# KDP keywords and categories: how readers find your book

How KDP's seven keywords and three categories work, what KDP says to put in them and what it says to leave out, and how to choose them the way readers search.

Facts last checked 29 September 2026. https://bervet.com/guides/kdp-keywords-categories

When you publish on KDP you get seven keyword boxes and three categories. Together with your title and description, they decide which searches and which shelves your book turns up in. They're worth getting right.

Everything KDP says here is quoted from its own help pages, checked on 29 September 2026.

### Keywords

KDP lets you add "up to seven keywords or short phrases", each within the box's character limit. Use short phrases, not single words: a reader searching "enemies to lovers fantasy" is telling you exactly what they want.

#### What KDP suggests

KDP's help page gives five kinds of keyword to think about, with its own examples:

- **Setting:** Colonial America
- **Character types:** single dad, veteran
- **Character roles:** strong female lead
- **Plot themes:** coming of age, forgiveness
- **Story tone:** dystopian, feel-good

Tropes fit here too: "found family", "slow burn", "locked room mystery".

#### What KDP says to leave out

KDP lists things not to put in keywords. The main ones:

- Anything already in your title, contributors or categories: it's already searchable, so a keyword spent on it is wasted.
- Claims about quality ("best novel ever").
- Things that go out of date ("new", "on sale").
- Common words like "book".
- Misspellings, and punctuation or capitalisation variants of the same phrase.
- Other authors' names, and brand names you're not authorised to use.
- Quotation marks.
- Amazon program names, such as Kindle Unlimited or KDP Select.

"For fans of [bestselling author]" is tempting, and KDP says no.

#### Finding the phrases readers use

- **Ask how readers describe books like yours.** Reviews of comparable books are full of the words readers use: "cosy", "twisty", "unreliable narrator".
- **Use Amazon's search box.** Start typing a phrase in the Kindle Store and note what it suggests.
- **Be specific.** "Fantasy" is one word competing with everything; "fantasy heist with found family" is a reader who wants your book.

### Categories

KDP says: "As an author, you can select 3 categories when creating a book in KDP." You can change them later from your Bookshelf.

Choose the categories your readers actually browse, and be accurate. KDP warns that irrelevant categories "create a poor shopping experience for readers", that it "may remove or change the category", and that "we do not tolerate categorization that misleads readers." A smaller category you truly belong in beats a crowded one you don't.

#### Choosing your three

1. Find three to five recently published books most like yours, and look at the categories they sit in on their Amazon pages.
2. Pick the most specific category that genuinely fits, over the broad one above it.
3. Use the three to cover different angles: genre, subgenre, and a theme or setting if there's a category for it.

### Keywords and categories work together

Don't use keywords to repeat your categories: KDP says to leave out information "already mentioned in your book categories". Use them for what your categories can't say: the tropes, setting and tone that make your book yours.

### On Bervet

Bervet works the same way readers think. When you list a book, you tick its tropes from a fixed list (up to six), and readers can browse every book with a trope on its own page and filter by it. The same phrases you'd use as KDP keywords are the ones to tick here. [List your book](/showcase/new).

### Sources

- https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201298500 (Make Your Book More Discoverable with Keywords)
- https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200652170 (KDP Categories)

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From Bervet (bervet.com), indie books straight from the people who wrote them. Page: https://bervet.com/guides/kdp-keywords-categories
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