Alec Peche's Blog - Posts Tagged "bisg"
Finding readers, keywords, and discoverability
When I first entered the indie publishing world, one of the questions I was asked while uploading my first book (4 books and 18 months ago) was what keywords I wanted associated with it. To this day, I don't feel like I have the perfect answer to this question, but at least I understand the question.
When confronted with the keyword question for the first time, I did a google search on choosing keywords. A keyword is what a reader uses to find a new book to read. Amazon gives you seven keywords/phrases to use and like most newbies I selected my name "Alec Peche" and my title "Vials" to be 2 of my 7 keywords. After reading more articles, I learned that you shouldn't waste keywords on those two data elements. If a reader knows your name or knows the book's title, then they'll simply enter those words and your book will be found. So how else might a reader find my book?
My books are a part of a series with a female sleuth (Dr. Jill Quint, MD) who is a private forensic pathologist consultant. She provides second opinions on the cause of death. She also has a day job as a vintner growing grapes and making Moscato wine in a fictional city in the central valley of California. She is joined on her cases by a series of best friends that have their own unique investigative talents. She has a love interest, Nathan, who is a world renowned wine label designer (yes that is a real occupation). So back to the keywords story… I tried using the keywords of murder mystery, vineyard, wine, and amateur sleuths. I even tried Puerto Rico as that is where part of the story was set. However, I wasn't thinking like a reader and really I'm still not sure today that I have it right. While both Puerto Rico and wine did well when I looked them up on Google's keyword planner, they would get millions of hits from people who were looking for vacation information on Puerto Rico or perhaps a reference to the best Pinot Noir so they weren't specific enough to define my readers.
My current keywords are: female private investigator, political corruption, medical mystery, black ops, scuba diving, thriller murder mystery, forensic pathologist and my books sales improved when I went to these keywords, but I still don't think I have nailed it on the head yet.
I recently did another search on book keywords to see if any new advice had been published on this subject that I might use. Instead I found a 2014 free publication from BISC (Book Industry Study Group) which is setting standards for book publishing https://www.bisg.org/publications/bes... . They had some advice and examples that were great including the keywords used for George R. R. Martin's "A Dance with Dragons" which I found informative.
Some key pieces of advice from this organization's publication are: choose unique keywords, choose consumer-oriented keywords, and choose relevant keywords. If I had read the suggestion of unique keywords, I would never have picked Puerto Rico or wine. Neither word is unique enough to search for my books.
The publication makes the suggestion to find consumer oriented keywords by reading reviews about your book to see how consumers describe your book. The following is a review from a reader for "Vials":
This was a really nice fast moving great read that shows evil-doers having justice thrust on them! All in all this is great wild ride. I would recommend "Vials" to everyone! …
Uh-oh, I don't think I'll use 'great wild ride' as a keyword, but I might replace 'black-ops' with 'evil doers having justice thrust on them'. All 7 keywords must be no more than 500 characters so this phrase will come last in my keyword list in case it gets cut-off.
The final suggestion of 'choose relevant keywords' is a nod to don't put bestseller titles or authors in keywords as it is not an accurate reflection of your book even if it is a powerful keyword. Using words from pop culture like Hogwarts is only acceptable when it has great relevance to a book.
The publication also talks about technical specifications of order placement, commas, spaces, and semi-colons - again new information for me. It is a great and helpful publication for anyone wondering if they have the best keywords assigned to their book. In this world of an ever increasing quantity of books, it's hard to figure out the secret sauce to making a new book, discoverable within today's technology tools. Hopefully beyond technology, readers are discovering Jill Quint from one of the multiple avenues open to book lovers.
When confronted with the keyword question for the first time, I did a google search on choosing keywords. A keyword is what a reader uses to find a new book to read. Amazon gives you seven keywords/phrases to use and like most newbies I selected my name "Alec Peche" and my title "Vials" to be 2 of my 7 keywords. After reading more articles, I learned that you shouldn't waste keywords on those two data elements. If a reader knows your name or knows the book's title, then they'll simply enter those words and your book will be found. So how else might a reader find my book?
My books are a part of a series with a female sleuth (Dr. Jill Quint, MD) who is a private forensic pathologist consultant. She provides second opinions on the cause of death. She also has a day job as a vintner growing grapes and making Moscato wine in a fictional city in the central valley of California. She is joined on her cases by a series of best friends that have their own unique investigative talents. She has a love interest, Nathan, who is a world renowned wine label designer (yes that is a real occupation). So back to the keywords story… I tried using the keywords of murder mystery, vineyard, wine, and amateur sleuths. I even tried Puerto Rico as that is where part of the story was set. However, I wasn't thinking like a reader and really I'm still not sure today that I have it right. While both Puerto Rico and wine did well when I looked them up on Google's keyword planner, they would get millions of hits from people who were looking for vacation information on Puerto Rico or perhaps a reference to the best Pinot Noir so they weren't specific enough to define my readers.
My current keywords are: female private investigator, political corruption, medical mystery, black ops, scuba diving, thriller murder mystery, forensic pathologist and my books sales improved when I went to these keywords, but I still don't think I have nailed it on the head yet.
I recently did another search on book keywords to see if any new advice had been published on this subject that I might use. Instead I found a 2014 free publication from BISC (Book Industry Study Group) which is setting standards for book publishing https://www.bisg.org/publications/bes... . They had some advice and examples that were great including the keywords used for George R. R. Martin's "A Dance with Dragons" which I found informative.
Some key pieces of advice from this organization's publication are: choose unique keywords, choose consumer-oriented keywords, and choose relevant keywords. If I had read the suggestion of unique keywords, I would never have picked Puerto Rico or wine. Neither word is unique enough to search for my books.
The publication makes the suggestion to find consumer oriented keywords by reading reviews about your book to see how consumers describe your book. The following is a review from a reader for "Vials":
This was a really nice fast moving great read that shows evil-doers having justice thrust on them! All in all this is great wild ride. I would recommend "Vials" to everyone! …
Uh-oh, I don't think I'll use 'great wild ride' as a keyword, but I might replace 'black-ops' with 'evil doers having justice thrust on them'. All 7 keywords must be no more than 500 characters so this phrase will come last in my keyword list in case it gets cut-off.
The final suggestion of 'choose relevant keywords' is a nod to don't put bestseller titles or authors in keywords as it is not an accurate reflection of your book even if it is a powerful keyword. Using words from pop culture like Hogwarts is only acceptable when it has great relevance to a book.
The publication also talks about technical specifications of order placement, commas, spaces, and semi-colons - again new information for me. It is a great and helpful publication for anyone wondering if they have the best keywords assigned to their book. In this world of an ever increasing quantity of books, it's hard to figure out the secret sauce to making a new book, discoverable within today's technology tools. Hopefully beyond technology, readers are discovering Jill Quint from one of the multiple avenues open to book lovers.
