format before we enable processing of files under that collection code. Using this form (available in English only), please provide the URL to a sample ONIX file for initial format validation. You should place the sample ONIX file under a directory called validate on your server, e.g., www.server.com/onix/validate/<onix_file_name>.xml. Note that the sample ONIX file will NOT be used to enable rights/settings. You will receive a confirmation email from the Google Books support team once your sample ONIX file has been validated and your crawl has been set up. Upon receiving the confirmation email, you can start supplying ONIX files for that collection code under the <collection_code>-rights directory.

Refer to the below information to ensure your ONIX file passes validation.

Your ONIX files must be ONIX v2.0 or later. Onix v2.1 is preferred.

All records in your ONIX file(s) must include:

ISBN
Title
Author(s)
Imprint/Publisher Information
Date of publication

The required fields are listed on ONIX Requirements. It is very important to follow the guidelines for required fields, otherwise the ONIX files will fail ingestion.

ePub/PDF/cover file convention

ePub file convention

Name the ePub files according to this file naming convention:

eISBN.epub

If the ePub does not have an associated Print ISBN, the ePub can be submitted using the eISBN only.

However, if the ePub does have an associated Print ISBN, please choose one of these options to supply the mapping from Electronic ISBN to Print ISBN:

If Service Provider is managing book settings, provide an ONIX file that includes both Print ISBN and Electronic ISBN. View the ONIX requirements.
If publisher is managing their own book settings, ensure they upload a spreadsheet or ONIX to the publisher's account that contains both Print ISBN and Electronic ISBN. For help with this, please get in touch with our team through our contact form.

Note: If there are multiple Print ISBNs associated with an E-ISBN and you are not sure which Print ISBN to use, please include all variations in your ONIX file.

Double-check that all your ePub files have valid formats using the tool at http://code.google.com/p/epubcheck/.

If you are supplying marketing covers along with the ePub, please provide a JPEG image. The image file should be named eISBN.jpg.

If you have remaining questions about uploading an ePub file not covered by this page, please contact our team.

PDF file convention

You can view the full set of PDF file naming guidelines.

Requirements

In order to process your PDF books, we have certain guidelines in place regarding the formatting of your PDF files. The most basic formatting guidelines for a single PDF file are as follows:

The main content of your book should be named <ISBN>_interior.pdf. For the remainder of this page, we'll use the demonstration ISBN of "0123456789".
Important: Never include dashes in file names
Please name your file using only alphanumeric characters (accented characters are not supported).

To upload a file with covers included:

The first page of your file should correspond to the front cover of your title.
The following pages are the full content of the book.
The last page of your file should correspond to the back cover.
Name your file in accordance with this example: 0123456789.pdf

Split files

You can submit your content files in multiple parts. Just name each part in accordance with the following guideline:

0123456789_1of5.pdf
0123456789_2of5.pdf
0123456789_3of5.pdf
and so on

Covers in separate files

The main content of your book should be named 0123456789_interior.pdf

You may submit images for your front or back cover separately from your content file. We're able to process cover files in JPG, PDF or TIF format. Please only name your file as follows:

0123456789_frontcover.XYZ
0123456789_backcover.XYZ