Your Book Is Invisible to AI (Here's How to Fix It)

IMPORTANT NOTE: Some of the advice we give in the episode has changed due to updates to the KDP terms and conditions. Uploading a sample to Google Play that is less than 10% is still legal per our interpretation of the KDP terms, but because that 10% is no longer explicitly called out in the new terms, that recommendation carries more risk than we talk about in the episode. We no longer recommend this approach for all authors. Readers are asking AI what to read next, and if your book isn't showing up, you're invisible to a fast-growing discovery channel. Ricci Wolman and Ferol Vernon break down how ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude actually find and recommend books, what most indie authors are getting wrong, and the difficulty-ranked action list you need to fix it. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN: 0:00 – Introduction & Ferol's Return 1:55 – WWM's New 10–15 Day Promo Stacks (A10 Follow-Up) 3:53 – Today's Topic: GEO and How AI Finds Books 4:18 – SEO vs. GEO: What's the Difference? 6:17 – The Three AI Engines Authors Need to Know 6:38 – ChatGPT: Biggest Consumer Market Share 6:50 – Gemini: Google's AI, Most Actionable for Authors 8:26 – Claude by Anthropic: B2B Dominance & Developer Reach 9:54 – Why Ferol Started with Gemini 10:18 – Old SEO vs. New AI Search: The Key Difference 11:54 – How Gemini Consolidates Book Recommendations 12:22 – Gemini's Secret Weapon: It Owns a Bookstore 13:15 – Google Play Partner Center: The KU Author Loophole 14:13 – The 10% Preview Rule (Don't Skip This) 15:21 – Wide vs. KU: What This Means for Each 16:29 – YouTube Transcripts and Google's Ecosystem 17:15 – Why WWM Promotions Build AI Authority Too 19:13 – How Ferol Researched This: Asking the AIs Themselves 20:16 – The FAQ Strategy: Add This to Your Book Page Now 21:58 – Amazon Product Pages Already Do This (Here's Why) 22:38 – Gemini Recap: Top 3 Action Items 23:04 – ChatGPT & Claude: More Similar Than Different 23:40 – Why Indie Books Are Underrepresented in AI Training Data 24:00 – Editorial Reviews: How to Get the Trad-Publishing Signal 24:50 – Where to Put Reviews (Hint: Not Just Your Own Site) 25:27 – Reddit: High Risk, High Reward 26:07 – Ricci's Reddit Rules: Proceed With Caution 28:11 – ChatGPT + Shopify: The Agentic Commerce Connection 29:40 – Rich Book Descriptions: More Text = More Recommendations 30:38 – Why Reviews Are Data-Rich Context for AI 31:23 – Important Caveat: This Is About Reader Discovery, Not AI Writing 32:06 – GEO Is Where SEO Was in 2007 32:43 – Ask the AI: Use It to Audit Your Own Discoverability 33:30 – Difficulty-Ranked Recap: Easiest to Hardest RESOURCES & LINKS: – The Amazon A10 Update: 3 Things Every Indie Author Needs to Know: https://www.writtenwordmedia.com/the-... – Ricardo Fayet from Reedsy: https://reedsy.com/ – Joanna Penn from The Creative Penn: https://www.thecreativepenn.com/ – Google Play Books Partner Center: https://play.google.com/books/publish... – ChatGPT by OpenAI: https://chatgpt.com/ – Gemini by Google: https://gemini.google.com/app – Claude by Anthropic: https://claude.ai/ – Bargain Booksy: https://www.bargainbooksy.com/sell-mo... – Freebooksy: https://www.freebooksy.com/for-the-au... – NewInBooks: https://www.newinbooks.com/ – Goodreads Listopia:   / list   – Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/ – See past podcast episodes here: https://www.writtenwordmedia.com/podc... Want to learn more ways to reach readers? Visit writtenwordmedia.com for author resources, book promotion tools, and more. The Written Word Podcast is produced by Heart Centered Podcasting. © 2026 Written Word Media, Inc. All rights reserved. #indieauthor #bookmarketing #aibooks #geooptimization #selfpublishing #chatgpt #gemini #bookdiscovery #authorlife #amazonkdp #writingcommunity #authortips #publishingtips #bookpromotion #writtenwordmedia