So you’ve written your book. Now you know you need to get it into the hands of readers. How to do that? Many authors spend a lot of time researching what they should do to market their books. But it’s a bamboozling world full of sometimes conflicting advice. Some of my most frequently asked questions are about what the book marketing terms that are bandied about actually mean. I thought I’d write a quick glossary to help take the smoke and mirrors out of book marketing.
Book Marketing Glossary:
Keywords: These are the words that people are most likely to type into a search engine, or Amazon when looking for a book like yours. For example, if you had written a picture book some of your keywords would be; picture book, kids picture book, illustrated picture book.
Metadata: Digital data that describes and gives information about other data. In the case of a book this is the author/illustrator’s name, # of pages, publishing date, ISBN, and keywords to describe the book.
Blurb: This is a paragraph (sometimes two) that describes your book. This will be used across online selling platforms (Amazon) and ideally is the same copy as you have on the back cover of your book.
Keyline: This normally sits above your blurb. It’s a one-line ‘elevator pitch that describes your book. Your advertising tag line if you will.
Launch Team: A group of people you send advance copies of your book to. Ideally, they work in an area related to your book or whose name carries some weight. They provide you with early reviews of your book.
Blog Tour: When a number of bloggers agree to feature or review your book on consecutive days. So your book goes on a virtual tour of their websites/blogs/social media. Like a digital book tour.