What Keywords Do You Use to Find that Perfect Romance?

Six million. That is how many eBooks are purported to dwell on Amazon.

For an indie author competing with big-house publishers, trying to get their book in front of readers is...well...it's a bit of a soul-crushing experience, to be honest. One big hurdle is creating a cover that can compete with professional designers. A bigger hurdle is getting readers to post reviews for your books.

But the conundrum I want to talk about today is keywords. You know, those terms you type into the Amazon search box to find just the right book. Because that's what Amazon is: a big search engine.

Self-published authors get to choose seven keywords/phrases. Only seven. And if you make a bad guess as to what words your potential readers will type in that magic box of doom, those readers will never see your book.

People sell expensive software to help authors find the right Amazon keywords. There have been thousands of articles written about how to game the system and beat the algorithm.

I have a better idea. Ask the readers!

Let's say you are looking for a book about how to build a birdhouse. You type in, "How to build a birdhouse," or "Building a birdhouse," or "Birdhouse construction," right? Pretty straightforward.

But if you are a romance novel fan, or a women's fiction fan, what phrases do you type in?

If you have read any of the books in the Bailey Rose, M.D. series, what keywords would you have typed in the Amazon search box to find a book like it (not knowing the title or author, of course)?

Share your thoughts, pretty please! And thank you!