Writer Sanctum
Corporate Sector => What are Amazon doing now? [Public] => Topic started by: Tom Wood on February 01, 2019, 10:37:33 AM
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I'm putting together my list of 10 ebook categories by searching on the ASIN of my comparables to see what ebook categories they are in. When I drill down on B004J4WKUQ for the Ready Player One ebook, I find it in several categories, including:
Kindle Store : Kindle eBooks : Literature & Fiction : Action & Adventure : Science Fiction Adventure : "B004J4WKUQ"
(https://agentsofdisrupt.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/litficadvscifiadv.png)
(click image to enlarge)
But if I try to drill down directly without using a search I get this far:
Kindle Store : Kindle eBooks : Literature & Fiction : Action & Adventure
Under 'Action & Adventure' there is 'Science Fiction' in the list, but if I drill down to that next level, the search results are listed in:
Kindle Store : Kindle eBooks : Science Fiction & Fantasy : Science Fiction : Adventure
There is no directly accessible 'Science Fiction Adventure' category when drilling down through 'Literature & Fiction.'
Will Amazon accept this 'phantom' category in a request to add it as a category for my books?
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I'm still working my way through categories, so this caught my eye.
Having looked at .com, it looks to me (as a relative newbie) like there isn't actually a "science fiction adventure" category all in one go - despite what the search bar is telling you! Instead, as you've listed, you get there by getting in science fiction, and then adventure - either via the Literature & Fiction top level, or Science Fiction top level.
So the category string is actually, for example: Literature & Fiction : Action & Adventure : Science Fiction : Adventure
But this shows up in the search bar as "Science Fiction Adventure".
However, the ways of KDP / Amazon are mystery to me, and I've found KDP support helpful so far, so I would say there's nothing to lose by asking them if they can put you in this category?
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I would try going through Author central and having them call you to do this. I tried doing a category change through email once, as an experiment. Two of my three categories disappeared completely. When I had them on the phone the guy said the ebook categories had been changed to printed book categories. He fixed it all and put my three categories back on, though it did take a day or so for it to come through. Use the button on author central (go through the help categories) and use the button to have them call you right now. Doing it this way they can (hopefully) tell you if it is okay, versus trying it and hoping.
Hope this helps and good luck
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Everybody may already know this, but it seems to me that there's been some refinement with the category required keyword list. I don't remember it being so precisely aligned with the left-column genre/character filters. If you drill down to the Science Fiction category, you get this list of filters in the left-hand column:
(https://agentsofdisrupt.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/scifisubcats.png)
I've been curious as to what criteria they use to show up in those sub-filters. Looking at the KDP required keyword list for Science Fiction, it's pretty clear since there is a word-for-word correlation.
(https://agentsofdisrupt.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/kdpcats1.png)
(click image to enlarge)