The Indie Author’s Guide to Book Metadata: 10 Steps to Boost Visibility and Sales

For creative writers, the term book metadata might sound like something only highly tech-focused people can understand. If you want to make more sales, however, you need to understand it. For a self-published author, it’s the stuff that works behind the scenes to boost your visibility even before you start posting on social media or paying for ads. Once you set it up correctly, metadata can influence sales organically. Before diving into the best tips to set it up, understand what it really is.

Most self-publishing platforms offer free ISBNs you can assign to your book. These belong to the platform itself and not directly to you. While not technically a problem, having a single number for your book everywhere creates consistency and portability. It’s the same no matter where you publish or post it. This also makes it easier to get listed in powerful book APIs and simplifies ISBN lookup across bookstores, libraries, and online databases.

2 – Use Cohesive Branding

In the book world, this means a publishing house name. Of course, your author name or pen name helps with branding, but having a professional imprint may help more. Part of this focuses on reader expectations. More established brands feel higher quality. Behind the scenes, an imprint ensures your metadata matches across platforms.

Avoid general categories on the book-selling platforms. These tend to have more books in them, which makes yours less discoverable. They get lost in the crowd. Also, when it comes to metadata effectiveness, specificity and relevance matter above everything else. You want the people who want exactly your type of book to find it. Instead of choosing Romance > General, for example, choose Romance > Contemporary > Small Town.

Just as important as picking relevant genre categories is choosing specific audiences. This usually involves an age group. Do not combine Young Adult and Adult categories, keywords, or descriptions. While there is overlap in readership, of course, marketing your book in that way weakens its overall impact and searchability.

5 – Use Relevant Long-Tail Keywords

On Amazon and other platforms, you have several keyword fields to fill in when establishing your metadata for each book you publish. Carefully research the most relevant and competitive ones. Never use basic or single-word terms like mystery, epic fantasy, or romance on their own. Instead, aim for unique phrases with genre, subgenre, tropes, character types, and themes. For example, ‘small town cozy mystery with female detective’ may work perfectly for your book.

Positioning matters when it comes to setting up keyword metadata. Put the highest priority ones in the first two or three slots. Likewise, use these keywords in the subtitle, book description, and other backend content displayed on the sales page itself. Do not stuff keywords everywhere. Include them naturally for more visibility and sales. Semantic terms help too. The description is the right place to include tropes and themes, for example.

In most cases, the title of a novel is an artistic choice related to the setting, characters, or theme of the book. You wouldn’t call a fantasy novel “Epic Fantasy with Dragons,” for example. For non-fiction, the title can include more keywords naturally because you want the audience to know what the book is about. That information appears in the subtitles for fiction books if you want to use the metadata correctly. Do not stuff keywords in. Instead, use a single phrase that lets readers and the algorithm know what to expect.

Bold some words. Put others in italics. Don’t get too fancy and try to create a graphic style that matches the feel of your book topic, but that will put readers off instead. Bullet points work well for non-fiction specifically. Today’s readers scan information to find what they’re looking for so they can get to the meat of a good book as soon as possible. Not only does effective formatting help them out, but it may lend weight to certain phrases or lines in the description from a technical standpoint.

9 – Keep Descriptions Conversational, Informative, and Optimized

Use an effective blurb format for your genre or subgenre. Share the most intriguing and engaging parts of your story’s description. Optimize for both internal platform search engines and larger ones like Google, as well as generative engines like ChatGPT and Claude. Many people turn to these sites for recommendations these days. You want your book to show up when they ask for it.

On Amazon, the most popular self-publishing platform, authors have the option to include graphic and text-based A+ content on their sales page. This is a part of the metadata that you should not ignore, especially if you sell in a series or focus on non-fiction. When there are eye-catching graphics and short descriptions or comparisons, readers will stay on the page longer and gain more pertinent information to support their decision-making.

When it comes to boosting visibility for your book and getting organic sales, there really isn’t a hierarchy of effort to consider. Of course, you need to start somewhere, and preparing the other content or research-based details can take a while. For best results out of the gate, do all of this before you publish for the first time.

At the very least, register your own ISBN and finalize title, subtitle, categories, and keywords first. These are necessary for publishing. A+ content can come later if you’re trying to meet a deadline. However, any delays or staggered efforts may affect the initial visibility of your book release.

Understanding the technical side of metadata and all the things that go on behind the scenes of any self-publishing platform matters if you want to make sales. As markets, platforms, and methods expand and evolve, you need to stay up to date with the latest recommendations and embrace new visibility options. Keep learning, update frequently, and experience the joy of a successful author journey.