By Alexa Bigwarfe | Originally discussed on Alexa’s Publishing Chat
This post is based on a recent episode of Alexa’s Publishing Chat. You can listen to the full episode above or read on for the key takeaways.
I want to talk about something that’s slowly starting to get attention in the marketing world—but I’m not yet seeing many book marketers really dig into it. I think it’s about to explode, and I want to make sure you’re ahead of it.
We’re talking about GEO (Generative Engine Optimization).
You’ve heard a lot about SEO (search engine optimization) over the last decade. GEO is its newer, more urgent sibling. And if you’re an author or publishing professional who wants readers to actually find your books, you need to understand what it is and what to do about it.
Let’s get into it.
First: A Pragmatic Note on AI
Before we go further, I want to name something. I know there are a lot of big feelings about AI right now—especially in the creative and writing world. There are valid reasons for that, and I’m not here to debate the ethics or argue about where the lines are.
What I am doing is looking at this from a purely pragmatic point of view: AI is here. It’s not going anywhere. And it’s changing the way readers find books.
So regardless of where you stand on AI in the creative process, this conversation is about one thing: making sure your books can be found by the readers who are already out there looking for them.
What Is GEO?
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is the practice of making your content findable by AI tools like ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Perplexity, and Claude, so that when someone asks one of those tools for a book recommendation, yours has a chance of coming up.
Think of it as SEO, but for AI search instead of Google search.
You still want good traditional SEO. That hasn’t gone away. But GEO is an additional layer, and right now, most authors have a significant blind spot here.
Why This Matters: How Readers Are Using AI Right Now
Think about how you use AI tools in your own life. If you’re planning a trip, instead of Googling “things to do in Asheville” and scrolling through fifty blog posts, you can ask ChatGPT: “I’m going to Asheville, North Carolina. Plan an itinerary that includes a moderate hike, gluten-free restaurant options, and the best local spots.” And it gives you a complete, customized answer in seconds.
Readers are doing the same thing with book recommendations.
They’re going to AI tools and asking things like:
- “What should I read if I loved Big Little Lies?”
- “Recommend a nonfiction book about building a business as an introvert.”
- “I want a fantasy romance with a slow burn and a found family.”
The AI answers them. It gives specific book recommendations with descriptions of why each one fits what they asked for. And readers can get even more specific — best reviews, indie authors only, whatever they want.
Here’s the part that changes everything for authors: Amazon links don’t reliably appear in those AI results. Author websites do.
Why Your Author Website Matters More Than Ever
AI search engines index the web. They crawl blog posts, articles, interviews, author pages, and reviews. When a reader asks an AI for a recommendation, the AI draws on everything it has found and indexed, and it surfaces the books and authors it has the most useful, specific, findable content about.
If your author website is a one-page digital business card with a headshot and a “buy my book” button — or if you don’t have a website at all — the AI has almost nothing to work with. It can’t recommend what it can’t find.
This is something I’ve been saying for years from a traditional SEO standpoint: yes, you need a website. Yes, you should be putting content on it. And now the case for it is stronger than ever.
But here’s what’s new — and genuinely exciting for authors who are tired of social media.
Blogs Are Back. And This Is Great News.
You don’t need to post on TikTok every day to win at GEO.
One good blog post on your website outlasts a hundred Instagram Stories.
Social media content disappears within hours. A blog post—one that answers a real question, describes your book’s themes, or talks about what your ideal reader is looking for—can be indexed by AI and pulled back in search results for years.
You don’t need a heavy content calendar. You don’t need keyword-stuffed, robotic SEO writing. You just need content that answers the kinds of questions readers are actually asking AI about. Things like:
- What books are similar to [your book or comp title]?
- What’s a great [genre] book for readers who love [feeling or theme]?
- Who are the best authors writing [your niche]?
If you’ve been answering those questions in your blog posts, on podcast interviews, in guest articles on other websites — that content is working for you. Even content hosted on someone else’s well-optimized site can bring your name and book back in AI results, as long as it mentions you clearly and specifically.
So: guest posting, podcast interviews, articles—all of that has value here too. Because it puts your name and book in places that AI is indexing.
What About Amazon?
Amazon is still important—I want to be very clear about that. You’re not abandoning Amazon optimization. The algorithm there has also shifted (that’s a full episode on its own), and your metadata, keywords, and book description still matter enormously.
One thing to keep in mind: AI tools aren’t always up to the minute on new releases. If your book just launched and doesn’t have many reviews yet, it may not surface in AI recommendations — even if your Amazon listing is solid. Your website, however, is being crawled continuously. That’s another reason why having content about your book on your own site matters.
The Technical Side (Don’t Panic)
There is a technical layer to GEO that I won’t go too deep on here — things like schema markup (code that helps AI understand what kind of site and content it’s looking at), how your content is structured, and whether AI crawlers can actually read your pages.
I know that sounds intimidating. But if you’re on WordPress, a free plugin called Yoast walks you through exactly how to make your posts SEO and GEO friendly — step by step, with a simple green/yellow/red traffic light system. No technical background required.
The deeper technical audit is exactly what the free GEO Audit covers. Which brings me to the resource I want to make sure you have.
Free Resource: The GEO Audit for Authors
I put together a free GEO Audit checklist specifically for authors, and you can grab it at writepublishsell.com/geo.
It walks you through four key areas:
- Your author website content — do you have anything for AI to index?
- Your book description and reader language — are you describing your book the way readers search for it, or the way you think about it?
- Your Amazon metadata and keywords — are you using your keyword slots effectively?
- Your AI search visibility score — a 0 to 24 point rubric so you can see exactly where you stand and what to prioritize first.
It covers all four genres — fiction, nonfiction, self-help, and children’s books — because the approach looks a little different depending on what you write.
It takes about 20 minutes to complete. And it’ll show you, clearly, what’s working and what to fix first.
👉 Download the free GEO Audit for Authors →
Three Things to Do Right Now
Here’s what I want you to actually do after reading this — pick at least one:
1. Search your own name and book title in ChatGPT or Google AI Mode today. See what comes back. If nothing does — or if what comes back is thin or inaccurate — that’s your baseline. Now you know where to start.
2. Download the GEO Audit. It’ll take about 20 minutes and walk you through exactly where your author presence stands.
3. Read the first sentence of your book description. Ask yourself: does this sound like something I would say about my book, or something a reader would type when looking for their next read? If it’s the former, rewrite it.
Want to Go Deeper?
If you’re looking for a step-by-step, guided program that walks you through your marketing from the ground up: keywords, metadata, content strategy, ARC team, launch planning, email list, all of it, that’s what Book Launch in a Box (BLAB) is.
We kick off every June, and enrollment is open now. It’s a 6-month program with self-paced training and live Q&A support.
👉 Learn more about BLAB → writepublishsell.com/blab
The game is always changing in this industry. That’s the exciting and sometimes terrifying part of being in publishing right now. But here’s the thing: you don’t have to figure it out alone, and you don’t have to do everything at once.
Start with the audit. See where you are. Then take the next step.
You’ve got this.
Alexa Bigwarfe is a book marketing consultant, host of the Women in Publishing Summit, and founder of Write|Publish|Sell. She helps authors build real readerships — not just launch spikes. Listen to more episodes of Alexa’s Publishing Chat wherever you get your podcasts.
