Wednesday, July 25, 2012

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!

17 comments:

MTS said...

Done. I don't see it as gaming the system as long as the tags make sense. However, your Kindle link didn't work for me.

Pursuit of a crawling baby said...

Hiya, I checked your tags. I don't have any for my book yet http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008O4LEU4 Not really sure what to do. I only put it on Amazon 2 days ago!

Alison DeLuca said...

Nessa, you can tag your book (or any book) by going to the Amazon page and double-clicking the T key. That bring up a Tag window, and you can add tags such as Fantasy, Mystery, etc. to your novel. You can also do that to help tag another book, such as Hart's novel's ;)

I would advise adding a few tags to your book that are out of the ordinary, such as "Orphan," so you have more of a chance to go to the top of a search list. Tens of thousands have the Fantasy tag, but only a few will have "quantum physics" (yes, I checked out your book, and it looks fantastic!)

Hope that helps!

Hart Johnson said...

MTS-thanks for the heads up! Fixed it!

Nessa-looks like Alison has great advice there!

Alison, thank you so much for helping out!!!

Pursuit of a crawling baby said...

Thanks Alison!!

Johanna Garth said...

Thomas is such a resource about all things tag related! I'll stop by and tag your book right now :)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the shoutout Hart. :)

If y'all wanna come and tag my book, The Time Weaver, I would really appreciate that too. :)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/tags-on-product/B0061GJX0U/ref=tag_dpp_cust_edpp_sa

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I'll have my wife tag your book tonight!

Hart Johnson said...

Thank you Johanna! Just did yours as well (and liked it to boot)

Thomas, I think I caught you the other day... in fact I'm sure I did...

Alex-thank you!

CA Heaven said...

I'm considering self publishing an e-book on Amazon as a good option, in principle. In practice, However, it seems like it's possible only for US citizens. Does anybody know how to get around this for people living in small countries in the remote corners of the world?

Cold As Heaven

Hart Johnson said...

CaH-I know you CAN, but the only out of US people I know off had who've self published are in Canada, and I'm not sure everything is the same. I KNOW there is a wonky deal with payment because of taxes. I can throw the question out, though, to my huge FB group...

Helena said...

Wow, what a great technique! So yes, I'm off to tag you.

Rachel Tsoumbakos said...

Tagged and liked to everyone here :-D

Here's my books:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Ring-Lost-Souls-ebook/dp/B00879OR6O

http://www.amazon.com/Emeline-and-the-Mutants-ebook/dp/B004PGNBCO

Jan Morrison said...

I think I did what I wanted to but I'm not sure. Boy, do I sound like a lame old lady. grrr.

Emily White said...

What a great idea!! I have tagged you!

Here's my book:

http://www.amazon.com/Elemental-Emily-White/dp/1937053040/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343265027&sr=8-1&keywords=elemental+by+emily+white

and

http://www.amazon.com/Elemental-ebook/dp/B007YIY7V4/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1343265127&sr=1-1&keywords=elemental+by+emily+white

Just please don't click on that erotic romance one. I really don't know why anyone tagged my book with that. :o

Unknown said...

You are always full of fabulous tidbits of information! I have been out of the blogging loop for a while, but in just a few minutes learned something new...now to scroll through all the posts I missed!

Joe said...

done. By the way, when you are on a book's Amazon page if you press the "t" key on your keyboard twice it will open up a little window for tagging complete with convenient suggestions for tags (what other's have tagged the book with) . I went ahead and just added all the suggested tags :-)