You’ve got your killer read on Amazon, but what can you do to keep your momentum in sales and exposure up? Two ways…tagging and liking. Brief descriptions and pointers for each:
TAGGING
Tags are those words or phrases that are about halfway down your book’s Amazon page. You want tags that pertain to your book, so when people search for, say, “romance,” your romance novel pops up as an option in that category. Naturally, the more people you have agreeing with your tags, the higher likelihood your book will pop up when the tags are searched!
Pointer #1
You can tag your own book–15 times. Absolutely do this. Plus, the tags you chose are likely to be the first tags visible, without clicking on the “See all ____ tags” link. Thus, they will be your most important tags, as they will get the most votes.
Pointer #2
When you’re helping other authors out, click on the “See all ____ tags” link to vote on all tags.
Pointer #3
Same as with liking, voting on tags for a paperback version of a book does not transfer over to votes on tags for the kindle version of the book. Gotta take the time to write tags for both, and vote on both!
LIKING
We all know what liking is (thank you very much Facebook!) There are a few places to look for liking on Amazon, and one thing you can’t do, as far as I know!
Pointer #1
If you only have a US Amazon account, as far as I know, you can’t like books in UK or other regions. Vice versa.
Pointer #2
If there are paperback and kindle versions of the same book, liking one does not mean you like the other. In other words, you have to go to the webpage for each version, and click the like button.
Pointer #3
You can like the author’s Amazon page! Just click on the link to the page, and then the like button is in the top right area of that page.
These are just some quick thoughts/pointers regarding liking and tagging on Amazon, and are especially meant to help as the #AmazonLikes hashtag on Twitter continues to grow in usage. If YOU have any of your own pointers, let me know and I’ll add them here while giving you credit. Take care and best of luck with your book!
This was so helpful, thank you!
VERY good post Derek. Tweeting it.
Gracias
I’ve heard at WorldLiteraryCafe that “voting” on tags is not the same as “clicking” on the checkboxes of the tags. So if you “vote all”, it doesn’t add to the count. I vote and click on all the boxes, and Like at the top.
Hi Rachelle
I do what you do–click on all of the boxes and like at the top. I think you’re right on!
Derek
Thanks! You’ve taught me a lot!
[...] is generous with other writers. His website includes tips for writers, including an ”Amazon for Dummies” article that is particularly helpful! He offers inexpensive options for indie authors to [...]
Good article – wasn’t aware of this! Thanks Derek.
No problem
Thanks for the tips, my ebook, my first, is on Amazon, Smashwords and Lulu so will do as you have stated…Thanks…
Hi Derek, yes, doing all this as much as possible! I’ve heard that if you get 40 ‘likes’ on your actual Amazon US author page (ie, not just the books), it takes you into another stratosphere as far as visibility is concerned. I don’t know how true this is; it might be just a myth, but it doesn’t hurt to try and get that many, does it? It would be great if we could find out exactly how visible certain amounts of ‘likes’ make us – I suppose that’s and Amazon secret, though!
Hi Terry
Doesn’t hurt to try, and they have the tags there for a reason. Any increased visibility is always welcome!
Okay, Derek, I read this post, and I still don’t know what I’m supposed to do. You said I need to add some tags. I don’t understand what you mean. I put hashtags on twtiter when I post about my book and my blog. Is this something different I’m supposed to do on Amazon? And if so, I don’t know what I”m supposed to do there. Sorry, I’m new at this and kind of slow in this regard. Help! I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.
Hi Crystal,
You can add tags to your book directly on your book’s Amazon page. It is about 1/2 way down the page. You will see a section for tags, and an empty box. You can add up to 15 tags of your own, and customers can add their own as well. Hope this helps!
Derek
Yes, you can like your own book; at least it worked for me via my iPhone. And we didn’t get to the part where tagging of reviews as helpful is, well….helpful. This is a respectful thing to do for your readers and creates loyalty, not to mention improves their standing with Amazon, which in turn can make their reviews pop to the top (versus bad reviews you should have friends/family mark as unhelpful so they slip further from view). Anyway, great post!
Yep, can definitely like your own books!
Hi, Derek – I am not an author, but like to help them as much as possible. I have an Amazon account set up, but have not used it to buy anything. I probably will in the future when I have some extra funds. I was gifted a book for my free Amazon Kindle by an author. Okay, now for my question. From trying I know I cannot add any reviews, cannot like and cannot bump up the tags. Is there anything I can do on Amazon? Author Dara Lurie posted this site on her Twitter – so glad she did. Thank you, Angela J. Shirley – Promotions By Angela
Hi Angela, thanks for checking out the post! You have to buy something first. You can buy a $0.99 book and the glorious doors of Amazon will be opened to you
Thanks Derek—Very helpful!
Great post. About to self-publish my first book and trying to sort it all out. Thank you much for the detail. Very helpful- will retweet