I'S B[ee]N busy
Book numbers, library numbers, and more!
My forthcoming novel, Fern Court Fiasco (about a terrible, horrible, no-good-landlord, a burst water pipe, and the chaos that ensued), has ISBN numbers! Yes, plural, because books need an International Standard Book Number for every version of the book.1 As if that isn’t enough numbers, my book now also has a Preassigned Control Number from the Library of Congress. And… as long as we are talking numbers… you might be intrigued to know that the 6×9 inch paperback book looks like it will come in at just a smidge over 300 pages (I’m waiting for the final page count from my book designer).
In other exciting news, the book now has a title page. A super elegant TITLE PAGE! Which, frankly, leaves me feeling a bit like the Velveteen Rabbit discovering that he is, indeed, very real. I’ve also been working on the less exciting, but also incredibly
important task of doing all the background work that will help potential readers find my book. I’ve researched BISAC (and Thema) codes2, drafted a constellation of website pages, recorded a 50-second voiceover for a book trailer, and researched bookselling categories on various online databases (yes, Amazon, but also NoveList from EBSCO, and more). Sounds like a lot? I’ve barely made a dent in the 12+ pages of all the things a self-motivated, do-it-yourself-author needs to do to make sure their book ends up in the hands of just the right reader. To do that, I’ve been asking myself this: Who is my reader and how do I make sure they hear about my book? Surprise…. the answer to that question is an important guideline for thinking about what to put on website pages.
The thing is, you can’t just build a pretty website. You have to think backwards and figure out what a random online user might be searching for that would make landing on your page the perfect answer to their query. For example, if someone types into their search browser:
How do I find a great story for my book club about a bad landlord experience?
the hope is that they will land (ta-dah!) on my Fern Court Fiasco website page. To make that happen requires not just a lot of wishful thinking, but a strategy.
It used to be that website designers lured in just the right visitor by inserting SEO (Search Engine Optimization) terms into the hidden part of the HTML. But too many bad actors used SEO terms in ways that tried to game the searching system. Consequently, the powers that be shifted their strategies away from seeking metadata SEO terms to instead looking for content (and context) that’s relevant to a searcher’s question. The translation of that information for my purposes is that I’m writing Fern Court Fiasco website pages (yes, many of them) in a way that both offers truly helpful content while also boosting the odds that somebody3 who wasn’t exactly looking for my book will stumble upon my website and, after reading said page(s), will conclude: I’m so glad I found this website (and) I’m definitely buying this book!
sigh
Wouldn’t it just be so much easier if newspapers had voluminous book coverage? And if more people read lots-o-books and shared them with their friends? Yes, yes it would.
Anyway…. back to the ecosystem of website pages (because I know you’re chomping at the bit to know more about that!) is this: authors should design their websites to offer not just pretty pictures and fabulous blurbs, but they should also deliver helpful information connected to the themes of their book. This (at least one can hope) will then magically transform website visitors into book purchasing readers.
Writing all these website pages isn’t quite as painful a process as it was when I hand coded my first website in the late 1990s. But writing (and organizing, and linking) all these pages into a viable
ecosystem still takes time and energy and brain power and I am NOT a fast writer. I am, in fact, a decidedly slow writer.
One page I’m thinking of writing would explain why Santa Cruz has one of the most expensive housing markets in the country. I mean, take a look at this map! Halfway down the California coastline, where it’s bright red? That’s Santa Cruz County. Why is it red? Because rent in Santa Cruz isn’t just high, it’s exceptionally high. According to Zillow, the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Santa Cruz is $2,700 to $3,000 per month (the average is a little higher. gulp). With these kinds of prices, it’s no wonder that for UCSC students (and others!), finding an affordable place to live remains a
daunting challenge. Plus, social media loves to talk about the crazy high rental rates. Just yesterday SFGate posted this:
It’s news and posts like the one above (in case you skimmed, it says, “Even as SF rent skyrockets, Santa Cruz is still the most expensive place to rent in the US”) that I hope will generate buzz for Fern Court Fiasco whose readers will then want to talk about the book with friends and family so that they can swap their own housing story fiascos with each other. They don’t have too long to wait. The pub date for Fern Court Fiasco is 23 March 2027.
Got a crazy housing story? Leave a comment to let me know about it!
Typewriter Q & A Postcard Project. #11
My favorite post office visits are the ones where the postcards I sent out into the world arrive back in my box. The postcard I sent Abra McAndrew is kind of oversized and I worried that maybe she’d think it was too much? But nope, she found lots to say, plus she lobbed a few questions back at me! But instead of my answering them, I’m tossing them into your court. How would YOU answer my question, and hers? Transcript below.
A friend does something that’s not evil, but is certainly unethical….What do you do? I’d try to understand: What does this act tell me about this friend’s moral code? By asking lots of questions, I’d want to know: Who’s benefitting? Who’s suffering the consequences? What’s at stake for this friend? In other words, I’d try to learn what this action has to do with justice, liberty and consequences that makes it worth it to this person to risk my judgement in telling me about it, and the greater judgement by engaging in less than acceptable behavior. This is where a reason gets interesting! Only then will I judge. ◡̈
Check out Abra’s The Bookbinder Substack here:
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End of the Newsletter Questions for YOU!
Got thoughts about this edition of Ink Trails?
Endnotes
Join me on Instagram! I post mini-book reviews, artsy photos, short videos, helpful bits of ADHD insight, and select pieces of shipping and maritime news. You can also find me on Threads and BlueSky.
That Sinking Feeling: Adventures in ADHD and Ship Salvage is streaming wherever you get your podcasts. It’s a limited edition 7 episode series about my son’s ADHD seen through the lens of my father’s ship salvage career. Here it is on Apple:
You can find my book, Chasing Portraits: A Great Granddaughter’s Quest for Her Lost Art Legacy in libraries all over the world! The book is officially, as they say: Out of Print. Use my contact form to let me know you’d like to buy a copy. $20/book including postage. I can ship via media mail anywhere in the U.S.
The Chasing Portraits documentary film is streaming on Amazon, iTunes, Kanopy, and OvidTV. You can also buy the DVD directly from First Run Features.
If you’re looking for other documentaries, narrative films, or TV shows featuring the subject of Holocaust era looted art… I’ve got a list for that:
One for the paperback, ebook, and translated versions. There are no plans to translate Fern Court Fiasco into any other languages, but that’s not to say the idea doesn’t intrigue me. I still wish someone would translate my Chasing Portraits book into Polish. Let me know if that person is you!
BISAC (Book Industry Standards and Communications) codes are 9-character alphanumeric codes used to categorize books by topic and audience. Thema qualifier codes are metadata tags used globally to provide booksellers with extra context for a book's subject category.
Interesting aside…. A few days after I made a Fern Court Fiasco page on my website publicly available I got an AI generated email full of effusive praise for my book and suggesting I should contact the sender because my book aligned quite well with their publishing program. Obviously all a bunch of bulls***, but interesting that my website seems to have the data and context on it that the bot was told to find….
Great post about search history, Elizabeth. I learned so much! And I love all the ways you're thinking about finding the right readers...
You know your strategy is working when the AI-generated solicitations start coming in! Loved that third footnote.