Posted on 2013-Sep-13
Is Your Book Title for your Series Far Too Long?
The latest blog of Smashwords does not stop short of bringing practical updates to authors who write in series. Why is that special at all? While Amazon allows authors to name the series in the book title and description, Smashwords incorporates the series sequence right in their metadata. With the series being included in the title, the title becomes longer unnecessarily.
Systematic Catalog System
Given the exclusivity of the series to be kept systematically, Smashwords seems to address this notion of tidying up all the books in the series and thus promoting discoverability through the series page. Imagine readers have found your book in the series on a vendor’s website and realized they can look for more. While Amazon’s algorithm can suggest “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” for them to browse the other books in the series, readers may not know the chronological order unless the author has specified explicitly in book title and description.
Allison Jewell, author of ‘Shine On’ and ‘Rise and Shine’, has already experimented with Smashwords’ series manager. If you look for her first book in the series, the newly updated metadata will show up in the series field under the book title.
In order to read the other books in the series, the clickable series will redirect readers to the series page that lists all of the books in the series in chronological order.
Better Promote Series with Preorder and Prequel
To understand why Series Manager can make series books more discoverable, Mark Coker explains in his blog how Smashwords authors can make use of newly added feature. From the Smashwords Dashboard under the Series manager link, authors can attach books including preorder books to a series. In order to create new series, the authors can add the number whichever way the authors prefer: Book X, Part X, No. X.
Mark Coker emphasizes how authors can market their spinoff series to make sure that their fans can look for the books in the series and discover new books. Once you specify all the books in a series, you can add the prequel to each book in the series to introduce readers to each book. The new series metadata will be created by the author or publisher and used by the retailers that Smashwords deal with. Although it depends on how much of the metadata each retailer wants to pick, updating this metadata will increase the overall visibility for all your books available on Smashwords.
Love is in the Air
So far, several authors have commented in the blog and updated their metadata. Charles E. Wells showcased the series number in his Whispering Pines series. Jason Matthews also tested the series manager feature with his books.
Series Manager can surely be a fan-favorite among authors, especially for those who have written in series to enhance their book’s visibility. For readers, they can enjoy browsing their favorite author’s book catalog with ease and continue reading their books without interruption. Although Amazon is good at selling eBooks, it seems Smashwords has upped their game to gain a better understanding of what indie authors need and how they can retain reader’s pleasurable time to spend at the store. How’s your series looking now?
Label: Marketing
comments powered by Disqus