Pat's Convention Note #4. Keywords and phrases. Are we usually them to our advantage?

#4. At RWA, I was able to get a seat in a packed room for a workshop entitled HOWTO SELL YOUR BOOKS BY THE TRUCKLOAD ON AMAZON.COM. That is actually the name of the book written by marketing guru Penny C. Sansevieri.

Penny gave out stacks of tip cards (I think 15 in total) and each one had suggestions like TIP #7: Great Places to Find Cool Keywords. She listed four websites. Here are two: WORDTRACKER—freekeywords.wordtracker.com. I checked out the site, but it appears there is a fee for the service. Another one is Ubersuggest.org, which gives popular keywords. TIP #13; Headline Enhancers; TIP #8 has Blogger Listings, and on. Unfortunately, by the time I made it to the front of the room, some tip cards were gone, so I don’t have a complete set.

Anyway, Penny pointed out that many of us are guilty of using key WORDS instead of key PHRASES. I heard this from at least three other workshop presenters. One speaker suggested we change our Key PHRASES every other month to find out what works best to improve our sales.

Another speaker said we should have at least 20 keywords per book on Amazon. Our title, subtitle, book description, categories, etc., all should contain key words and PHRASES to draw readers who are Goggling for books or perusing Amazon.

At one workshop, I brainstormed with the speaker about my title selection: A MAN’S TREASURE—a play on the phrase ONE MAN’S TRASH IS ANOTHER MAN’S TREASURE. Not only were there more than a handful of books with that name, but the title alone would not draw readers. So I changed the title to WHAT GOD HAS FOR ME, which will be released at the end of August, early September 2014. Although I don’t have my blurb finished yet, the key PHRASES I plan to use are universal like blended family romance, unconditional love romance, single mother romance and second chances, a daddy’s love romance, etc. One thing I did for an existing title was change not only the key PHRASES, but categories. To my surprise, I ranked in non-fiction for a fiction book. Check out STILL GUILTY and you’ll see what I mean. In STOPPING TRAFFIC, I used A Back to School Romance in the subtitle to draw readers. Check out my key PHRASES.

But having a similar title with an existing book isn’t all bad. Check out my THE KEEPSAKE on Amazon, I’m right under NYT Tess Gerriston and The Keepsake: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel. How about when I wrote GUILTY BY ASSOCIATION and Marcia Clark (Remember O. J. Simpson?) and Guilt by Association.

I hope this post has been a blessing to somebody. Feel free to share and comment. I’ll come back with more of Penny’s tips in future postings. Okay, back to writing. In the meanwhile, you can check out Penny’s website: www.amarketingexpert.com.

Don’t miss #5. Readers, reviews and THANKS. You don’t want to miss this!