Amazon Scifi and Thriller Categories & Keywords Explained

Are you having a hard time ranking on the Amazon scifi charts?

I ran a promotion on my new book Dulce Base and got up to a rank of #33,000…but I still wasn’t ranking.

Talk about frustrating!

So I did some keyword and category research, and I think you’ll be pretty happy to know the results.

What’s more, I emailed Amazon and asked them what I needed to do to get into those categories that aren’t listed on their upload page. Maybe if they email me back I can put up more info here.

So let’s get right into it, this trip through the Amazon keyword & catogory heavens!

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Targeting Your Amazon Sci Fi Book

My day started with a Bargainbooksy promotion, one that put me with this book here:

My Bargainbooksy SciFi ad

I felt as though I had a better cover than Twinned Universes, and my ranking at the day showed that more people may have agreed with me.

So what else did I do to promote this book? Not much, just the following:

• Google+ Scifi Group Post;
  
• Goodreads Scifi Group Post;
  
• Big Sky Words Blog Post;
  
• ESL Adventure Blog Post;
  
• Goodreads Blog Post;
  
• Google+ ESL Group Post;
  
• Facebook Post;
  
• Several Twitter Blasts;
  
• A Fiverr Facebook/Twitter Blast.

That’s all I did on this, so it cost me $40 - $35 for the Bargainbooksy post and $5 for Fiverr ($5.50 actually; they charge $0.50 for a fee now…bastards).

My Goodreads email promo post

I felt so good about my chances that I actually emailed Amazon and told them I was doing a promotion, in case they wanted to keep their eye on the Hot New Releases chart and give me some loving. Hey, it got a response:

My promo email to Amazon

So things were looking good, especially since I had a few sales and borrows (this book is Amazon exclusive).

How’d things turn out?

When eBook Marketing Goes Off the Rails

Things didn’t go good. Here was my ranking going into this afternoon:

A decent Amazon rank...but no Top 100 lovin'!

That’s a decent ranking, for me at least, but #55,001 wasn’t going to get me to the top of any list…and apparently not on a single list for scifi on Amazon. At that point I decided to do some better keyword research, figuring out which categories would help me rank. Here’s what I found out:

Categories in the order they appear on the Amazon sidebar

Amazon scifi category rankings from the most difficult to the most easy to rank in the Top 100 in

That first list is how the scifi category on Amazon appears. The next list is those categories ranked form the most difficult to the easiest to rank in.

So for Science Fiction – Military, you’d need to have a minimum Amazon rank of #4,594 just to be at #100 on the chart…at least for Tuesday, December 9. On the flip side, a rank of #130 will get you to #1 on that chart.

It’s important to remember that many of these books got onto their respective list because of the keywords they chose. And remember, the #4 book on Amazon is in the scifi category.

Let’s look at these Amazon categories. For instance, Alternate History is a Fantasy category, yet it’s showing up on the sidebar there in the Science Fiction search. Since my book takes place in 1979, this would have been a good option for me to have chosen.

You’ll also notice that the same book was #1 for Alien Invasion and Colonization…and also that those categories’ #100 is separated by more that 16,000 points. That’s something to think about when you’re doing a promo.

Changing eBook Marketing Horse Midstream

There was no way I was going to get up to that kind of ranking on this Bargainbooksy promo…so I went back to my Bookshelf and changed those categories, trying to get onto something easier to rank into. This is what happened after I did that:

Whoa, my book is all of a sudden a Mystery, Thriller & Suspense novel! But more importantly, it’s ranked. Now I’m getting that extra visibility boost, and on the tail-end of a promo. 


What’s more, when I made this change I also boosted the price back up to $3.99…giving the impression that this is worth more (many complain about $0.99 eBook promos, nearly as many as complain about free eBook promos, but perhaps not as many as complain about perma-free eBook promos).

Here’s what that Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Amazon category breakdown looks like:

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense categories on Amazon

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense category rankings on Amazon from the most difficult to rank in to the easiest

It’s a lot easier to rank in some of these categories, as you can see. Obviously Thrillers aren’t as competitive as Scifi books.

Because of that change I was also keeping company with some good books…like Russell Blake up there and his Jet series. And heck, just one page up is Jurassic Park at #2 in the Pulp category – pretty cool, huh?

I would have liked to stay in Scifi, but I just can’t maintain visibility there. And since I want to get sales on a novel for a change, I’ll stay in Thrillers.

Thanks for reading…and buying your copy of Dulce Base. (You didn’t think I was gonna let you off that easy, did ya?)