How to find erotica on Amazon
I posted here before about how tagging at Amazon can help authors but it's also a really useful way for readers to find what they like, and more of what they like. It's particularly useful for fans of erotica, as it's one of the main ways of categorising our smutty reads.
If you like crime fiction, for instance, Amazon very helpfully has formal sub-categories (suspense, thrillers, detective, etc), and sub-sub-categories (British detectives, hard-boiled, and so on). If you like a good bit of smut, head straight for the erotica category. But if you like a bit of girl-on-girl, say, there's no further sub-division: it's all in the erotica category, along with the boy-on-boy, the BDSM, the pseudo-incest, the vanilla, and so on. Perhaps we can understand that Amazon have chosen not to put too much work into the erotica category, so they're not being seen to promote it, but it's not very helpful.
This is where tagging comes into its own. When an author's book comes out, one of the first things he or she does is add appropriate tags: this is where we, effectively, add our own sub-categories. A few abuse the system by adding misleading tags, it's true, but most of us see that it's not worth it: if I've published a story of heady adultery, I want people who like that kind of story to find it - there's no point adding tags that might draw traffic, but the kind of traffic that's not really interested in that kind of story.
It's a self-policing thing, too: readers can add tags, and they can vote for and against tags, agreeing with appropriate ones and voting down any that may be misleading.
What does this mean for readers? It means that, particularly for erotica which is so poorly served by Amazon's more formal categorisation system, it's one of the best ways of finding erotica that plays to your particular tastes.
The tags are buried away quite far down a page: down below the 'about the author' and 'people also bought' sections. As well as voting on a tag, each tag is hyperlinked, so you can click through to find the most heavily tagged books for that topic.
Here are a few examples:
"casual sex": amazon.com / amazon.co.uk"cheating wives": amazon.com / amazon.co.uk"cuckold": amazon.com / amazon.co.uk"dogging": amazon.com / amazon.co.uk"one night stands": amazon.com / amazon.co.ukI've found that it's actually one of the best ways to explore an online store like Amazon, the closest thing to wandering round a bricks and mortar bookstore and stumbling across things by chance. Why not give it a go?
If you like crime fiction, for instance, Amazon very helpfully has formal sub-categories (suspense, thrillers, detective, etc), and sub-sub-categories (British detectives, hard-boiled, and so on). If you like a good bit of smut, head straight for the erotica category. But if you like a bit of girl-on-girl, say, there's no further sub-division: it's all in the erotica category, along with the boy-on-boy, the BDSM, the pseudo-incest, the vanilla, and so on. Perhaps we can understand that Amazon have chosen not to put too much work into the erotica category, so they're not being seen to promote it, but it's not very helpful.
This is where tagging comes into its own. When an author's book comes out, one of the first things he or she does is add appropriate tags: this is where we, effectively, add our own sub-categories. A few abuse the system by adding misleading tags, it's true, but most of us see that it's not worth it: if I've published a story of heady adultery, I want people who like that kind of story to find it - there's no point adding tags that might draw traffic, but the kind of traffic that's not really interested in that kind of story.
It's a self-policing thing, too: readers can add tags, and they can vote for and against tags, agreeing with appropriate ones and voting down any that may be misleading.
What does this mean for readers? It means that, particularly for erotica which is so poorly served by Amazon's more formal categorisation system, it's one of the best ways of finding erotica that plays to your particular tastes.
The tags are buried away quite far down a page: down below the 'about the author' and 'people also bought' sections. As well as voting on a tag, each tag is hyperlinked, so you can click through to find the most heavily tagged books for that topic.
Here are a few examples:
"casual sex": amazon.com / amazon.co.uk"cheating wives": amazon.com / amazon.co.uk"cuckold": amazon.com / amazon.co.uk"dogging": amazon.com / amazon.co.uk"one night stands": amazon.com / amazon.co.ukI've found that it's actually one of the best ways to explore an online store like Amazon, the closest thing to wandering round a bricks and mortar bookstore and stumbling across things by chance. Why not give it a go?
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