Now that The Government Manual for New Pirates is shipping, I have a few requests for my friends. (And by “friends,” I mean “anybody who is willing to help me sell books.” If Mahmoud Ahmandinejad gives me a good review on Amazon.com, then by God, he counts as well.)

1. If you’ve read New PIrates and enjoyed it, write up a little review of it at its webpage on Amazon and/or the online retailer of your choice. This doesn’t have to be long or detailed–just a few sentences so that anybody browsing the page will know that other folks have read and enjoyed the book.

2. While you’re visiting the pirates Amazon page, take a minute and enter some “tags” for the book. “Tags” are just keywords that Amazon uses to help classify the book. Adding tags will help Amazon recommend The Government Manual for New Pirates to users who might like it.

To enter tags, scroll down to “Tag this product”, or just hit “t” twice. Then, in the little box, enter a word or phrase you think is relevant to the book. “Pirates” would be a good one. Hit enter, and type in the next word or phrase. In addition to “pirates”, here are some other tags you might enter:

funny
humor
pirate
Pirates of the Caribbean
gift

I admit–I don’t know how much importance Amazon places on tags, so don’t spend too much time doing this. But if you’re willing to spend a minute or so, it might well be worthwhile.