I am working on a book discovery website and automating book metadata is expensive and hard. Cover images are poor quality - even from paid companies like Ingra

I am working on a book discovery website and automating book metadata is expensive and hard. Cover images are poor quality - even from paid companies like Ingram. I am starting with manual data entry and getting cover images from publishers or authors. I plan to test some of the API sources later this year to figure out which might be a good choice (Ingram's ONIX or API is def the highest quality). I am trying to make book discovery like browsing the best bookstore in the world. I want to recreate the experience of walking through the shelves, seeing a little note with a staff favorite, and so on. Aiming to launch mid April at Shepherd.com! If you want to follow my notes as I build it (http://build.shepherd.com/ http://build.shepherd.com/).