Categories, Key Words, and Tags, Oh My: Why should an Author Care?
Two weeks ago I published my second historical mystery, Uneasy Spirits, and in the process I was reminded of how confusing it can be to determine the best category and key words I should use on Amazon to describe my book. Since there are several other authors who have been wrestling with the same question in the Historical Fiction Authors Cooperative (HFAC) that I belong to, I decided to write this post on how to use categories and keywords to maximize ebook sales. For the purpose of this post I am focusing on ebooks on Amazon, in part because that is where I have the most experience, but also because Amazon is definitely ahead of the other ebook stores in its sophisticated approaches to helping readers find books. My understanding of these issues is based on my experience as a Read more…
The Instant Accessibility of Ebooks: More than just a Convenience
Last week, as I read through the reactions to the Dorchester Publishing decision to go digital on the Smart Bitches site I was surprised at the number of comments that expressed the “I will never give up the physical book for ebooks” sentiment. I think I was particularly surprised to find this on a romance site, because it was my impression that readers of romance novels had been some of the earliest adopters of ebooks-hence Harlequin’s success as a leader in the world of digital publishing. Then today I read an interesting post entitled “It’s the End of the Book As We Know It and I Feel Fine,“ where the author argues that the traditional model of publishing is a scarcity model (where the reader has to wait for a book they are interested in reading) and that with the Read more…
^