If your book is not selling, the problem may be your metadata. For many authors, the word metadata sounds like static in their ears. You know what data is, so metadata must be the same thing, right?
No. Metadata is critical to book sales.
I asked Dave Chesson, creator of Kindlepreneur.com, Publisher Rocket, Atticus, and other tools for authors, to explain why.
What is metadata?
Dave: First, you have to understand how stores like Amazon or Barnes & Noble work. When you submit your book, they are not using humans to read it and decide where it belongs. They rely on the metadata you supply to help their systems categorize it.
Think of a physical bookstore. You place your book in a box with information written on the outside, then hand it to a store clerk. The clerk reads that information and decides which shelf it belongs on. When readers browse that shelf, they find your book.
Now imagine you provide no information. The clerk picks it up and thinks, “Wiccan? Is this fantasy? Religious studies? Nonfiction? Romance?” The store will not read the book to figure it out. It will likely end up in “Miscellaneous,” the section no one visits.
That is why correct metadata matters. It tells digital stores exactly what your book is about so that they know where to place it and which shoppers to show it to.
Thomas: I think of metadata like the old library card catalogs. I remember checking out books using those cards. The card contained the title, the Dewey Decimal number, the genre, the author. All of that was metadata. It helped me find the right shelf and the right book.
Today we use sophisticated databases instead of card catalogs, but the principle is the same. If the card is blank or incomplete, it becomes harder to find the right book. Missing data is just as toxic to book sales now as it was then.
Many struggling authors ask, “Why is my book not ranking? Why can’t I find my book? Why are readers not finding my book?” Almost always, the answer is metadata.
Dave: That is exactly how I got interested in metadata. I published a book, worked hard on it, designed it, uploaded it, and then could not find it on Amazon. I would type in relevant phrases, and it would not show up.
Then I started asking, “Why is Amazon showing this other book instead of mine? Mine fits better.” That is when I realized I needed to understand how to communicate clearly with Amazon.
If Amazon understands what your book is about, it feels confident showing it to shoppers. It can match the right book to the right reader. But if Amazon is confused, it will not take the risk of showing your book to someone who might not want it. Amazon’s main goal is to make customers happy and keep them happy. If Amazon shows a customer a book they don’t want or like, the customer isn’t happy.
If Amazon repeatedly shows the wrong products, customers stop using Amazon. So, the platform has to get it right. The only way it will actively promote your book is if it clearly understands what your book is and who it is for.
Why does Amazon care about metadata?
Thomas: Amazon has millions of options. It does not care about you or your book sale. It cares about customer experience. If another book ranks better and satisfies the shopper, Amazon will show that one instead of yours.
There are two primary places authors control metadata. One is inside the Amazon interface when creating the book. The other, often more important, is connected to the ISBN.
Many authors ask, “Do I need an ISBN?” If you are asking that, you don’t understand metadata.
Dave: Think of the ISBN like a Social Security number for your book. Just as each person has a unique number, each edition of your book has an ISBN. It identifies that specific version.
I would also add a third component to metadata beyond what you enter during upload and your ISBN: reader interaction. How people interact with your book affects Amazon’s decisions. If your book appears in search results but no one clicks it, Amazon learns that it may not match what shoppers are looking for.
So, metadata, ISBN data, and reader behavior all work together.
Thomas: Technically, the ISBN is the unique identifier that connects your book to its database entry. The barcode on the back cover is usually just a graphical representation of the ISBN that a scanner can read.
In the United States, you purchase ISBNs through Bowker. You need a different ISBN for each format of your book because each format has different metadata. A paperback has a page count. A hardcover has a different page count. An audiobook lists total minutes of listening and a narrator. The metadata fields change by format.
Do not use the same ISBN for multiple formats. That confuses the system and violates best practices.
Some countries provide ISBNs for free. Canada, for example, has a government agency that handles them. The numbering system is international. Each country has its own block of numbers.
Most U.S. authors buy ISBNs in blocks of ten or one hundred. If you publish multiple formats per title, you will use them quickly. If you publish an ebook, paperback, hardcover, audiobook, and special edition, you’ll use five ISBNs for one book.
When you log into Bowker, fill out every field. An unoptimized entry is a problem. A blank field is worse.
Dave: And remember, the barcode is essential for inventory management. Stores use it to track stock levels. We even offer a free barcode generator on Kindlepreneur to help authors place it correctly on the back cover.
Thomas: Another piece of metadata is the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP). You cannot require stores to charge that price, but it is still part of your book’s data profile.
Some authors say they do not need an ISBN because their book exists only inside Amazon. While I generally disagree with that strategy, it is true that if you publish directly through KDP, you control many metadata fields inside Amazon regardless of Bowker.
What metadata fields do authors control inside KDP?
Dave: Metadata is any piece of information the algorithm can use to understand your book.
That includes:
- Title
- Subtitle
- Author name
- Publisher name
- Book description
- Categories
- Keywords
The title and subtitle matter because readers search by those terms. Your author name is metadata. Your publishing imprint is metadata.
One of the most important sections in KDP is the seven keyword boxes. Amazon gives you seven boxes, each allowing up to 50 characters. A character includes letters, numbers, and spaces. You can place phrases in those boxes.
These keyword fields are your opportunity to tell Amazon, “If a shopper types this in, this is the book they want.”
Your categories also matter. Amazon cross-checks your keywords, your description, and your categories. If you claim your book is a crypto thriller but place it in nonfiction and your description does not mention crypto, that creates confusion.
When there are inconsistencies in what I call your “metadata ecosystem,” Amazon becomes less confident and less likely to promote your book.
As authors, we should not try to trick the system. Instead, clearly communicate what the book truly is. Your keywords, categories, and description should align with what readers expect in that subgenre.
For fiction authors especially, I recommend writing your description for sales, then stepping back and asking, “Does this sound like my subgenre?”
I have seen authors write descriptions that make a book sound like a buddy cop mystery, when they insist it is psychological horror. If the description does not reflect the true genre, the algorithm will misclassify it. When that happens, your horror novel may be shown to mystery readers, and they will not click. Amazon will learn that your book is not a good match for that audience, and your visibility will suffer.
That is why metadata is not optional. It is foundational.
Why is choosing the right category more strategic than most authors realize?
Thomas: When you place your book in a subcategory, you are automatically included in the parent category. So, it is a huge mistake to say, “I put my book in Fiction. My book is fiction. I’m done.”
No, you are not. If you want to rank number one in the Fiction category, you have to beat every other kind of fiction. Some genres have such massive fan bases that they are always going to outrank smaller genres. That is why you want to go as far down the category tree as you can on Amazon. You still get the parent categories, but you also get placed where readers are actually shopping for books like yours.
If you are writing science fiction and fantasy, do not stop at the Science Fiction and Fantasy category. Keep going. If you are writing epic fantasy, pick the most specific epic fantasy category you can.
Also, you need to make this decision twice. The book industry uses BISAC categories. Those connect to your ISBN and are what most retailers use because they are the industry standard. Amazon does not follow industry standards. They have their own category system.
As far as I can tell, there is no need for your BISAC categories and your Amazon categories to match exactly. Amazon has far more options, and they create new categories quickly. Amazon finally created a LitRPG category. BISAC might not have one until 2035.
How do BISAC categories and Amazon categories differ?
Dave: To add context, there are about 4,900 BISAC categories, and they are universally accepted by most retailers. Amazon has 14,000-plus categories, so you have more opportunities.
If you are publishing on Amazon, I recommend staying away from BISAC-style categories on Amazon. Most traditional publishers upload using BISAC categories because they are not optimizing specifically for Amazon. Those BISAC-aligned categories tend to be extremely competitive, and you are often fighting big publishers there.
When you take the time to explore Amazon’s categories, you may find a highly relevant category where you only need three or four sales a day to become a bestseller. Meanwhile, a broader, BISAC-heavy category might require 300 sales a day.
With 14,000 category options, you can target a category where you can earn a bestseller tag and also appear in the top 25, which matters because shoppers browse category pages.
Thomas: This is one reason indie books often outsell traditionally published books. Indie authors are motivated to tune Amazon-specific metadata. They tweak it, revisit it a few weeks later, test it, and improve it.
Traditional publishers publish constantly. Whoever is entering metadata does it once and moves on to the next book. They are not testing and optimizing because they are too busy. You’re lucky if they simply do it correctly.
If you are traditionally published, you should check your metadata. I have heard many stories where even basic things, like choosing the correct category, are wrong. Sometimes the book ends up in an entirely incorrect category.
That confuses Amazon, and it confuses readers. Then you attract the wrong readers, they leave negative reviews because the book does not match what they expected, and you start the launch in a hole that is hard to climb out of.
What happens when you force your book into a category where it does not belong?
Dave: Do not stretch yourself so far that Amazon gets confused.
A funny example is when Harry Potter was placed in an “orphan story” category. It was still fiction, but the category choice was absurd. The book is famous enough that the algorithm will not get confused, but imagine you are not famous.
If your main character is an orphan, that does not mean your book belongs in “orphan memoir.” If you choose that category, Amazon may decide, “Oh, this must belong next to memoirs,” and now it is showing your epic fantasy to memoir readers.
Just because a detail is present in your story does not mean it should drive your category choice. Be careful. You do not want to confuse the system.
Thomas: We have a tool in the Patron Toolbox called the Trope and Genre Finder. It breaks down your book by tropes and gives a genre alignment score by comparing your tropes to tropes common in other genres.
This is helpful because authors sometimes “squint” and try to justify a category fit. They say, “There’s a wish, and it comes true, so it’s fantasy,” but everything else is grounded in the real world. That is not what fantasy readers expect. Fantasy readers expect a certain set of genre signals, things like elves, wizards, and magic systems, plus a whole bundle of shared expectations.
This is not a game you win by picking an obscure category you do not fit. You can play well by helping the right readers find the book they actually want, but you do not want to chase a number-one badge in a category where your book does not belong. That is the path to low reviews and weak long-term sales, even if you get the badge for a moment.
How is Amazon creating metadata you do not control?
Thomas: Amazon is increasingly assigning your book metadata that you do not control.
Historically, the publisher provided the metadata, and that was what went on the library card. Now Amazon uses AI systems to derive metadata from reader reviews. Reviews mention recurring elements and themes, and Amazon incorporates that information into its internal understanding of your book.
This gives Amazon a competitive advantage over other retailers. It also reinforces why genre alignment matters. Even if you optimize your categories and keywords in a way that does not truly fit, readers will complain once they read the book. Those complaints show up in reviews, and that feedback becomes part of Amazon’s internal metadata.
Dave: Years ago, Amazon used to show little word boxes above the reviews. You could click a word and see the reviews that mentioned it. That was an early version of what Amazon is doing now.
Those words generally fell into three groups. The first was basic book details like the title and author. The second was descriptive review language like “fast-paced” or “edge of your seat.” The third, and my favorite, was genre-specific keywords that Amazon associated with the book based on what reviewers were saying.
Back then, I used to tell authors to look at those words to see what Amazon believed was important about the book. This was before tools like Publisher Rocket could show you what keywords a book ranks for.
Those boxes also proved something else. People used to argue, “Amazon doesn’t read reviews.” I would tell them, “They absolutely do,” and the boxes were evidence.
It makes sense. A shopper describing a book is powerful metadata. But Amazon also cares about customer happiness. Amazon shows your book to a customer, the customer buys it, and Amazon evaluates whether it created a good experience.
If customers buy the book and love it, everybody wins. If customers buy it and feel misled, Amazon notices. It may still be able to convince people to buy the book, but if readers are unhappy, that is a problem for Amazon.
Amazon does not want to be known as a marketplace full of low-quality or misleading products. So, it looks at whether the product is perceived as the right product and received as the right product.
How does metadata impact readers?
Thomas: You want to make the right promise with your metadata, and then you need to deliver on that promise.
Making the right promise is not enough if the book does not fulfill it. You cannot promise a thrilling adventure if the actual experience is a cozy, relaxing read. Those are different promises to different audiences.
So, when I say, “If your book is not selling, it may be metadata,” the other part of that equation is that you must deliver on the promise. If your book does not deliver, you cannot fix that with metadata.
But for many authors, the book is good. They are simply not making the right promise with their metadata. And that is why readers are not finding it and why it is not selling.
How does metadata shape the shopper’s path to purchase?
Dave: There’s another side of metadata that many people don’t consider. I like to walk through what I call the shopper’s path to purchase.
Imagine you’re shopping on Amazon. Let’s use LitRPG as an example. If you’re not familiar, LitRPG stands for literary role-playing games. It’s typically fantasy where the story includes game-like systems, whether the character is inside a game, in a virtual world, or operating under rules that feel like an RPG.
Within LitRPG, you can go even deeper into subgenres. One of my favorites is cultivation, where a character gains points or power by defeating monsters, then “cultivates” that power to become stronger. The reader can track progress through levels, essence, points, or whatever the system calls it.
Now imagine a shopper who just finished reading Ready Player One. Some people debate whether it’s LitRPG, but let’s use it for illustration. The shopper thinks, “I want more books like that,” and someone tells them, “You should look for LitRPG.”
So, the shopper starts typing phrases into Amazon’s search bar. At first, they search broadly, then they get more specific as they learn the niche. When the results appear, they scan covers, titles, and subtitles. They’re trying to answer one question: “Is this the kind of book I think I’m looking for?”
With LitRPG, there are visual cues you can use on the cover, but the title and subtitle can also do a lot of work. A subtitle like “An epic LitRPG adventure” helps the shopper quickly confirm, “Yes, this is what I want.”
Then they click. Next comes the book description. They read it to confirm again that this is the right kind of book, and ideally, a good version of that kind of book.
Amazon used your metadata to show your book to that shopper in the first place. The real question is whether you deliver on the expectation your metadata created. Does the cover look right? Do the title and subtitle signal the right subgenre? Does the description reaffirm that this is the experience they want?
When everything is in sync, Amazon learns, “We matched the right product to the right shopper.” The shopper is happy, the reviews are strong, and Amazon keeps showing the book to more people searching for that same kind of read.
When you build that symbiotic relationship between cover, title, subtitle, description, and metadata, your book performs better organically. It also converts better when you run ads, whether through Amazon Ads or external ads.
How does the book cover impact readers?
Dave: I’ve done a simple exercise with authors that makes this obvious. I ask them to show me their book, but not to tell me anything about it. I look at the cover and describe what I think the book is.
Many times, I’m way off.
I’ll say, “This feels lighthearted,” and the author tells me it’s dark. Or someone searches for “wholesome Christian romance” and lands on a book that reads like erotica. The author didn’t intend to mislead, but the cover didn’t communicate the genre clearly enough.
Or the title is something vague like Everglade, and the cover provides no context. How is a shopper supposed to know what kind of book it is? If they can’t tell, they won’t click. If they won’t click, the algorithm learns the book isn’t a match.
All of this has to align with your metadata and the shopper’s experience.
Thomas: Arguably, the cover is a form of metadata. It’s like an emotional summary of your metadata.
My Patron Tool Box includes a Book Cover Analyzer, and it doesn’t include a “genre” field. Sometimes authors complain, “Your analyzer says my cover is the wrong genre.”
No, it’s guessing the genre based on the visual elements of your cover. And you know who else does that? Readers.
The most important job of a cover is to communicate genre instantly, subconsciously. If I see a pink cover with a couple embracing, I bounce. I don’t even read the title. I assume it’s romance, and I don’t read romance.
Everybody does this. I’ve never met someone who reads every genre. If your cover signals a genre they don’t read, they stop paying attention immediately. That’s why the cover, title, and metadata must be aligned.
What can Ender’s Game teach authors about cover design?
Dave: I once consulted Orson Scott Card, author of Ender’s Game. I was thrilled because I’m a huge sci-fi fan.
He told me a story I love. When he wrote Ender’s Game, the original cover showed a big spaceship with a smaller ship coming out, plus some tracking lights. He was furious. He told the publisher, “That’s not a scene from my book.”
The publisher said, “Mr. Card, you have to understand, we need people to recognize this as a military sci-fi book. This is what the trend shows. People will see this and know what it is.”
I told him how I discovered Ender’s Game, and it proved their point.
In middle school, I got in trouble with a librarian. She told me to pick a book and read it within a week, or she’d report me to the principal. I didn’t like reading as a kid. I have dyslexia, and it was hard for me.
So, I walked down the aisle looking for something familiar. I liked Star Wars. Then I saw a spine with a big spaceship and a little spaceship. I grabbed it and thought, “This looks like sci-fi. Done.”
That was Ender’s Game.
Orson Scott Card laughed. He said, first, he never expected it to become such a popular YA book. Second, he’d heard my story over and over. People saw the cover, recognized the genre, picked it up, and then discovered how good the book was.
That’s the point of a cover.
Should authors give input on the cover design?
Thomas: The goal of a cover isn’t to summarize the book. The goal is to make the reader curious and ultimately convince them to buy.
Dave: And to help them know what the book is, the subgenre, and the essence of what they’re about to experience.
Thomas: Often, the more an author interacts with the designer, the worse the cover gets. A designer creates an effective cover, then the author asks for changes to make it “more accurate.” Each change makes the cover less effective at selling.
I was talking to a professional cover designer who said she struggled to find AI covers as bad as the worst human-made covers. Authors “giving input” to human designers create a special kind of terrible cover that even AI struggles to replicate.
Don’t do that. Let your designer deliver something that fits your genre, then stop making changes. It saves time, saves money, and increases sales.
Dave: One caveat. If you’re working with a professional designer, I completely agree. If you’re hiring someone on Fiverr for $20 or $30, you may need to be more directive to get something usable.
But if you’re working with a professional sci-fi military designer, that person knows what sells in that market. You might not like the color choice, but they understand what resonates with sci-fi military readers.
If Orson Scott Card’s publisher had listened to him, a lot of readers, including me, might never have picked up Ender’s Game. He told me later that fighting the publisher on that cover would have been one of his biggest mistakes.
Who is the cover really for?
Thomas: Some authors will say, “But my favorite color is yellow, and there’s no yellow on the cover.”
One of the hardest lessons for authors to learn is that the cover is not for you. You already read the book. You wrote the book. The cover is for the reader.
The question isn’t your favorite color. The question is what your reader expects. What colors are common in the books they already love? Sometimes there’s a place to be unique, and sometimes there isn’t. Metadata is not the place to be creative.
How do readers use “similar books” to find their next read?
Thomas: Ready Player One became so popular that now, on Amazon, it’s not just a book, it’s also a discovery hub. When you land on that product page, Amazon shows dozens of other book covers.
If your keywords, title, subtitle, series name, categories, and reader purchase patterns line up with that ecosystem, your book can appear on the Ready Player One page for readers who want something similar.
That’s the goal. People who just had a great reading experience want more of that.
I remember finishing The Return of the King as a kid and slowing down near the end because I was sad it was over. I didn’t know about The Silmarillion or the broader legendarium. I thought there was no more The Lord of the Rings. So, I went looking for books like it.
That’s how genres form. When someone finishes the latest Sanderson book, they want authors like Sanderson. When someone finishes Orson Scott Card, they want authors like Orson Scott Card.
Knowing who you’re similar to matters. It’s important to present that information clearly because half of metadata is never seen by humans. It exists to help the system place your book next to the right other books, where the right readers can find it.
How can genre language improve your metadata and conversions?
Dave: When a customer goes to the Amazon search bar, they describe the book they want. They might type “epic sci-fi military alien invasion.”
If you’ve used that kind of metadata, Amazon may recognize your book as a match. But your genre alignment has to go beyond keywords.
When you design your cover, look at the covers ranking for those phrases. If epic sci-fi military novels typically feature massive warships firing lasers in space, and your cover is a dark background with a simple symbol in the center, readers may not recognize it as the same kind of book.
You might still have written a sci-fi military alien invasion story, but the visual language isn’t signaling that.
The same principle applies to your book description. Use language that clearly belongs to the genre.
For example, I could write:
“Planet Earth is locked in an ongoing battle with the Cyclons as humanity struggles to survive.”
That conveys information. But compare it to this:
“Earth stands as the last bastion on the far edge of the galaxy, enduring the relentless brutality of the Cyclon fleets. With every orbital bombardment, humanity inches closer to extinction, until one unlikely hero rises.”
It’s the same core idea, but the second version uses genre-specific language like “Orbital bombardment.” “Last bastion.” “Cyclon fleets.” Those phrases signal epic military sci-fi.
When you use genre language, you’re helping readers recognize the book as one they’d love, and you’re helping Amazon identify the book as a strong match for those search terms.
Amazon is scanning for phrases like “orbital bombardment” or “battle cruisers.” When it sees those, and readers respond well, the algorithm gains confidence.
For readers, you’re not just saying it’s a good story. You’re saying, “This is your kind of story.”
How do you find words unique to your genre?
Thomas: Ask yourself, “What words can I use to describe my book that no other genre would use?”
In Dave’s example, a lot of language about heroes and battles could apply to fantasy. But “orbital bombardment” does not belong in epic fantasy.
It narrows even further. Within military sci-fi, there’s a difference between navy-centric stories and space marine stories. Some focus on bombardment from orbit. Others focus on boots on the ground.
I’ve even noticed a cultural difference. British authors often lean toward orbital strategy. American authors often lean toward space marines landing to rescue hostages or secure objectives. That’s a microgenre within a microgenre, and readers recognize it.
If you can’t think of any words unique to your genre, that’s a red flag. It likely means you’re not reading enough in your genre.
I often recommend three pillars for developing as a writer: read classics, read craft books, and read bestsellers in your genre.
When it comes to metadata, bestsellers in your genre matter most. If you’re not writing what readers want to read, good marketing will not fix that disconnect. Marketing doesn’t turn people into a different kind of reader. It helps readers discover books they already want.
How can you discover high-performing genre keywords?
Dave: If you’re struggling to come up with genre-specific terms, this is where tools can help.
In Publisher Rocket (affiliate link), the reverse ASIN feature is incredibly powerful. You enter the ASIN or ISBN of a competing book, and Publisher Rocket shows you all the keyword phrases Amazon ranks that book for. This is not just what the author entered. It’s what Amazon decided the book should rank for, based on search behavior and performance.
Amazon only ranks a book for phrases that shoppers are actually searching.
I’ll take ten books similar to mine and run them through reverse ASIN. As I scroll through the results, I’ll find phrases I never would have thought of, and I write them down.
I can use those phrases in my seven KDP keyword boxes. I can also use them to strengthen my book description.
Instead of writing “starship,” I might use “battle cruiser.” Instead of “attack,” I might use “orbital strike” or “orbital bombardment.” It heightens the genre intensity and improves how Amazon understands the book.
If you’re unsure what language fits your niche, reverse ASIN is a great way to see what’s working.
Thomas: My wife sent me a photo of a restaurant named “Thai Places Near Me.” I don’t know if it was real or AI-generated, but the concept is hilarious and brilliant.
Instead of asking, “What do I want to name my restaurant?” they asked, “What are my customers typing into Google Maps?” Then they used that exact phrase.
That’s the extreme version of this principle.
If your book is similar to Ready Player One, and you want it to appear on that product page, you can run Ready Player One through reverse ASIN to see what Amazon ranks it for and tune your metadata accordingly.
This isn’t about lying. If your book isn’t actually similar, it won’t work. But if it is similar, this helps you make the right promise more clearly.
It’s powerful for refining titles, subtitles, series names, and especially your book description.
I’ve never met an author who wrote a great book description on the first try. I’ve met very few who got it right on the fifth try. As James Rubart says, “It’s hard to read the label when you’re standing inside the bottle.”
Writing a strong book description often takes multiple drafts and experiments before you find the version that makes readers think, “I’ve been waiting for this book.”
Maybe they loved a certain video game and now see a novel that captures that same experience. If someone wrote a novel that captured the spirit of a game like Helldivers 2, you know who would buy it? I would, along with readers who already love that experience.
Dave: Just so you know, there are books written by Nicholas Sandsbury Smith that predate the game. They’re excellent.
Is a subtitle necessary for your metadata?
Dave: I often hear fiction authors say, “I see big-name authors who don’t use subtitles, so I won’t use one either.”
I would challenge that thinking.
Stephen King doesn’t need a subtitle because readers already know what a Stephen King book is.
But if you’re a new author, I don’t know what you write. A subtitle can help a shopper quickly understand what kind of book they’re looking at. It’s not about stuffing in keywords. It’s about clarity.
I once saw a book cover with a shadowy figure on horseback and what looked like fireworks in the background. The title was Hitch. That was it.
I couldn’t tell whether the figure was a cowboy or a Civil War soldier. I couldn’t tell if the background was fireworks or cannon fire. I didn’t know the time period, the genre, or the tone. Was it romance? Historical fiction? War drama? I had no idea.
If the subtitle had said, “A Civil War Novel of Love and Betrayal,” I would immediately understand the time period and emotional stakes. Or if it said, “A Lonesome Cowboy’s Search for Redemption,” I would understand the character arc.
A subtitle can anchor the cover. It helps the shopper interpret what they’re seeing.
Well-known authors may survive without one because readers already understand their brand. But if you want to attract new readers, clarity matters.
How can you test your book description before publishing?
Dave: One of my favorite tactics for book descriptions starts long before publication.
When people ask, “What are you writing?” I use that moment to test my description. I pay attention to their eyes and body language. If they lean in, I know I’m onto something. If they glaze over, I know I need to improve it.
A strong book description can spark interest even in someone who doesn’t normally read that genre. They may not buy it, but they’ll say, “That sounds cool.”
Don’t wait until upload day to throw something together. Craft it. Test it. Refine it.
Thomas: In the Patron Toolbox, I offer several book description tools designed to use before you finish your book.
The most popular tool is Book to Blurb. You upload your manuscript and the tool generates a description. Other tools ask focused questions about the protagonist, antagonist, and central question. You don’t need a finished manuscript to answer those.
This allows you to test your promise early. If the description resonates, you know you’re making a compelling promise. Then you can write the book to fulfill it.
Writing a good book description is difficult. As James Rubart says, “It’s hard to read the label when you’re standing inside the bottle.” It often takes multiple drafts to find language that makes readers think, “I’ve been waiting for this book.”
Why can famous authors get away with less metadata?
Thomas: Once an author becomes well-known and disciplined in their brand, their name functions almost like a microgenre.
If I see a new epic fantasy by Brandon Sanderson, I expect a hard magic system, heroic characters, and certain tonal elements. His name communicates those things to readers who know him. But that only works for people who’ve already read him.
If someone has never read Brandon Sanderson, his name means nothing. If he doesn’t help introduce himself to new readers, he’ll hit a ceiling.
Even Stephen King isn’t universally known. Ask a random barista to name three Stephen King books or explain how he differs from James Patterson, and you discover that many can’t.
No one should assume universal recognition.
Dave: You’ll also notice that once an author’s name is big enough, publishers make the author’s name larger than the title. That’s because the name sells.
When I see a new Brandon Sanderson book, I buy it because I trust the brand. But that trust was earned over time.
I’ve seen the opposite example too with the book Hitch that I mentioned earlier. The author may have been well-known in that niche, but I didn’t know them. Without clarity, I moved on. That author may have lost a potential reader.
Can you manufacture a big name by design?
Thomas: You can’t become a big-name author by enlarging your font size. Stephen King didn’t become famous because his name was big on the cover. His name is big on the cover because he became famous by writing books that made strong promises and delivered on them.
Readers decide when your name carries weight. Even then, you can’t rely on it completely. I’ve enjoyed some Stephen King books and disliked others. If I see his name alone, I may still need more information before I buy.
Your name doesn’t replace metadata. It complements it.
Dave: In the 1990s, Stephen King published books under the name Richard Bachman. Those books did not sell nearly as well.
When it was revealed that Richard Bachman was Stephen King, sales surged. Titles like The Running Man and Thinner gained new life. Same author. Different name. Very different results. That experiment proved that the name mattered.
But most of us are not Stephen King or Richard Bachman. We need every piece of metadata working in our favor. Especially as new authors, clarity about genre, subgenre, niche, and audience gives readers a reason to take a chance on us.
Thomas: Until you’re faithful with the smallest piece of metadata, no one will give you the big-name advantage.
Where can authors get help with metadata?
Dave: PublisherRocket.com was built to help authors with metadata. It shows you the keywords shoppers are using, what books rank for those keywords, how much money those books are making, and which categories are available.
It lists all 14,000-plus Amazon categories and helps you find sub-niche categories. It tells you how many sales per day you need to become a bestseller in each category.
It also identifies “ghost categories,” which are categories you can’t truly rank in. About one out of every three categories on Amazon is effectively a ghost category. Amazon doesn’t tell you which ones those are, but Publisher Rocket does.
It’s used by publishers and agencies, but it was designed to give self-publishers a competitive advantage through better metadata.
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