This is a search tool for Kindle eBooks categories. Type a category name in the search box to start. Click the category name to go to the Top 100 for that category. Click ‘Details’ to see the full path for the category, and the history over the last 5 months. The ‘Rank’ and ‘Activity’ arrows show which categories have increased or decreased since last month. In the ‘Advanced Search’ you can filter by the level of the category (from 1 to 5), and by the ranks of the #1 and #100 books.
If you want some ideas about what to do with this, you can go here. If you just want the raw data in a spreadsheet, you can get it here.
What can you use the Category Search for?
- Finding relevant categories for your books: you can search by a keyword (e.g. ‘military’,’lgbt’) and find all the categories which might fit it.
- Comparing categories by sales performance (rank of #1, #100) and activity: for instance, filter for categories which have a #100 rank of below 20K, and sort them by the number of titles published in the last 30 days.
- Keeping an eye on categories which are getting more popular: sort by Activity Trend, and then filter for ‘Rank Trend’ = ‘Up’.
Getting your book added to the categories you’ve found
When you’ve identified relevant categories for your book, you can contact Amazon to ask that your book be added to those categories. To do that, follow these steps:
- Go to the Author Central Contact Page and sign in.
- Choose “Amazon Book Page”, then choose “Update Amazon Categories”
- Here in the Category Search, click categories to select them, then click ‘Copy selected’ to copy the details to the clipboard.
- For each category to which you want to be added, paste the details into the form. Make sure to include the full path (like United States > Southern United States) – this will make sure the Amazon Author Central team add your book to the correct categories.
Currently you can ask for your book to be in up to 10 categories, but always make sure you choose categories which you think are relevant for your readers; the exercises we’ve talked about in Researching your Genre with Kindletrends will help you identify what resonates with your readers.
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