Advice for Authors: Categories

Update: June 24, 2023

Amazon has continued to change its policy regarding categories. The following is the new statement and a link to the help page.

“You can now choose three Amazon Store categories based on primary marketplace for each title during setup. Since you can now choose your own categories, we are no longer accepting requests to add or update categories. Contact us if you're experiencing an issue with your categories, and we can help troubleshoot.” https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200652170

However, most of the following post, which I wrote years ago, about the importance of Categories is still very relevant. I have updated it in a few places to reflect the new policy. In addition, I will continue to try to keep authors updated, because this new policy still seems to have a good number of glitches, and authors are speculating on how the 3 categories that actually show up are determined, since they don’t seem to match exactly the 3 you choose in uploading the book. For example, there is some speculation that Amazon is combining the categories and key words you choose in some fashion.

So, I still recommend that you read the rest of the post to help you understand why trying to choose the right categories is still important.

Categories and Discoverability

Another positive benefit of being an independent author is my ability to choose the categories my books can be found in when someone is browsing in an online-bookstore. This gives me some control over whether or not my books will be discovered by the correct audience.

All of my examples are going to come from the US Kindle ebook store because that is where the majority of my sales are made. But the logic works for all ebookstores and online sales in general. I will go into detail in a second post, specifically for authors, on how to get your books into the right category on Kindle.

What is a category? 

Here is the definition given by Amazon.

“Categories are the sections of the Amazon Store where customers can find your book. Think of categories as the sections of a physical bookstore (science-fiction, history, and so on). When you set up your title, you can select up to three categories for your primary marketplace (for example, Amazon.com) to help readers find your book. We use the three categories you choose for your primary marketplace, along with your selected keywords, to place your book in categories on the Amazon Store for all of your enrolled marketplaces.” https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200652170

I like this comparison to physical bookstores because most people have had experience with browsing in a physical bookstore. Therefore, most have seen how useful categories can be, particularly if they were looking for non-fiction books on a particular topic (for instance, history, travel, self-help books, etc.) or looking for particular fiction genres or subgenres (for example, mysteries, science fiction, young adult novels, etc.)

However, there are two major differences between online and physical bookstores.  First, when you are in a physical book store, the number of books available is limited; online, the number of books is pretty much unlimited. Second, books are found in many more categories (genres and sub-genres) in on-line bookstores than in physical ones. Therefore, the possibilities of discovering a new book to read (or being discovered as an author) are much greater in on-line bookstores.

I am not going to argue over whether “discovering” new books in physical stores is more “fun,” or talk about how you can get help from a clerk in discovering a new book. Certainly these are benefits to physical stores, but especially in age of Covid, the research is clear, the shift to shoping for books on-line has accelerated. And I believe that the differences between browsing online or in a physical store are one of the reasons for this shift.

Categories and limits to Discoverability in physical bookstores.

Let’s take the mystery category for an example. If readers are looking for some sort of crime fiction, there is probably only one place in an all-purpose physical store for them to look––usually a section listed as mysteries. In addition, on those shelves, the books are usually arranged alphabetically by author. As a result, if a reader is searching for books in a specific sub-genre, let’s say historical mysteries, and they don’t have an specific author’s name, they would need to browse through every book on that shelf to figure out which of these books might be a historical mystery.

Since most books are shelved with spines out, a reader would need to slide the book off the shelf to look for hints from the title, cover, and the description on the back cover to determine if the book was in the sub-genre they were searching for. A slow, frustrating process for the reader. For the author, this is a real obstacle to getting their books found by the right readers.

In addition, if readers like to read books in a series, starting with the first book, they would be faced with the problem that the earlier books in the series are probably not in the store, since few stores carry that kind of inventory. This might very well discourage many readers from even trying a new book, even if is in the correct sub-genre.

Finally, there is no way that most bookstores can stock even a fraction of the recently published books in any given sub-genre (cozy mysteries, police procedurals, etc.). Consequently, most physical bookstores tend to carry just those that books that are by established, traditionally published, best-selling authors. For indie authors, it is practically impossible for to get their books in physical bookstores—unless they have a personal relationship with their local bookstores owners.

In short, for any author, the limited inventory and the method of shelving fiction alphabetically by author’s last name in a few broad categories severely limits the chances of a reader finding a new book to read simply through browsing. This, of course, tends to reinforce the success of those traditionally published books that the publishers push through media contacts or pay for special attention in bookstores (like showing up in new release or best-seller tables in the front of stores.)

Categories and Discoverability in on-line bookstores:

However, for authors who are selling books online, there are myriad ways a reader can run across their books through browsing, and indie authors, unlike most traditionally published authors, have much more control in taping into these opportunities.

When I publish my books in one of the online bookstores, for example, through Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), my books will be there, because there is no limit to inventory or gate-keeping by a bookstore owner. If a reader should learn about my books (through word of mouth, social media, etc), all they have to have is the title or my author’s name (or a close proximation of either) and they can find the book using the search bar.

There is a downside to this accessibility. Because there are no limitations to the inventory in an online store, my books are competing with a huge number of other books. Currently, in the US Kindle store, there are over 60,000 books in the general mystery category alone.

This is where my ability to choose categories in an on-line store becomes so crucial.

Traditionally published authors usually don’t have any say over the categories their books are in. As a result, they are often only found in the broadest of categories, like mystery, science fiction, even sometimes just literature and fiction!

In the Kindle Store, as an indie author, I can choose three separate categories for each of my books. This significantly raises the chance that a reader who is browsing on line, looking for a new book to read, will find one of my books. In a physical bookstore, even if I could get my books there, they would have had to look through all the books on the mystery shelf, and I would have to hope that if they started with the A’s, they wouldn’t get tired of looking before the got to the L’s, or that they wouldn’t skip by my book, not noticing it was an historical mystery.  

Online, in the Kindle store, the mystery category is divided into thirteen sub-categories and my books fit in five of these: Historical, Cozy, Amateur Sleuth, Women Sleuths, and Series. A couple of my stories that feature the Boston Terrier, Dandy, even fit into a further sub-category of Cozy-Animals.

What all this means from the point of view of readers is that if they like cozy or historical mysteries, they are not going to have to browse through a bunch of thrillers, or hard-boiled PI stories, or police procedurals to find what they are looking for.

As an author, this means that my books are more likely to be discovered by the kind of reader who likes a light-hearted, historical mystery with a female amateur sleuth and a cute dog as a recurring character!

On the other hand, for authors, this whole idea of getting books into the right categories may seem immaterial, whether indie or traditionally published, if you aren’t selling enough books to show up in the 100 bestseller lists for each category—which is where most readers will do their browsing. For example, there are over 20,000 books, in Kindle, under the category historical mystery.

This is where being an independent author and having control over pricing and running promotions can give me a definite edge.

Example:

My free first in series, Maids of Misfortune, hovers in the top 20 best-selling free book lists for historical mysteries, and mystery series, and when I do a promotion of this book, it often achieves the best seller category of women sleuths. The book stays visible because it is easy to find for people browsing those categories, who then take a chance to get it for free. And I continue to sell the other books in the series because having tried this first book out, many of them will go on to buy other books in the series. In short, having my books in multiple categories, help the books be discovered.

And if you are a reader, and don’t use the categories to discover books, I strongly suggest you do so. Frankly, at my age, I can tell you I no longer want to hurt my back bending over to look at lower shelves, or risk my life standing on a stool, as the reader is doing in this picture below! I much prefer browsing, and sampling my books from the comfort of my armchair.

Photo by Ty Feague on Unsplash