Some metadata is pretty basic. These items are upfront and factual. They include:
Book title
Your byline
ISBN
Publisher
Publication date
See what I mean? Your byline is your byline unless you use one byline for romance and another for children's nonfiction. Back in the olden days you used to find these things on a card in the library catalogue.
But there is more to metadata than this. There are other things that make a book description more searchable. These include your genre and subgenres, keywords, and descriptions
This second group of items matter because they impact how easy your book is to find, where it will be displayed in bookstores, and book sales. Let me explain.
You’ve written a mystery. You know that there are subgenres and that cozies are popular. So you include cozy in your description. That’s great because it will help buyers, whether they work at libraries or bookstores, find your book. But if your mystery is actually a closed room mystery and a guest is poisoned and dies during a dinner, this isn’t a cozy. People may find the book but they won’t buy it.
It is also important to use a description that accurately describes potential buyers. “Kid-friendly” isn’t a very narrow term. Neither is “great gift book.” Either of these statements might be true, but your description needs to be both accurate and specific. It is better to work in that it would be a good book for graduation, summer vacation, baby showers, or retirement.
In addition to including information about who might purchase the book, metadata includes information about the book itself. If you are writing historical fiction or nonfiction, including information about the time period and place. If your book includes specific historical figures, you might include their names. Is your novel about a woman in STEM? Or a stay-at-home dad? Include it.
The more information that you can include without your book page looking cluttered the better. Remember that the purpose of all of this information is to make your book discoverable by the right people. I’m just wondering why I had to discover something that seems even less fun than writing a query.
--SueBE
Sue Bradford Edwards' is the author of over 80 books for young readers. To find out more about her writing, visit her site and blog.
She is also the instructor for 3 WOW classes which begin on the first Monday of every month. She teaches:
To get a free copy of Sue’s book, What to Do When Your Book Is Banned, subscribe to her newsletter, One Writer’s Journey, here.
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