Before I go into Metadata and Key Words, I want to remind everyone that March 30, 2026 is the last day to file a claim in the the Anthropic Class Action Case. If you haven’t already filed a claim, go to Check list of books and see if any of your published books are on the list of books used by Anthropic to train AI.

This lawsuit is a good example of why it’s important to officially copywrite your book.

Now, on to Metadata and Key words. Many of the spam emails I’ve been receiving promise to get me metadata and key words that will have potential buyers swarming to my sell page. Since some of my books are not getting many views, I obviously need to improve those features. So, what is Metadata?

From what I’ve read, metadata is information that allows a reader to find a book or section of a book that fits the reader’s interests or needs. It helps bookstores and libraries know how to categorize a book. Primarily, it includes the title, author’s name, ISBN,and genre. It may also include broad descriptive words such as Mystery  Romance, Memoir, Biography, etc. Also secondary descriptions: Contemporary Mystery; Historical Mystery; Fantasy, and so on. Proper metadata is crucial for online visibility (SEO) and sales.  (Front of book)

Key words are the words (it can be several words) that guide the reader to books that fit his or her interests. They should be specific to the book. If your book is one of a series where the location or character is popular, that needs to be indicated either as part of the title or as a key word. Key words should indicate the tropes popular for the genre, or the themes. Don’t misrepresent the book with terms like Best Mystery ever. Amazon allows 7 key words with 50 characters each. Focus on what your reader might be searching for. For example: Secret Baby Romantic Suspense; Rural Michigan ghost stories. Avoid filler words

There are tools that will help. One I like is  Reedsy Blog‘   Other search tools are Publishers Rocket,  Helium 10 .  I haven’t used them and I think there’s a fee for using them. Not sure.

Also, there’s Amazon’s own search bar. You can update your key words any time, so if you think one would work better than another, go into your set up and change it.

I hope this helps. I know I’m going to look at some of my key words and see if I can come up with anything better.