Tagging Frenzy

So one of my Amazon friends, Thomas Knight, a smart guy who has done a TON or work learning about self-pubbling strategies, started a Facebook conversation last week about something I'd never much thought about. Thomas is both an Indie author and (perhaps as importantly in this case) a computer programmer.

See, on Amazon, there is a spot after the reviews for book tags. Anybody can add them. It has to do with the genre, content, setting... pretty much ANYTHING related to your book.


What Are They FOR?

See, here is the part I didn't really grasp... they are search terms (that much I knew)--so anything someone would search that you think YOUR BOOK is the answer for. Great. Fabulous. And?

And if OTHER people choose the SAME tag for your book--if there is broad agreement your book fits that tag--then YOUR BOOK is more likely to pop up if somebody searches that topic.

Just hit me in the head now because I'd totally missed this piece...


What do I mean?

I mean if you all wanted to go tag my book as 'llama' which would be a grand inside joke nobody but my friends would understand... and you ALL did it, then I could rise really fast in books that pop up when somebody goes to Amazon and searches for llamas. That's just hot, isn't it? Even though my book has nary a llama in it, which is not to say the series will never have llamas. In fact I may look at that as a challenge if I get to write a 4th book...


But What it ALSO means is my tags I added myself that ONE PERSON at some point must have agreed on are NOT enough to propel me very high in the searches. I will be there, but maybe on page 82, and who goes through ALL the things that come up when you search a topic? You don't, right? You browse a page or two... maybe as many as five if you are determined...

BUT...

And here we reach the 'you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours' portion of this blog...

If y'all were to go check my tags, and then LEAVE HERE the url in the comments here for me to do the same for YOU (not a link, just what I need to paste—links in the comments mess me up) then we ALL get better searchability, eh?

Follow these links then scroll down through the preview and reviews...

Paperback
Kindle


Is This Gaming The System?

I had a couple FB friends object to this little thing, just for full disclosure. They thought it seemed like cheating, but I think we in the blogosphere GET that helping each other out thing. It is actually what is called Social Networking... And I feel it is MORE FAIR than a lot of stuff—all I'm asking is for you to agree with my tags so my book pops up in a search. It doesn't change sales or ranking. All it does is make it appear so someone can learn about it and then make their own decision. Or that's how I see it...


*****

UPDATE:  Holy COW is this working!?  On the term cozy mysteries I've jumped to the first page with you guys helping and on gardening mystery, I am #3 for paperback and #6 for Kindle!  WOW!