Tag! You’re It!

A friend turned me on to this a couple months back, and I thought it was share-worthy. First, ask yourself this question.

Do you tag on Amazon?

If you’re scratching your head, I’ll take that as a “no.” In that case, you’re probably wondering what tagging is, how you do it, and why you should care if someone tags you.

The answer is surprising.

Let’s say I’m shopping on Amazon for Ill Wind, the first book in Rachel Caine’s Weather Warden series (which I happen to love).

Go ahead and take a look at the sales page here.

If you scroll down the page, past the “What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item,” and past “Looking for Rachel Caine products?,” you’ll see a section labeled “Tags Customers Associate with This Product.”

That is the section you want. Look around and read a few. I’ll list the top five tags: urban fantasy, Weather Warden, Rachel Caine, urban dark fantasy, paranormal romance

Now I’ll tell you what it all means. If a customer is in the mood for urban fantasy, but doesn’t have an author in mind, they can type in “urban fantasy” or “paranormal romance” and there is a chance Ill Wind will show up as a title they are interested in reading.

More tags equal a higher ranking. The higher your ranking is, the more likely it becomes that Amazon will pull your title out of its slush pile.

It’s interesting and makes a lot of sense. It seems to be a new hot topic among authors, and it might be something you’d like to look into. If you have friends or peers that can help, it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

You’re not asking for them to give you a favorable review or anything like that. You’re simply asking them to label your latest title with tags that will ensure it shows up in broader searches, or agree with existing tags. There’s nothing wrong with that. 

For more information, check out this blog.

It has detailed information and is much more user friendly than my rambling.