Kindle Book Keywords
Amazon KDP gives you seven keyword slots, so every one has to earn its place. Build them from your book's plot points rather than its genre: a crime novel whose detective is a florist should be reaching people who search for flowers, and use the subtitle as an unofficial eighth slot.
Where do keywords actually come from?
Not from your genre. From your plot.
Before the manuscript reaches an editor, list the plot and sub-plot points with enough substance to interest somebody. A crime thriller whose lead is a lawyer has a natural audience among legal bloggers: their followers like legal topics and may well like a fictional version. An amateur sleuth who runs a salon or a flower shop reaches hair and flower bloggers, and the shops themselves.
That list does two jobs at once: it tells you which words to put in your seven slots, and it tells you who to approach.
It also shapes the cover. Picture your book on the counter of a bright flower shop because you asked the owner to try it. A homemade or template cover will not survive that picture, and the possibilities beyond it are limitless.
How do I use the seven slots?
- Seven is the whole allowance in the KDP metadata section. Pick the strongest.
- The subtitle is an eighth. Bake a genre phrase into it, the kind readers type.
- Go specific. Not “mystery” but the sub-genre a reader would search: holiday mystery, legal thriller, cozy.
- Match the cover, the title and the keywords to the same reader. They are one decision made three times.
How do I find the words readers use?
Look up the top hashtags for your subject. Searching “Christmas gifts” returns things like winter, happyholidays, presents, decorations, carols, santa, christmastree, family, the vocabulary readers use, which is rarely the vocabulary an author reaches for unprompted.
The marketing of a book starts long before release, with the title and the cover. The packaging comes first, and the keywords describe what you have already built.
Originally published on eBookStage in November 2020 as “Making Lists of Book Keywords”, by Rahiem Brooks. Edited for length and structure; the advice is his.
Common questions
- How many keywords does Amazon KDP allow?
- Seven. That is the whole allowance for the metadata section, which is why choosing the strongest seven matters more than finding a long list.
- Can I get more than seven?
- Effectively, yes: a subtitle gives the book another shot at discovery. "A Naim Butler Romance Suspense" carries a genre phrase readers actually search, on top of the seven.
- Where do good keywords come from?
- Your plot, not your genre label. List the plot and sub-plot points with enough substance to interest a reader, then turn those into search phrases. That is also how you find bloggers and shops to approach.
- How do I know what people search for?
- Look at the top hashtags for your subject: top-hashtags.com is one way. Searching "Christmas gifts" returns the vocabulary readers actually use, which is rarely the vocabulary an author would choose.
- When should I start on keywords?
- Before the book reaches the editor. The title, the subtitle and the cover are all part of the same decision, and they are hard to change later.
- Does this work anywhere other than Amazon?
- IngramSpark allows an unlimited number of keywords and phrases, which is worth using properly since the book is distributed to thousands of outlets from there.