Cyrus Kayode
Marketing & Discovery — 7 min read
Categories, keywords and descriptions decide who ever sees your book. They are also the part of publishing authors are least often told about.
A book that nobody can find does not underperform — it never performs at all. Between a finished book and its readers sits a layer of unglamorous data: categories, keywords, subtitle, series information, description copy, comparable titles. Retail algorithms read that layer before any human does.
Categories Are Strategy, Not Admin
Choosing the broadest, most populated category is a common instinct and usually the wrong one. Visibility comes from ranking, and ranking comes more easily in a precisely chosen category where the book genuinely belongs.
The objective is the most specific accurate category, not the largest one. Accuracy is non-negotiable: mis-categorisation buys short-term visibility from readers who will be disappointed, and disappointed readers leave reviews.
Description Copy Is Sales Copy
A product description is not a synopsis. It does not summarise the plot; it creates the specific curiosity that makes someone want to read the book. The first two lines carry nearly all of the weight, because that is what shows before the reader clicks 'read more'.
Write the hook, establish the stakes, signal the tone, and stop. Length rarely helps.
Revisit It
Metadata is not set once at launch. Categories can be changed, keywords refreshed, descriptions rewritten, comparable titles updated as the market moves. Books that quietly recover months after a soft launch usually do so because someone went back and fixed the layer nobody sees.