How to choose keywords that actually sell books

Keywords are not tags. They are search phrases, and the ones that work are the ones a real reader would type when they do not already know your book exists.

Start by discarding your own title, your own name and your genre label. Those are already indexed. Spending a keyword slot on 'fantasy' in a fantasy novel wastes a seventh of your discoverability.

The phrases that perform are three to five words long and describe an experience rather than a category: 'slow burn enemies to lovers', 'small business bookkeeping for beginners', 'grief memoir after losing a parent'.

Specificity beats volume. A phrase with a thousand monthly searches and eleven competing titles will sell more copies than a phrase with a hundred thousand searches and forty thousand competitors.

Test the phrase before you commit it. Type it into the store search bar and look at what comes back. If the first page is full of books unlike yours, the phrase is not describing your book to the algorithm.

Finally, revisit them. Keywords are not permanent. Reviewing them every quarter against actual sales data is one of the few marketing levers that costs nothing and compounds.