To read Part 1 go to: https://booksopendoors.com/title-writing-advice
Part 2: You also want to capture their attention by using words that are important to them in their search. Because 1. It lets them know your book is on the topic they are looking for and 2. It makes it easy for them to find the topic, and that’s where search engine optimization comes in.. This is especially important within Amazon where the majority of books are sold and where there are millions of books, so you can’t afford for your book to get miscategorized and forgotten.
You have to know the best keywords; these are the words that people will look up when they are looking for your topic, and they must be the best words for your topic and authors don’t always know what they are.
For instance, I once had a client who had already written her book before she came to me and according to her title her book was about death, but there was one big problem; it wasn’t about death, it was about the afterlife. Luckily, in this case, we were able to change the word “death” to “afterlife” and it still worked, but that is not always the case.
Usually, you’ll find several words and/or phrases that will be related to your topic, but all of them are not created equally. You want to find the most common words used to describe your topic: the ones people look up most.
You can do this by using a site like wordtracker or neilpatel.com/ubbersuggest. Then, you want to cross-reference in Amazon. Each time you search with one of your keywords, notice words that are used in several titles, especially if they are bestsellers. That is a clue that they are popular terms. Then, craft your title using one or more of those words. After that, pick the seven best ones that are left to use to publish your book as Amazon allows you to use seven keywords in your listing.
Without doing this, it’s like throwing darts with a blindfold, hoping that something sticks, which makes no sense when you’ve put your heart into it and spent precious time, energy, and money bringing your book to market,
You’ll also want to figure out what are the best categories for your book because that is also important in making sure that people can find your book in the right categories as well as in categories where it can get found. This can sometimes be tricky because, for instance, your book might be a memoir, but if you aren’t famous it will never get found under that category, so you have to figure out what other categories it could go into.
In this case, life lessons are often another theme running through the book, so it would make sense to have it categorized under something more along those lines.
Then again, you may want to use memoirs as one of your categories along with another less crowded category. Your final decision will depend on what other options you have and your strategy. That’s why using a professional coach who knows how to help you can make a big difference in book sales as well as the marketability of your book.
Another advantage of knowing the best keywords and categories in advance of writing your book is that they can affect how you approach writing your book as well as your title. Sometimes, it becomes clear that one topic you plan to cover in your book is more in demand than another one, which can affect how much time you spend talking about it compared to the others. And sometimes, it can even change the point of view you decide to take when writing your book.
So, make sure that you work with someone who. is experienced not only in title writing, but in using the data to give your books the best chance of growing your business as well as selling books, or learn how to do it properly yourself.
To get my free Secret Title Formula Checklist go to www.booktitlesecrets.com
Ellen Violette helps busy creative visionaries, leaders and change-makers, write, publish, launch to #1 bestseller, and market their book to get more clients, make more money, make a bigger impact, and leave a legacy.
She is an award-winning book and business coach, podcast host, CEO of Create a Splash Marketing & Grammy-nominated songwriter.
