They're not taking new categories. The main reason for the 3rd category option was to take this away so their customer service would stop being bothered. I think they were getting inundated with requests (from me too before the changes).

I have been able to request additional categories for my books.  The ability has been rescinded.  Emphasis added...

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Hello,

This is ***** from Amazon KDP, and I hope this message finds you well. Thank you so much for taking the time to send your query to add categories on your eBook and Paperback (ASIN: B0DHT25JWL and B0DHX7JTM5).

We're excited to let you know that you now have more control over your book's visibility! You can select up to three Amazon Store categories for each of your titles during the setup process, based on your primary marketplace. This empowers you to better target your ideal readers.

Given this new flexibility, we've streamlined our process and are no longer handling individual requests for category additions or updates. However, we're still here to support you! If you encounter any issues with your categories, please don't hesitate to reach out. We're always happy to help troubleshoot and ensure your books are properly categorized.

Want to make changes to your book categories? It's easy! Simply follow the step-by-step instructions on our Help page: https://kdp.amazon.com/help/topic/G200652170#add

We're committed to making your publishing journey as smooth as possible. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please don't hesitate to contact us. Your success is our priority!


Thanks for using Amazon KDP,

Your feedback helps us improve our service.

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R.C.

Amazon's bots and their live humans are inconsistent about language

Probably because the programmers have English as a second language.

And most of the help people are not American.

The second last one I had contact with on a recent issue was South African, and the last one was Indian.

I already have my suspicions. I'm waiting to gain access back to book info. Right now it's locked. I'm planning on just deleting all words that could be construed as sexual when I gain access back to KDP--probably will just do it anyway for fear of it returning back whenever I update the book, even if customer service can delete the category.

We had a thread about keywords. You can see how focused I get on keywords, I have no idea what I entered. But here's another area we need to be careful about there.

Quora has a set of moderation bots which trigger on keywords. They started out deleting answers which touched on underage sex in any way. Then it became under 20 sex. Then under thirty. Now it seems you can't mention it at all without the bots deleting the post. The stupid thing is they don't delete the questions, which are asking for that kind of answer, so now there's questions which never have any answers, and people complaining theirs got deleted. It's just an insane version of woke.

The danger is that Amazon's bots head down the same path.

All the bots are just bad code, and the more they monkey with them, the worse they get. And they were bad enough with Romance already.

You just have to be so careful now. I've stopped going there in my novels completely. Both my last two MC's haven't been involved with anyone at all.

That's the danger Romance novels always have.

It only takes the wrong keyword, and you get dungeoned. Presumably one of them triggered a bot, or something in the blurb triggered it.

So maybe post the blurb in the blurb private area, so those who know can check it for bad choices.