I try really hard to pick titles that haven’t already been used on any book, which is harder than ever these days, and obviously nothing stops another author from using that title for their book later on. There are only so many combinations of words.
But I think it’s important to come up with a unique title whenever possible. One of the benefits has always been that typing that unique title into the Amazon search bar resulted in your book being the first result. No author needed or anything. Often you appeared above the sponsored/advertised books, too.
Well, the other day I went to grab the Amazon link to one of my books for a reader and discovered the oddest thing: unless I added my name to the search, many of my titles were no longer showing up in the search results. Can you check and see if the same is true for you?
Walking with Ghosts — a lot of people have used this title since my collection came out years ago, but my book and Gabriel Byrne’s usually traded the top spot when you searched for just the title… now my title is way down the page after some other books like The Berenstain Bears Go on a Ghost Walk
Dreamlike States — a title no one else has used and my book doesn’t show up at all even though it used to be the first result. There are books about the United States, and how to dream, and… FarmHouse Fresh Fluffy Bunny® Soothing Body Wash
More Than Midnight — yet again, used to be first because no one else has used this title and now it doesn’t appear at all in the results… although More Than Friends in the Middle of Main Street: A Nestled Hollow Romance, Book 3 does
Lost and Lonely — once again, used to be the first result but now doesn’t even appear on the first page… although Boisterous Bootsy’s Chance: How A Lost and Lonely Kitty Learned to Trust does
Weak and Wounded — again, used to be the first search result even with all of the other titles from people who obviously like Session 9 as much as I did… now my book is nowhere to be seen
Yet, these are unaffected by whatever is going on and remain at the top of the results when searching by the title:
Reading Stephen King — if any title should get lost in the mix, it is this one. There are a billion books about reading and almost as many about Stephen King. But it is still the first result, like always.
So, it seems to be something to do with my short story collection and the mini-collections that came before it. Anyone have any idea what happened?
best,
Brian
(By the way, in case you’re new here, my links to Amazon are affiliate links. It costs you nothing but if you make a purchase, I get a small percentage to help keep the lights on. Thank you!)
