Tagging on Amazon and other ways to piss people off! (RANT)

Gaming the system and other evils of John Locke! (RANT...FYI)

With this story about John Locke and other authors, who paid for reviews we are seeing all the baby sharks take their hero down in a blaze of glory. My my my, do we love to take someone down, especially someone who we want to be, someone who is where we want to be. This is the classic story of hero one day and monster the next. After all this is America, land of the free and home of the... something.

People are saying that John Locke is gaming the system. This led me to think about tagging, which SOME people say is unethical or gaming the system unlike paying for reviews which IS unethical... but tagging is neither.

Tagging: 
What does tagging do? Well, glad you asked as so many authors have NO CLUE and get all worked up over nothing. Why, you might ask? Maybe they listened to some other author who was ignorant and said you should only do it HER way, maybe they have nothing better to do, or maybe they just don't know. So here it is.

Tagging on Amazon helps you the tagger, it helps the person getting tagged. It adds a link from one book to another book, it makes your title and the other tagged title climb into new Amazon algorithms. It makes a connection for the readers, it in fact is the perfect cross promotion tool we have today. Imagine if Stephen King tagged to your horror book? Would you be angry? No, you would send him a thank-you card. So why do so many authors get all hot over this subject?

Because they don't know...I hope.

Here is the list of bad things that happen if you are tagged:

NONE.

Thats right, not one bad thing can come from being tagged.

This all started with a woman named ------- ------ (If you want her name email me) Who started this notion that it was unethical to tag your book title or name. SHE said it was only OK to tag genre. Well, she said it so we all should just go with that she said!!! Wait...but she also is using indie authors to sell her own books under the pretense of helping women and other authors cuz she is a beautiful christian. She will Tweet your book once (maybe) and Tweet her listing back to you 10 times a day and build a brand on the backs of other authors. But she MUST know what she is talking about cuz she is a bestseller!

I guess this is a rant, lol

The point is this is not how SHE does it, not cuz one way is wrong but just a difference in marketing and knowledge. Anyway, a lot of indies bought into this idea and now we have one side that says you are evil if you tag a name or title and the other side that is confused that so many would just go with the flow when tagging HELPS EVERYONE!!!!

Don't you want to sell? Don't you want to be seen on Amazon? Don't you want to get into more lists? Don't you understand that this helps you and them? Now there are rules on how to do all this and they change but I talk to Amazon all the time, I have had many conversations with them on this subject and they WANT people to tag, they want those connections so readers can find like-genre books. In fact Vincent Zandri got a packet from them when he signed with T&M all but DEMANDING that he TAG!

But maybe I am crazy...

I spoke with Amazon this last spring as a publisher and I got a call last week and they asked if I could come out to LA for a press release deal. I am stoked and excited to work with them and they know that I am trying to use their site as best as I can, they want me and you to sell books. This is just one tool they use that helps to do just that.

As a publisher I have some other rules I have to follow in the tagging game but I adjust and learn along with everyone. You say you want to work with other authors, so how is it helping to shoot them down because you don't understand... that they're doing something that helps YOU, too!

Few new things to note: The rules on tagging are posted in Amazon's guidelines. If your tag annoys someone and they complain to Amazon, then Amazon looks as the person who complained as a customer, and they will always side with the customer because they want to keep customers happy, EVEN IF there was no violation of Amazon's guidelines.

Again, rules change but learn and just don't run around yelling "The sky is falling, the sky is falling!"




Author Aaron Patterson: Blog: The Worst Book Ever.

BLOGFEST 100! Guest Post by Martin king.

When I think of my childhood I have so many good and funny memories that it is hard to pick just one. If I stick to reading I would say the day I read three books in one sitting and went blond for 24hrs. I had a splitting headache and everything turned white, I freaked out and yes when it went away I went back to reading under the covers with a flashlight.

Here is Martin King:

You may wonder why I am doing this blogfest of 100 mini childhood stories on 100 different websites during the month of August. Well I’m wondering the exact same thing myself... it’s killing me!

So while just releasing my first book, launching my new website, having to decorate my mother-in-laws new apartment and working full time, I’m beginning to wonder is being a writer really worth it?

It reminds me of a childhood memory of what happened one day when we were around ten years old. Myself, Holly, Baker and I think my sister too (yes they do bear an uncanny resemblance to the characters in my book), were out walking in a field near where we lived. It was a hot day and we were all just in shorts and trainers.

Half way up the field we stopped to mess around in some trees, we were always clambering around in trees like little spider monkeys. Holly was up in one tree when he slipped and fell. Now he didn’t drop far and Holly was made of stern stuff so thankfully he didn’t hurt himself badly.

However, I failed to mention he fell into a whole ditch full of nettles. Now just remember back to the start of the story... that’s right he was only wearing a pair of shorts. The poor thing was stung on every inch of his body. Can you imagine the pain? And then watching him get covered all over in calamine lotion was probably no fun for him neither.

Well in some ways, trying to get published feels that painful. To everyone else driving around on that day – it was a hot, beautiful day. But nothing is ever what it seems. Writing a book to everyone else seems amazing.

“Wow, you’ve wrote a book!”

But the hard work and pain, the social networking and marketing... none of that was written on the tin.

But you know what, I watched my mate soon recovered and he still had his mates, his life. After all the hard work of trying to get my books published, no matter what, I’ve still got my friends and my wife and my life. But now they are written down on paper... and that becomes an eternal memory.
These blogs are all about fun and sharing. Thank you for reading a ‘#100blogfest’ blog. Please follow this link to find the next blog in the series:

http://martinkingauthor.com/blog/7094550076





Author Aaron Patterson: Blog: The Worst Book Ever.

Tagging your book and eBook on Amazon.

So, you want to tag... or you don't know what a tag is. Why tag? Tag... that is kind of fun to say... ooohhh, a feather.

I'm back.

On Amazon tagging is a way to make one book tagged or related to another book. It is when you see a title and below that book it shows other books people bought as well or recommended. This comes about by someone buying or tagging a different book to your book.

I know I sound like I am a simple minded person but I just want to be clear on what we are talking about.

Now, tagging is powerful, the more tags you have the easier you are to find. You can tag your book to another authors books. You can also tag another author to your book and so on.

The idea is to make the connection. So, if you write thrillers you want to tag your book to another thriller writer, and one who sells well. DO NOT TAG LIKE A CRAZY PERSON! If you tag to 2 or more authors it may dilute and you don't want water down your focus. Try just one or two authors and tag your book to theirs and theirs back too yours.

Yes this is legal.

And okay.

The other thing is you have to tag your print book and eBook independently. All tags will not carry across from print to E. You will need to tag your Ride-The-Wave author as well print and E.

Amazon also has sites in China, the UK and so on. All these sites are listed at the bottom of the page on Amazon. Just go alllllllllll the way down and click on where you want to go. You will need to tag your books in all these countries as well as they do not carry through.

All the sites will carry your print book but only the US, UK and Canada will have eBooks.

If you can't find where to TAG, just go to your book page and keep going down until you see Customer Tags.

If you still can't find where to tag... not sure what to tell you, find a 12 year old to do it for you.

Oh, and to tag all you do is type in your name on your big author's tag area, use your last name only, first and last and any other variations. On your book you do the same but his or her name, first and last etc... Click ADD and you are good to go. You will need to be logged into your Amazon account to tag, if you don't have an account you can make one. It is free and easy. Just try tagging and if you don't have an account Amazon will let you know and show you how to set up the account.

If you Tag it will help more people see your book by looking at another book. Thus you should sell more books, unless your book is crap, or if you have a bad cover or if you are just weird. Anything to help...

Cheers.