Saturday, March 12, 2011

Calling all my author friends, tag, you're it.

So, you have a book on Amazon, either a paper book or an e-book or both. But the readers aren't coming. What to do?

Reviews. Right? Yes in part. But did you know about tags?

After you put your book on Amazon, or even a publisher puts your book on Amazon, you must make sure the book has tags. What is a tag?

A tag is information in a "word" to help readers who are searching Amazon to find the books they want to read. The more tags you have helps to determine how high on the search list your book will appear. Making your book more visible to readers. This is only one method that Amazon factors into your position on the search list, there are others, like reviews and sells.

Okay, you may say. I did that. Yes, you may have done that but you aren't really done yet. Now you must send in the troops. Ask as many people as you can to log into Amazon, find your book and click on all the tags they can. It's free to them. They can even add tags. Up to 15. But they must be logged in, to do it. The more people who click the tags on your book, the higher your book will rise in the Amazon list. What does that mean?

Have you ever gone to a website looking for a specific item and the site gives you 100 pages or more to go through? Are you really going to search all 100 pages? When you get tagged, instead of being on page 100 plus, you may be on page two or three or better. The more visible you are the more likely you will be to have sales.

One more thing, those in the UK can help by tagging us over there but cannot tag us on Amazon.com unless they have an account with Amazon.com and vice versa.

Here is my example. On Tuesday, before I heard about this, I was listed at 195,000 ebooks. No wonder I wasn't selling anything. Then I found some other authors who were tagging. There were only five of us. I tagged them and they tagged me. I also dropped my price for a limited time to .99. The next day, I was on Amazon's best seller list under, ebook, fantasy, historical. #95 for Amazon.com and #19 for Amazon UK. I was more visible to readers.


This is what you're looking for.


Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
Check the boxes next to the tags you consider relevant or enter your own tags in the field below. 
(16)
(14)

Your tags: 
, , , , , , , , , , , , ,   (Edit)

Next step: Kindle boards. Are you in kindle boards? I wasn't. You have to register just like you did to put your book up for sale and just like you did when you wanted to buy a book. There is an entire kindle board community both on dot com and UK for authors who want to tag each other.

Here's the link:  http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,22473.0.html
Still another way to do tags. On the authors page tap "tt" on your keyboard. It will automatically bring up the tag list. (lower case tt). You must have an account and you must have purchased something from Amazon. But you do not have to buy this book you are tagging.


I repeat: You don't have to buy the book your are tagging. You are just helping that author become more visible.

So there you have it. The saga of the tags. So please everyone, help each other out. Our UK friends can go to Amazon there and tag us and the rest can go to Amazon.com. My author site and book have a link on the left hand side of this blog under the book cover.

In case you missed it, here is the link to a post on Joe Konrath's blog about best selling kindle author John Locke. This is one of those post you can't afford to miss!


Have a great day!
Nancy

30 comments:

Nicole said...

A fantastic idea Nancy just make sure not to mention this plan widely on the kindle forum's on Amazon as they will scalp you on there *shudder* this is why indie's supporting indie's is a great thing! There's plenty of people out there who hate a tall poppy..

The Arrival, Book 1 of the BirthRight Trilogy available now

Dawn Embers said...

i am terrible at tagging. I always forget tags for blog posts on all 4 of the blogs I take part in. And on writing.com I never remember to add tag words on any of my stories. I know I should, it would help people find my stories more, but I keep forgetting.

Great post.

Nas said...

Thanks for such a fantastic post. I've just search a friends debut book on Amazon but can't find it. I'm going to drop this link to my friend..

The Words Crafter said...

Whoa, who knew? I guess I'm gonna be playing on amazon for a while today :P

Thanks for the info!

N. R. Williams said...

Good point Nicole. I will stop saying anything at once on one of the forums where this information is being discussed regularly.

Dawn, put a sticky note on the side of your computer to help train you to leave tags.

Nas, send your friend over.

I know Words, when I found out I was so surprised.

Thanks everyone for coming.
Nancy

Wendy S Marcus said...

Nas did drop the link to me and I found it very helpful! Thank you!

Joanne said...

It's nice to know that Amazon gives you this opportunity to promote your work in this way, to actively get it seen by more people. From the change in your stats, it obviously helps!

Jeffrey Pierce said...

Excellent suggestion! I've made it a part of my own daily routine. :)

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Okay, now I understand. I think my book already has numerous tags though. And my publisher set the price.

N. R. Williams said...

Glad to see you Wendy.

Hi Joanne, it is a good thing.

Glad you're a new follower Jeff.

I'd say something to your publisher, Alex.

Thanks everyone.
Nancy

Roland D. Yeomans said...

Great post. I'm off to check your tags. Now, tag mine. Tag, you're it!

Ah, (hat in hand, sad "Puss In Boots" look to my eyes), anybody tagging me, too, would be appreciated.

Hibbs might even visit you with some magic! Roland

Roland D. Yeomans said...

I just bought your book and tagged you. Mission accomplished. Now, I'm off to join the Kindle Boards before I race off to work, Roland

Southpaw said...

I didn’t realize the more number on a single tag upped the ratings. This is great information. I checked off all the tabs for the tags for your book.

N. R. Williams said...

Thank you very much, Roland. I tagged yours too. But I will double check.

I know Holly, this was a complete surprise to me and I knew most of us had no idea.

Cheers,
Nancy

Denise Covey said...

Wonderful info Nancy. I'm sure there's heaps of other ways to get more visible. I'll be tagging this post for future reference. I'm glad it's working for you. I'll have to hope Roland takes it onboard. I'll go into Amazon and do what I can for those I know!

Denise<3

Michael Di Gesu said...

Hi, Nancy,


Thanks for the info. This is good to know. At some point many of us will be publishing out works on Amazon...

I'm off to tag you and Roland...

Michael

N. R. Williams said...

Thank you Denise and Michael. I thrilled that you are behind us and delighted that the blogging community is filled with wonderful people just like the two of you.
Nancy

Unknown said...

This is amazingly useful information. I'm going to have to remember it when I'm published.

Marian Allen said...

Thanks, Nancy! I'm starting on Kindleboards, too. I'll look for you there. :)

Marian Allen

N. R. Williams said...

It is Clarissa.

Hi Marian, I just joined kindle boards so I am very new.

Thank you both for dropping by.
Nancy

Unknown said...

Interesting post. After I tagged your listing, I went over to my daughter's CDs and did the same.

Amie Kaufman said...

Wow, useful information! I'm not published, but I'll use this to help out those I know who are!

Summer Ross said...

This is great advice! I didn't even know about it! Thanks for posting!

N. R. Williams said...

Thank you Kay, Amie and Summer. I'm glad you all found it helpful. I didn't know about it either until this past week.
Nancy

Dominic de Mattos said...

Hi Nancy

Sorry I haven't been visiting this week - I have been out every night and two services today! This is so useful to know, and filed away for future reference. Thanks for sharing.

In the meantime, I am going to go tagging! :)

:Dom

N. R. Williams said...

Nice to see you Dom. I've been a little worried about you. Thanks for the tag.
Nancy

J.L. Campbell said...

I've bookmarked this page. Great info!

N. R. Williams said...

Thank you J. L.
Nancy

Unknown said...

Nancy, I found your blog through kay Theodoratus's blog. Great stuff. There is so much to learn with self publishing! Thanks for sharing. BTW, I'm your newest follower. I look forward to more great info. My blog is Life of Lois if you'd like to stop by.

I'm off to tag your book.
Best, Lois

N. R. Williams said...

Hi Lois, nice to meet you. Glad you found this post useful. I will come by your blog.
Nancy