This New Author Learns to Get Her Book Discovered
Now that I’m publishing a few books, I want to learn how to succeed. There’s this impromptu meeting this morning giving me that info so let’s jump in and learn.
Why Attend: Cause I want to succeed as a children’s author!! :)
New authors believe that once their book becomes available, the readers will naturally find it. However, uploading your book is just the very first step. Every online retailer has millions of books. Metadata is how they get discovered. But that’s not the only thing.
Each retailer uses different methods for their algorithms. They’re overall quite common, but different. Reward books that are relevant, well presented, and generate engagement.
How does discovery work? What is merchandising? How can it help? Which metadata matters the most? What are the common mistakes?
Visibility is earned. Even great books don’t get discovered. You need to understand how retail platforms work.
Many new publishers assume it comes with paid ads. Paid ads are important. But a lot of book discovery happens organically. Ideally, you have those two components. Organic discovery through your understanding, metadata, and paid ads. These two complement each other.
Readers discover through search results, recommendation carousels, readers who bought this, bought this, email recommendations, and seasonal promotions. Algos and merchandising decisions power all of these.
Algos work in combination with merchandising. Start with how recommendation algos work.
Every major retailer (amazon, apple books, b&n) they’re subscription platform. Use a recommendation algo they’re likely to enjoy. They all have proprietary systems. They guard the details but are all trying to deliver the right book to the right reader at the right time. Their business depends on getting readers the book they like, consistently.
Algos don’t read the manuscript. They rely entirely on the info and behavior that surrounds your book to decide which user on their website might be interested. They analyze lots of data points. We’re going to stay on the most relevant ones.
Customers Search Behavior: What are they typing into the search bar? What is the reader looking for? Cooking, finance, etc.
Which books appear first? Algos will compare the search terms with your metadata. They’ll look for title, subtitle, description, category, keyword, series info, and author info. The better your data matches what they’re searching for, the better the chance of appearing.
Don’t stuff your details with popular keywords. No keyword stuffing. That backfires.
Purchase Behavior: They’ll look at what you bought previously or what people buy. A large number of people may have purchased your first book, then they purchase the second.
Books that keep readers engaged are going to be recommended. They measure how platforms interact with your content. Completion rate. Reading sessions. Time spent. Books finished?
I asked if it’s good to launch two books at a time versus just one? From what she’s saying, it seems 2 at once is better?
If readers immediately move from book one to book two, it’s a strong signal that the content keeps your readers engaged.
Fake and manipulated ratings have serious consequences.
Algos pay attention to recent activity. Consistently reassessed. What can affect this? Recent sales. New reviews. Updated editions. Metadata improvements. Don’t mess with it all the time; get it right to begin with.
She said that uploading to a bulk website doesn’t backfire. It makes no difference
Wow, this is great news to hear!! I’m so happy to hear it. It’s so much more efficient
She said not to release two books at the same time; release the first one and then the second one soon after - then promote hte first one to go to the 2nd after. SO SMART :)
Okay - I wanna get ready to go downtown. I have a lot to do today.
I’ll keep listening in but also be on my way to the bus/train.
