Amazon now allows you to upload 3 categories

Is your goal to sell more books? Then you need to learn about how to choose the best Amazon book categories to list your books onto.

In a previous article, I wrote about Bisacs. The great news is that Amazon has now dropped the Bisacs categories loading option on your KDP account. You can now choose real Amazon Categories from your KDP account. Sadly, we may no longer request up to 10 categories anymore. However the system is now a lot easier than before. You are no longer relying on an individual sitting at their desk to sift through a sea of requests and some around to your request to increase your book categories. You can DIY it if you know how or you could get your personal Amazon Consultant to do it for you. Before you dash off to Amazon and ask them who your Amazon consultant is, know that you have to appoint an independent company like Write Learn and Earn or VA to do this for you.

Instead of the two former Bisacs, that Amazon allowed authors, you can choose up to three book categories to add your book to. That simplifies things a lot. However, it does mean you have to know your stuff. If you are only limited to three out of around over 16,000+ Amazon book categories as a self-published author, then you have to choose categories that are the best for your book. Just guessing the most appropriate book categories is not a logical business strategy. Amazon’s goal is to make readers happy. That means they want to present a product that best suits the relevance of their search. If their readers click on your book and it does so suit their needs, then you have failed the relevance test and it can hurt your book sales. Take the time to get this right. Your future earnings will thank you for it.

Choosing a category is going to have a direct effect on whether you become an Amazon bestselling author. It all boils down to visibility. The more visible your book is, the more likely it is going to be seen by more readers and the more sales you are going to make.

So how do you get good visibility?

Before I explain that, let me ask you… When you are searching for an answer to any problem or Google, YouTube, LinkedIn or Amazon, how far down are you willing to scroll? Will you scroll down to the first ten, the first 100 or the first 1,000?

A June 2013 study conducted by Chitika Insights shows that over 90% of people never click on the second page of Google search results. The SEO giant, Moz, conducted its own study in 2014 and found that 71.33% of Google search traffic goes to the first 10 search results, and only 3.99% goes to the second page of Google search results.

What does this mean for your book?

Unless you rank highly on Amazon, no one is going to see your book, except for the people you personally share it with. This means that you lose out of normal organic search for your book.

How do you find your Amazon Best Seller Rank (ABSR)?

Head over to your Amazon page and scroll down

Amazon assigns a ABSR (Amazon Best Selling Ranking) to your book based on how many sales or downloads you have made within a certain time period in a certain category. So in this example, we can see that the book is number #1,154,856 in the Kindle Store.

What do you need to do to improve your ranking?

First off the bat, let me tell you that you should be doing this BEFORE you even launch your book. What you do in that first week of launching your book makes a dramatic impact on the success of your book. While it is possible to improve your book ranking by improving your keywords, the ideal situation is to do this research before going in. Having said that, here are the steps.

Step 1: Research Potential Book Categories on the Amazon Book’s Store

Type the words that you think best describe your book. What you are looking for is similar books to yours to see what categories other authors are listing their books on Amazon for. Then search through each of those books and see what categories their books they list in.

For the book that I used for my original search, I found

Mood Disorders
Anger Management Self Help
Two-Hour Self-Help Short Reads

You can also browse through Amazon Categories until you get to the most appropriate book category. Although it is time consuming to niche down, it is a more profitable strategy, as you have fewer books to compete with.

I often relate it to personnel recruiting. If you use a recruitment website, and you list specific qualities you are looking for or you have, then there are fewer candidates to sift through. Being specific in your niche gives you fewer competitors. It helps improve your book’s visibility.

Step 2: Check the what the Number One Best Seller is in that Category

The best seller changes often, sometimes hourly, as new books come onto Amazon and as authors engage in book promotion activities. But this exercise is still very helpful.

Step 3: Find out what book categories you need the lowest number of daily sales to get to a best-selling ranking.

This step is not as easy as the rest. It takes time and patience to do the research or you can ask us to help you with one of our keyword and category research slots.

Being the best seller in a category dramatically improves your sales, credibility, and earnings.

So it is worth taking the time to investigate what is the best book category for your book. If you need help, contact us for our keyword reports to improve your ranking and help multiply the effects of your book promotional strategy.

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Hello, I am Kim Vermaak

I spent most of my adult life helping other companies build their dream and their brands.

After I turned 40, I wondered if there was more to life than taking care of children and slaving away to earn a living.

I wanted to create a legacy for my children and the next generation. I found that through my books I could celebrate who I am as well as teach others to earn a living through their writing.

Being an author is not a hobby. It is a business, and it is my passion to teach authors how to thrive in that business. I look forward to seeing your book business grow.

Your Book Whisperer

Kim

BookSirens is a legitimate resource for authors and readers alike that can help readers find books they’ll love, while matching authors with prospective reviewers so they can get more honest reviews.

What Kim was able to offer me in terms of insight, price with her experience in understanding the needs of authors was outstanding. Kim is not only creative, but she takes on your views and comments willingly and it’s professional open process.