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Make The Most Out Of Amazon's Subcategories

 

If you've ever self-published a book on Amazon, you know you're able to select two genre category boxes, which of course lists your book in those two categories. But did you know it's possible to get listed within multiple subcategories, and doing this makes your book more visible? Think about it. The more lists your book is on, the better chance a reader has of discovering it.

 

Also, you can get your book listed in more subcategories that aren't hidden, if you use the right keywords. Example: I can click on "Romance" then "Fantasy" as a category. Then in my keywords I can type "Multicultural", and this means there's a pretty good chance my book will end up listed in the Multicultural Romance category, as well as Fantasy Romance category, which I directly selected.

 

Fortunately, Amazon provides a list of the keywords you can use in order to get your book listed in the hidden subcategories and more secondary subcategories than you originally selected. (Note: I say "hidden" because you can't click on these categories directly when listing your book)

 

List of Keywords for Hidden Romance Categories (not all of these are "hidden" but many are)

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Also, you can visit the main page Selecting Browsing Categories and click on several other categories (Erotica, LGBT, Science Fiction & Fantasy, and more) for additional keyword information.

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Here's an example of how this ends up working:

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The above image shows all the categories my recent release, Boss Alien, was listed in, and all because I made careful use of all seven keywords Amazon permitted me to add while I was entering my book details in KDP. If I would've selected two categories and not entered the specific keywords suggested by Amazon on the help pages, my book wouldn't be very visible on Amazon.

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Helpful Tips:

 

1. Don't select two subcategories within one main category (like Romance) when listing your book. Just select one subcategory (like Fantasy) and then use a keyword to get it listed in that other subcategory you wanted (like LGBT). Then use the second category you can directly select wisely. If you already picked Romance as your main category, select Sci-Fi and Fantasy, or Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense (or whatever other genre your book can fit into) to achieve higher visibility.

 

2. Unless your book is really, really naughty, don't select Erotica at all when you're listing your book, and don't list it as a keyword either. When Amazon lists your book in any erotica category, it bars you from being listed in short reads categories as well as other categories, plus your book is less searchable from the main Amazon page. If you've got a big following and regularly publish in the erotic category with success, this tip might not apply to you though. It might take a little experimentation to see what categories work the best for your book.

 

3. At any time, you can log back into your KDP bookshelf and change up your categories.

 

Isn't publishing fun? :)

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