MSI Press Blog

Authors often think of “niche,” “SEO,” and “AI” as three separate concepts. In reality, they are deeply interconnected — and when used together, they can dramatically increase a book’s visibility, discoverability, and long‑term sales. This is the new ecosystem of publishing: Your niche determines your competition. Your SEO determines your discoverability. AI determines how readers find, summarize, and talk about your book. Let’s break down how these three forces work together. 1. Your Niche Determines the Playing Field Your niche is the ecosystem your book lives in. Small niche Low competition Low traffic Rankings move easily Amazon does not promote automatically Visibility must come from outside Amazon Large niche High competition High traffic Rankings move slowly Amazon actively tests and promotes books with good conversion Visibility can snowball if early momentum is strong Your niche determines: How hard it is to rank How many sales you need to move up How Amazon interprets your...

  One of the most common misunderstandings in the author–publisher relationship is the belief that all activities related to a book’s success fall under one big umbrella called “marketing.” In reality, three distinct processes shape a book’s life in the world: selling , promotion , and marketing . They overlap, but they are not interchangeable. When authors understand the difference, they can see more clearly what the publisher does, what retailers do, and what the author must do. Let’s untangle the three. 1. Book Selling: The Retail Side of the Equation Book selling is the business of making a book available for purchase. It is transactional, logistical, and retailer‑driven. Selling is what happens after awareness already exists. Book selling includes: Listing the book with retailers (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, indie stores, Bookshop.org). Ensuring metadata is correct and distributed. Managing inventory and supply chain. Setting wholesale discounts and returnability. ...

   It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic asks, very simply, what of the standard advice to authors is still viable, given the many changes in the book industry and life in general during and post-covid? Let's look at various pieces of advice that most authors have received from their publishers or from online writing sites. For books to sell, you need a lot of reviews.  Over 100 reviews is the recommended quantity. That is the classic advice. However, we have had hot-selling books that have had nearly no reviews. In those cases, there has been word of mouth "selling," in which influencers have recommended the book, book clubs hav...