Search Engine Optimization, Metadata, and Other Tasks

Say what? Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? Metadata? Keywords? While I know what metadata is, I am no expert in the matter. Metadata is a necessary evil that must be developed carefully because without proper execution no one will find your book at the online bookstores. Also known as keywords, they are the way people locate your book at places like Amazon. For example, punch in the type of book you’re looking for, e.g. romance, and the metadata will help find the books that fit that category. There is a lot of science behind it, including knowledge of how the bookstore’s algorithms do their thing. Better let the experts figure this out.

The publisher needs a few other things at this stage of the process, including short and long versions of what the book is about. A short biographical statement. What you want the cover to look like. I’ve found that the publisher will send me some suggestions that I can approve or modify.

So, as I have done so far I’ll let the expert’s figure all or most of these things out. That decision is a no-brainer for me.

I await the next task that comes to me via my publisher.