Need Help Selecting The Right Category For Your Book?
Do you want better book sales? Getting your book into the right categories is key. Here are some helpful hints straight from KDP themselves!
Selecting Browse Categories
Selecting a browse category for your book is a lot like deciding where your book should be shelved in a library.
When customers browse through the Amazon Kindle Store for books that might interest them, they are presented with genres and subgenres. By selecting browse categories, you decide which genres feature your book. KDP uses BISAC Subject Codes, an industry standard system, to help determine where your book should show up for browsing and searching customers. You can read more about the BISAC Subject Code system and see the most current list of codes here:
http://www.bisg.org/activities-programs/activity.php?cid=20&id=73&n=d
When creating a new title in KDP, you may choose up to 2 categories for your book. To help determine which categories best fit your book, you may consider searching for other titles in the Amazon catalog that are similar to yours. You can then find the browse categories that are assigned to those titles by scrolling down the book’s detail page to the “Look for Similar Items by Category” section located at the bottom of the page. The categories you select for your book will be used to filter it into the most relevant customer searches and browse sections on Amazon.
Choosing the Best Browse Categories
There are three main criteria that will help you choose the best browse categories.
• Picking the most accurate categories. Make sure the categories you’ve picked correctly describe the subject matter of your book.
• Selecting the most specific categories. It’s better to choose more specific categories instead of more general categories. Customers looking for very specific topics will more easily find your book, and your book will be displayed in more general categories as well (for example, a book in the “FICTION > Fantasy > Historical” category will also show up in searches for general fiction and general fantasy books). You should only select a “General” category if your book is actually a general book about a broad topic.
• Ensuring the categories you choose are not redundant. Since your book will be displayed in a variety of searches by choosing even a single category, you shouldn’t place it in both a category and any of that category’s sub-categories (for example, selecting both “FICTION > Fantasy > Historical” and “FICTION > Fantasy”). Even selecting just one specific, accurate category is preferable to selecting an inaccurate category just to have a second category listed.
Categories With Keyword Requirements
In order to list your title in certain sub-categories, you’ll need to add Search Keywords in addition to the categories you choose for your title. Click a category in the list below to see the keyword requirements.
Series Categories
We’re regularly adding to the list of Series categories, but we aren’t able to accept requests for new Series categories at this time. Please check back later to see if the Series you’re looking for has been added to the list.
