Metadata are simply the finer details of your book. Most of these finer details will be required by the platforms you choose to publish on and are critical for the discoverability of your book. If they are inaccurate or worse still, missing, your book will disappear into oblivion.
Your book's metadata must be accurate, informative and similar on all platforms. This way each time someone searches for your book, the information they get is consistent. For this task, you may need to open a new document and label it as '[your book] metadata'. Fill this document using the below steps as a guide before you upload your book.
STEP 1: RECORD ALREADY KNOWN METADATA
Start by recording everything you already know about your book including:
- Author name. It needs to be consistent across all formats of your book otherwise they won't like up. Don't be A. H. Masters for your eBooks and Anne Mastersfor your paperbacks. Also make sure that this is the name you'll be using for future published books so that your readers don't get confused.
- Title of the book
- The series name (if applicable) and the book's number in the series
- The blurb/description that is between 100- 250 words
- A shorter description that is less than 100 words
STEP 2: CATEGORIZE YOUR NOVEL
To publish you book, you'll need to place it in a BISAC category which is the industry-wide accepted standard of classifying book that is used by most online book retailers. Choosing the right category for your book is more important than you realize. Without an accurate category, your target market cannot find your book. Most platforms offer you the choice of two categories with each of these categories also allowing you to choose a sub-category.
A Romantic Suspense novel could fall into both the Mystery /Thriller/Suspense Category as well as the Contemporary Romance category. If you've got an African-American character, it could also fall into the African-American Mystery category. If the criminal is part of the mafia, it could fall into Italian Crime category too.
If you want to find out what categories are available go to Amazon, search books on Amazon, check the left-hand side of the pane and you'll see the list of categories they offer. Look at the ones that most match your book. If your book matches many categories or sub categories then choose the category that seems to have less books, this way you'll be able to reach top 100 in that category faster and therefore be more visible on Amazon.
STEP 3: IDENTIFY VIABLE KEYWORD PHRASES
Most online platforms have search engines which find your books based on their titles and the keywords. Keywords identify what your book is really about or the hot button themes your book is about. Some readers like books that deal with a specific topic such as serial-killers, billionaires, military etc and using the proper keywords can help them find you more easily.
Somekeywords (especially Amazon) can even get you into more categories than theones you are allowed into or into a more specialized category. For instance ifyou have multicultural as a keyword in a book categorized as Romance >Contemporary it will add > Multicultural to the category. If you addswords-and-sorcery to a novel categorized as Fantasy, it will be categorized asSwords & Sorcery. A specialized category means that you are competing withless books, which means you can reach top 100 in that category and thus havemore eyes on your book.
Your task is to find keywords that mostaccurately represent your book and will make your book rank higher when someonesearches for that keyword. A word like 'crime' is too broad to get much of areturn and engenders too much competition. The terms may be relevant to you butthey are too generic and will not help readers find your book. You want to findkeywords that millions of people are searching for but are not being overused.Those keywords should be between two to four words for instance 'serial killercrime' would give you more hits than just 'crime'.
An easy way to find string keywords is to think of just that one word that would represent your book. Next, go to Amazon and type in one of those words. Use the predictive text mechanism which comes up just below the search field to identify popular and more accurate search terms that readers used to find books in your category.
WhenI type in 'thriller' for instance, Amazon suggests other keywords for me toclick on like 'psychological thriller', 'thriller romance', 'legal thrillers'etc. In this case if my book falls into any of those categories, the suggestedsearch terms are more effective than just using the keyword 'thriller'. One ofmy keywords will therefore be 'psychological thriller'. If I have an amateur asa detective, it's better to use amateur detective as the keyword rather thanjust having 'amateur' or 'detective' as separate keywords.
Note that most online retailers will limit you to only 7-10 key words so it's really, really important to use keyword phrases rather than just one keyword so that you can maximize the number of searches that your book appears in.
STEP 4: DECIDE ON PRICE
What is your book worth? It is a tough question. You can price your book anywhere from $0 to $9999, but what price is right. A lot of research has been done into the matter but there's no real consensus about what the best price is. However the pros agree that pricing your work too low for too long will make your readers think that your work is not up to par. Price it too high and no one will buy it and if they do they'll be more critical because they expect high standards.
Determine the price of your book by answering the following questions:
- How are other indie writers in your genre pricing the books? Usually, you'llfind that it's between $0.99 and $6.99.
- Is your main goal revenue or visibility? The general rule of thumb is that lower price equalsmore visibility but less revenue while higher price means less visibility butmore revenue per book. If your goal is visibility, then you could initiallyoffer the book at $0.99 then go back to pricing high once your book has climbedthe chart. If you already have a ready market and your goal is revenue, thenyou can price like standard indie books in your genre.
Pricing is a tricky issue and it might take some time for you to figureout your perfect price point. The good thing is that for self-publishers,pricing is flexible. You can reduce or increase the price of your book withinone day depending on your results. Don't be afraid to test out different price points
STEP 5: PREPARE PDF, MOBI & EPUB FILES OF YOUR BOOK
If you're going to be handing out free copies toyour fans and to reviewers, you'll need to give them files that are mostconvenient for them. You can't give out a word document to reviewers. Many will take PDF but be prepared for those who want toread your book on their Kindles. They'll want Mobi files. Then there are those people who prefer reading ePub files. You have to cater to them too.
You can convert your book into these formats through free online sites, but this could be a little risky. Calibre eBook is a free app that you can download to your computer and it will do these conversions for you. Alternatively, you could purchases apps like Scrivener and Vellum which are great if you want to make your book fancy too.
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