Amazon.com Tags -- Yea or Nay?

In Amazon.com, product tags are used to make it easier for buyers to find products. It is a convenient way for book sellers to encourage people looking for a particular type of book to check yours, too. For example, if a reader enjoys books about Austin, Texas, tags will help find them. Of course there are many such books, so this might not be practical. The hits include fiction and non-fiction. I tried searching on bookmobile and found a much smaller list.

According to specialists on the subject, tagging helps sell books because it adds a particular search keyword to the book. In addition, the tag becomes more important as more people agree with the tag.

In addition to agreeing with tags already there, you can also add tags.

In Brent Sampson's book, Sell Your Book on Amazon, I learned that multiple tag words are best, but only if they are relevant. Multiple tag words increase the likelihood that more people will agree with one of the tags. This, in turn, tells the Amazon search engine that the tag is more appropriate for the book.

Where Love Once Lived had two tags when I first looked: austin and texas. I'm not sure if Rollo added those or if the publisher did, but they are good.

I added the following:

1. alzheimers
2. austin texas
3. austin public library
4. bookmobile
5. christian fiction
6. christianity
7. clarksville
8. inspirational
9. interracial romance
10. librarian
11. race relations
12. romance
13. teacher

As you enter a new tag, you see tags that are already in the database for all books. I noticed that there are variations of the tags in Amazon.com. Librarian and librarians, for example. Teacher and teachers. I tried using both to increase hits, but I then learned there is a 15-tag limit for each person.

If you have read Where Love Once Lived, would you review the tags there now by going to http://www.amazon.com/Where-Love-Lived-Sidney-Frost/dp/1451511817/ and scrolling down to the tag section (just below my photo) and click agree if you agree and add tags if you think others may apply.

Also, I would like your opinion about some of the tags I added such as Alzheimer's, interracial romance, race relations, etc. Will these mislead people searching or help them? If I leave these tags in, should I add the subject matter to the book description? What about Christianity? Is that too general?

Selling books isn't as easy as it looks.