Tips for Self Promotion, Sales, and Advertising discussion

Todd's Amazon tagging idea was a great one, but as the list of books grows longer it takes a larger and larger leap of faith to believe that your tagging efforts will be reciprocated. This is just human nature, we shouldn't feel bad about it.

So my idea is to copy Todd's but with some modifications. Here are the rules:

1) The book list will be limited to 50 books.
2) When 50 books have been collected, new books will not be accepted
3) An author can only submit one book
4) Book's that are already in Todd's list are welcome in the new list
5) Each author will tag every other book in the list with 3 Amazon tags.

To add your book to this new list go here

(update 2010-02-08) Here is an up to date list of the books so far

DJ Webber [Aliens, Australia, Drought:]
Victoria Twead [Spain, chickens, humor:]
Elaine Chaika [sociolinguistics, linguistics, communication:]
Peggy Williams [Children’s book, bird-watching, nature:]
Lisa Lipkind Leibow [Women’s Fiction, Multicultural, Infertility:]
Vincent Lowry [science fiction, fiction, childrens books:]
Bill Shears [science fiction, humor, earth orbit:]
Jen Knox [memoir, rebellion, women:]
Joe Schatz [parenting, fatherhood, humor:]
David David Katzman [humor, satire, avant garde:]
Amber Lehman [sexuality, bisexual, coming of age:]
Molly Barrow [self esteem, adventure, funny:]
Lori A. Moore [Christian, Christian non-fiction, Faith:]
Lance Carbuncle [Cult Fiction, Dark Humor, Humor:]
Jennifer Phillips [biography, social studies, journalists:]
Dianne Sweeney [humor, love, highly recommended:]
Leslie Susskind [childrens books, sportsmanship, parenting:]
Libby Schmais [Young Adult, Teens, Humor:]
Thomas Hollowell [morocco, africa, human rights:]
Peggy Headings [Adventure, children illustration, childrens books:]
Lisa Maddock [animal stories, pet stories, guinea pig:]
Krista Michelle Breen [Horses, Equestrian, Animal stories:]
Larry Ketchersid [historical fiction, romance contemporary, Clint Eastwood:]
Marc Wambolt [poetry, inspirational, emotional :]
Shirley Bullock [Western, time travel, romance:]
William Bentrim [Dog story, friendship, telepathy :]
Gina Collia-Suzuki [dark humor, comedy, murder:]
Jason Harvey [self-help, inspirational, success:]
Toni Teepell [coming of age, family drama, christian fiction:]
Kevis Hendrickson [kindle, kindle book, science fiction:]
Cynthia Enuton [Fantasy, Dogs, Childrens book:]
Guido Henkel [horror, gothic horror, mystery:]
Geraldine Wierzbicki-Roach [Family Saga, Historical Romance, Polish-American Immigrant Experience:]
Gregory Mose [satire, humor, kindle book:]
Stacy Juba [mystery, literary mystery, romantic suspense:]

Thank you, David. Nice and clear and simple. I've added 'Chickens'. All my tagging efforts so far have only resulted in a few checked tags on the UK site. :(

Victoria

Chickens, Mules and Two Old Fools (website)
[image error]

I went on Wordpress to find lists of books for tagging. When you hit "tag, you're it" you just are bounced back to the home page. Somehow, I finally found a heading of "Additional titles for October," etc. and did get a list to tag, mostly of fantasy and horror, genres I never read, but I tagged them anyway.

Are you aware that in order for your tags to be saved, after you check off your selections or a add a new tag, you have to hit the letter T twice, & a box opens for you to save your tags.

Victoria wrote: "Thank you, David. Nice and clear and simple. I've added 'Chickens'. All my tagging efforts so far have only resulted in a few checked tags on the UK site. :(

Victoria

Chickens, Mules and Two Old..."

Victoria, I discovered that you have to save your tags by hitting T twice after checking off and adding tags. Then a box opens with your tags listed, and you just click on it to save your tags. I'm going back to your book and retagging it. I'd appreciate the same at http://bit.ly/LgSoci

Guess I will have to look into this. I have no idea what book tagging is about. Of course, I don't visit Amazon that often, either.

thanks Viktoria and Elaine, only 47 places left!

Peggy Williams has now joined. Only 46 spots left!

45!

Sure, count me in.


Constellation Chronicles The Lost Civilization of Aries

Thanks Vincent, I updated your amazon link to the permalink.

44 remaining.

Sure.

I tagged every single book in the post above my name according to the tags they provided. Thanks for doing the same with mine.

-Vince

Hi Vincent, i just tagged you. But my idea was to have the main tag effort when we have a full list of 50 books. But of course it doesn't matter if we add the tags before then.

Sorry 'bout that. I jumped the gun.

Bill Shears joined so 43 spots left.

When we have 50 books I will edit my original blog post so that all 50 amazon links and the tags are together. That will make it really quick and easy to do the tagging.

I will also put the concise list of links and tags right here (if that's ok with the moderators!)

I just joined. I went ahead and tagged everyone thus far as well, and I'll continue to do so as we go along. This will make it easier for me to remember. You all have some fantastic books on this list!!!
My to-reads are getting out of control.

Warmly, Jen Knox

Hi all,

My first time in this group. I'm a self-published author nearing completion of my second book. I hadn't heard about tagging until now. I understand the basic premise after having read some of these threads, but some of the details are fuzzy. Is this how it goes: I suggest some tags for my novel and then others here--just being helpful--log on to amazon, and click to endorse the tags? or add the tags if they aren't there already? And then we help each other out supporting each other's tags?

Do i have it or am i off? Will the questions ever end?

Actually, yes, right here. Here's my book: http://www.amazon.com/Death-Zamboni-D...

Death by Zamboni (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17... )

Thanks for the assistance!

ps. if i am correct, then i'd appreciate tags like: funny, humor, satire, avant garde, experimental and weird!

Thanks. :-)

David David,

You're very welcome to join this list. You need to add the following comment to my blog:

Title: Death by Zamboni
Author: David David Katzman 
Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0615113575
Tags: satire, avant garde, experimental

Please read the main blog entry on this and then you'll get the picture!

http://davew1977.wordpress.com/2009/1...

/David

David,
I've tagged three of your categories and added humor spelt the American way. On tagging in general, I am losing out at a ratio of about 3:1. I have tagged 30 books and only received about 8 back. This is frustrating.
My books can be found on Amazon sites by using Haigh Lions or Haigh Rhino in any one of the three northern hemisphere ones I know of, Amazon.com, Amazon.ca and Amazon.co.uk

Ah, i see. And then we all tag each other at once when you've hit 50 people? Makes sense!

Dr.--thank you. I'll tag your books later today.

Amber Lehman joined with "Torn". 39 spots left.

Thanks, Dr.! I tagged your books.

Thanks David,
Anyone else who has been slow to act and wishes to do so?

I thought I should explain the idea behind limiting the list to 50 books:

Once the list is complete it will be much easier to ensure fairness. At that point I intend to contact everyone on the list to remind them to complete their tagging and have people report back when they're done. That way people can be fairly sure that their tagging efforts have been reciprocated.

Think of this as a social experiment! :)

A nice plan, D.J.

new entry from Molly Barrow PhD. 38 spots left.

In answer to Lori, you can only tell you are getting tagged by the tag count on the book's Amazon page. The rest is all down to trust.

I love the fact that we are only doing 50. I'm caught up with all of you thus far (12/10) and I plan to buy one of your books after the holidays. You all are free to tag me early, too. I find it easier than spending an hour straight doing an entire list. Best, Jen http://amzn.com/0984259422

How are we doing, DJ? Have we stalled out?

What do you click on, Lori?

David David, I thought we'd stalled out but then we got two more books today by Lance Carbunkle and Jennifer Phillips. I guess we'll get to 50 but it could take a few weeks!

Hi DJ...perhaps you might call the list? A 40 book tag sounds pretty good to me. Not sure this thread will get more attention from the group...?

Happy 2010 to everyone!

Hi David,

Yeah, it seems like we've run out of folks who are interested in joining the list. What do you mean though by "calling the list"? Do you mean close it down? And "40 book"? We only have 14 books so far unfortunately.

One could just do the tags for the people in the list right now, and I'll keep an eye on it and get back to everyone if we ever get to 50 books.

/dave

ah, i was never that good at math. :-) i misread it as 38 books already listed. and by calling the list, yes, i was suggesting notifying everyone who had posted that we might as well tag each other now. People may not know that it's time to tag unless you call it.

i have tagged everyone on there for now.

Oh, I was so excited about this idea - alas, my book may not be up on Amazon, etc. before you reach your 50. And I'm great at reciprocating! I'm also new to GoodReads, so it's wonderful & encouraging to see this kind of activity. I'm a firm believer that nothing is accomplished alone - one can bring the ideas shared by the Collective Consciousness into material form in a book, then it must go back to the Collective once more to distribute those ideas.

My novel, HEAVEN, will be released early 2010. I hope to be able to participate in this group. If it's closed, Todd, would you consider opening a new one - say for books published during certain time periods (or some other limiter)?

I've enjoyed following this - as I said, it's encouraging! Thank you!

Kimberly

Kimberly wrote: "Todd, would you consider opening a new one "

Kimberly, Todd's group is "How To Get To #1 On Amazon" and it is still very active and effective. This group is DJ's.

Can I add my book to the list "The Pillow Book of Lotus Lowenstein"

http://bit.ly/pillowbookoflotus

already has tags on Amazon -- and which books should i start tagging?

thanks,
Libby

i've tagged your book Libby...if i may be so bold as to speak on his behalf, check out DJ's page and the list of books to tag is there. :-)

thanks David, for tagging and suggestions - I'll start tagging from the list tonight :)

Hi Libby, You just need to add a comment to my blog page here
http://davew1977.wordpress.com/2009/1...
listing your book title, amazon link and 3 suggested tags that you want the rest of us to add.

(thanks to david btw)

Okay, I just did alot of tagging and added my book. Lori if you see this your book is out of stock on Amazon.

Dianne
http://www.amazon.com/Kissing-Frogs-C...

Thank you, Rowena! I still need some help finding my way around this thing!

Hi. I'm new to Goodreads and new to these discussions. I thought I had added my 2 books to the list here but I can't mind my comment anywhere. (I think that happened to me on another discussion, too!)

Anyway, my first book is:
The Month of Zephram Mondays
http://www.amazon.com/Month-Zephram-M...
Tags: Fantasy, children's books, fantasy adventure

The second book is The Kids' (and parents', too) Book of Good sportsmanship
http://www.amazon.com/Kids-parents-Sp...
Tags: sportsmanship, children's books, parenting

sportsmanship is way over on the right -- people haven't tagged it, oops -- and it is the one I really need! Any help is appreciated. I will find out where the list is on DJ's page.
Thank you,
Leslie

Leslie - this is a different tagging list. To participate in this tagging list, you shoud post your books on DJ's page here: http://davew1977.wordpress.com/2009/1...

I'm not sure how DJ wants to work it now...the original plan was to wait until he had 50 books and then close the list at 50 and we could all tag each other. But the list stalled out a bit at 14. it may be up to 16 now. So i went and tagged everyone who was on there already. It might be nice if you tagged everyone on there when you add your books, although the purity of DJ's original plan is now being bastardized. :-)

Hey All

Little confused, lol, I tagged tons, but only got like four tags in return...Are we waiting until the 50 or is it a free for all right now. Also, if you could tag Internet Dating for me, I would love it. I am number 2...trying to get to number one. lol =)...Does anyone else feel like a pimp when it comes to their book?

Kissing Frogs in Cyberspace
http://www.amazon.com/Kissing-Frogs-C...

Hi Dianne,

I already tagged your book. DJ's original plan was to wait until we hit 50 and then we could all get the tagging done efficiently...i think with the general premise that it wouldn't take too long to reach 50. unfortunately, it's been a month and we still seem to be under 20 books. i took the liberty of just tagging everyone who was already on there, but it's up to DJ to decide whether to notify everyone to go ahead and tag them all or wait longer, etc.

Hi all,

Yeah the original idea was to wait until we have 50 books in the list, at which point I will close the list to new books and contact everyone by email to remind them to make sure they've tagged all the other books. I thought that this might be a good way of encouraging reciprocation with the tagging.

However, as David said, the list hasn't grown as quickly as I originally thought it would. So, what I suggest is this: we continue as we are, but, instead of only notifying people when we reach 50 members, I can send out some additional notifications when we reach say, 25 and 35 members (we are currently at 19). This will allow us to get all the benefits that I originally intended; that is, to have a list with an administrator who will gently remind people to reciprocate the tagging efforts of others.

great plan!

David David wrote: "Leslie - this is a different tagging list. To participate in this tagging list, you shoud post your books on DJ's page here: http://davew1977.wordpress.com/2009/1......"

David -- thanks for clarifying it. I went to DJ's link and found that I had signed up 1 book there already, as I thought I had -- I was looking on this list of messages for it and didn't realize I was looking in the wrong place and then also did 2 instead of 1 book. I'm having a hard time keeping my communities and discussions straight while trying to get the word out about my books and provide help for others, too. Sorry for the confusion. Thanks for doing this, DJ.
Leslie

Hey All

I am 18 books away from my publisher doing a second run. Looking for a good book to read for only 7.88 on Amazon? Check out Kissing Frogs in Cyberspace. Check out the reviews, I didn't put a gun to all those people's heads!!!

Thank you for any support you can give. =).

Dianne

I have added a summary list to my original blog post in order to help people with the tagging drudgery!

http://dj-webber.com/2009/12/01/amazo...