First Sunday Q&A: Working with Keywords to Attract Your Ideal Readers

Feb 4

Q: In one of your past newsletters, you talked about the importance of keywords for reaching your readers on bookseller sites and via other outreach. I know very little about keywords, and I’d love to learn more.

A: My sense is that few writers know about this vital aspect of reaching readers. I knew so little about keywords when I began marketing my last novel, A Woman’s Guide to Search & Rescue. I had only peripherally heard of metadata and the use of keywords, and I figured if I wasn’t in tech fields or much savvier on the computer than I was, I never really needed to know.

Metadata can be simply explained as the information behind the information, the data of the data—like the time and date stamp on a photograph. It’s not the photo image itself, it’s the information about the image. If you’re going to break down metadata into what’s most useful to authors, it would be descriptive metadata: title, genre, and other details about your book. Including keywords.

Here’s an interesting article about metadata for authors, if you want to take a deeper dive, but for my purposes, the key is those keywords and how they can be used to get readers to find your book.

Keywords are the way we create compelling descriptions of our books, or blurbs, that are used on bookseller sites to attract readers. Keywords are what should, ideally, come up in a search of books similar to yours. But most of us writers really fall flat when we are asked to write either keywords or sales descriptions (versus general descriptions) of our books. We write the story—what happens, where, to whom. We don’t necessarily write the sizzle, as one author friend said. Keywords aren’t fully used as a way to attract readers.

There are simple keywords and there are long-tail keywords, which are more refined and specific. Both are incredibly useful, when an author learns how to incorporate them into marketing a book.

But so many authors assume the back-cover or jacket copy of their book is enough to connect readers who are searching online for similar titles.

Not true. I learned this the hard way.

This week, I want to share some important tips I learned this past year, launching two books (!!), about different kinds of keywords, what to use where, and how they help readers find your book.

What are keywords?

Let’s start with basics—how keywords are used in marketing books (and everything else!).

For instance, Sally is browsing Amazon for a new book for her beach vacation. She types in “epic fantasy” because she loved the last one she read. Then she tries “island romance” for the same reason. The obliging search engine of Amazon suggests a handful of titles. Maybe yours, an island romance, is on it. But if you haven’t used those keywords, it probably isn’t. Sally won’t find you among the millions of options without those keywords.

Same situation with nonfiction. Say a reader is working with his therapist on an “estranged relationship” with his brother, so he searches with those keywords for other books to read.

Exchange Amazon for bookshop.org or Barnes & Noble or Abe Books or any other online bookseller. Their algorithm uses the search words, the keywords the customer types in, and puts forward a group of titles that fit. Google or any other search engine does the same.

But when our books are published, we don’t think of figuring out how to attract Sally or another potential reader with keywords in our description. We use the slick little blurb from the back cover of our book, maybe something the publisher wrote or we came up with.

That’s what I did, for all my recent books. I didn’t know anything different. My editor would run it by me for my two cents, we’d come up with what we thought was a great option, and it automatically went into the book page on Amazon and everywhere else.

I was lucky, though. A good friend, well-published herself, worked with keywords for other authors and was generous enough to educate me. She called me before A Woman’s Guide was published, a few weeks before it went up on Amazon for pre-orders, and suggested I refine my description using more accurate keywords.

I didn’t know where to begin.

“We’ll start with your comps,” she told me.

Using comps to research keywords

Comps are comparable titles, as most of you know. You use comps when you query agents, who rely on these “comparables” to sell your book to publishers.

Good comps have a few requirements: they are titles that have been published recently (within the past two years), they have sold well, they have good ratings and reviews, and they are similar in some way to yours. (They may have a similar subject or location or they may have an aspect of story that is like your book.)

Searching for comps is a time-consuming and difficult process, in my experience. I usually have to ask my beta readers, other writer friends, and my editor for suggestions. Sometimes I use a TV series or movies as good comps (for my soon-to-be published novel, Last Bets, two great comps were The White Lotus and The Queen’s Gambit, because the novel takes place in an island resort and it is about gambling and a woman who uses second sight to win). I do a lot of browsing of titles online, particularly in referred sections of the bookseller sites and Goodreads or BookBub (two peer review sites). You’re looking for books you think might be good comps, then you browse the suggested lineup below the book’s description. Usually they are listed by “If you liked this book, you might like this one.” Suggestions I find irritating as a consumer but very helpful when researching comps.

You can also find comps via reviews—surprisingly. Trade reviews usually offer one or two comps with every title they review. For my new novel, Last Bets, suggested comps were The Last Resort by Marissa Stapley and Comfort and Joy by Kristin Hannah.

I browsed to those book pages on Amazon to begin my keyword search.

Using descriptions and categories/rankings to find keywords

Using the description of The Last Resort, I got these keywords:

luxurious resort, deadly tropical storm, trapping guests, secrets revealed, loyalties tested, gripping, relationships, trust, propulsive read, big truths we hide

I also looked at the description of Comfort and Joy for keywords:

a crossroads in her life, alone, unexpected detour, bold decision, leave ordinary life behind, desperate, two unlikely souls, deep and powerful bond, finds herself again, ripped apart, heart broken, find courage, new life

Next, I looked at the categories Amazon’s algorithm had chosen for these two novels. You find these by scrolling down to ratings.

Stapley’s book was in these categories: psychological thriller, suspense thriller

Hannah’s was in these categories: woman’s domestic life fiction, contemporary women’s fiction

This hour or so of research yielded some good results. I decided my novel would fit well in the suspense category and also contemporary women’s fiction. Plus I had some good keywords (both simple and long-tail) to consider using for my description.

Using AI and reviews to research keywords

I’m not a huge fan of AI, mostly because I’m suspicious of it “writing” for writers, but it is incredibly useful for keyword search. I use Bard AI (just google to open). In the search box I typed:

Please give me top keywords for psychological thrillers on Amazon.

Please give me top keywords for suspense fiction on Amazon.

Please give me top keywords for island suspense novels on Amazon.

Each of these resulted in more keywords I could use—the last one, especially.

So far, so good.

Next, I reread the reviews from my launch team. Quite a few were up on Goodreads by this time (pre-pub) and BookBub.

By now, I had a great list of keywords I could choose from. I’ll list a few below.

mystery, fast-paced, exciting, high tension, meaningful relationships, page turner, suspense, masterful plotting, edge of seat, quick rhythm, friendship, loyalty, cross-generational, relations and redemption, strong women, thriller, betrayal, autonomy, strong female characters, complicated emotions, creating a new future, starting over, second chances

You can see, probably, that keywords don’t tell the story of your book—not at all. They aren’t supposed to. They are sales tools, not descriptors.

Here’s how I turned the back-cover description for Last Bets into something completely different for actually selling the book online.

Converting your book blurb to a sales tool

I’ll share the back-cover copy and how it changed to become a sales tool on the bookseller sites. It’s very dramatically different, and at first, truthfully, it embarrassed me in how it screamed “marketing”—I have to be honest about that. But I got over it quickly when the first Instagram blogger posted my cover reveal on January 8 and her followers loved the description. In fact, that afternoon my book got the coveted orange #1 bestseller arrow for both Kindle and paperback versions just from pre-orders generated by those blogger posts.

Back-cover description

Portrait artist Elly Sorensen leaves her Washington, D.C., life for the Caribbean island of Bonaire, hoping to find refuge from personal tragedy and financial fallout. Instead, she is confronted by old demons, including a gambling underworld that taps paranormal talents she would prefer to leave dormant.  

On the island she finds an unlikely kindred spirit in teenager Rosie Ryan, an Australian with a gambling father and artistic talents of her own—and a penchant for breaking and entering, particularly into the rooms of other guests. 

Rosie is blamed for a freak diving accident and makes a desperate choice. The stakes at the gambling table mount, and nobody is safe, least of all Elly, whose whole life, it seems, hangs on one final game. As a tropical storm threatens the island, Rosie and Elly must conquer forces they never imagined and fight for a future that promises real freedom.

Amazon description

Notice how much longer this is, the embedded keywords throughout, and how the first paragraphs are the most “sales” oriented, with the idea of capturing interest without the need to scroll too far down.

As well, blurbs (reviews) were added to the beginning and ending of the page. You can see the whole thing here.

Escape to paradise. Find trouble instead!

Last Bets, by award-winning author of the bestseller, A Woman's Guide to Search & Rescue, is a fast-paced suspense novel that will appeal to fans of The Queen's Gambit and The White Lotus. In Mary Carroll Moore's must-read new book, female ambition and morality collide in the darkness of a gambling underworld on the idyllic, exotic island of Bonaire.

As a child, Elly Sorensen's gambler father drafted his daughter to use her paranormal gift of second sight to help him win big at gambling tables. After nearly getting killed back then, Elly vowed never again.

Now she secretly uses her visions to paint portraits with startling authenticity. Celebrities seek out Elly for her rare talent at capturing their essence. She's at the height of her artistic career.

Then Elly's estranged husband suddenly dies, leaving her with massive debts that must be paid right away. To quickly make the amount of money she needs, Elly flees to the Caribbean island of Bonaire to finish a commission for a wealthy man.

There, she meets Australian teenager and kindred spirit Rosie Ryan. Rosie's father also uses his daughter to scout information that nefariously helps him win at gambling. Rosie reminds Elly of her sister Lily, a girl she failed to rescue long ago.

Rosie's emotional needs and deceptions, along with a deadly hurricane racing toward the island, draw Elly back into the gambling world to win the fast money she desperately needs.

Even though Elly can barely rescue herself, will she use her paranormal powers again? Can she fully trust the grifter, Rosie? Underestimated by the men around them, what would happen if Rosie and Elly teamed up to conquer forces they never imagined? Will they fight for a future that promises real freedom?

Radically different—and as I said above, at first, I was a bit embarrassed by all the self-promotion of it. But then it passed the test with strangers (and a couple of close friends), so I’m going with it.

It’s quite the learning experience to begin to use keywords.

What do you think?