Support for Indie Authors discussion

A warning about the category you choose for your books…

I have been working to get a modest way up author rankings. It’s not great, but not too bad. So I thought I’d use a 5-day free promotion to boost the rankings further. The promotion starts and I look for the books listed as free and… nothing. Keep in mind that my book is a middle-grade book that is, I have read, one of the most difficult to market.

So I asked Amazon about it and they told me that the category (that Amazon placed on it when first published) was hidden so it won’t be seen! I asked how Amazon customers could reach my book and they gave me a multi-line link that no customer coming to find free books for middle-grade would ever know…

Complete snafu…

Fortunately, I have listed my book on these online book listers so I’m getting modest downloads that will help – but Amazon are no help at all… I've changed my categories to see if my author rankings are high enough but whether my book even gets to be in front of readers is dubious...

Remember, you can always add or remove any category you desire by contacting Amazon help.

https://kdp.amazon.com/contact-us

This will allow you to change (add/remove) categories that may not be available to you via the 'choose category' section when publishing.

And you can use your keywords to have your book listed in more specific categories.

However, I've not heard of a hidden category before. What exactly does this mean?

Sam wrote: "Out of interest, what are the categories?"

Originally Amazon classified it as: Children's fiction, imagination and play... It seems the 'imagination and play' was the hidden one and therefore did not get included.

I have changed these to ' Growing Up & Facts of Life > Friendship, Social Skills & School Life > Friendship' and now I rank 8th - BUT - customers have to choose those from the drop down list that Amazon supplies. (The 'imagination and play' is not included in the drop-down lists)

It seems a bit tricky still but at least my book is now visible for the free promo...

Tony wrote: "Remember, you can always add or remove any category you desire by contacting Amazon help.

https://kdp.amazon.com/contact-us

This will allow you to change (add/remove) categories that may not be a..."

I did contact Amazon but just got the usual blabber... and I did change the categories...

Christina wrote: "And you can use your keywords to have your book listed in more specific categories.

However, I've not heard of a hidden category before. What exactly does this mean?"

Christina
I googled for "hidden categories" and saw a complaint from 2011. I'm not exactly sure what constitutes a hidden category. One comments - which I don't fully understand was -

"Unfortunately, the Kindle Limited Time Offers is a category, is a restricted category, and the book in that category are nominated by an internal Amazon team. Please be informed that you will receive an e-mail if your title gets nominated into this category."

Gobbledigook to me... When I was trying to work out better categories it seemed to be down to a menu within a menu... but I saw some being listed in the drop down lists at the left for customers to choose/browse through while others were not listed - and the "imagination and play" was not in the drop down list.

Ah. I think I see what happened. I think the explanation they gave wasn't the best, but rather than hidden, I think what they meant was archived because they use a different set of categories now. This happened to me back when they got rid of the 'fantasy, futuristic, and ghost' category to expand genre romance. I ended up bounced up to the generic 'fantasy' category,which of course, I would have to sell quite a bit to chart on.

This changes so often that I do go through and recategorize every so often if I notice new options that weren't there when set up. I know, you probably don't want to think about having yet another thi g to keep up with. :)

Christina wrote: "Ah. I think I see what happened. I think the explanation they gave wasn't the best, but rather than hidden, I think what they meant was archived because they use a different set of categories now. ..."

Sounds possible only those (hidden) categories are still in the selections within the current system. The customer help gave me the link - a long fangled one that no Amazon customer would even think of... So it did actually appear... However, in the customer presentation area these categories are not in their drop-down lists...

I'm now happier with the ones I have and both (categories I chose) turn up in the top 100 lists by choosing from the drop down menu.

This is interesting info. I've never heard of that.

Thank you so much for sharing. While I do have some books on KDP Select, most of mine are on Smashwords.com, who distribute to other outlets, including Barnes & Noble. They are extremely helpful when I have any problem.

I would definitely agree that there's hidden categories. Given all the categories Amazon lists at the top, on the side and on the bottom of your book it's no surprise there's hidden ones. I would say the ones on the bottom of the book that show your rank are somewhat hidden or at least not considered. I've noticed for the most part they list your book in the categories you list but then the side genres can be confusing and go unnoticed a lot of the time.

I think trying to understand Amazon is like trying to capture moonbeams in a jar.

Justin wrote: "I would definitely agree that there's hidden categories. Given all the categories Amazon lists at the top, on the side and on the bottom of your book it's no surprise there's hidden ones. I would s..."

There are some categories with keyword requirements. Mostly subgenres of fiction. They can be found here:

https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A...

What's nice about these is that you can select your two main categories and then narrow further with the right keywords, even if they end up in a different genre. For example, I have a series that is a hybrid scifi and urban fantasy with a strong romantic subplot, so I picked urban fantasy and fantasy romance, but by adding genetic engineering and science fiction to the keywords, I was able to have the book dropped into the scifi subgenre of romance as well as the gen-eng genre in scifi, which is a main category I hadn't even previously selected.

Of course, I've also seen where people abuse this and get their book into popular categories that do not actually have anything to do with their story, so use keywords responsibly.

Christina wrote: "Justin wrote: "I would definitely agree that there's hidden categories. Given all the categories Amazon lists at the top, on the side and on the bottom of your book it's no surprise there's hidden ..."

Thanks, Christina, I had never come across that list. Very helpful!

This link takes you to an article about how to manipulate keywords and phrases to your benefit while still complying with the rules.
On occasion, I've emailed customer support to get the book into a particular category and they moved it over for me, via Author Central.
http://www.kboards.com/index.php?topi...

Question...I know you need to click "Save and Publish" in order to update keywords on KDP and, from my understanding, the kindle book remains available during the 12-24 hours it takes to process the update, but is the book then called Version 2 or something like that? Is it apparent every time you make an update to your book on KDP even if it's just keywords?

Tami wrote: "This link takes you to an article about how to manipulate keywords and phrases to your benefit while still complying with the rules.
On occasion, I've emailed customer support to get the book into ..."

Thanks for the link! I just did some research and tried this for my own books. It sent me back an hour but it was well worth it.

Margaret wrote: "Question...I know you need to click "Save and Publish" in order to update keywords on KDP and, from my understanding, the kindle book remains available during the 12-24 hours it takes to process th..."
Margaret,
No. It just updates the current version you already have up. It's the same book with just a few corrections, if you will.
If you want to re-write the book or it's a complete overhaul, then I would call it a separate version, but just the updates is a minor change.

Yes. I found that out when I put my book into Noir, which bounces up to Fiction and Literature. LOL.

So I redid it into Mystery and Thrillers and people can find it fine now.