Amazon Book Categories

Amazon allows your book to be listed with two (2) book categories with initial release. You can choose from the major categories (54 main headings with hundreds of subheadings – see list here. However, listings with those major categories will have intense competition. Let’s take again the mystery fiction book example – see list here.

This category will show on top spot the #1 book of all books;

  • Top 1 book has a page rank of #1
  • Top 50 book has a page rank of around #180
  • Top 100 has a page rank of around #400 – almost impossible to achieve

Categories only display the Top 100 books and your book will never been shown (and therefor will never have any sales).

But what if you have a chance to list your book in a different but related category to make your book visible and have it displayed in the Top 100 of the category?

What if you could list your book with category Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > United States > African American > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense? See here.

  • Top 1 book has a page rank of around #650
  • Top 50 book has a page rank of around #30,000! – possible for many authors!
  • Top 100 has a page rank of around #55,000 – you can definitely achieve this and get listed and have sales!

So, here you go.

Amazon has about 16,000 (!) different categories and let you choose up to ten (10) different categories for your book but they do not make this obvious or explain how to do that. You will need to contact them (Help section – Contact Us) within your Amazon Author Dashboard and let them know which categories you want your book to be listed.

They have great customer service and this is usually done within 24 hours – they even have the option to call you and get this done within a few minutes (you need a US number). You need to provide the complete category listing as with this example Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > United States > African American > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Start researching best categories for your book and visit Amazon. Search for a book and drill down to the categories you wish to be listed in – check the page ranks of the Top 100 books within each category and find the ones where you have the greatest chance of success.

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