Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Tagging Books on Amazon

If you go to the Articles page of my website, the first article there is "How to Help the Author You Love". It lists ways in which you can help the author you love find new readers, and conversely, ways you can introduce readers you love to an author you think they'd enjoy. The article doesn't cover easy, free ways you can spread the word about your favorite author that are available in the new world of social networks (such as using the "recommend it" feature on the author's book page on Goodreads to recommend the book to your Goodreads friends).

One easy, free way to help the author you love on-line is to "tag" his/her books on Amazon. You can assign search terms called tags to the book. Then if someone uses the "Products Tagged With" option in the Amazon search window, then types in one of the tags, your favorite author's book will be included in the books shown.

Smart authors put their own suggested tags on their books, so all you need to do is to click on those tags to agree with them. For instance, I've put tags on the trade paperback and Kindle versions of my upcoming release, Deadly Currents, on Amazon. To support me, all you need to do is click on these two links, page down to where the tags are listed and click on each one. Easy peasy! The more times people click on tags such as "adventure," "mystery," "colorado," "women sleuths," or "whitewater rafting," the higher up on the list Deadly Currents will appear when someone searches for Products Tagged With one of these terms.

So, have some fun with it! Search for your favorite books on Amazon and click on their tags. Or, search for Products Tagged With a search term that best describes the kind of books you like to read. Then find books you like and click on their tags so they come up higher on the list. And, if you decide to tag my books, I'd really appreciate it!

2 comments:

Dan Phalen said...

Beth, I'm a bit of a troglodyte in epublishing. Your article was the first decent explanation I've found. Thanks for explaining.

I tagged your books. ;)

Dan

Beth Groundwater said...

Thanks, Dan, for tagging my books, and I'm glad my explanation was helpful. :)