amazon-category-research

Amazon Category Research

Guided workflow for finding profitable Amazon book categories with low competition.

Quick Facts

• You can only select 3 categories per book
• Amazon has tens of thousands of subcategories
• Categories drive algorithm visibility
• Lower BSR (Best Sellers Rank) = more sales

Workflow

Step 1: Identify Your Genre Space

What broad category does your book fit?

Fiction	Nonfiction
Romance	Self-help
Mystery/Thriller	Business
Sci-Fi/Fantasy	Religion/Spirituality
Literary Fiction	Health/Fitness
Children's/YA	Biography

Step 2: Research Subcategories

Go to Amazon Best Sellers and drill down:

• Click your main category
• Keep drilling into subcategories until you find a niche
• Example: Fiction > Fantasy > Short Stories > Coming of Age

Step 3: Analyze #1 and #100

For your target subcategory:

#1 Bestseller:

• Find the book's product page
• Scroll to "Product Details"
• Note the BSR (Best Sellers Rank)
• Plug into Kindlepreneur Calculator

#100 Bestseller:

• Repeat the process
• Compare daily sales estimates

Step 4: Interpret Results

Signal	Meaning
#1 has high sales, #100 has decent sales	Healthy category with room
#1 has high sales, #100 has very low sales	Top-heavy, hard to break in
Both have low sales	Small market, easy to rank but limited upside
Large gap between #1 and #100	Competition concentrated at top

Step 5: Competitor Analysis

For top 10 books in your target category, note:

• Price point
• Number of reviews
• Cover design style
• Keywords in title/subtitle
• Page count

Output Template

## Category Research: [Book Title]

### Target Categories (pick 3)
1. [Category path] - BSR range: X-Y, Est. daily sales: X-Y
2. [Category path] - BSR range: X-Y, Est. daily sales: X-Y  
3. [Category path] - BSR range: X-Y, Est. daily sales: X-Y

### Competition Analysis
- Avg price: $X
- Avg reviews: X
- Cover style: [description]
- Common keywords: [list]

### Recommendation
[Which 3 categories to select and why]

Tools

• Free: Kindlepreneur Calculator
• Paid: Publisher Rocket ($199), BookBeam ($29+/mo)