KDP keywords and categories: 7 keywords, 3 categories

Keywords

The Keywords section takes up to seven keywords or short phrases; Amazon tells you to watch the character limit in the text field. Amazon recommends phrases of 2-3 words in logical order (“military science fiction”, not “fiction science military”) and suggests testing them in Amazon search before publishing. Useful types include setting, character types and roles, plot themes and story tone.

Prohibited and wasted keywords

Amazon prohibits keywords that mislead, including references to other authors, books by other authors, sales rank (“bestselling”), promotions (“free”), anything unrelated to the content, and HTML tags. It also lists keywords to avoid: subjective claims (“best novel ever”), time-sensitive words (“new”, “on sale”), generic words like “book”, misspellings, spacing and plural variants, brands you are not authorized to use, quotation marks, and Amazon program names such as Kindle+ or KDP Select. KDP says it has zero tolerance for metadata meant to advertise, promote or mislead.

Categories

You can select 3 categories when creating a book. First set the primary marketplace and answer the sexually explicit images or title question, because the list depends on them. Categories differ by format and marketplace, so pick for your primary marketplace. Placements can take up to 72 hours to appear.

Worked example

A cozy mystery set in a Cornish village might use keywords such as “cozy village mystery”, “amateur sleuth baker” and “Cornwall small town”, rather than “mystery book” (generic and repeats the category) or “like Agatha Christie” (another author).

Common mistakes

• Choosing popular but unrelated categories. Amazon reviews category changes and does not tolerate categorization that misleads readers.
• For low-content books, not ticking the Low-content category box, which gets the book rejected.

Amazon changes these rules; the linked KDP help pages are the authority.