There's no YA we can choose from. Your best course of action would be to place a little warning in the blurb about how it has violence and not suitable for children under the age of...probably 13.
Help-Confusion on selecting Young Adult category for Kindle
Hi guys,
I know many of you write and publish young adult. I have a horror novel I just published this past weekend, I consider it both young adult and adult horror.
It has some violence, bloodshed, a monster. There is no swearing and no sex.
The categories in Kindle are so narrow and sometime I just plain get confused when trying to select what fits my book. Usually it's just straight on horror but this time I wanted to try to capture some of the young adult market.
I placed the book under Juvenile fiction. Now I'm thinking I made a mistake. There is a horror and ghost story category listed there but when I go to review my product page, there's a little blurb from Amazon about getting your kids to read more. That made me nervous.
My audience is probably 15 and up, like my main character. Is Juvenile fiction where I should be listing it? Or is there a Young Adult listing that I'm not seeing.
If someone could direct me that would be great. I don't want someone trying to read this to their 5-year-old. I mean there are teenagers in that get attacked by a monster, there is heavy suspense, some dead bodies, blood etc.
Thanks for any help.
-John
I know many of you write and publish young adult. I have a horror novel I just published this past weekend, I consider it both young adult and adult horror.
It has some violence, bloodshed, a monster. There is no swearing and no sex.
The categories in Kindle are so narrow and sometime I just plain get confused when trying to select what fits my book. Usually it's just straight on horror but this time I wanted to try to capture some of the young adult market.
I placed the book under Juvenile fiction. Now I'm thinking I made a mistake. There is a horror and ghost story category listed there but when I go to review my product page, there's a little blurb from Amazon about getting your kids to read more. That made me nervous.
My audience is probably 15 and up, like my main character. Is Juvenile fiction where I should be listing it? Or is there a Young Adult listing that I'm not seeing.
If someone could direct me that would be great. I don't want someone trying to read this to their 5-year-old. I mean there are teenagers in that get attacked by a monster, there is heavy suspense, some dead bodies, blood etc.
Thanks for any help.
-John
1 - 8 of 8 Posts
There is no Teen category that we can select, but somehow as of December these books end up categorized there anyway. Yay! Except it seems to be done by hand by KDP Support -- there's no way to put it there yourself through the KDP Dashboard.
You put it in Juvenile, but maybe try emailing Support and ask that they categorize it as Teen. My books were in Juvenile for a year and a half, but then landed in Teen once they created that category in December.
You put it in Juvenile, but maybe try emailing Support and ask that they categorize it as Teen. My books were in Juvenile for a year and a half, but then landed in Teen once they created that category in December.
It is simple, I went through this myself. You can pick two categories. Here, I will just copy and paste the email Kindle sent me so you can see what you have to do.
We can add a total of two categories that aren't currently available to select in your KDP Bookshelf, as long as they already exist in the Kindle Store. If you'd like us to manually change your category, you'll first need to remove the current categories. Here's how:
1. Visit https://kdp.amazon.com and log in.
2. Check the box at the left side of the book and then click on the "Actions" button at the top left, then click "Edit book details."
3. Scroll down to the "Target Your Book to Customers" section and click "Add categories."
4. Choose the categories on the right side of the screen, then click "Remove category."
5. Scroll down the category list on the left side of the screen, and choose the last category - "NON-CLASSIFIABLE."
6. Click on "Save."
7. Scroll down the page and click "Save and Continue."
8. You'll then be directed to the "Rights & Pricing" section. Check the box at the bottom of the screen to accept the Terms & Conditions, then click "Save and Publish."
After you have done this, reply to us with the exact path of the Kindle Store categories you wish to add as shown in the example below, and we will add the categories for your title.
Example: Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Religion & Spirituality > New Age > Mysticism
If you have other questions about Categories, check out our Help page:
https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=200652170
I hope this helps. Thanks for using Amazon KDP.
[email protected] (I think that is the correct email address for them, if not, you can email them through the KDP page)
The only downfall is that if you already have categories set up, this will only take effect on Amazon.com. It will not take place in other countries. So best to get it right the first time if you can.
We can add a total of two categories that aren't currently available to select in your KDP Bookshelf, as long as they already exist in the Kindle Store. If you'd like us to manually change your category, you'll first need to remove the current categories. Here's how:
1. Visit https://kdp.amazon.com and log in.
2. Check the box at the left side of the book and then click on the "Actions" button at the top left, then click "Edit book details."
3. Scroll down to the "Target Your Book to Customers" section and click "Add categories."
4. Choose the categories on the right side of the screen, then click "Remove category."
5. Scroll down the category list on the left side of the screen, and choose the last category - "NON-CLASSIFIABLE."
6. Click on "Save."
7. Scroll down the page and click "Save and Continue."
8. You'll then be directed to the "Rights & Pricing" section. Check the box at the bottom of the screen to accept the Terms & Conditions, then click "Save and Publish."
After you have done this, reply to us with the exact path of the Kindle Store categories you wish to add as shown in the example below, and we will add the categories for your title.
Example: Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Religion & Spirituality > New Age > Mysticism
If you have other questions about Categories, check out our Help page:
https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=200652170
I hope this helps. Thanks for using Amazon KDP.
[email protected] (I think that is the correct email address for them, if not, you can email them through the KDP page)
The only downfall is that if you already have categories set up, this will only take effect on Amazon.com. It will not take place in other countries. So best to get it right the first time if you can.
I was in the same boat. Tried to market it as YA, but got blasted by a couple of folks who said it wasn't YA, because it didn't deal with the romantical/sex stuff. Same peeps also claimed violence was inappropriate for teens to read, but sex was okay. (?!)
I've since changed categories to Horror and Action-Adventure or men's Adventure (depending on the website)
No real difference in sales- still only just the smallest trickle
EDIT: as an experiment I just went and looked at the Men's Adventure category at Amazon, and sorted by lowest priced first. First book on the list? "Part One: 25 Horny & Slutty Girls in 30 Days - Erotic Dating Sex Stories (Jake's Hot Stories) by K.A. Jones"
Uh, okay, that's not the kind of adventure they mean by "Men's Adventure".
And I think this is indicative of the problem with Amazon's categories- they aren't policed. Forums get more moderation. In other words, I don't think the category is all that useful of a tool to promote your book.
I've since changed categories to Horror and Action-Adventure or men's Adventure (depending on the website)
No real difference in sales- still only just the smallest trickle
EDIT: as an experiment I just went and looked at the Men's Adventure category at Amazon, and sorted by lowest priced first. First book on the list? "Part One: 25 Horny & Slutty Girls in 30 Days - Erotic Dating Sex Stories (Jake's Hot Stories) by K.A. Jones"
Uh, okay, that's not the kind of adventure they mean by "Men's Adventure".
And I think this is indicative of the problem with Amazon's categories- they aren't policed. Forums get more moderation. In other words, I don't think the category is all that useful of a tool to promote your book.
Thank you guys for the help. I'm looking at similar books to mine, with the level of horror and violence and seems a lot are in Children's books>Science Fiction and Fantasy>Spine-Chilling Horror. I might try to place it there and put a warning in the blurb of the violence and bloodshed.
Check out which categories ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD are in. Its trad published. I think they have it in juvenile horror, but I dont totally remember. That book scared the crap out of me, btw.JGrover said:Thank you guys for the help. I'm looking at similar books to mine, with the level of horror and violence and seems a lot are in Children's books>Science Fiction and Fantasy>Spine-Chilling Horror. I might try to place it there and put a warning in the blurb of the violence and bloodshed.
It sounds like your content is about the same, targeting the same age level.
Thanks Holly. I'm doing that right now.
1 - 8 of 8 Posts
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