KDP Category Finder

How to use the KDP category finder

Describe your book, choose Kindle ebook or paperback, and the finder suggests five Amazon categories, best first, with why each fits. Use the first three in KDP, and keep the others as backups.

How KDP categories work

• You pick three categories for each book format when you set it up in KDP.
• They’re Amazon’s own categories, the same ones shoppers browse, not the BISAC subject codes bookstores use.
• Ebooks and paperbacks have their own lists, and some categories exist for one format only, so choose separately for each.

Choosing well

• Go as specific as the book truly is. A gluten-free category under Special Diet puts you in front of exactly the right readers; “Cookbooks, Food & Wine” alone puts you in a crowd.
• Only pick categories where a reader would expect your book. A book in the wrong place disappoints the readers who find it, and that shows in reviews.
• Don’t pick three versions of the same thing. Cover different angles: the subject, the reader, the format.

Category names in KDP’s picker can differ slightly from the store’s menus, so choose the closest match. Then fill your seven keywords with searches the categories don’t already cover.