Being indexed and ranking in the right book categories is crucial for discovery, cross-merchandising, and sales at Amazon and other e-retailers. Browse categories or nodes are analogous to subject sections in a bookstore. One benefit of online bookselling is that your book may be “shelved” in multiple places in the store.
Best Practices & Guidelines
Books may rank in up to three categories or subcategories. Ideally, books will rank in as wide a variety of categories as is appropriate for the content. Typically, books will rank higher in more discrete subcategories where there is less competition. However, extremely niche categories may not improve discoverability as there may be fewer potential buyers.
Selecting BISAC codes:
- Specify at least three BISAC codes.
- These should be as granular and specific as possible.
- The first code should be the best, most accurate.
- Select codes from different top-level categories and sub-categories where appropriate/possible to broaden potential reach of title.
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Avoid "General" codes.
- FIC000000 FICTION / General is to be avoided if at all possible.
- You also do not need to include a “General” code if you have already selected a more specific code for a given category or subcategory. (An exception here would be if there are no other appropriate codes to specify, then you may select a more general code in order to specify three.)
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Codes should align with the intended audience for the book:
- Children's titles (ages 0-11 or up to 6th grade) should have at least one JUV (juvenile fiction) or JNF (juvenile non-fiction) code.
- Young adult titles (ages 12-18 or up to 12th grade) should have at least one YAF (young adult fiction) or YAN (young adult non-fiction) code.
Mapping to Amazon browse categories
- Many Amazon categories have very similar BISAC counterparts. For categories that do not have an equivalent/associated BISAC code, you can include the specific Amazon product categories as keywords in the retailer search keywords field.
- Review Amazon's categories to see what titles are ranking for key topic and subject areas. (And see what categories your comp titles are ranking in.)
- If updating categories post-publication, be careful to reinforce and not accidentally change Amazon categories in which the title is ranking well (and which are appropriate to the content of the book).
Resources & References
- 2017 BISAC Subject Headings List [BISG]
- Selecting a BISAC Code FAQ [BISG]
- Tips for Selecting the Right BISAC Subject Codes [IngramSpark]
Marketing Insights provides daily monitoring of your Amazon sales rank and category rankings. The most recent ranking data can be found in the Amazon Snapshot panel, and detailed overall bestseller rank history (since we began monitoring your title) can be found alongside your price data in the Amazon Price & Performance chart.
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