The other key: Keywords, Part II

So, you have taken a look at your BISAC categories and selected the two best, noting with confusion that the BISAC categories KDP has you pick are not one-to-one direct translation to Amazon’s browse categories.

You’re combed through the KDP Help page, and picked the keywords to unlock the subcategories you want, and now you knwo right where your story will go!

But wait! There are 7 slots in keywords you an fill, and you only needed three of them for the subcategories! What do you do with the other four? Ooh, why not fill them with related search terms?

Okay, this is where I tell you to take your hands off the keyboard, go make yourself a nice cuppa, and prepare for some serious research and thinking instead of impulsive decisions. Yes, you’ll want search terms. However, there are a couple things you’ll need to do beside just throw terms you think will fit in there.

The first thing you need to do is go back to the KDP category and Keyword page, and look at all the other categories, the ones you don’t write in, and see what their keywords are. If you don’t, your “really super-obvious” search term may unlock some categories you really didn’t want to be in!

For example, Peter’s written and soon to release a western, with the working title of Brings the Lightning. It’s set around and after the civil war, and goes from the Appalachians out to the west. So, you’d think, oh, “cowboy” or “indian” would be good keywords. Unfortunately, “cowboy” unlocks “Romantic Heroes/Cowboys”…

Yeah, if we put that in a keyword, his action and adventure would be the only title in the category without bare male chests and lots of decolletage. Let’s not go there!

And “indian”? … Nope. “History/Americas/Canada/First Nations”

After you’ve looked through that, sit down and come up with a list of search terms that Yon Random Reader would be likely to use, to look for stories like yours. Come up with 10 if you can.

Now, log out of your amazon account, and clear your browsing history. Why? Because Amazon is focused on giving you what you’ve been looking for. So if you’ve been checking, say, lots of westerns lately, then your search returns while logged in are going to be completely different from someone who’s been looking at kid’s party supplies, or costumes, or gluten-free cookies.

While Amazon has no cookies to know who you are, start plugging in the search terms. Ideally, you’ll stop to clear your browsing history between every search. See what comes up.

With some search terms, you’ll hit the autocomplete jackpot – this is a term that so many people use, Amazon has an autocomplete for it! The customers are looking for this, and using these phrases!

With others, you’ll suddenly realize that the word has other meanings. “Indians” brings up lots of Subcontinental-India cookbooks and religious books, and stuff all over the map. Scratch that!

“Old West”, on the other hand… very promising.

What happens if you go through all your search terms, and none seem to work well?

First, clear your browser history, and then head back to amazon, searching this time through the categories. For Peter’s next book, that was by linking through Kindle ebook, literature and fiction, genre fiction, western. What comes up in the first three pages? What common words do those titles, series names, & blurbs have? Then, go to the top-100 bestsellers in that category, and repeat.

Yes, you’re mining for data. There be gold in them there categories!

…
As Sabrina Chase put it, I do respond to the dial-a-post feature, or the “Can you please tell me more about X?”

So, what topics would you like to see me address?

…

And hey, does this sound like a book you’d be interested in?

Where can a defeated Johnny Reb go when he can’t go home?

When you can’t go home again – go west!

Brings The Lightning, by Peter Grant – coming soon!