Understanding Amazon Category Rankings 

What Are Amazon Category Rankings? 

Amazon category rankings are a critical yet often misunderstood component of book marketing and visibility for authors. This complex system is more than just a numerical position—it determines how easily readers can discover your book in an increasingly crowded marketplace. 

Amazon’s category rankings are designed to spotlight books that are currently performing well in specific genres and associated niches—i.e., categories. For authors, understanding these rankings is part of a long-term book launch strategy that attracts potential readers and ultimately drives sales. 

A well-ranked book appears more prominently in search results, recommendation algorithms, and bestseller lists. The importance of Amazon category rankings cannot be overlooked when thinking about how to promote your book. 

Key insights every author should understand about Amazon category rankings: 

• Rankings update hourly to reflect real-time sales performance. 
• Rankings differ across book formats (hardcover, paperback, Kindle). 
• Rankings can significantly impact an author’s potential bestseller status (those orange #1 New Release banners)  

How Amazon Category Rankings Work 

Based on Amazon’s complex algorithms, multiple factors determine a book’s ranking performance.

Sales volume data is the key metric used to determine where your book will rank within the category, as well as overall on Amazon. Both recent and all-time sales are used to determine rankings; however, recent sales (in the last 24-48 hours) are more critical than older sales. 

Speed of sales within a short time frame will also impact algorithms and affect rankings. As a result, part of your book launch strategy should include a specified “launch week” to spike sudden sales and, thus, increase your chances of ranking higher and securing bestseller status. 

Consider pricing as part of your book launch strategy as it relates to Amazon category rankings. Full-price books may have a higher perceived value and can potentially create a longer-term category ranking, but discounted books can trigger a short-term sales boost that significantly impacts rankings in the moment. 

Customer engagement is another indicator that determines a book’s category ranking on Amazon. Your book launch strategy will want to incorporate an Amazon review campaign to attract reader reviews that will stimulate the algorithm. The number, quality, and recency of the reviews, as well as the sales-to-reviews ratio, are all factored in.

Additional nuanced ranking dynamics exist, but it’s important to keep in mind that Amazon intentionally keeps precise ranking calculations vague, so focusing on the four factors above is a great way to add intention and strategy to your book marketing efforts. 

Strategies for Improving Amazon Category Rankings 

The foundation of a successful Amazon category ranking strategy lies in choosing the right categories. 

There are two processes for assigning categories to your book: an Automated Process and a Strategic Process. 

Automated Process

Whether you are self-published or traditionally published, Amazon relies on metadata to put your book into categories. 

The categories are designed to help people find the book and topics they’re interested in, so putting your book into appropriate categories is important. 

The category selection is partially fueled by metadata, including keywords, your book’s description, and content.

However, there is no guarantee that you will be placed into your chosen categories. It is possible that Amazon will place you into additional categories that you didn’t select. That’s where the Strategic Process of category selections comes in. 

Strategic Process 

What many authors don’t know is that you can also strategically select categories and manually add them to each of your book’s products (Kindle, print, and audiobook). 

To select the optimal categories for your book, it’s important to know the types of Amazon book categories that exist: 

• Main Genre Categories – These are very broad in classification and are typically more competitive due to all the books the category could entail. Example: Business & Money. 
• Subcategories – These are more targeted in classification and often represent better ranking opportunities. Example: Business & Money > Management & Leadership  
• Niche Categories – These become even more specific in classification and have a lower threshold for ranking. Example: Business & Money > Management & Leadership > Motivational 
• Competitive Categories – Consider these “more popular” categories that are much harder to rank in as they require more sales for ranking. Example: Business Leadership or Personal Development 

When looking at competitive categories, you’ll want to determine if your book marketing strategy can accommodate the higher sales needed to achieve ranking in that category OR see if you can niche down to a smaller category with an overarching competitive main genre category. 

How do you select the right category for your book to rank on Amazon?

• Research. All successful Amazon category ranking strategies start with comprehensive market research that includes:
  • Look at what your competitors are choosing for their categories. Like books will give you guidance on what is relevant for your book. 
  • Study bestseller patterns in the categories you’re interested in ranking in. This will tell you what readers are searching for, which will impact sales that will, in turn, help you rank. 
• Category Evaluation. Use a tool like Publisher Rocket that can help you check bestseller rankings for your topic. These tools look at:
  • How many people are searching for this category? 
  • How competitive is this category? 
  • How many sales does it take to rank in this category? Lower sales mean you might secure bestseller status in that category. This can be used to market your book further during your book launch. 
• Category Diversity. You’ll want to prioritize categories that accurately represent the content in your book. You may want to include some that are more niche (but still aligned with your book’s topic), which will increase the likelihood you’ll rank as a bestseller. In tandem, you want to rank in the most logical places people will find your book, which may include some of the more competitive categories. A balance of both niche and competitive is optimal. 

When selecting categories for each format of your book, you must understand that Amazon’s Kindle and print book rankings operate on fundamentally different algorithms, reflecting the unique characteristics of digital and physical book marketplaces.

Kindle categories: 

• More dynamic 
• Updated hourly 
• Respond immediately to sales spikes 

Print categories: 

• Updated every 24-48 hours 
• Look at sustained sales history 
• Consider physical inventory 

In the book launch strategy, savvy authors consider Amazon category rankings for each format and apply techniques that set each version of the book up for long-term success. 

Once you have selected your categories, monitor the rankings to ensure your book continues to be relevant in categories that are ranking highly on Amazon. 

Consider: 

• Tracking performance metrics (this can be done through your Amazon Author Central account). 
• Monitoring competitors in your category to see how their title is moving up (or down) in the same category. 
• Responding to market changes that can impact how people perceive your book, genre, and accompanying categories. 
• Testing new category combinations to see if there is a sweet spot for ranking higher in both broad and niche categories.

Keep in mind: Everything is relative. Amazon ranks compare your book to all books on Amazon (overall rank) and to books in your categories. Your book will rank higher or lower depending on how other books are selling. If you or your publisher chooses categories with fewer books, your book may rank more easily in those categories, but you have to weigh that against the relevance of the categories.

Understanding the interplay between main categories, subcategories, and niche categories provides the foundation for effective category choices and is crucial to your overall book launch strategy. 

Understanding Bestseller Badges

Every author wants the social proof and bragging rights of being a bestseller. 

For most independent or first-time authors, the Amazon bestseller banner as a new release in the category is the most attainable. Depending on your category selection, getting the new release banner may only require selling 10-20 books in any hour, while landing on other more renowned lists like the New York Times requires thousands of sales in a week.

Garnering the bestseller banner gives credibility to the title and increases the book’s discoverability. Once you’ve gained the banner, you can claim bestseller status.

Here is a quick overview to increase your chances of reaching bestseller status in your category on Amazon: 

Step 1 – Strategically select and apply relevant categories for each edition of your book. Using a tool like Publisher Rocket to research and select these categories is helpful. 

Step 2 – Ignite strategies to drive pre-orders for your book.

Step 3 – Concentrate on launch week sales by hosting a webinar or live event that week with strong calls to buy the book. 

Step 4 – Through your email list and social channels, ask as many people as you can to buy your book on launch day.

The goal is to create a period of concentrated sales activity—like launch week—that pushes your book up the rankings quickly enough to capture those valuable bestseller badges.

From the time your book is available on Amazon for pre-order through 30 days after your publication date, your book has the best opportunity to gain the bestseller banner as a new release in its categories. 

The strategic work to gain the social proof of a bestseller banner can begin far in advance of launch, but it requires that you intermittently look at your product pages to see how your book ranks. 

You can also view your book’s rank over time through your Amazon Author Central Account, but there’s no way to know when your book has the banner except by looking at your individual product pages for the various editions of your book.

While it may be a momentary win, since ranks can change hourly, the category bestseller achievement can energize an author to show up more effectively to continue to share their book’s value with the world.

Pre-Orders, Bulk Sales, and Price Drops 

Balancing pre-order sales with launch week sales is a crucial element of the book launch strategy as it pertains to Amazon category rankings. 

Pre-orders can be particularly powerful, gathering concentrated momentum that will then be applied to launch day sales. These first-day sales can trigger bestseller badges and signal strong market interest to Amazon’s algorithm. 

​​While pre-orders ultimately provide great value to authors and signal retailers to order the book, a robust pre-order campaign may limit the momentum of your launch week rank, as you may cut into the launch week sales because people pre-ordered the book. 

As you plan your book marketing strategy, you need to balance the need for pre-orders with a desire to also achieve strong launch week sales.

Bulk orders, on the other hand, present a more complex scenario. 

Orders, NOT sales, drive Amazon ranking, so actual sales of more than one or two books at a time influence the sales rank the same as larger bulk orders. For this reason, it’s not advantageous to ask people to buy multiple copies of your book from Amazon to drive more sales and increase your rank. Instead, ask people to buy in bulk through a bulk retailer like Porchlight, which could land you bestseller status there.

Plus, Amazon closely monitors purchase patterns, tracking indicators like IP addresses, geographic purchase locations, and the distribution of bulk purchases to prevent manipulation of the ranking system. 

Price drops on Amazon are a good sign! 

While your publisher sets a retail price for your book, Amazon ultimately controls any discounting of your print book. If you see your book discounted below the retail price in the days after it launches, take it as another win.

Amazon discounts bestselling books more steeply than other books to drive additional sales. The price drop is a gift you can use to fuel even more momentum. 

This is especially helpful for authors whose books are released in hardcover because the gap between the hardcover (nearly $30) and the other editions (often significantly lower) may nudge someone to buy the ebook or audiobook even if they’d prefer the hardcover. 

When Amazon drops the hardcover price, the price gap decreases, which may result in more sales of the hardcover.

Remember: Amazon’s algorithm rewards books that demonstrate consistent, organic engagement.

The Bottom Line

Achieving strong category rankings on Amazon requires a comprehensive approach combining strategic category selection, careful timing, strong book launch execution, ongoing optimization, and targeted, supportive marketing tools. With intentional marketing efforts in place, your book launch strategy will benefit from including Amazon category rankings.  

Take Action 

Working with a partner like Weaving Influence can ensure you understand Amazon category rankings and find success with your Amazon book page. Get in touch with us today to get started!

Kelly Edmiston

Kelly expertly supports authors through their book launches through strategic account management, with a specialization in mobilizing their networks and building impactful launch teams. She coaches authors throughout her launch management on how to best influence bestseller opportunities and secure Amazon reviews, ultimately increasing visibility, media coverage, and opportunities for growth and success.