Amazon KDP Book Category Finder

How Many Categories Can You Choose on KDP?

Three. When you set up a book on KDP you select three categories, based on the primary audience and the marketplace you chose on the Details tab. Categories work like shelves in the Amazon store: together with your seven keywords, they tell Amazon where readers browsing a genre will find your book.

A book can appear in up to three Best Seller category lists, and KDP notes that which three it is ranked in depends on the book's customer activity. Rankings update at least once a day, although a change can take up to two days to show.

How to Choose Good KDP Categories

• Be accurate first. A category that does not describe your book puts it in front of readers who will not buy it, and KDP's own guidance warns against irrelevant categories.
• Go specific where you can. A deep category such as a subgenre of fantasy or a particular kind of journal has fewer books competing for its Best Seller list than a broad one.
• Balance reach and competition. A category so small that nobody browses it will not sell books either. Aim for shelves readers actually visit, where your book can still stand out.
• Look at the books you compete with. Check which categories similar titles are ranked in on their Amazon pages, then use the finder to see the full path for each one.
• Use all three. Each category is another shelf where your book can be found, so pick three that each describe it from a different angle: genre, subject and audience.

Search or Browse

The finder has two views. Category Search takes a keyword and lists the category paths that match it, sorted by relevance, with filters for fiction, nonfiction, juvenile, young adult and the other top-level groups. Category Browser lets you open the tree level by level when you already know roughly where your book belongs. In both, the copy button puts the full path on your clipboard so you can find the same shelf in KDP's category picker.

After You Pick Your Categories

• Check the Best Seller list of each category on Amazon to see the ranks of the books in it; the KDP sales calculator turns those ranks into estimated daily sales, which tells you how many copies it takes to reach that list.
• Keep your seven keywords for words that are not already in your category names; the keyword organizer fits them into the seven 50-character boxes.
• Revisit your categories when sales change. You can edit them at any time from your KDP Bookshelf.

KDP Category FAQ

Can I change my categories after publishing?

Yes. On your KDP Bookshelf, choose Edit details for the book and open Edit categories. You do not need to upload the manuscript or cover again.

Do categories differ between Amazon stores?

Yes. The categories you can choose depend on the marketplace you select as primary, so a book published for Amazon.com and one published for Amazon.co.uk may see different lists.

Why does my book show in a category I did not choose?

A book can appear in more categories than the three you pick. KDP's help pages say it is ranked in up to three Best Seller lists whatever the number of categories it features in, and that customer activity decides which three.