How Readers Find Books Now with Joshua Tallent – ep 39
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-ii8se-1ba0a6a
Short description
What helps a book show up in a retailer’s search results, on Google or in an AI-generated answer? Joshua Tallent of Firebrand Technologies joins Stella Oni to explain book metadata and what independent authors can do to help readers discover their work.
Full show notes
A reader searches for their next book. What helps yours appear? In this episode of Talking Tech with Creatives, Stella Oni speaks with Joshua Tallent of Firebrand Technologies about the information that helps retailers, search engines and AI tools understand what a book is about and who might want to read it.
Joshua explains how book metadata works, from descriptions and categories to information about ebook accessibility. They also discuss how SEO and generative engine optimisation (GEO) differ, what makes an author website useful to readers, and where human judgement matters when using AI in publishing.
Chapters
00:00 Introducing Joshua Tallent and book discoverability
10:00 How publishing responds to technological change
15:00 Ebook accessibility and the metadata readers need
20:00 How retailers and search engines discover books
25:00 SEO and GEO explained
30:00 What makes an author website useful
45:00 How smaller publishers and independent authors can compete
55:00 Structured data for author websites
1:05:00 Human judgement in creative work
1:10:00 Stella’s closing reflections
Guest links
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Stella Oni — Author | Speaker | Lecturer | Podcast Host
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