Last reviewed by Robert Prime, 31 October 2026. Sources read that day: OpenAI’s Searching the web with ChatGPT, Anthropic’s crawler help page, Google’s Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content and the Book Score method.
Quick Answer: There is no official “author reputation score” in AI search. ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini don’t publish one and don’t give authors a number. When people use the phrase, they mean how much, and how consistently, the sources an AI assistant reads say about you and your books: reviews, best-of lists, press, reference pages and your own author pages. The more trusted places name you, and the more they agree, the more likely an assistant is to recommend you. You can measure where you stand: the free Book Score check gives your book an AI Score out of 100 and the three fixes worth most.
Is there an “author reputation score”?
Not one that any AI company publishes. OpenAI’s own help page says only that ChatGPT search “ranks search results using multiple factors intended to help users find relevant, reliable information. Placement is not guaranteed.” Anthropic and Google don’t publish an author score either.
So treat “author reputation in AI search” as a description, not a number. It is the sum of what the web says about you, as an assistant finds it. That matters, because it tells you what you can change: not a hidden score, but the pages the assistants read.
What makes up your reputation to an AI assistant
1. Who writes about you, and where
When ChatGPT or Claude search the web for a book recommendation, they cite the pages they used. OpenAI says responses that use web search “may include citations”, and Anthropic says the same of Claude. Those cited pages are where your reputation lives.
Our own data shows which pages they are. On our weekly AI Shelf, over the four weeks to 25 October 2026, ChatGPT and Claude cited 2,260 different websites across 31 genres, and 81% of them were cited in only one genre. Each genre has its own small set of trusted sites, such as BookTrust for picture books or the Poetry Foundation for poetry. The full genre-by-genre list: the sites AI reads when it recommends books.
2. Whether the facts about you agree
An assistant can only describe you correctly if your name, your books and what they’re about read the same everywhere: Amazon, Goodreads, your website, your publisher’s page and any interview. Two authors with similar names, an old book title on one site, or a description that changes from page to page all make the answer less sure of you. Book Score checks this directly: part of its AI score is whether an assistant “describes the book correctly when asked about it by name” (Book Score method page).
3. Clear authorship on your own pages
Google’s guidance asks: “Is it self-evident to your visitors who authored your content?” and “Do pages carry a byline, where one might be expected?” It says trust is the most important part of what it calls E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness). It also warns that “fabricating creator profiles … is a form of deception”. For an author, that means a real author page with your name, your books and who you are, not a page built to look like something it isn’t. Our guide to author website SEO for AI search covers the set-up.
4. Whether the assistants can read your pages at all
A site the assistants can’t fetch can’t count. OpenAI says that to be eligible for ChatGPT search, a site must “allow OAI-Searchbot to crawl the site”. Anthropic says that blocking Claude-SearchBot “may reduce your site’s visibility and accuracy in user search results”. If you have an author website, check its robots.txt doesn’t block either one by accident.
What our data shows about reputation
- In our July 2026 study, 141,282 AI citations across 981 books, 27% of books were never named by any assistant, for any reader question. The median score was 17 out of 100. (Inside the AI Book Discoverability Index)
- On the AI Shelf, Goodreads was cited in 595 of 5,950 source-citing answers (10%), across all 31 genres. Reddit was cited in 2 answers out of 5,950. (The sites AI reads)
- Retailers are not where AI learns about books. In the July study, review sites, reference pages and best-of lists were cited far more than bookshops.
The pattern is the same in both: an author’s reputation in AI search is built on other people’s pages, mostly specialist ones, far more than on the author’s own Amazon listing.
How to check yours
By hand, in ten minutes. Ask ChatGPT and Claude the questions a reader would ask for a book like yours, without naming it (“best cosy mysteries set in Cornwall”, “a book about grief for teenagers”). Then ask about your book by name. Note:
- whether you are named;
- whether the description of your book is right;
- which pages they cite (those are the sites you need to be on).
Or let Book Score do it. The free check asks the assistants a few reader questions and reads your Amazon page, in about a minute. It gives a Book Score out of 100 and an AI Score out of 100, the AI part on its own. The AI part counts how often the assistants recommend your book and whether they describe it correctly when asked by name. The full report asks 12 questions twice of each assistant, 72 reader answers, and lists the books named instead of yours and the sites to contact.
How to improve it
- Find the sites for your genre. Use the genre-by-genre map and the citations in your own test answers.
- Pitch those sites with a review copy, not money. See how to get editorial reviews and blurbs.
- Make your facts match everywhere. Use the same name, book titles and one-line description on Amazon, Goodreads, Author Central and your website.
- Give your own site a clear author page with a byline, and let the AI crawlers in.
- Re-check after a few weeks. Assistants change what they cite, and our AI Shelf shows lists moving week to week.
More on each assistant: does ChatGPT recommend books? · does Claude recommend books? · does Gemini recommend books? · AEO for authors · the book discoverability guide.
Frequently asked questions
What is an author reputation score in AI search?
There isn’t an official one. ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini don’t publish a reputation score for authors. The phrase describes how much, and how consistently, the sources an assistant reads say about you: reviews, lists, press, reference pages and your own author pages.
How do AI assistants decide which authors to recommend?
From what they learned in training and, when they search the web, from the pages they find. OpenAI says ChatGPT search ranks results using “multiple factors intended to help users find relevant, reliable information”. Being written about on trusted sites in your genre is what moves the answer.
Does my Amazon page affect my reputation in AI?
Less than most authors expect. In our July 2026 study, review sites, reference pages and best-of lists were cited far more than bookshops. Your Amazon page still matters, because it is where a reader who hears about you goes to buy.
Can I pay to improve my AI reputation?
Not directly: placement in ChatGPT search “is not guaranteed”, in OpenAI’s words, and there is no paid route that any AI company describes. What works is being written about on the sites the assistants read. Don’t pay for fake reviews or made-up credentials; Google calls fabricated creator profiles “a form of deception”.
How can I check my author reputation in AI?
Ask the assistants the questions your readers ask, without naming your book, and see if you are named and described correctly. The free Book Score check does this for you and gives an AI Score out of 100.
