Mapping a Path TO Your Book on
Amazon/Kindle
When you publish a book on
CreateSpace, KindleDirect, or any
reputable publisher, you are asked to select a BISAC category for your work. BISAC is an acronym for Book Industry Standards and
Communications.
The BISAC Subject Heading
list was developed to standardize the electronic transfer of subject
information. The headings can be used for transmitting information between
trading partners, as search terms in bibliographic databases, as access points
for database searching and as shelving guides. Many businesses require that
publishers use BISAC Subject Headings when submitting data for all formats
(physical and digital). (http://ow.ly/Mud4l )
When "describing" your book
on CreateSpace and KindleDirect, you pick BISAC codes and provide search terms
that best describe you work. You have to do this before your book can go live. That’s a good thing.
However, you cannot select Amazon Browse terms for print or eBooks from your
Book Description page.
Why cares?
You should! In my mind, that’s a bad
thing. Amazon’s search terms are NOT the same as the
BISAC categories.
To maximize the chances of someone finding your book on Amazon, you have to contact CreateSpace and
KindleDirect after your book is
available and have someone manually input those terms.
The requirement to request terms be
added manually seems to me to be 1) inefficient, and 2) odd since CreateSpace
is Amazon's publishing arm. For that reason, every time I have a chance to
give feedback to Amazon about their processes, I include this sentence:
I strongly recommend including a field on a book’s creation page where
authors can select Amazon Browse terms for their book when completing the
description of their book.
You might want to send that message to Amazon as
well.
Oh, and two other oddities.
Oddity #1: When you request those added serach terms from Create Space, they
don’t automatically transfer to KindleDirect. Oddity #2: Kindle Store has
slightly different search algorithms than Create Space. Be sure to visit both
sides of the Amazon publishing house before you contact each one.
If you did not publish
your book through CreateSpace or KindleDirect,
you’ll have to do ask your publisher to do this for you. Here’s what I sent
John Koehler after my request to add Amazon search terms to Traveler’s HOT L – The Time
Traveler’s Resort and The Observers – A Science Fiction
Odyssey—my books published
by http://www.koehlerbooks.com/.
Good Morning, John
At the advice of Sherry Frazier [my publicist], I'm attempting to target the Young Adult/Teen market with my books.
She calls them "safe and PG--something parents are looking for." I'm
glad she feels that way. It's the way I intend to write.
That being said, Amazon has their own
Browse Pathways that differ from BAISC categories. I asked CreateSpace to add
Amazon Browse paths to each of my fiction books you published, and got this
response:
We are unable to request browse path changes to books which you have
published through an other publishing company and you will need to either
contact Amazon or the publisher directly.
So I'd appreciate it if you could ask
them to add the following to our book.
Traveler's HOT L - The Time
Traveler's Resort (ASIN: 1938467892 ISBN-13: 978-1938467899)
Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction
& Fantasy > Science Fiction > Time Travel
The Observers - A Science Fiction
Odyssey (ASIN: 1940192749 ISBN-13: 978-1940192741)
Teen & Young Adult > Science
Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Aliens
The next three
paragraphs show you what the differences in BISAC categories and Amazon search terms are in specific books I have published
with Amazzon.
My BISAC code for The Mixer Murder – And Other
Detective Case Files - A Mamba Mystery Volume 1 is: Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Private
Investigators
I had Create Space
add: The Mixer Murder (#5439128) to Teen & Young Adult > Mystery &
Thriller > Action & Adventure.
My BISAC code for RIFTS – A Science Fiction
Thriller is: Fiction / Science
Fiction / Action & Adventure
I had Create Space add: RIFTS
(#4807678) to Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy >
Science Fiction > Aliens.
NOTE: For RIFTS, I had to add extraterrestrials to the keywords as
well.
My BISAC code for
Traveler’s HOT L Volume 2 – New Tales from the Time Traveler’s Resort is: Fiction / Science
Fiction / Time Travel
I had Create Space add: Traveler's
HOT L Volume 2 (#5050775) to Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction &
Fantasy > Science Fiction > Time Travel.
As usual, the changes take effect on
the Amazon website within three to five business days—although I’ve always
found them applied in 3 or fewer days.
Since I assume your goal
in publishing your book is to SELL them, the better you are at helping readers
find YOUR BOOK, the more sales you will get.
What follows are
screenshots from the Kindle Store as I did searches for my KindleDirect sci-fi
books. The first photo is just a traditional search for SciFi. The second shows
the pathway when I start with Young Adult.
 |
| FIRST SEARCH |
 |
| SECOND SEARCH |
Next blog: Open Season – Random Thoughts on Authorship
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