Amazon Tags

[Caitie]

So, Amazon is getting rid of their tags (Or they've gotten rid of them. Not sure where they are in the process.)

Is anyone else not happy about this?

I went to buy a book last night that had very few reviews here or on Amazon and couldn't figure out if it was hot/erotica or not.

I'm so disappointed that the ability to tag books as sweet or clean is gone. I wish more authors would be explicit in their blurbs about the type of book they're writing. I've been burnt twice with books not blurbed/categorized as erotica.

Anyone else? Thoughts?

[Aslaug]

Yes, I agree. I wrote to Amazon and complained, but they haven't put them back, yet. So, are you sure they have done away with them completely? Because in the Amazon forums someone was saying that about a year ago they did this as well when they were doing maintenance on the site, but that they eventually put them back up. Even if all the old tags are gone, and we have to re-do them, I want them back for many reasons.

[Caitie]

The writers who wrote in were told that readers had "other ways of finding relevant books" and that tags were going away.

It has definitely slowed down my buying habits.... maybe mixed blessing there LOL

BUT maybe if enough people contact them they'll pretend it was temporary and give them back again.

I keep considering starting a twitter petition!

[Aslaug]

Caitie, you definitely should start a twitter petition. I don't do twitter, yet. I will write them again, as I did not receive a response.

I probably will still get the free books without the tags, because I won't feel guilty just deleting them, but I probably won't be purchasing many books if I don't know what's in them. Which is sad for all of the indie writers, like me, publishing their books and don't have any reviews, yet. Although, it also might teach authors to include pertinent info, such as "clean romance" in the book description if people don't want to take a chance on a book from an unknown author. Looks like I might have to take another look at mine.

[Crystal (Books Are Sanity!!!)]

You can actually return kindle books bought thru amazon within 7 days or purchase. So if you buy it and it is not clean, you can return if :-) Just go to manage your kindle click on actions for that specific title and if it within seven days there is a RETURN button :-) My sister shared this with me and I have actually done it once when I accidentally hit buy and did not mean to! Hope this helps and I agree the tags are helpful and we need them!

[Aslaug]

Good Tip! Thanks!

Yes, that will work if I know I will read the book within 7 days of purchase. Problem is the big house publisher's books that offer substantial discounts, but not free. When a book is normally 14.99 and they offer it for 2.99 I am very tempted to snap it up, but don't plan on reading it right away. Only weeks later do I wish I hadn't bought it all, because maybe it has an intense rape scene in it or something like that. It's much easier for a reader to simply tag the book with the word "rape" than for someone else to have to read through a lot of reviews to finally find the one that mentions it.

[Caitie]

Unfortunately, I can't return books :(

My sister and I share a kindle account so (to not mess up money matters) I have to gift the kindle. Amazon will not allow you to return gifts once you've accepted them. Yes. I've had that throw down with them.

BUT! For the majority of people I think that will work.

[Donna]

what? I don't know what a tag is. Why have I not noticed this before? Please explain... not that it matters if they are removing them.

[Aslaug]

I am still confused myself about that. I wrote Amazon again and this time I did receive a reply and they said they were removing them. However, I have seen said tags on product items and even on some books since then. I have not, however seen tags on any of the Kindle Only books. This leads me to believe that Amazon thinks that self-publishers were "cheating the system" so to speak with the tags, and therefore Amazon removed them for Kindle only books so as to defeat the self-publishers.

I used to rely heavily on the tags to determine if I wanted to buy something. I really think that Amazon is kind of shooting themselves in the foot with their decision to remove them; I think they will end up losing sales in the long run.

On a positive note, shelfari.com still uses the tags, as you can see here: http://bit.ly/UDimoS Just scroll down to the bottom of the page and you will see them under "Popular Tags".

[Caitie]

I'm not sure how you "cheat the system" with tags (although, granted, I wouldn't spend anytime figuring out how to cheat anyway! LOL)

But, if tags were weighted, then here's an easier answer: Don't weight them. Let readers tag books and take away any power they might have for authors.

I kind of feel like Amazon is a 13yo girl. I'll never figure out what she's thinking!

[Gregg]

Amazon hid tags because users started using them to "flame" people by adding tags like "sucks" and "awful" and more profane terms which got unmanageable for them.

The good news is you can still access the Amazon Tags by going here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/tagging/cloud
From the cloud, click on any tag then use the "narrow your search by any tag" and enter CLEAN or CLEAN ROMANCE. I got 102 results.

You can also go here:
http://www.amazon.com/tag/clean%20rom...
I got 906 results.

Though your search results will be less.

My wife writes clean romance with an inspirational message though they are not fluffy plastic "christian" romances. Her characters are vividly realistic. I realize this is not a "christian" romance group and I am not plugging, only intending to inform and educate by using her books as an example:

You can type in "kindle freebie" after the tag, select "romance" then "contemporary romance" then "christian romance" or type in any of those tags, and you find my wife's free novella "Greater Than Rubies" among other titles. The URL will probably look like this:

http://www.amazon.com/tag/kindle%20fr...

I hope this helps you find lots of clean, enjoyable, and uplifting stories to read.

In Christ,
Gregg Bridgeman

[Aslaug]

Gregg, that makes sense about the flaming and I did actually see some of that before they disappeared. However, when there was a list of tags following a given book, it was nice to see what kind of things that particular book contained that was not in the description. Although, they were not 100%. Like you say, sometimes a flamer would tag the book with a rape scene when in fact it did not have one, so yeah it was being abused by some people.

As far as searching for books that have already been tagged, that feature is still there. Also, people can still tag books directly from their kindles, I think. I haven't actually tried to do that, yet.

Thanks for the links, Gregg.