Tag: book discovery

Are You Sure the Description of Your Book at Amazon Is Your Latest One?

Guest post
by Sylvia Engdahl

Did you know that people who view your Kindle book during your promotion may not be seeing its current description? If your book has been available for some time and you have revised its description in Author Central without also revising it on its KDP page, they’re not.

Although we were told in the past that the KDP description is not used if a description has ever been entered in Author Central — and some books about Kindle promotion still say this — Amazon has changed its system. The KDP description now overrides whatever was done in Author Central if any change at all is made through KDP, including price or categories. Continue reading “Are You Sure the Description of Your Book at Amazon Is Your Latest One?”

Genre: Good or Evil

categorizing-by-genres-books-1204038_960_720A couple months ago T.D. McKinnon wrote a post for Indies Unlimited that discussed literary fiction versus genre fiction. He also mentioned “…the increasing number of genre labels that sometimes seem to me a little obscure, with the assignment to the various categories certainly more subjective than objective.” In this post, I’m going to discuss genre labels, a bit about their history (at least as I see it), their positives and any negatives.

As I see it, the purpose of genres is as a shorthand to classify a book’s content. It helps bookstores arrange books that are similar to be close together. In turn, this helps readers determine if a book is something they’re interested in or as a way to quickly focus in on the books that potentially fit what they’re looking for. Imagine visiting a brick and mortar bookstore where all the books were on the shelves arranged by author last name, ISBN, or some other method without first having them grouped into genre. Could you find what you were looking for? Genre has historically been one of the most critical factors in book discovery. If a potential reader can’t find your book, they can’t buy or read it. Continue reading “Genre: Good or Evil”

Genre Equality

word cloudIn NewsBites on Wednesday, one of the stories was about a petition to address gender labeling in books for children. The argument is that publishers should not assume that boys want one type of book and girls, another.

But of course, identifying the target market is a long-standing tradition in the publishing biz. The idea is to facilitate sales by helping consumers narrow the field to books which appeal to their particular areas of interest. As data collection and analysis have become more sophisticated, the numbers of genres and sub-genres have multiplied. Continue reading “Genre Equality”

What Should I Read Next?

WhatShouldIReadNext logoA number of websites and e-mail services have popped up in recent years that are designed to help readers find new books to read. Some, like GoodReads and Shelfari, are designed to foster community and get people talking to one another about the books they’re reading.

But you know, sometimes you just want to cut through the chatter and find something to read already. In that case, WhatShouldIReadNext.com could be just the ticket. Continue reading “What Should I Read Next?”