KDP Keyword Ideas: Data From 15M+ Ebook Readers

The best keywords pair proven reader demand with phrases that uniquely and accurately describe your book. Start with 2–3 phrases from the list above that fit, then use your remaining slots for details that are too specific to appear on any list — your exact setting ("Montana horse ranch," not "small town"), your characters' occupations, the era, and any sub-tropes you don't see above.

That's expected, and it's not a bad sign. This list only includes the most popular phrases that appeared in BookBub promotions, so many good keywords are missing simply because there wasn't enough data to rank them, not because readers don't respond to them.

Not if they're a strong representation of your book! Keywords that trended down (those showing a negative year-over-year change) are still high-volume keywords that perform well with BookBub readers. If they're a good fit for your book, they could very well be worth using. And if other keywords that match your book do not appear on this list, it's not a bad sign. This list only includes phrases that appeared in enough BookBub promotions to measure confidently.

KDP gives every book format 7 keyword slots, each up to 50 characters — 350 characters of search metadata in total. A slot can hold a single word or a whole phrase (e.g. "enemies to lovers romance" counts as one keyword). Note that Amazon matches the individual words in any order, so don't waste slots repeating words you've already used in another phrase.

Amazon's metadata rules bar other authors' names or book titles, subjective claims like "best" or "bestselling," time-sensitive terms like "new" or "on sale," the word "free," and anything misleading about the book's content. Violations can block publication or get a live book suppressed.

Amazon organizes books into thousands of nested categories — paths like Kindle eBooks > Romance > Contemporary — that let readers browse related books. You can choose three categories, which determine where your book is eligible to appear. Each category has its own bestseller list, so specific, lower-competition paths can give a new release a better shot at being ranked as a bestseller in its category.

Keywords decide which searches your book appears in; categories decide where it sits when readers browse — and which bestseller lists it can chart on. They work together to help books get discovered by relevant readers. Note that you should avoid publishing keywords that are already covered in the categories you've chosen (see Amazon's notes on keywords to avoid).

Yes — you can edit both anytime from your KDP Bookshelf, no re-publishing required. Changes take up to 72 hours to appear on Amazon. Updating keywords to match fresh data on reader demand is an easy way to keep a backlist book discoverable.

No. This list just represents the phrases that occurred in Featured Deal blurbs with the highest frequency and performance. Last year, we ran thousands of successful deals with promotional blurbs that included no keywords on this list. In addition, this list uses backward-looking data. It's great to use for brainstorming, but it doesn't tell you what next year's trends will be. Readers' tastes change, and so does this list of high-volume, high-performance keywords.