Search Engine Optimization how to help you build a readership and market your book

writer writing. The writer must write. It sounds simple and necessary. But no writer said it was simple. The act of writing is daunting, lonely, and often lonely. It is almost certain that Charles Bukowski, Virginia Woolf, Maria Vargas Llosa, John Green, or others.

For modern writers, seeing blank pages and flashing cursors (unless you are still writing with your hands or a typewriter) is like jigsaw puzzles, talking with an unfriendly character, or finding the right thing that perfectly captures your own thoughts The vocabulary is just as daunting.

For romantics, writing is the only duty of a writer. So be it.

Reaching and finding readers is someone else’s job. Don’t get me wrong, this is true for writers like Neil Gaiman or JK Rowling who have their own literary agent or propaganda team. But for most people, especially for new, self-published authors, finding a readership seems as daunting as writing itself.

There are millions of answers and countless nuanced and eloquent answers to the question “Why do you want to write”, but the simplest and most important thing is that you write in order to be read.

The good news is that for any modern writer who is struggling, finding a readership is not as difficult as it used to be. We live in a digital world, in this world, reaching and discovering your audience is as easy as scrolling through your FB feed.

Well, this is a bit exaggerated. But look at the numbers. In recent years, authors of self-publishing have begun to get involved in this industry and have gained a large number of readers. Because why not? It takes several years to become a member of an established traditional publishing house. We haven’t delved into the bureaucracy and politics involved in this industry. So doing it yourself has some health benefits. Since you are already a writer, the backbone of SEO is writing or content creation, you have solved half of the problem.

But the first thing to do is: You must put your romantic writing ideas and your intellectual self aside to learn. Understand how the Internet works.

In the 21st century, it is not you, the writer, who find the reader; on the contrary, the situation is just the opposite. Readers can find writers on the Internet in a variety of ways, from Facebook groups to email marketing to social media participation. But the main goal is to make your book and your name rank high in these search engines.

There are many SEO practices in 2017 and the following years that you can use to market your own books.

The monster of search engine optimization, or put your job or business on the first page of Google search results (SERPs), as long as you know how to tame it, it can become your pet.

Don’t take this for granted, because putting your work on the first page of search engines is the ultimate dream of any commercial-minded writer (that is, humans want to be read and make money at the same time).

Know your book’s metadata
sounds very noble. But we all know what data is, which leaves us with the prefix “meta”. Beyond or higher in meta Greek is the core information we encounter and take for granted.

Although metadata is the core of the entire book (title, title [if any]), author, book description, publisher, ISBN, book category, publication date), in this article, we will focus on your book Category, book title and book description. We will discuss the visual aesthetics of your book in another article.

According to your contract with the publishing company, you must provide most of the necessary metadata for your book. Once your book is published, its metadata will be distributed to different book sales databases. If you are an independent author, you can personally include them on Amazon, iBooks, or GooglePlay.

Let’s put it this way: Potential readers go to the bookstore to read the data (your book) for themselves. The bookstore arranges books according to the types of books. Finding this book online is the same. The only difference is that Google becomes the middleman between your readers and your book. This bridge is your metadata, and Google is there to guide your potential readers. So know your BISAC code (the subject code of the book category). For example, FIC005000 novel/erotic/generic/or SEL014000 self-help/eating disorder and body image. These book categories are a concise way of arranging all books in order or genre, just like putting them on the shelves of a bookstore. It helps to make your book more searchable, or “crawling” in SEO terms.

Now let’s take a look at the title of your book. Novels usually have no subtitles. Both creative non-fiction books and self-help books are fine. When titling your book, think about your readers and the current book market. A good example in my mind is that girl’s success on the train. This is completely different from the thrills and suspense of “The Missing Girl” or “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”. The word “girl” became an association for other bestsellers. If you want to succeed, then let it go. Not the content, but the title of the book.

A description of the book

know your keywords book
describing your book is very easy to get carried away.

“This is about a lanky teenager. We named him Oscar. He can travel back to his parents’ youth through time and space. He tells about their dark past. His father is a liar, and his mother is a struggling screenwriter. She made every effort to make herself successful in her chosen field. Going back to their past made him realize that she was not a product of love, but a limited accident. ”

If you can arouse the interest of the inquirer through storytelling, Then you will be lucky. On the other hand, Google will only give up halfway through your second sentence. You see, Google, even though it is a busy God, doesn’t have all the time to listen or “crawl” through all these descriptions and stories using its own English version. Instead, it looks for specific keywords. So what is your book about, BISAC or book classification? Is it a fantasy? Self-help? romantic? science fiction? Because BISAC allows up to three categories, always use and distribute these relevant, fleshy keywords in the description of your book.

If it is difficult for you to classify your work into the correct category, you can always do some research. You can also check the keywords of other writers. It allows you to understand the popular genres in the market today.

Create your own author website
has a consistent and relevant online presence can become a powerful marketing tool. One sure way is to run and maintain your own author website. Write regularly and for a long time, and don’t forget to pay attention to the structure of your content. Blogging can sometimes be a catharsis, especially when you are not paying attention to the SEO aspects of your articles.

But in this case, you write a blog to increase the traffic of your blog, and then the blog will turn into readers of your book. So, include your keywords in your article. be consistent.

If your book is about personal finance, write at least two articles per week related to your type. Write informative and in-depth articles.

Or, if your books are suspense thrillers and dramas, don’t forget to include these keywords and their underlying semantic index in your content.

Build your author website backlinks
you sure have great content on your blog. To increase their authority, you can ask others to backlink to you. You can contact people in similar industries, email them, introduce yourself, and tell them what you wrote.

There is usually a specific email pattern:

Say:

Dear B,

I have been following your blog for a while and just read your article on best SEO practices. I am creating a similar content to solve different marketing strategies that authors can use to increase their book sales.

Would love to be linked in your posts. In return, I can link your article with mine.

The best,

A of

course, not everyone will click the reply button. But someone will always be interested in your content. Because a permanent follow link is a gem. So try it.

Guest blogs from other well-known websites
Guest blogging is a consistent marketing and white hat search engine optimization strategy. There are many websites that accept submissions and submissions. For example, the Huffington Post. Although the Huffington Post is notorious for not actively contributing articles, some writers have taken advantage of its extensive influence. Mentions and links to your book on your bionote can translate into more sales of your book.

Know your target audience and the websites they frequently visit. For example, “The Catalog of Thoughts” is one of the must-reads for millennials. You can adjust the tone and style of the thought catalog to master its readers. If your book is about personal finance, Google is the most popular and most popular blog in this field. Guess where you can find them. Yes, on the first page of Google.

Not to mention, guest blogs are also a great way to increase high-quality inbound links to your own website.

Online contact other authors
writing is a solitary act, but there are some groups do not mind sharing their thoughts on the craft and useful things while drinking. Reach out to them. There is a huge market for self-published authors online. One way to contact them while promoting your own book is to write a review article about their book. You can do it by genre. “A suspenseful and thrilling book, read by future authors before the end of the year.” “A self-help book to make your day more positive and enriching.” “Learn from experts, five books on personal finance.” This is where you gain a readership One way; by stimulating the interest of those who read similar articles you write.

Send an email to these authors, saying that you include them in your article, and they are likely to share this content on social media. This is a win-win situation. You are publicizing their work at the same time you are publicizing your work. Are you looking for more marketing ideas and strategies for your book? Do you plan to publish your book this year? Subscribe to our blog and become one of the first people to read fresh content on digital marketing and search engine optimization trends.