To be honest, I can't remember how I got here, where it started or anything. Point is this is where I stopped. Tag My Book on Amazon! I'm just getting used to this tagging business. Frankly, I ignored them before feeling that tags weren't relevant to whatever I was searching. Now, I believe I get it. Tag My Book on Amazon (TMBA) is a blog site dedicated to creating visibility in the writing/publishing community. At first I was very confused, but at the top of the page sandwiched into the links between HOME and ABOUT ME is "What is Tagging". Yes, I need to know.

Tagging is a little label of sorts attached to some sort of item, e.g. a blog post, a photo, a video, or in this case, a book.
So, how does this help authors sell books? Visibility, as it is explained on this blog.
Say I'm searching through Amazon for memoirs, and I see a tag for the word memoir. Then I click on the "memoir" tag it will take me to a customer community page for memoirs.

Here's the example given on the What is Tagging? page.
Bob Dole has at book, with one tag as "memoir" and it's on page 247, ranked 1235. Read this:

Here’s where the cool part comes in. I went ahead and tagged his book with the tag “memoir”. Suddenly, his book has two tags, he jumped from page 247 to page 123 (rank - 615, a huge jump)!

Amazing – no additional book sales at all – just a simple tag. It was then I learned that the top books on these pages are not based on sales (at least for now), but rather by how many times customers tag them with the same term. The limitation - the same customer can use the same tag only one time for a particular book. So I couldn’t keep tagging Bob Dole “memoir” and move his book up – I only get one vote.

How cool is that? (Obviously enough for me to blog it!) The post goes on to read that if you get more people to apply a tag to your book it moves up, and up in the Amazon food chain. The purpose of the blog, to get the community of authors and readers out there to lend a click and tag some books for visibility. No purchase necessary.

Give the links a click, its certainly worth checking out if you spend any time reading and browsing Amazon.

I also stumbled across something called book trailers. I'm very curious. Stay tuned.

3 comments

1. Golden Pastry on March 22, 2009 4:01 PM

   considering what 'tag' is when kids play this game....this form of "tag" your discussing seems to be more beneficial to the individual....interesting stuff

    
2. Lady Camelia on March 26, 2009 9:44 AM

   That is a cool concept... Who normally tags the books? Friends of the autor, readers, people with time on their hands??? Is it essentially helping you browse by pertinence or, also, by popularity? I'm looking forward to see your presentation!
   And your site is so nice that it makes mine look bad! :))

    
3. Lorilei on March 26, 2009 2:43 PM

   From what I can understand the tagging is a word-of-mouth (off/online) sort of thing. The maker of this blog has a section dedicated to tagging. "Tag You're it!" Individuals submit their books, links to them, request tags they'd like, and a little more information/description. The blogger Todd A Fonseca, author of The Time Cavern, posts this information up, and I gather other authors and readers help their fellows. I know if I'd published a book I'd tell all my friends, family to do the same. I'm sure popularity would likely factor in. Interesting description, snazzy cover design.
   
   As far as Lulu being a nice site, its very pretty and clean cut. But don't forget its also a company that generates money. There is a clear colour code and design, and I'm sure there were board meetings about it, and graphic designers to work on it. (Not that this is a negative thing, just I wouldn't expect the same from other many of the other class sites.)