Indie Writers Club 057 - The New Era of AI Searching
Oct 3, 2025
Explore the transformative impact of AI on book discovery, and why authors need to adapt their strategies. Learn practical tips for crafting queries that resonate with AI readers and the importance of maintaining clean metadata. The discussion highlights how emotional searches will shape recommendations and why indie authors must ensure their books are listed in Google Books. Balancing writing and family life is also touched upon, along with the critical advantages of real-world visibility in an AI-driven landscape.
AI Snips
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Transcript
Episode notes
Run AI Searches As A Stranger
- Test AI search by telling the model to ignore your chat history and act like a new reader searching for books.
- Use those conversational queries to learn how prospective readers describe the books you want to be found for.
Fan Out Your Queries Across Models
- Run long-form conversational searches in multiple models (Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity) to map where your books appear.
- Broaden and iterate queries to capture different reader intents and check positioning against comp authors and tropes.
Describe Books By Trope And Feeling
- Convert comp-author and trope knowledge into clear, trope-focused descriptions rather than vague name-dropping of famous authors.
- Use feelings and reader outcomes (e.g., "will make me cry") as search hooks because readers often search by desired emotional experience.
