“The importance of metadata for discovery and sales.” That’s the title of a new survey from Nielsen on, well, precisely that. One of the things that makes it interesting is that this is an update of a survey that first ran in 2012, so you can see the emergence of distinct trends. In terms of book discovery, those trends are probably not too much of a surprise.
ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway
Physical bookstores have declined as a source of discovery from accounting for just over 24 percent to just over 16 percent of sales. This reflects the fact that in the UK market, on which the survey is based, 60 percent of sales now occur online (hence 8.2 percent of e-book sales come as a result of the “look inside” feature).
Covers and Descriptions
Unsurprisingly, the survey found that metadata matter when it comes to book-buying decisions. And the first piece of metadata covered in the survey is the first one many will encounter: the cover. Some 12.5 percent of sales were driven by the cover, apparently, though this varies greatly across categories, from mid-single digits for many nonfiction genres up to around 20 percent for children’s activity books and sagas (I think they mean dramatic fiction that spans a significant number of years rather than ancient Icelandic texts).
When it comes to the things that increase or decrease sales numbers, there are some surprising findings. Books with short (350-character) descriptions sell on average 11 percent fewer copies than those without one, whilst those with long descriptions sell 119 percent more than those without. And books with an author biography sold on average 67 percent more copies than those without.
Why Keywords Matter
Finally, keywords matter. Those titles with keywords sold 113 percent more than those without. And what the keywords were mattered. Specifically, it is specificity that counts, with keyword phrases like “enemies to lovers,” “open door romance,” and “slow burn” cited as high-performing examples.
You can get a download of the full report in return for your email and some details here, or read on an online widget. If you are thinking how to put your book launch together, this is one of the few times I would recommend you actually do go and read the 24-page report in full. The Bookseller’s coverage has more on the findings.
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