You can now choose three Amazon Store categories based on primary marketplace for each title during setup. Since you can now choose your own categories, we are no longer accepting requests to add or update categories. Contact us if you're experiencing an issue with your categories, and we can help troubleshoot.

Categories are the sections of the Amazon Store where customers can find your book. Think of categories as the sections of a physical bookstore (science-fiction, history, and so on). When you set up your title, you can select up to three categories for your primary marketplace (for example, Amazon.com) to help readers find your book. We use the three categories you choose for your primary marketplace, along with your selected keywords, to place your book in categories on the Amazon Store for all of your enrolled marketplaces.

Video: How to add book categories

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Key terms

Categories can be made up of multiple classifications, which together form a path:

• Category: the top-level classification, which is typically very broad. For example, History.
• Subcategory: a more descriptive classification that appears underneath a category. For example, if History is the category, US History is one of its subcategories. There can be multiple layers of subcategories.
• Placement: The most granular classification in the category path where no further subcategories exist. It’s where your book is “placed” in the Amazon Store. For example, if History is the category, US History is the subcategory, and 19th Century is the last available classification in that path, then History > US History > 19th Century is the placement.

Important: We reserve the right to change the categories of a book at any time to ensure a positive customer experience. The categories you add and the categories shown online may not always match. Your book may be added to additional or different categories to improve the customer experience.

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Contents

• Tips for choosing categories
• Add or Update Categories
  
• Adding Children or Teen & Young Adult Categories
• Adding Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels
• Adding low-content books
• Restricted categories
• General categories
• View available categories by marketplace

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Tips for choosing categories

Book categories are intended to offer readers the highest-quality search results to make purchase decisions. To make it easier for readers to find your book, we recommend that you:

• Choose accurate categories. Choosing categories that accurately describe your book's central topic or storyline helps readers find your book where they’d expect it to be. Do not mix fiction and nonfiction categories. For example, if you publish a werewolf romance book, choose Romance > Fantasy instead of Nature > Animals > Wolves.
• Add fewer categories. Being selective with fewer categories that relate more specifically to your book helps readers find your book in their area of interest. Our analysis of customer activity on books shows that having more than a few categories decreases the relevancy of those categories and does not improve discoverability. For example, if you publish a historical travel journal from a famous traveler, choose Travel > Travel Writing as a category instead of History > World.
• Focus on subcategories. Categories typically contain subcategories, for example the Science & Math category has many subcategories including Behavioral Sciences, which has its own subcategories including Behavioral Psychology. We recommend you focus on the most granular subcategory that relates to your book because we automatically display your book in the top-level categories. Therefore, a book placed in the Books > Science & Math > Behavioral Psychology may also show up in searches for general psychology and behavioral sciences.
• Select eligible categories. To ensure a positive customer experience, your book might not be eligible for certain categories. If you don’t see a category during title setup, and it’s available in the Amazon Store, your book is likely ineligible for that category. Eligibility depends on a variety of factors including availability of a category in the Amazon Store and book details including primary audience, primary marketplace, and keywords. For example, a book with a “Motorcycle” keyword, may not be eligible for Travel › Food, Lodging & Transportation › Auto & RV Travel category.
• Give your categories time to perform. After you choose categories for your book, we recommend limiting changes to allow time for your book to gain momentum with readers. If you frequently change your categories, historical customer activity for your book may be recalculated based on your new categories, which could impact your sales rank.

Important: After you add or update your book categories, we will review your changes to ensure we provide a positive customer experience to our customers. We do not tolerate inaccurate or unexpected categorization that misleads or manipulates our customers. Your book categories must comply with our Guidelines.

To ask questions and learn from other KDP authors, visit our KDP Community.

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Add or update categories

You can select three categories based on your primary marketplace, and then we’ll automatically place your book in categories for your non-primary marketplaces. The categories available in your book’s Details tab stay up-to-date with the Amazon Store as new categories are added or changed over time. It takes 24 - 48 hours for new categories added in the Amazon Store to become available in your book’s Details tab.

You are required to enter at least one category for each format (for example, eBook and paperback). Keep in mind that categories may vary for each format, so a category available in the Books store, may not be available in the Kindle Store.

Before you start: Select Yes or No under Sexually Explicit Images or Title, and choose your Primary Marketplace to activate the Choose Categories button.

To add categories to a new title during set up:

1. On the Details tab, select Yes or No under Sexually Explicit Images or Title, and choose your Primary Marketplace.
2. In the Category section, select Choose categories. A new window will open.
3. Choose the top-level Category from the drop-down menu.
4. Select at least one Subcategory. Placements will appear on the right. If you can't find the placement you’re looking, change or add to the selected Subcategories from the drop-down menus on the left.
5. Check the box for your chosen Placement. The chosen placement will appear at the bottom of the window along with a link to view the category page on the Amazon Store. The link will open in a new window where you can view other books available in that category to determine if it’s right for you.
6. Select Add another category to add additional categories and repeat steps 3 and 4. You can choose up to three category placements for your book.
7. Select Save categories.
8. After your book is published, we’ll add your book to all relevant categories on the Amazon Store. It can take up to 72 hours for those categories to display in the Amazon Store, and up to a week for sales rank to update on the website.

Check our Timelines help page to learn more about how long it takes to publish your book.

To update or add to existing categories:

Important: If you make changes to existing categories that were assigned before May 30, 2023, your existing categories will be removed and replaced with your new selections.

1. Go to your Bookshelf and click the ellipsis (…) button next to your book.
2. Choose Edit eBook Details, Edit Paperback Details, or Edit Hardcover Details
3. On the Details tab, select Yes or No under Sexually Explicit Images or Title, and choose your Primary Marketplace.
4. In the Categories section, select Edit categories or Choose categories. A new window will open.
5. If you already have three categories selected, click on “remove” next to the category you wish to remove.
6. Continue by following steps 1-6 above.

After you submit your changes and your book is published, we’ll add your book to all relevant categories on the Amazon Store for all of your enrolled marketplaces. It can take up to 72 hours for those categories to display in the Amazon Store, and up to a week for sales rank to update on the website.

Check our Timelines help page to learn more about how long it takes to publish your book.

Important:Categories can be removed if they become unavailable in the Amazon Store, or if you make changes to your book details that affect category eligibility.

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Adding books to the Children's or Teen and Young Adult categories

To have your book appear in the Children’s or Teen & Young Adult categories, set an appropriate recommended reading age in the Primary Audience section of title setup. These categories are not available for books with a minimum reading age of 18 years.

To choose Children's categories, set the minimum and maximum recommended reading age according to one of the following bands:

• 0-2
• 3-5
• 6-8
• 9-12

To choose Teen & Young Adult categories:

• Set the minimum recommended reading age from 13 to 17 years.
• For Amazon.de, set the recommended reading age from 12 to 15 years.

Note: On Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, titles with a Juvenile Category and a minimum recommended age of 12 may be categorized in Children’s or Teen. This depends on other information about the book. Keep in mind that an independent category will show for Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.es, and Amazon.it.

Important: The reading age on your Amazon detail page may differ from your original age selection. When customers review your book, they can provide feedback on reading age and difficulty. Amazon research shows that customers are more likely to trust reading ages recommended by other customers, so Amazon updates the reading age on your book’s detail page based on reviews.

Learn more about Primary Audience and Reading Age.

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Adding Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels

The Comics, Manga, and Graphic Novels category is reserved for fiction or nonfiction books of sequential art, an illustrated storytelling medium in which adjacent images, or a combination of images with text.

The Comics, Manga, and Graphic Novels category should not be used:

• For an illustrated book unless it is a fixed layout comic format book.
• In addition to another book category. Example: Literature & Fiction with a Comic category. , are used to make the narrative.

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Low-content books

If you’re publishing a low-content book, select the most relevant Amazon Store categories, or select non-classifiable. Learn more about Low-Content Books.

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Restricted categories

These categories are assigned automatically in the Kindle Store and can’t be added or modified.

• Kindle Singles
• Kindle Short Read

Note: Companion books, also referred to as summaries, study guides, or analysis books, can't be added to any category outside of the Study Aid category on Amazon. See Companion guides to learn more about companion books.

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General categories

We recommend that you only select the General category if no specific category exists. Placing your book in both a general and specific subcategory can affect category assignment. For example, if you place your book in History > Ancient Civilization > Rome, then do not also place it in History > Ancient Civilizations > General.

In this example, it’s unnecessary to place your book in General as it will already appear under the top-level categories (History and Ancient Civilizations).

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View available categories by marketplace

There are thousands of Amazon categories for each marketplace, and they are subject to change. For that reason, we do not provide a full list of categories on our Help page. To view available categories, click the link to the eBook or print book store for your desired marketplace from the Categories table below. On the Amazon Store, open the Categories drop-down menu at the top of the page to view available categories and click on your preferred option. On the category page, you can view available subcategories using the filters on the left.

Marketplace	For eBooks	For print books
Amazon.com	US Kindle Store	US Books Store
Amazon.co.uk	UK Kindle Store	UK Books Store
Amazon.ca	CA Kindle Store	CA Books Store
Amazon.com.au	AU Kindle Store	AU Books Store
Amazon.de	DE Kindle Store	DE Books Store
Amazon.nl	NL Kindle Store	NL Books Store
Amazon.fr	FR Kindle Store	FR Books Store
Amazon.it	IT Kindle Store	IT Books Store
Amazon.es	ES Kindle Store	ES Books Store
Amazon.com.br	BR Kindle Store	BR Books Store
Amazon.in	IN Kindle Store	IN Books Store
Amazon.co.jp	JP Kindle Store	JP Books Store

Note: Categories can vary between marketplaces.

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