Keywords–Helping Readers Find Your Books

Modern marketing is an amazing process. As more people use the internet to find out information about all sorts of things it’s not surprising that buying books is now subject to the same internet marketing strategies of so many other products.

I’ll give you an example from real life. My oven was in desperate need of a clean and especially the glass door. Before the internet I would have phoned my mum or a friend and asked, “How do you clean your glass oven door?” These days I google “How do I clean my glass oven door?” and I get lots of useful and useless answers and many adverts telling me that this particular oven cleaner is perfect for the job.

My original search did not get the product I needed. So, I refine my search and add “How to clean a glass oven door when it’s encrusted with fat?” And then I get more specific products and information. I may also add another keyword “How do I clean my encrusted oven door with an environmentally friendly product?”

The keywords in my search are: clean, glass oven door, encrusted fat, environmentally friendly.

Keywords are what people type into the Google, or alternative search engines. As I explained in my previous blog for marketing it helps to understand how search engines work. Key words are essential.

But, you ask, how does this effect authors?

There are millions of books online in so many genres. And within each genre there are sub categories of genre so key words become important words and/or phrases for readers to find the right book for them on Amazon and other platforms.

Try googling Romance books. You will get a list of different types of romance books. I selected Dark Romance books and got another list of keywords, hottest, extremely dark, possessive dark, dark kidnapping. Select one of these and you will finally get a selection of books in just the right genre sub-category you crave. So, before they get to your cover, blurb and reviews readers will find your book from the millions of other using key words.

Try a few different categories just for practice. I tried Fantasy novels and chose with dragons. I then selected romantic fantasy novels with dragons and finally you get to a list of books that fit close to what I was seeking. That list of books is where you want your novel to appear so it can compete with the others. After coming up on the list your cover and blurb will then win the sale.

Authors can select their keywords when they upload their book on Amazon and other platforms. It is part of the process for getting your book available as an e-book or print version. Before you start it is wise to research what keywords will get your book noticed.

Google keyword selection and you will find a number of websites that provide authors with the best key words for your novel. There are forums (Kindle forum, Reddit) lists of genres (Marie Cole) and my favourite from Draft2digital Specific Genres Literature and Fiction.

But can you change your keywords after you have published your book? The answer is Yes.

Keywords are classed as metadata so can be changed for free. (Unlike actual changes to your book cover or inner material which might incur a fee for changes) Just go to your publishing site and edit the novel metadata and review your keywords. Both Kindle Direct and Draft2digital allow changes to metadata but do check the term and conditions carefully yourself.

I’ve found this foray into keywords enlightening indeed (as one of my Regency romance protagonists would proclaim). I will be doing further research and perhaps update the keywords I so blindly selected when loading my books. Modern marketing is complex. I hope that this blog helps you navigate some of its complexities and increase your chances of your novel being found on-line.

Cheers Elsie

Elsie King©2024

Photo attributed to unknown author from creative commons.