Readers Don’t Discover You in One Place: The New Reality of Author Visibility

GETTING FOUND PART 2

So, this is part two of the Author Visibility series... and I wanted to follow up on my last blog post about how getting discovered as an author has just fundamentally changed.

THE HEADLINE NEWS

You as "The author" are the most important thing a reader needs to find*.

(*not just your books!)

Lots of people are talking about how readers and AI are finding your books, but as we discussed last time, it's now just as important (if not more so) for AI and readers to find YOU the author. Because "you" lead them to your books. You are the centre, the hub.

(For all you egomaniacs out there, you might have believed this anyway!)

In my last email, I shared a conversation I overheard at the theatre.

My sister and friend spent twenty minutes talking about authors they loved.

Not books.

Authors.

It reinforced something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently.

Readers can’t become fans of authors they’ve never discovered.

But that raises an important question.

How do readers discover you in the first place?

Most authors immediately think about social media.

TikTok.

Instagram.

Facebook.

Threads.

Etc...

And to be clear, there is absolutely nothing wrong with any of those platforms.

In fact, they can be brilliant.

AND I recommend you have an account on ALL of them!

And whilst those platforms can absolutely help readers find you, I think many authors are focusing on only one piece of a much bigger puzzle.

Because discovery doesn’t happen in one place.

A reader might discover you through TikTok.

Then visit Goodreads.

Then look at your Amazon Author page.

Then visit your website.

Then subscribe to your newsletter.

Then read your first book.

Then buy the next five.

Discovery is rarely a single moment or single start point.

It’s a series of connected moments.

And every one of those moments helps readers understand who you are and what you write.

The challenge is that many authors have gaps.

An outdated Goodreads profile.

An incomplete Amazon Author page.

Missing website bio.

Books listed in the wrong reading order.

Different descriptions on different platforms.

The result?

Readers become confused.

And if readers are confused, search engines and AI systems are usually confused too.

Imagine your website says “romantic suspense”, Goodreads says “romance”, Amazon says “women’s fiction” and your Facebook profile says nothing at all.

A reader can work that out.

AI often can’t.

One of the key ideas behind author visibility is consistency.

The clearer and more consistent the information about you is across the internet, the easier it becomes for readers to discover you and understand what you write.

That’s why visibility isn’t just about websites.

It’s about your entire author ecosystem.

Every profile.

Every book page.

Every public mention.

Every place a reader might encounter your name.

And that leads me to today’s visibility tip.

AUTHOR VISIBILITY TIP #1 -

Take five minutes today and review your Goodreads Author profile.

Visibility Challenge (5 Minutes)

Today, check:

☐ Goodreads bio

☐ Goodreads reading order

☐ Amazon Author Central photo

☐ Amazon Author Central bio

Done.

Why this matters:

Goodreads is one of the largest book discovery platforms in the world. Readers use it every day to decide what to read next. It also provides publicly accessible information that helps create a clearer picture of who you are and what you write.

If your profile is incomplete or inaccurate, you’re creating friction for readers and making it harder for discovery systems to understand your work.

Time required: 5 minutes.

Potential impact: Much bigger than most authors realise.

You should also run this check on your AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL PROFILE.

Unbelievably I have worked with THREE authors this week who don't even have a photo on their Amazon profile. If you really want to "show" you are not AI, there is no better way than having a real photo of yourself

Then, use that photo on ALL your platforms for consistency.

In my next email, I’m going to tackle one of the biggest misconceptions in publishing right now.

How AI actually learns about authors.

Because despite what some people think, AI doesn’t magically know everything.

It has to learn from somewhere.

And understanding where it learns from may completely change the way you think about author visibility.

P.S. Go and look at your Goodreads profile right now. If you spot even one thing that’s outdated, you’ve just found your first visibility improvement opportunity.

Click the button below to read part one in the series

Click here to read part one