Writers in the Storm

Penny Sansevieri

By now most authors know the importance of choosing great keywords on Amazon, but Amazon’s categories are equally important. Choosing the right categories can boost your exposure. And exposure drives book sales.

So, while it’s good to spend a lot of time focusing on keywords, you should also focus on finding narrow categories on Amazon. The reason to look narrow is this: categories with fewer books have lower competition for the #1 spot. And the top ten is a great place to hit, not only because it creates more visibility for your book, but Amazon’s algorithms kick in as you start to spike within categories.

The BIG Secret about Amazon Categories

When speaking to a contact at Amazon recently, she told me they had rolled out ten categories for each book. Which means that instead of just two categories, you can have up to ten for each of your titles. Why is this good? Well the more categories your book has, the more places it will show up. And because you have more flexibility now, you can pick some super niche categories, along with less niche ones. This is especially good in markets where there aren’t a ton of niches. Business books often sit in this segment. Having more categories levels the playing field a bit more.

How to Choose the Right Categories

First, when I talk about Amazon categories (and in previous posts I’ve done for this blog), you’ve probably noticed that I always refer to the eBook side of Amazon. This is because the categories on the eBook side are more creative because there are more of them.

When you posted your book on Amazon (or via your publisher), you were probably asked for your BISAC category. These categories do exist on Amazon, but only on the print book side. The Kindle Store has an almost limitless series of categories to choose from. If your print book and eBook are connected on the Amazon platform, then changing the categories on your eBook should be sufficient to optimize both versions of your book.

To get started, head to the Kindle Store on the Amazon site. You get there by highlighting the Kindle Store in your Amazon search bar and clicking go:

Once you’re there, you should see this down the left-hand side of the screen:

Each of these main categories have drop downs when you click on them. You can really find some great smaller niche categories — even for some of the biggest, most cluttered genres. That’s where, with some great strategy, you’ll find your sweet spot, boost your exposure and ultimately, grow your book sales.

Two busy markets are business and health, and I’m going to give you an example of each below.

If you look down the left-hand side of the first screen shot, you’ll see that I clicked down from: Business > Management > Communication in Management.

For many of you who write in the business genre, “communication in management” may not seem like a correct category. That is, until you look at some of the books that are in there. They cover topics like communicating, business communication, and team building.

Next, take a look at the number of books in this genre. See the orange box below:

721 books. Compared with the seven million books on Amazon, that’s a pretty great number, and it’s narrow enough that you could really gain some great visibility! It’s possible to find categories that are even more narrow -- in some cases I’ve found articles with less than 100 books in them. Which again is why having 10 categories is great. Not all of them will be this niche-specific, but having at least 5 of these categories be very narrow will greatly help your exposure.

The health market is another really busy one. So let’s look at the Women’s Health category specifically.  See how many books are sitting in that particular segment?

That’s a lot of competition! But if you dig deeper and experiment with some other categories, you can really whittle this number down:

Competing with 1,000 books gives you much better opportunity than trying to wrestle to the top of a list of forty or fifty thousand titles.

But remember, these are two extreme examples to illustrate how to get creative with your searches. In almost every case, there are other elements or aspects of a book that can be highlighted using the categories.

“Difficult” Categories

On the flip side, there are those difficult categories where it’s hard to get traction no matter what you do. Especially if your book deals with topics that Americans don’t like to talk about, namely whether they’ve saved enough for retirement (because most people haven’t) and death, for obvious reasons.

If this is the case for you, or if you maybe have a book that is tough to categorize, start looking at the features and benefits. Find out what problems your book can solve for readers, and then guide them down that path so that they see it as a solution that will help them.

We once worked with a book on Lyme Disease, and the searches for Lyme disease were really bad on Amazon. The books all had terrible sales rank, and though there wasn’t a ton of competition, there wasn’t a lot of activity in terms of sales.

Why? Because most people weren’t searching under Lyme disease. Instead they were searching under the symptoms (the problem the book ultimately solved), and that’s where we put the book. When we did, the performance changed quickly.

Another example of this was a book about teen suicide as it relates to bullying. For obvious reasons, the author had originally categorized the book under “suicide,” but it did really poorly. I asked her to move it under "teen health," and again, it did a lot better!

Categories That Will Help You Achieve Bestseller Status

Everyone wants to hit bestseller status. Even if you recognize it as a big dream, you’d love to be a bestselling author, right? Guess what? Narrow categories can do that for you.

And while you may not become a #1 bestseller across Amazon, you could still surf to the top of your category and really dominate it. And when you start to do really well within a category, you’ll trigger Amazon’s algorithm and really surge your book’s performance.

Fiction Versus Nonfiction

Fiction authors often get a chance to expand their categories even further with options to “refine by” themes, heroes, and settings.

Here’s what it looks like, this screen grab was taken from the Inspirational Romance section of Amazon:

As you can see, “Romantic Heroes” offers quite a few different hero profiles as additional options for categorizing your fiction book. They don’t appear under all fiction genres, however, so keep that in mind if you write something other than romance.

Also important, these are keyword-driven rather than categories you typically get to choose. So to put your book in them, you’ll need to add keywords to the back end.

How many should you use?

Realistically, I would recommend starting with two. That’s probably a realistic number for your fiction book anyway since most books don’t have four different heroes and six different settings. So, while these category keywords are great to have, you still have the option of adding ten more categories. Meaning that you really can look at these as bonuses that you can add by using keywords on the back end of your KDP dashboard.

You’ll add these “keyword categories” via your keywords on the Amazon dashboard. Just make sure to turn them into strings as I’ve discussed in previous articles.

So How Do You Add All These Categories?

This is probably the easiest aspect. All you have to do is log in to your Amazon Author Central page and click on “help.” Then email them with the ten categories you’ve chosen.

My recommendation is to email them the link, like this: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=lp_156563011_nr_n_5?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A133140011%2Cn%3A%21133141011%2Cn%3A154606011%2Cn%3A156563011%2Cn%3A156569011&bbn=156563011&ie=UTF8&qid=1518735862&rnid=156563011

And then be sure to also include the category string from the page: Kindle eBooks : Self-Help : Memory Improvement

So your submission for each category will look like this:

Kindle eBooks : Self-Help : Memory Improvement

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=lp_156563011_nr_n_5?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A133140011%2Cn%3A%21133141011%2Cn%3A154606011%2Cn%3A156563011%2Cn%3A156569011&bbn=156563011&ie=UTF8&qid=1518735862&rnid=156563011

Why should you do this? Well, it makes it simple for the Author Central person to help with what you’re asking for, which is definitely a good thing. And you’ll find that your categories are added quickly, often within 24 hours!

Setting the Book Categories Record Straight

If you’ve ever wondered how Amazon chooses the categories that show up in your details section under the Amazon Best Sellers Rank, you’re not alone.

These come from the algorithm. If you aren’t managing your categories correctly, then this area might look like a mishmash of categories that don’t even belong with your book. So to set the record straight, these aren’t necessarily your categories. But it illustrates the importance of managing your own categories. When you don’t put a little time and effort into this, you may start showing up in random places. Needless to say, this won’t help your book sales at all.

In the example above, these are categories we placed the book in, and since they are the right categories, this section aligns with what we selected.

If you’re working with a publisher who has the control of your eBook, you’ll want to reach out to them to ask if they are willing and able to change these categories. I can almost guarantee that your publisher doesn’t know that it’s an option to select ten eBook categories, making it very worth your time and effort to talk with them.

Experimenting with Amazon categories can really be a lot of fun, especially when you see it start to pay off in terms of exposure and book sales. So start digging into the available categories, and watch how quickly changes start to happen!

ABOUT PENNY

Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert and an Adjunct Professor with NYU. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. She is the author of fourteen books, including How to Sell Books by the Truckload. AME is the first marketing and publicity firm to use Internet promotion to its full impact through online promotion and their signature program called: The Virtual Author Tour™

To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at http://www.amarketingexpert.com. To subscribe to her free newsletter, send a blank email to: mailto:subscribe@amarketingexpert.com

Copyright @2018 Penny C. Sansevieri

Christina Delay

I recently finaled in the Kiss of Death’s Daphne du Maurier contest in the Mainstream category. I’ve gotta be honest, it’s been a while since I had a win. It felt good. It FEELS good. Real good. I’ve wanted to final in this contest for years, so yes, when I got the news, I may have done the laughing-crying thing.

My husband took me out to celebrate but, ever the realist, said, “Be careful of this high on the roller coaster.” After I shot him the stink-eye, I had to take a deep breath. He was right. (I hate when he’s right.)

It’s a conversation we’ve had many times over the years that I’ve been writing with the goal of publication.

The Writer Roller Coaster. Worst. Ride. Ever. That is, if you’re living for the wins.

Living for the Win

When you’re living for the next win, you keep your sights set on the high points, on those relative two seconds of when you’re at the highest tip of the roller coaster. And when you’re living for the win, the low points aren’t the thrill dropping, stomach plunge of real roller coasters. Nope. They suck. The low points are the times when nothing’s happening, or you’ve received 22 rejections over the course of four months, or you’ve watched every single one of your writer buddies soar on to publication, contest wins, book sales, and more.

When you’re living for the win, or the next high, it can make the lows seem so much lower, and the drop to the lows so much more dramatic. It makes the time you spend in the lows stretch out, never seeming to end.

Learn to Live for the Journey

I’ve had to learn over the years how to refocus from “excitement for the win” to “excitement for the journey.”

Even though I’m super-excited about my contest final, it’s not as important to me as the journey that I’m on. Not just the journey to publication, but the journey to deeper self-understanding because of my writing path, the wonderful discoveries I’ve made in finding my people, my tribe, and how, at the end of the day, I place a greater value in the relationships I’ve formed because of this journey. More so than any contest final or win.

That puts things into perspective.

Am I saying no to celebrating the wins? Definitely not. Celebrate them. But then move on. Don’t let them consume you.

Same rule goes for the losses. Grieve them. But then move on. Don’t let them consume you.

I give myself until midnight. Whatever happens, whatever’s needed, allow yourself to sink into that emotion until midnight. Eat ice cream from the tub, pop open the champagne, cry with your best friend, binge on Netflix, wear the tiara. At 12:01AM, the clock starts over, and so do you. The glass shoes come off, and it’s time to get back to work.

For me, every contest final or high point on this journey has provided me a good vantage point to look back over where I’ve come from and a little bit of where I’m headed. From up here, I can see my lows were the building blocks that I had to stack to get to the high points. It helps me remember what’s important to focus on.

“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.” ~ Greg Anderson

“Aim for the sky, but move slowly, enjoying every step along the way. It is all those little steps that make the journey complete.” ~ Chanda Kochhar

“Sooner or later we must realize there is no station, no one place to arrive at once and for all. The true joy of life is the trip.” ~ Robert J. Hastings

Passion Is a Lifelong Marathon

When you find your passion and purpose in life, you start on a lifelong marathon with no finish line. There will be rest stops along the way, high and low points in the road. Some areas will be easier, some will be harder, but you keep running. You keep improving. You keep seeking new ways to sink more fully into your life’s passion. You keep doing the thing that makes your soul smile.

And that’s really what it’s all about, right? Doing the things that make our souls smile and add beauty to the world.

Tonight, I’m raising my glass. Not just to my final, but to all the high and low points of this journey, and to you, my fellow lover of words and stories and magic. Thanks for being on this journey with me. No place I’d rather be.

Is your writing journey a search for the wins, a sprint, a marathon...or something else entirely? Describe for us why you do this job down in the comments!

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About Christina

Christina Delay is the hostess of Cruising Writers and an award-winning author represented by Deidre Knight of The Knight Agency. When she's not cruising the Caribbean, she's dreaming up new writing retreats to take talented authors on or writing the stories of the imaginary people that live in her heart.

Cruising Writers brings writers together with bestselling authors, an agent, an editor, and a world-renowned writing craft instructor writing retreats around the world.

Cruise with us to Grand Cayman this October with Kristen Lamb (Bestselling Author and Marketing Jedi), Rachel Caine (Bestselling Author of 50+ books), Deidre Knight (The Knight Agency), and Alex Sehulster (St. Martin’s Press).

Or get ready to Dive Deep and join us on a 7-day Immersion Cruise with Margie Lawson this December to Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel!

This is a true story: 

I looked out my window this morning, as I always do while drinking my breakfast protein shake.

In the heavier than usual wind, the prayer flags flapped loudly.

Through the narrow gaps of brightly-colored material I saw a profusion of blooming tropical flowers.

Behind them, a mermaid sat on her rock. Surrounded by water. Unconcerned by the wind. Blowing through her conch shell.

Beyond her, an angel stands, arms wide, watching the tiny decedents of millenia-dead dinosaurs perform their morning sun salutations, ignoring the war machines flying overhead.

I write science fiction. Do you have a feeling for this place?

But this is not a setting from anything I'm working on. This is how I look out my kitchen window, mug in hand, while I down 10 ounces of water blended with grapefruit, ice, protein powder and spinach, while a military helicopter flew overhead. It's how I look at the world. Different from non-writers. Different from anyone else. 

And you look at the world differently than anyone else, too.

That's the beauty of being a writer. We have a license to see our world through whatever lens we want, whatever lens our characters see their world.

I'm always surprised when one of the first things other writers say when I tell them I write science fiction is, "Oh, you have to do world building. I could never do that." News flash! Every writer must build the world their character inhabits so readers know how that world operates. Even contemporary genre writers must world build.

Think about a story with a cowboy, or a short-order cook, or a doctor. We have to see—and feel—what the characters do, how they live. Otherwise we can't connect with them. This requires world building skills.

World building traditionally means describing the character's physical surroundings and societal influences.

What better way to do this than to use deep POV for your characters? If they are seeing their "usual" world and walk past the burnt out husk of a tank, sand blowing so hard they've pulled up the scarves they wear around their necks, guns slung over their shoulders, you might be reading a book about today's soldiers in the Middle East on a routine patrol in an area they are familiar with.

How do you know they are familiar with the area? From the details given through the character's POV. The "common" details are glossed over. Only enough essentials to ground the reader are shared. Something out of place or different will be noted and examined either from a distance or close-up. Danger or interest can be conveyed in the tones, attitude or physical approach or the dialogue between characters or the thoughts of one character.

A writer of historical fiction takes great care to describe the style of furniture, the material and cut of the curtains, a rug, a silver tea service—all to show you the opulence of a duke's home.

If the view is through the eyes of someone who is courting the favor of the duke, different details and a different tone will be used than a an outdoor servant who is called into the duke's study for an unknown reason and is waiting for the worst to happen. Again, tone and the careful selection of details can perform double duty by "world building" the setting and conveying the emotions of the character. For example, someone who thinks they are going to lose their position or be accused of something will definitely notice the miniature guillotine on a shelf in the study, while someone in love will notice a book of poetry lying open on a table.

Try an experiment: Pick a genre in which you don't write. Look around the room you're sitting in and describe what you see for that genre. Extra points for being a character with an agenda as you look around the room.

See, you can world build, even in a different genre. How much easier will it be in your own genre?

World building is most important at the beginning of your story, but you've got to be careful not to info dump. Using your character's POV not only shows the setting, but also the character's "take" on the setting and their overall feelings about being there. Whenever your words can do double or triple duty, your writing is more powerful.

I wrote a series on world building a while back. You can read about World Building Techniques with examples from my upcoming Winter 2018 release, Keeping Athena, here , or World Building: Social and Cultural Aspects here , or World Building: Physical Setting here. These posts were written with all genres in mind.

Do you have a question about world building (in any genre)? What techniques do you use to show the world your characters live in?

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ABOUT FAE:

Fae Rowen discovered the romance genre after years as a science fiction freak. Writing futuristics and medieval paranormals, she jokes  that she can live anywhere but the present. As a mathematician, she knows life’s a lot more fun when you get to define your world and its rules.

Punished, oh-no, that’s published as a co-author of a math textbook, she yearns to hear personal stories about finding love from those who read her books, rather than the horrors of calculus lessons gone wrong.  She is grateful for good friends who remind her to do the practical things in life like grocery shop, show up at the airport for a flight and pay bills.

A “hard” scientist who avoided writing classes like the plague, she now shares her brain with characters who demand that their stories be told.  Amazing, gifted critique partners keep her on the straight and narrow. Feedback from readers keeps her fingers on the keyboard.

P.R.I.S.M., a young adult science fiction romance story of survival, betrayal, resolve, deceit, lies, and love.

When she’s not hanging out at Writers in the Storm, you can visit Fae at http://faerowen.com  or www.facebook.com/fae.rowen

Fae also blogs at YA Outside the Lines on the fifth of every month.