Tag!...Are You It?

I should be ashamed for even sharing this with you, but even though my first book was published in 1998 and I've written several more since then, it wasn't until today did I finally decide to tag my books. Tags are those key words that author's use, as well as readers, to give little hints as to the content of the book. It's almost like when you see that nice shirt hanging on the rack in Macy's; it catches your eye, but before you try it on and start modeling it, what's the first thing you do? You check the tag. That little tag determines whether or not you'll even try the shirt on, let alone buy it. In my opinion, the tags an author places on their books are equally important.

Certainly you yourself have done a book search on Amazon.com or any other of your favorite online book stores. You add key words into the search box and then several books are pulled up based upon your key words...or should I say tags? If you were looking for a book like one I have written, I'd love for my book to be one that pops up. But if I don't put a tag on it, my chances of that happening are pretty slim.

Sure other readers can add tags, but it's my book. I know it better than anyone else and can determine just what tags properly describe my books. In adding these tags, I wanted to make sure I didn't put any misleading ones on my books either. All that would do is make a reader mad and possibly come back and give me a bad review.

Hopefully the tags I've added to my old books will breathe new life into them and resurect sells. We'll see...

Throwback Bookshelf

It's been a while since I've worn the Joylynn M. Jossel hat. Since changing writing genres from secular, which included women's fiction, street lit and erotica, I've kind of left my secular titles by the way side. But all of that officially ends today. When my publishers gave me those book deals, they did so because they believed in me; they believed in my work. They were excited about the stories I turned in and proved as much by offering me a pretty nice advance. Sadly to say, I didn't quite earn my advance back. Then to add salt to my publisher's wound, I changed genres and acted like those books never even existed; no marketing-no promotions. Well, like I said, all of that ends today as I embark on a campaign of which I'm calling "Throwback Bookshelf." This will include my efforts to resurect my titles such as "The Root of All Evil," its sequel "When Souls Mate," as well as "If I Ruled the World," and its sequel "Mama, I'm in Love With a Gangsta." I know that according to industry standard, after three months on the shelf, a book is pretty much considered old. Well, some of my titles are over five years old, but I have a saying: "a book is new to someone who has never read it before-no matter what the copyright date is." With that being said, I hope you'll not only follow my blog, but offer me feedback and any suggestions that may help me in achieving my goal.