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112
Steve Weber
Book tagging enables anyone to assign trendy, granular labels to
books with more authority than a librarian. For example, there’s no
library category or Amazon tab for steampunk, a subgenre of speculative
fiction. But using tags, aficionados can dissect steampunk into all its
sub-subgenres, including timepunk, bronzepunk, stonepunk and
clockpunk—all very different animals to steampunkers.
Likewise, at least a half-dozen subgenres are within what many
people call “queer fiction.” But you won’t find subject headings for any
of it in a library. Instead, these books are shelved in “City Life” or “San
Francisco,” which doesn’t help anyone find them. Traditional subject
headings don’t connect with personal identity, but tags can.
Amazon tags
Why should authors care about tags? Because tags are an important
new way for readers to discover your books. Tagging is an individual
activity with global utility. Each of the 3.5 million books in Amazon‘s
catalog could be assigned its own unique “category” yet reside in
thousands of other categories at the same time.
Amazon added its tagging feature in 2005, and made it more
prominent—higher on book detail pages—than its traditional category
lists. Amazon tags are publicly viewable unless users designate them as
private. You can manage your tags through a Your Tags field at the
bottom of every Amazon page.
Authors and publishers can increase the visibility of their books by
adding the obvious keywords appropriate to their book. Amazon tags are
indexed by Google and other search engines.
As more book readers begin tagging, finding niche content will
become easier than ever. Tags assigned to obscure books will be rare but
instantly apparent. A few common tags will be used by huge numbers of
users and visible to everyone: The five most-used tags on Amazon are
DVD, music, books, fantasy and anime. Most tags, including the more
useful ones, will be seldom used, such as bizarre apocalpytacism,
Amazon’s least-used tag. Many tags will be used by just a few people,
perhaps assigned to only one book, enabling a niche of one.
As a reader, here are some ways you could use tags on Amazon:
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