When we upload books for sale on retail sites like Amazon, we enter keywords and/or keyword phrases. Keywords are important because they can make your book more discoverable in online searches. For example, there is not a genre or subcategory for western romances on Amazon, but it’s a popular search term for readers looking for that type of book. If you were publishing a romance novel set in the west, including the phrase “western romance” in the keyword field could help your book show up in those searches. Here are some helpful tips about keywords:
- Don’t use terms or phrases that are already in other fields like your title, subtitle, series title, genre, or categories.
- Think like your readers and include keywords and phrases the way that your readers would search for them.
- Effective keywords can be around setting (Paris), character types (single dad), character roles (strong female lead), plot themes (forgiveness), or tone (feel-good).
- Avoid subjective statements (a riveting plot) and punctuation.
- Be as specific as possible. For example, if your book is set in London, use London as a keyword, not England or Europe.