Using Amazon Search to hit #1!

[Todd Fonseca]

A number of you have participated in Amazon "tagging" to get to #1 in various Amazon customer communities.

I've added a new "Amazon Search" tab to hit #1 yet another way on Amazon - this time using their search function.

It's a little more complex than tags. I'm looking for a few folks to participate in an experiment of this function.

Check out the blog post and submit your book if interested!

http://tagmybookonamazon.wordpress.co...

Todd A Fonseca, author of The Time Cavern



"[The Time Cavern:] is an intelligent youth literature combination of adventure, fantasy and science" -- Aileen Cho, Associate Editor, McGraw-Hill

[G.R.]

Hi Todd,

I've submitted my book, and I'm off to tag the other books for Amazon search :o)

[Todd Fonseca]

Thanks Gina!

[Todd Fonseca]

All,
Whew, quite a response to this post on the blog. Give me some time to update it.
Thanks again!
T

[Dee]

Beatrice Beecham's Fearsome Feast by Dave Jeffery
Suggestion: books for girls
Reason: The girl is the hero of the story and a good role model for other girls.

The Dead Parade by James Roy Daley
Suggestion: scary book
Reason: Spine tingling tale of an ordinary man, who gets caught up in a horrific circle of death and mayhem.

Ferryman by Carole Sutton
Suggestion: Murder Mystery
Suggestion: Crime Fiction
Reason: Solving a mysterious death within a sleepy Cornwall coastal village.

Patulous, The Different Caterpillar by A. Volta
Suggestion: children’s books with Christian values
Reasons: Lovely children’s tale of faith, hope and understanding.

Misfit McCabe by LK Gardner-Griffie
Suggestion: juvenile fiction
Reasons: A book about a young girl’s trials and tribulations, that other YA readers have gone through.

Sons of Avalon: Merlin's Prophecy by Dee Marie
Suggestion: Arthurian Legends
Reasons: The book is the retelling of the traditional Arthurian Legends from Merlin perspective.

The Time Cavern by Todd Fonseca
Suggestions: books for boys
Reason: Amazing adventure of a young inquisitive boy that would appeal to all YA male readers.

Your Roots Are Showing by Elise Chidley
Chick Lit
Reason: Meaningful tale for woman of all ages.

Harbinger of Doom
by Glenn G. Thater
Suggestion: fantasy
Reason: Fantasy adventure

Sanctuary of Darkness by Titus McGuire
Suggestion: vampire books
Reason: Tragic vampire love story


No Sucker Left Behind: Avoiding the Great College Rip-off by Marc Scheer
Suggestion: College guide
Reason: great guide for college students and their parents

Nora's Soul by Margay Justice
Suggestion: Angles and faith
Reason: Main Character struggles with her good and evil angels, as she struggles with her faith.

The Wonderful Demise of Benjamin Arnold Guppy by Gina Collia-Suzuki
Suggestions: dark humor
Reason: Hilarious tale of murder and mayhem.

[Todd Fonseca]

wow dee, you're good.
I also corresponded with Glenn Thater who has played around a bit with this. He mentioned that Amazon is more likely to approve the phrase if the reason doesn't sound too promotional. It will be interesting to compare notes of what does and doesn't get approved...

[Dee]

Yeah, the reason is the hardest part, due to not have read many of the books. Oh well, I tried :)

[Vera]

Hi Everyone, my ranking on Amazon just flew up the ladder. I don't understand any of this but it must have something to do with tagging. Thanks everyone who has tagged Dancing Backward In Paradise. I am off to work early to tag. Sweet day to all!

[Todd Fonseca]

Vera - great news!

[Elise]

Hi Todd, I did most of the search phrase stuff last night. Again, thanks for setting this up. As suggested, I kept my 'reasons' short and sweet. Now we'll have to wait and see which phrases are acceptable.
Vera Jane--so glad your book is taking off.

[Carole]

Dee wrote: "Beatrice Beecham's Fearsome Feast by Dave Jeffery
Suggestion: books for girls
Reason: The girl is the hero of the story and a good role model for other girls.

The Dead Parade by James Roy Dale..."

All that looks terrific Dee. I have written something similar to all of them, but am now worried about the 'promontional' aspect of it that Todd has mentioned. Anything from now on I'll do more simply I think.
BTW Guess whose book came through my letter box today? Though I am going to have to wait awhile before I can get into it, I have just started Bryce Courtenay's Fishing for Stars --- and it is enormous!

[Carole]

Todd,
I have just completed the beta test and tagged all 15 books. When I checked on the 'Manage' your tags button I found two missing, and several extra ones of my own book. Three of those on Ferryman I put in on an earlier date before we startd this. But I can't understand why two of the others should be missing. Should I re-do them, or wait to see if it comes through later?

[Dee]

<--very bad at guessing games...

You are such an amazing person Carole...can we clone you?

Oh, did I tell you that I started the Ferryman last night. I was fascinated by the dolphin story. Wonderful start to the adventure. I love the interaction between the old man and his wife.

Reading Ferryman and Gina's Grumpy man book at the same time :]

[Dee]

Hey Carole,

I had the same thing happened. I think it occurs when your go through the all the steps and don't complete the very last "accept."

Just a guess.

I would redo the ones that do not show, as they show up right away...or should anyway...on your manage page.

[Carole]

Hi folks,
Right, I have re-done the two missing books and now all 15 are properly in place.

Dee: I'm glad you liked the dolphin scene, one critiquer once told me it softened the scene too much, so I wondered whether I should leave it in.

BTW Beaky was a real character, (the only real one in a work of fiction) In that year, 1977,he came to Falmouth and made friends with the locals. I have some super b&w photos of him swimming with my son who was sixteen at the time. Maybe, if the old photos scanned up okay, I could put that story on my web!

[Dee]

I love dolphins, please let me know when Beaky is uploaded to your site :]

[G.R.]

I remember Beaky. I never saw him, but when my family went to Cornwall we used to keep an eye out. I was just a nipper at the time.

[Andrea]

I can not figure this out. Ugh- Can you help me, please. There are so many choices and I can't seem to go to the right area to submit my book.

[Dee]

*Takes Andrea by the hand*

Ok, where do you want to go first?

Are you a member of the Tag Team?

Start off on the following thread's link.

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/6...

Todd is wonderful in getting the lost, found.

Whispers to you...I think it is because he has a time machine :]

[Andrea]

THANK YOU SO MUCH, Dee! I get it now... LOL. I just submitted my info on the site. Now I have to get tagging. :~D

[Dee]

Yippie..Andrea is part of the tag team...go Andrea go :)

[Author]

Dee, I hate to admit it but I haven't figured out how to find books to tag. I tagged one book but couldn't find the rest.

[Andrea]

On Amazon they are all pretty much down towards the bottom. It took me a while. :~)

[Dee]

Hey Johanna,

Try this link for the books to tag.

http://tagmybookonamazon.wordpress.co...

[Todd Fonseca]

Dee,
Thanks for the help!
All,
If you submit anywhere on the blog, I'll find it (though I'm way behind again - argh!).
Todd

[Carole]

Gina wrote: "I remember Beaky. I never saw him, but when my family went to Cornwall we used to keep an eye out. I was just a nipper at the time."

Hi Gina,
How lovely to meet someone else who actually 'knows' about Beaky --- after all it was 30 years ago! In the book Ferryman he is the only real character in the work of fiction, and only appears in the first and last chapter -- you could say a swim in, swim out role! So, I am thinking of writing a piece on him for my webb. If you like I'll let you know when it's up.
Carole

[G.R.]

Hi Carole,

Yes, please do let me know when you write the piece. This is bringing back memories of my childhood :o)

Gina

[Carole]

Dee wrote: "I love dolphins, please let me know when Beaky is uploaded to your site :]"

Dee and Gina,
Short article on Beaky, the dolphin who has a brief part in the opening of Ferryman, is now up.
If you, and anyone else interested, would like to visit my site: http://casutton.tripod.com/
Goto the page titled 'Fin, Fur and Feather Friends'and hopefully you will find it!

Carole

[Dee]

Loved the Beaky story, thanks so much for sharing :)

[G.R.]

I wonder what happened to him... he was such a character.

[Mohit]

Todd wrote: "A number of you have participated in Amazon "tagging" to get to #1 in various Amazon customer communities.

I've added a new "Amazon Search" tab to hit #1 yet another way on Amazon - this time us..."

Thank you,have submitted my book"Ponder Awhile"
Regards
Mohit.K.Misra

[Dee]

Hi Mohit,

Welcome to the tag team.

Going to tag Ponder Awhile right now :)

[Mohit]

Dee wrote: "Hi Mohit,

Welcome to the tag team.

Going to tag Ponder Awhile right now :)"

Thank you for your kindness.

[Todd Fonseca]

Mohit,
Thanks for submitting your book! I'll update the blog in tonight if I can.
Todd

[Mohit]

Todd wrote: "Mohit,
Thanks for submitting your book! I'll update the blog in tonight if I can.
Todd"

Thanks Todd.

[Dee]

Hey Todd,

Did your Amazon Tags get the final approval?

All of mine are still in "pending"

[G.R.]

All of mine are still pending too, Dee. When I submitted a search term for my Utamaro book, before the holidays, it took a month to go live. I think there's one Amazon employee working on the approvals... he works out of his shed and puts through two a day (and three at weekends). We could be in for a long wait.

[Todd Fonseca]

Hey Dee, all of mine are now live!

[Dee]

Great news Todd.

Hopefully ours will follow your path soon :)

[Elise]

Mine are pending too. And yet there's a pair of shoes--yes, shoes!!--on one of the search lists I suggested for Your Roots Are Showing.

[Todd Fonseca]

Which list Elise?

[Elise]

Romance. A pair of Hush Puppies ballet flats...

[Dee]

Hey Todd,
Team update...All are "still pending"

[Todd Fonseca]

Dee,
Thanks for the status update - whew, this sure isn't as fast as tagging!

[Carole]

Todd, I have just been in to check out the new look for the tagging team. Very smart. I also discovered there was a bunch of books I had not tagged! The ones without their pics and set in groups. I had obviously done a few at the beginning, as the writing had changed colour, and I couldn't get through to do them again. So, I carried on to the bitter end with all those I hadn't yet touched and have now tagged everything you have up there.

To put Ferryman on that list what would I have to do? Find other books of similar ilk?

My Beta experiment has not yet changed from still pending.

Carole

[Todd Fonseca]

Carole,
Thanks for the update on the search experiment! Regarding the "tag other books", you are correct that the idea is to find books in the same genre as your own that when searched upon your book would show up in the "tags" section. take a look at some of the other authors and what they have suggested for their own books and maybe visit the websites of the books they requested to see how it comes up in Amazon.
T

[Dee]

Some good news...
It appears that all of Glenn's suggestions have been approved.

I just found the following note on the Sons of Avalon Merlin's Prophecy Amazon book site.

Help others find this product - tag it for Amazon search Glenn G. Thater suggested this product show on searches for "arthurian legends".

However,I am still waiting for any of mine to be approved.

The most wonky Amazon thing, is that the review I posted for Gina's book (on Feb. 9th) has still not been approved.

I am going to wait one more day and try to resubmit Gina's book review. Hopefully by that time more of the test-teams' suggestions will be approved as well.

[Ginnetta]

I just got a note from Amazon. All my book suggestions for the team suggestion provided were approved.

[Dee]

That is a grand start :)

[Todd Fonseca]

Yeah they are being approved. Odd though, I haven't seen this make much difference on some of the searches. I wondered if there is a lag time on this as well?...