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AMAZON CATEGORY SELECTION:
11 Mistakes 73% Of Authors Make
by Mel Thomson
In this post you’re going to learn how Authors can overlook how important it is to make the right category selection, it is crucial to Author success.

This will also includes lots of:
  • Real life examples
  • Step by Step templates
  • Advanced strategies &
  • ​Lots more
So if you want to get GREAT SALES results from Amazon, you’ll love this new post.

Let’s dive right in.

What We Will Be Covering

What Are Categories?
The Browse categories are the sections of the Amazon site where customers can find your book. 

Just think of browse categories like the sections of a physical bookstore (fiction, history, and so on). 

During your initial book setup, you'll have to choose a BISAC (Book Industry Standards and Communications) code, there are approximately 3935 to choose from. This was developed by the Book Industry Study Guild as a Universal Classification System.

"there are over 16000 plus amazon categories"

The codes you choose, along with your selected keywords, are used to place your book into certain categories on Amazon by Amazon. Amazon uses the BISAC's and the keywords selected by you to allocate the 3rd category for your book.

The BISAC categories are not as extensive as Amazon categories, with their being over 16000+ Amazon categories at time of writing. 


The reason Amazon has so many more categories is to help their shoppers shop and Amazon being quick to adjust to new trends can add and change categories. 

Amazon can then analyze data to see if that category helps their shoppers find what they are looking for and hence streamline the customer experience.

So how to choose which category is perfect for your next best seller? 

Let's keep going.


Mistake #1

How To Choose Your Categories
Ok so we have 16000+ categories, how do we know which one is correct to put our book into.  As Authors your main role is to make books more visible to more readers who already like that particular kind of book and choosing the right category is essential for your success.

If you choose the correct category you are with your tribe, the target market that are eagerly awaiting to consume your books.

Equally so, choose the wrong category and be in front of customers that are not interested in what your book message is, and that leads to no sales, no success, a big waste of the hard work and effort you slaved away for and eventually the Amazon algorithm will throw your book into the online wasteland, never to be seen again.

Here are the steps to choose your categories:
  • Keywords: Type in keywords that would best represent your book.
  • Choose Books: Choose and click on those books, scroll down to where their categories are listed
  • ​Record Category: Record category string using excel or numbers
  • Category: Click on the category
  • Record ABSR: Click on the number #1 book and the #20 book and record their ABSR
The above strategy is the hard way to find the relevant book categories, a great tool for all authors is Publisher Rocket, it will fast track your research and save your hours of time gonig through countless category strings.

Publisher rocket actually analyses the whole amazon data base in real time to find the ultimate book categories.

You can also refine your search by sales data, price, search volume and competition
How To Get More Categories
Ok, now you have done the research on what categories are the best ones for your book, and you have uploaded your original categories on Amazon, it's time to get Amazon to work and put your book into another 7 categories, that right you can have up to 7 categories.

Firstly, you will need the following information to send to the good Guys & Gals at Amazon

  • Book Title
  • ​ASIN Number
  • Full Category String
The book title is pretty self explanatory and you can find the ASIN number at the bottom of your Amazon book page, the ASIN are unique blocks of 10 letters and/or numbers that identify your item.
The Full Category String or also called Browse Path will look like this:
The above category string is vital to making sure you get into the correct category and it makes the Amazon Helper's Job so much easier to find what you are looking for.
The video below will walk you through the process of how to add more categories:
Steps in the video include:
  • Find your categories and copy the entire browse path / Category String
  • ​Make sure its not a Secret Kindle Category, these categories need specific keywords, use this link to make sure
  • Sign into your Amazon Account and go to Help / Contact Us.
  • Select Issue - My Books
  • Select Details - Update Information About A Book​
  • ​Select - Browse Categories
  • ​Select - I want To Update My Book's Browse Categories
  • ​Select Method of Contact - Email or Phone, if from overseas you can only email the details through to Amazon.
  • ​Provide Information - Book Title, ASIN Number, Browse Path / Category String
  • Find your categories and copy the entire browse path / Category String
  • ​Make sure its not a Secret Kindle Category, these categories need specific keywords, use this link to make sure
  • Sign into your Amazon Account and go to Help / Contact Us.
  • Select Issue - My Books
  • Select Details - Update Information About A Book​
  • ​Select - Browse Categories
  • ​Select - I want To Update My Book's Browse Categories
  • ​Select Method of Contact - Email or Phone, if from overseas you can only email the details through to Amazon.
  • ​Provide Information - Book Title, ASIN Number, Browse Path / Category String
Ok now all you have to do is provide them with the information.

Oh and just remember that you will still only see 3 categories on your book's sales page. 
Secret Categories

Ok you might have noticed that when you publish your book there are certain categories to select, and after doing hours of category research ( which can be tedious) you upload your book to the categories you selected, and guess what they just cannot be found?

As it turns out, Amazon doesn’t offer every existing category when you go publish your book. Arggh! It only allows you to select from the BISAC as we discussed above.

Frustrating right?

Well, you wouldn’t be alone in this frustration. However, there is hope. There are a couple ways in which you can ensure that your book is included into the “secret category list” that Amazon doesn’t offer you.


In this Amazon information you will see how they have particular "secret categories that will only be seen if you use the correct targeted keyword, an example is below".
In this Amazon information you will see how they have particular "secret categories" (above)  that will only be seen if you use the correct targeted keyword, an example is below".
Top 100 Best Seller Lists &
 What That Means  For Authors
This is what every author wants to see alongside their book, the best seller. By being a best seller this can dramatically increase your traffic of potential book buyers, which in turn increases your sales. 

The best seller badge also has another great benefit it also generates a huge amount of social proof. If 100 people love the book then so might i, it reduces the decision mode to add to cart.

Amazon will only show the top 100 spots for each category, so it is crucial for authors to get in the top 100.

Thats why it is so important to choose your categories with lots of research, if you go into a very competitve category and the number 1 book is selling 500 books a day, thats a lot of books, but if you can niche down into a category where the top #1 book is only selling 20 books a day, well that can be possible.

Authors remeber the reason why you write is because you want to ahre your message with the world and create an impact or change and the only way to do that is to be in front of as any book buyers as possible. 



Set And Forget Amazon Categories
A big mistake that authors make is choosing the categories and then forgeting about them, you really need to be monitoring these categories as much as possible.

Amazon are always creating new categories, especially with trends that they see, the better categories they make creates a better streamlined customer experience and thats what the amazon algorithm is all about, supplying the perfect sale for the customer.
A big mistake that authors make is choosing the categories and then forgeting about them, you really need to be monitoring these categories as much as possible.

Amazon are always creating new categories, especially with trends that they see, the better categories they make creates a better streamlined customer experience and thats what the amazon algorithm is all about, supplying the perfect sale for the customer.
Also Bought - This Can Hurt Your Sales
This is another reason why the category selection needs to be on point, the Also Brought's are an aggregate of the book purchases by a group of like minded shoppers. 

This is where the Amazon algorithm takes over and uses all the customer data and starts to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Amazon is assessing your target market, so getting your family to start buying your book can also confuse you market and start showing your book to the wrong people.

The Also boughts also get recommended in Amazon's marketing emails.

One of the best ways to jazz up the algorithm is to do a Amazon Ads and send hundreds of your target readers to purchase or just download your book. You need to assess the other books in your niche and be able to target those areas, authors and titles. this will ensure readers of your genre are seeing you book alongside other similar title and makes the sales process a lot easier.

Running Amazon Ads can be time consuming but well worth it, if you would like a free strategy session with myself i can talk you through the process.
Spy & Hack Your Competition
So you want to find out what categories your competition are in, but you can only see the 3 on their book's sales page. So how do you fnd out what categories they are in.

Here is a step by step process for you to follow.
  • Find The Competitor Book's ASIN or 10 Digit ISBN number
  • Search The Number In Amazon's Search Bar
  • The Category Strings Or Browse Paths will show in the left side
  • ​You will need to click the paths to show the full Category String
  • Find The Competitor Book's ASIN or 10 Digit ISBN number
  • Search The Number In Amazon's Search Bar
  • The Category Strings Or Browse Paths will show in the left side
  • ​You will need to click the paths to show the full Category String
The video below will walk you through the process of how to spy on your amazon book competitors:
By seeing all of your competitors categories you can certainly find out how you will rank against them in the top 100 list and even find more categories you didn't know existed.
If you enjoyed this information and would like to speak wth me about boosting your book sales please click this link and we can set up a free strategy session

Let's Sell More Books!
Mel Thomson
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