OK, with all the fuss over the tags, it's time to tag enough books to make them useful. I'll post several little "missions" for people to do on 5 books (or more if you like!). Use your TBR or your BIR or your bookshelf. Whichever works for you.

Today's mission: Pick a favorite series of yours. Tag the books with the main character or characters who are central to the series.

For example: Elizabeth George's book tags might be:

• Lynley & Havers
• Inspector Lynley
• Barbara Havers

Sue Grafton's series would be Kinsey Millhone, etc.

Be sure to look for existing tags in the drop-down and use them if they're intuitive. Remember that it will take multiples of the same tag to push the personal tags further down the list. Post here what you've done! Perhaps some of us can take a moment to duplicate your tags as well! :)

Mission accepted!  I just posted about 30 "Amelia Peabody" tags to Elizabeth Peters novels.

I just added tags to those Amelia Peabody mysteries.

I'm marking the Sue Graftons with Kinsey Millhone. That ought to take a while.... :)

-OK. Got quite a few of those marked, but thought I'd move on to something more useful (like ones that don't have the character name in the title listing)!

Kyra Davis's Sophie Katz mysteries.

I just tagged all my "In Death" books with Lt. Eve Dallas (the main character) - is that what I was supposed to do? And by tagging them, is that when the words follow the title in parenthesis?

Us folks into historical fiction have been trying to do useful tags for a couple months now....we've done a pretty good job so far!

I've been trying to tag a few books everyday with common tags.  I figure since I have a lrg tagged RL the least I could do is add common tags wherever I can.  To help push back the personal ones.  Especially when I see book condition tags.  I don't like when people do that because it might make people think other peoples books are in that condition. 

Melissa, no, tagging is done with the little button that says TAG. It adds whatever info you type in there to the description of the book. What you just did was adjust the title with the character of the book, which will probably be rejected.

No - I clicked on "Tag" and typed my info into the little box that popped up. I was just wondering how and where the tags showed up for others to see. That's the point of them, right? To make searching easier?

Please excuse the newbie - I'm just trying to get the lay of the land around here. :)

Melissa, if you go to the book description page, you'll see the tags there. If you've tagged the book with a particular tag, you'll see a little square with a red X in it next to it. (That's so you can remove a tag you put on a book if you need/want to.) Does that make more sense?

Also, sometimes I've found I have to refresh in order for my new tags to show up.

ETA: Also, if you're making a tag, similar tags will show up in a drop-down menu and if the one you're wanting is already there, you can just click on it. However, since tags are so new, you may be creating the first tag of that particular type, and there may be nothing in the drop-down window just yet.

Clear as mud? ;)

I'd already marked a bunch of Kinsey Millhone books before I'd even come across this thread. *grin*  So, those peeps with intentions to do that will find many of them already tagged.

Now, I think I'll work on Stephanie Plum books next.

Great, Robin! I'll join you in the Plum mysteries! The more people using the same tags, the better!  :)

ETA: Remember, tags that are used the most often will appear first in the list of the displayed tags. So if something is already tagged, add that tag yourself (assuming you think it's appropriate).

Off to tag G.A. McKevett's Savannah Reid mysteries.

Cat Who series next, Lilian Braun's Qwilleran, Koko and Yum Yum  =)

This is fun!

That's done, doing Diane Mott Davidson next for Goldy Bear/ Goldy Schultz catering mysteries.

Done, now Hannah Swenson (Joanna Fluke Cookie mysteries)

Done, Robert Jordan, Rand al'Thor, Dragon Reborn next

Doing Simon Green's Nightside series. 

ETA:  And C.J. Box's Joe Pickett series.

I've been tagging Anne Perry and Alexander McCall Smith books.  Think I'll do some now.

I just tagged the Isabel Dalhousie mysteries by Alexander McCall Smith, using the tags "Isabel Dalhousie" and "British contemporary mystery."  (And I'm not the person who decided not to capitalize "British"; just going along with what's already there!)

That was probably me who didn't capitalize  Brittish.  If you type it in Brittish w/the cap they'll still come up right?  It doesn't seem to be picky about tags.

Ok - I'm finally getting the tags!  I hope!!   I just tagged all of the G.A. McKevett books - this is the way I did it.  Savannah Reid (character) Cozy (type) and #1 - 1995 (number in series and publication year).    Is this what you mean by helpful tags?       I really AM trying to understand this tagging business.  lol

Hey, Melissa! Sorry I didn't get back sooner to see your second post. Yes!!! You absolutely got it! The tags won't show right away when you do them, you have to refresh the page to see them. And your tags appear to me, just like they appear to you, only without the little red X (that only appears on your own.

I am sooo glad to see people working on these. The more people get involved with adding tags, the more they will actually work, and stop being annoying to people!

I'd love to see more tags using the sub-genres that we cannot assign books to. Some books do have multiple genres and the sub-genre, but if an edit is made on the book for author/title/description, it's all lost except one single genre & sub-genre. We can add them back now with tags.

• Christian Romance
• Erotica
• Blaze
• British Detectives
• Canadian Detectives
• Cat Sleuths
• Hard-Boiled Mysteries
• Historical Mysteries
• Mystery Series
• Sherlock Holmes
• Women Sleuths
• Romance/Contemporary/Anthologies
• Romance/Contemporary/General
• Romance/Historical/England
• Romance/Historical/General
• Romance/Historical/Regency
• Romance/Historical/United States

• Religion & Spirituality/Fiction/Biblical
• Religion & Spirituality/Fiction/General
• Religion & Spirituality/Fiction/Historical
• Religion & Spirituality/Fiction/Mystery
• Religion & Spirituality/Fiction/Romance (here's where all those Christian Romance belong, but we can't get them here, so we can use the tags to identify them!!!)
• Religion & Spirituality/Fiction/Science Fiction & Fantasy
• Religion & Spirituality/Fiction/Visionary Fiction

Basically, I'm trying to add the sub-genre to books, and the secondary ones with the tags. And the character tagging is great too! How about if it is a cosy mystery?

Or contains sex or violence? I'm not advocating sensorship here, just enlightenment. Some people just don't want those things in their reading, and I like to help others enjoy what they read. Then again, some might select that book quicker because it's a bit more risque! Why not help them find what they want too!

Cooking books is another genre that has lots of sub-categories that we can't get to. Use the tags!

What other kinds of tags can you think of that would be useful to others as well?

Gathered from other topics:

• mahbaar (Jane K.) suggested:
• Main characters of books (particularly for series books)
• Dates for historical novels (Such as 1700's, Civil War Era, etc.)
• Subject matter (Naval history, phorensics, etc.)
• Book type (Cozy mystery, Cookbook, Cookies, etc.)
• Location of book (Paris, U.S., Rural Arkansas, whatever)
• Version of book (Abridged, for example)
• Setting (book shop, art museum, etc.)
• Career of main character (book store owner, SAHM, etc.)
• Common names for the series. (Such as Chronicles of Narnia or Dune or Alphabet mysteries)

• BookShopGal (Sam D.)  suggested:
• No. in Series (Ex. 1st in Hannah Swenson Series)
• character type (eg. strong woman, older couple...)

• Lana J.   suggested:
• Holiday themes (Christmas, Passover, Valentine's Day)
• Cultural background (Native American, Jewish American, African American, Asian American)
• Sub-genres (cyberworld, space epics, techno thrillers)
• Life events (new job, wedding, retirement, high school reunion, adoption )
• books with "surprise endings"
• "Inspired by author's own life"

• vladadog (Jan H.)   suggested:
• Who the translator is. (foreign language books)

• krisbooks (Kristen I.)   suggested:
• For children's readers, the reading level or suggested age range.

• JCCrooks (J.C. C.)    suggested:
• Tagging HS materials (designating if it's a student book, a teacher's guide, or an answer key, etc)

• fredg (Fred G.)    suggested:
• Awards won (or nominations)?
  • Edgar/Agatha/Anthony/Shamus
  • Hugo/Nebula/Locus
  • Golden Spur
  • Newbery/Caldecott

• bookaddicted (Charlie M.)
• Has tagged books as "Gay Interest".

• checkingmypulse (Jessie M.)  has
• tagged some young adult books as GLBT YA

• Dove (Colleen H.) said:
• I have been using Mystery - cozy
• I like the idea of using Mystery - England  (or wherever)
• Mystery - woman sleuth

• biancaneve (Holly B.) said:
• An easy way to create tags for non-fiction is to look at the copyright page.  Under the ISBN there are some key words for cataloging.  For example, I'm looking at a book in my TBR pile, Inside the Victorian Home, and the key words are family, England, history, 19th century, and social conditions, thus giving me five different tags I can attach to the book.

Ok, someone else's turn to add some more! Find them from other people, make them up yourself, post good ones that you've seen used.

I am really getting into this tagging!   I do a lot of copy and paste to make sure I put the exact tag someone else has used, if I am tagging the same.       A difference in spacing will make both tags show up.       I hope I'm making sense!         I have so many authors I want to work on!   Another WAY for me to stay on this site longer!  lol

I tag books from a particular country, often translated, one way.  (i.e. Chinese Fiction, Swedish Fiction)

And tag books merely set in a country another way.   (i.e. China Fiction, Sweden Mystery)

I'm planning other missions to try to encourage tagging. I started with series characters. Later I'm going to do Mission #2: Location, location, location! I figured I'd leave a bout a week for each one. :)

Thanks everyone for participating!

(Off to label some more! :) )

Thanks to Sherry for directing me here!

I've tagged 11 romances that all share a baseball theme with "Baseball Romance" and will add books as I find more of this sub-genre.

I'd like to see the Series tags but since tags have to "match" to connect wonder what the best way is to approach it?  Any thoughts?

Jane - I am working on cozy mysteries with the character mainly.      I did have a question - if you want to tag a book with these tags   Cozy     Hannah Swenson  and Recipes,        can you do it by typing Cozy, Hannah Swensen, Recipes?  or does that become all one big tag? 

Thanks for the help.

You have to do each tag separately. It would become one big tag if you entered it that way, IIRC.

Actually you can do more than one tag at a time if you separate them with commas.