Mastering Book Metadata to Maximize Market Reach

02/19/25 • 45 min

In this episode, Lauren & Matt deep dive into book metadata and how it can better position your book in the market. Maximize your discoverability and reach with tips on choosing bookstore categories and BISAC codes, tools for keyword research, and best practices for making the most of your metadata.

Dive Deeper

💡 Complete BISAC Subject Headings List

💡 Bublish's AI Author Toolkit

💡 Publisher Rocket

💡 Listen to These Episodes

Ep #34 | Hooking New Readers With a Compelling Book Description
Ep #37 | How to Get Your Book Into Indie Bookstores
Ep #51 | Finding Your Niche, Your Ideal Reader, and Your Target Audience

💡 Read These Blog Posts

💡 Watch These Videos

Sound Bites From This Episode

🎙️ [3:02] “Your metadata is relevant to you if you're selling direct, if you're doing distribution, if you're sticking to a single ecommerce solution, whatever it is, no matter what you're doing, your metadata is relevant to your book.”

🎙️ [15:28] “I think you should be marketing to human beings and not to algorithms.”

🎙️ [32:21] “Understanding that to prepare yourself for a future where search looks different than it does now being as concise and specific with your keywords is going to be more important than ever.”

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Dive Deeper

💡 Complete BISAC Subject Headings List

💡 Bublish's AI Author Toolkit

💡 Publisher Rocket

💡 Listen to These Episodes

Ep #34 | Hooking New Readers With a Compelling Book Description
Ep #37 | How to Get Your Book Into Indie Bookstores
Ep #51 | Finding Your Niche, Your Ideal Reader, and Your Target Audience

💡 Read These Blog Posts

💡 Watch These Videos

Sound Bites From This Episode

🎙️ [15:28] “I think you should be marketing to human beings and not to algorithms.”

Previous Episode

Creative Ways to Use Print-On-Demand to Support Your Business

In this episode, Matt & Lauren explore different ways print-on-demand technology can support your business. We share ideas for creating books for internal use, brand awareness and loyalty projects, and new product lines to consider.

Dive Deeper

💡 Listen to These Episodes

Episode #22 | Using Customer Data to Grow Your Business
Episode #33 | Books You Can Create Using Your Existing Content
Episode #54 | Can Books Add Value to Your Business (Beyond Just Revenue)?

💡 Read These Blog Posts

💡 Watch These Videos

💡 Stephen Cabebe's book Disney Ready: Your Pain Free Parks Survival Guide

💡 How Armen Adamjan Uses Print-On-Demand To Turn Video Content Into Profitable Books

Sound Bites From This Episode

🎙️ [3:59] “This is not an episode about self-publishing a book to then use print-on-demand to then grow your business similar to some of the other episodes we've done, which are great. This is truly about the technology and functionality of print-on-demand in your business.”

🎙️ [22:23] “If you're listening to this and you're like, okay, but I already do that, but I just do it in like an email form or a PDF form or something like that. I'm like, just think about how much it's elevating the experience to get a physical printed copy of it.”

🎙️ [30:25] “I would rather win your mailbox than to compete against your inbox or struggle in your DMs.”

Next Episode

Book Publicity Simplified with Sarah Franklin

In this episode, Matt & Lauren are joined by Sarah Franklin, Lulu’s Public Relations Manager and expert book publicist! Hear about book publicity simplified as Sarah answers questions like:

→ What’s the value in hiring a publicist vs. doing your own publicity?

→ What exactly is a publicist’s role in book marketing?

→ How do you make the most of earned publicity once you have it?

And more! Listen now or watch Episode #60 on YouTube.

Dive Deeper

💡 Featured

💡 Listen to These Episodes

Ep #10 | Marketing Your Book Pre-Launch, At-Launch, and Post-Launch
Ep #13 | Earning Free Publicity for Your Book
Ep #57 | How to Use a Preorder Campaign to Boost Your Book Launch

💡 Read These Blog Posts

How to Earn Media Attention: Essential PR Tips for Authors

💡 Watch These Videos

PR for Authors: Building Buzz Around Your Book

Sound Bites From This Episode
🎙️ [11:05] “Depending on the goals for your book, a publicist is one of those things where you absolutely should spend the money if you can afford it and some of your goals for this book align with the need for having a publicist, right?”

🎙️ [25:24] “You know, they can get you exposure, but your expertise in your book, that should be the moneymaker right there.”

🎙️ [41:01] “Something may come of it, nothing may come of it, but nothing's gonna happen if you don't do anything.”

Publish & Prosper - Mastering Book Metadata to Maximize Market Reach

Transcript

Lauren: Hey everyone, welcome back to Publish & Prosper. Today we are going to get as close as I possibly can to my repeated threats to do an entire episode about ISBNs.

Matt: Did you hit record?

Lauren: Yes, I did.

Matt: Okay. Then I'll refrain from what I was gonna say.

Lauren: Okay. That’s - I appreciate that.

Matt: Yeah, I mean, whatever.

Lauren: Look, I just love any opportunity to nerd out about books. We know this.

Matt: Yeah, no, I