Throughout the publishing process, Beaver’s Pond Press had been threatening me with the need to compile metadata for searching. They impressed upon me the importance of this “metadata” and how it could make or break my appearance on searches. I nodded knowingly, assuring them that I understood the importance of metadata, and that I would be ready when the time came to fill in the blanks.

So, I did what anyone with an internet connection would do—I quickly Googled “metadata.” I’m not so unlike everyone else—I didn’t want to look to stupid. I mean, if metadata is so important, wouldn’t you think I would know about it?

My quick Google search pulled up Wikipedia, and the first line of their description states, “Metadata is “data [information] that provides information about other data.”” I could tell this wasn’t going to be an easy task.

Beaver’s Pond Press works through their distribution partner whose website actually uses the metadata for book searches. They want searches on their site and on the internet to draw interested parties to their books. Metadata included everything ranging from the book title, sub-title, author name, description, BISAC codes (where the book would be placed in a bookstore), keywords and comparable titles. It asked for target audience information as well as a “Buy Me” sentence. They broke down the process into 12 email forms that I could fill out. And while it wasn’t shorter, it felt more manageable having bite sized chunks to address versus the whole form facing me at once.

I did return to the process once so far to add to the keywords. My daughter has an app on her computer that tells how many searches are done on keywords and phrases. This helped us zero in on target words that will hopefully bring more hits to my book.

Preparing for the book launch and sale has been an elucidating experience. I have pulled from my 40+ years of sales and marketing to put together a “package” that I believe will represent who Elaine Koyama Writes will be. I have learned an incredible amount about the current state of book sales and internet marketing. I still have a lot to learn.

I have found some great resources online—Jane Friedman, Kate Tilton, Amy Collins. These women are book selling gurus. And I am sure there are more out there that I don’t know about. What has been difficult is being a one man show with all the things to do and so little time. I am T-minus 30 days to launch date.

Ready or not, here I come.