# Was there another algorithm change on Amazon?



## elizabethareeves (Jul 6, 2013)

So to a great suprise, I went to look how my books were doing on Amazon and found out that they all had a huge jump in ranking and the started to think what happended. 

My new release How (Not) to Kiss Ghost is:
#1 on Best Sellers in Psychic Romance 
#1 on Hot New Releases in Psychic Romance and 
#4 for Best Sellers in Paranormal Witches & Wizards Romance

and one of my other books Baerhly Breathing which I changed to .99 for a limited time is 
#3 on Best Sellers in paranormal Witches & Wizards Romance

But the weird thing is that all of my other books had a huge jump too, like from the 80's and 90's to the 30's. The jumps just seem to have been huge within their perspective categories. Another thing I noticed was in the New Release for Paranormal Witches & Wizards Romance category there were more books on this list than there is now. Now there are only 24 books listed for New Release before I though there were at least 50 or more.

I should also let you know that my sales have not seen a massive increase like one would to get to those rankings. I was just wondering if anyone knew whether Amazon changed something or if its genuine good news?


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## Edward W. Robertson (May 18, 2010)

A lot of books had their categories trimmed down today. As a result, a lot of categories have shrunk. No idea if it's permanent or a glitch in the Matrix.


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## TPiperbrook (Sep 1, 2012)

Edward W. Robertson said:


> A lot of books had their categories trimmed down today. As a result, a lot of categories have shrunk. No idea if it's permanent or a glitch in the Matrix.


Do you mean categories were removed from certain books? I noticed my free book (which is in the sub genre post-apocalyptic and always ranks in FREE since there aren't many there) is completely off the list and my ranking has disappeared. If I recall, this sub category used to have like 60 books or so and now it is only showing 15.

Hoping this is a system glitch.


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Darn. My keyword categories have been stripped.


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## Guest (Aug 18, 2013)

I've had a +250% increase in downloads of my main perma-free book in the last week. No idea why.


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## Marti talbott (Apr 19, 2011)

Looks like they are messing with the permafree. This could be a disaster for me.


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## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

They're definitely messing with the permafrees.

On the other hand, I've read somewhere that when a book goes off permafree, and a few days/weeks later back on again, it gets picked up again by the free sites.

Silver lining?


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## Daizie (Mar 27, 2013)

My book, Sorority Pledge 1 was ranked #18 in free books under New Adult College. There were 60+ books there. I lost my rank, and there are only 11 books now listed as free in NA. My book is perma-free.


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## elizabethareeves (Jul 6, 2013)

It does appear to be something to do with the free books. I have a short story prequal Baehrly Beginning that is free. It was being ranked and not it is not showing any rankings. I wish they could send out some kind of memo just letting us know what they did.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

I still have my space opera, first contact etc categories and, even better, the "sword and sorcery" category is finally gone from the stand-alone title!

However, sales have tanked since yesterday morning, the book I pulled out of select and put into Smashwords STILL hasn't shipped, nothing happening at Kobo, it's all very dismal.

HOWEVER, I'm having a super writing day with words pouring out of my head to the point that I'm barely stopping for dinner. So all is good


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## Lady Vine (Nov 11, 2012)

Yep, something's not right with the permafrees. It does look like a glitch. My sales have been pretty dire all across Amazon today as well, so here's hoping that's related to it, and that they fix it soon. 

It's been one strange weekend on the mighty Zon.


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## B.A. Spangler (Jan 25, 2012)

This looks like it could be a bad thing.  

I'd listed the smaller category names in my Keywords which helped gain a bit of visibility and a few sales. Now I'm back to only having two categories and visibility is zero again and so are sales. Can't buy what you can't see.

BTW - this is hitting all books, not just perm-free.

EDIT: Flip side is that some of my books have been bumped up in rank. I'm assuming this is because other books fell out of that category.


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## Linda Barlow (Jul 5, 2013)

Whew, I'm kinda glad others are reporting this since I'm seeing the same thing. My book is no longer appearing in two categories where it was on category bestseller lists and its keywords are no longer working (It is no longer appearing when its keywords are entered). This is making it kinda invisible, which is in turn affecting sales. 

My book is neither free nor perma-free, so the problem is wider than that.

I hope it's a glitch that quickly get fixed.


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## David Adams (Jan 2, 2012)

Brian Spangler said:


> This looks like it could be a bad thing.
> 
> I'd listed the smaller category names in my Keywords which helped gain a bit of visibility and a few sales. Now I'm back to only having two categories and visibility is zero again and so are sales. Can't buy what you can't see.
> 
> BTW - this is hitting all books, not just perm-free.


That's exactly where I am now. Further, _Lacuna _is no longer free.

I hope this is a glitch, or yeah, this is going to kill this month's sales pretty good.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

David Adams said:


> That's exactly where I am now. Further, _Lacuna _is no longer free.
> 
> I hope this is a glitch, or yeah, this is going to kill this month's sales pretty good.


Fwiw, it still shows as free for me in the US.


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## Lisa Scott (Apr 4, 2011)

Ack!!!!! I've been on the top 100 free list for a week with my Flirts! collection thanks to a Bookbub ad.  I hit #1 last week, and the past few days I've been bouncing between #40 and #50.  I just checked the list and I'm not on the top 100.  I was #43 this morning. I don't think you fall from #43 to over 100 in a few hours.  I was counting on a few more days on the list.  On my book page, I show no ranking and no categories, although it's still free. 

However, I have a short story that's free and it's at #425, and it's still showing a rank along with placement in two categories on its page.

Both of these titles are permafree, and I'm pretty sure I have both listed in the same categories.

Color me confused and seriously bummed that I got booted off the top 100 free list.  And as always, thanks to all you KBers for chiming in so we can compare notes.


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## Christine Kersey (Feb 13, 2011)

I'm so glad I saw this thread before checking my Author Central page (where I check a couple of times a day to see my rankings). My two perma-free books (which so far are still free) which are usually ranked around 300, are now 200,000+. The rank isn't showing on the product page, just on the Author Central page. Though I'm pretty certain this is a glitch Amazon will soon fix, I can't help but feel the panic building! The perma-free books are key to my good sales as they are both first books in a series.

In the back of my mind I'm always worried that Amazon will take away perma-free. But it would be dumb if they did as they are making much more money off of me with the way things are than if they force me to charge for the first book in each series. Anyway, hopefully this gets resolved SOON!


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## Ty Johnston (Jun 19, 2009)

I'm guessing this is a glitch. My rankings are jumping all over the place, sometimes even within a few minutes. So far it seems to be only my permafreebies being hit, but we'll wait and see.

If it _does _happen to be some game changer on the part of Amazon, which I don't think it will be, then I'll adjust and deal with it one way or another.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)




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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

I checked when this thread started and everything was fine. The first Descendants Collection had even hit #13 in Superhero.

No I've lost Sword and Sorcery for Rune Breaker 1 and there's no ranking for either book.

Given the other hiccups, I'm wondering if Amazon isn't getting hit by a hack attack.


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## valeriec80 (Feb 24, 2011)

My rankings are all screwy too.

And last night, when I was checking my sales, a third of my book's titles disappeared from the Sales Report. This morning they're all fine.

They're doing something, I think. Whether it will affect us or not is yet to be seen. Could just be routine maintenance or something. Maybe they're messing with the code that figures the ranks, thus making calculate improperly?


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Ugh, ignore my previous post. I lost the "first contact" sub category for my new title.


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## Daizie (Mar 27, 2013)

I forgot! My book was ranked 485 in free overall. Now, I have nothing. I hate seeing no rankings. I hope this is just a glitch.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Vaalingrade said:


> Given the other hiccups, I'm wondering if Amazon isn't getting hit by a hack attack.


Speaking of which, I have not been able to get onto Facebook all day. Coincidence?


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## AmberDa1 (Jul 23, 2012)

Monique-that is exactly what I imagined  


Other: No prob w/Facebook today


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## MitchHogan (May 17, 2013)

This isn't just affecting free books. My book has been dropped from 3 of the 5 categories it was in, with a corresponding disappearance from the hot new release lists it managed to get on since I published less than 30 days ago. I've already seen a drop in sales so this isn't going to be pretty.


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## David Adams (Jan 2, 2012)

Monique said:


> Fwiw, it still shows as free for me in the US.


Interesting. It's definitely paid for me. Well, hopefully it gets fixed soon.


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## EONeal (Mar 23, 2013)

I don't think it's just permafrees. Early this morning, my book, Jamaica Dreaming, was up at #21 on the African American Women's Fiction list and had hit #11 on the Hot New Releases. It was #33 on the African American Romances list and #38 on the Multicultural Romances list.  Then by mid-afternoon it had dropped off every other list except for the latter.  Sales continue to remain steady, however.

I've also noticed that a lot of new books are now on those same lists, including books that haven't yet been published so it could be that publishers uploaded a whole set of books on Friday and they're just showing up now.  Many of these authors with books that will be out later have huge fan bases so it's possible that's why the list changed so very drastically.

Hoping for the best.


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## Wansit (Sep 27, 2012)

EONeal said:


> I've also noticed that a lot of new books are now on those same lists, including books that haven't yet been published so it could be that publishers uploaded a whole set of books on Friday and they're just showing up now. Many of these authors with books that will be out later have huge fan bases so it's possible that's why the list changed so very drastically.
> 
> Hoping for the best.


Interesting...I know September is a big release month. But, at least for the YA books I follow, most are already available for pre-order. :-/ Either way this is something to ponder on.


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## horse_girl (Apr 9, 2010)

Amazon has had issues for at least a few days. In the middle of last week--after some advertising on a couple of sites--one of my books showed up on the top 100 of comics and graphic novels   Nothing about that in any of the categories/keywords on my book's listing. Then half my dashboard titles were gone on the sales page for a couple of days. They're back but today my Bookbub ad book (last Tuesday featured), which was sinking slowly in rankings after hitting in the 20's of overall free at the peak, jumped up again. I thought maybe it was featured somewhere and got an extra boost again, but now I wonder if this was part of the same system of glitches I've been seeing lately.


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Also confirming that it isn't just perma free. Lighter Days, Darker Nights stopped being Sword and Sorcery also and is now, inexplicably, Epic Fantasy and *is still listed as in Select* even though not only did it go off Select Friday, but didn't list as Select yesterday.


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## Dave Renol (Mar 4, 2013)

Rankings are back on my permafree.

#767 overall with #1 and #6 in subcategories is about where it should be, so maybe the glitch is fixed.

Dave


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## Lisa Scott (Apr 4, 2011)

Me too.  I'm back at #43 overall where I was when I last looked.

I really need to get a "Keep Calm and Carry On" sign.


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## Linda Barlow (Jul 5, 2013)

No fix yet for me.


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## Hildred (Sep 9, 2012)

Rankings are back ,but not my categories. I've gone from top 10 in lesbian to 91 in Gay and Lesbian Literature =\ (most L titles have no hope competing with M/M for rankings, ugh.)


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## Daizie (Mar 27, 2013)

Yay! I'm back. I dropped 200 spots in overall, but at least I have visibility back. The lapse really sucked the wind out of my downloads. I had over 600 2 days in a row and only about 40 today.


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## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

Yep, mine is back as well. Lost a few categories though.

ETA:

Eagerly awaiting the Mexican BBoS.


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## Guest (Aug 19, 2013)

I wonder if the Amazon coders read these boards.


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## B.T. Narro (May 30, 2013)

All my subcategories for my books are gone, still. Anyone else?


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## MitchHogan (May 17, 2013)

Categories and rankings still lost


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## JDHallowell (Dec 31, 2012)

Lost all but 2 of my categories and search listings on both my books, neither of which were free.


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## JennR (Sep 14, 2012)

Lost my paid ranking today in Collections and Anthologies for one of my books, even though my ranking justifies it being in the top 100  list :-(  glad it's not just happening to me though.  I checked my book details in KDP and the category is still showing as the one I chose.


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## Lady Vine (Nov 11, 2012)

Hildred said:


> Rankings are back ,but not my categories. I've gone from top 10 in lesbian to 91 in Gay and Lesbian Literature =\ (most L titles have no hope competing with M/M for rankings, ugh.)


Grr! This is just pathetic! Amazon has now joined the ranks of ebook retailers who lump Lesbian and Gay books together, as though the readers in both categories share something in common. No more Lesbian Romance category. No wonder why things slowed down on my end. I'm sick of these retailers tossing LGBT together and expecting readers to sift through the pile to find something relevant to them.

I'm so glad my publisher website is nearing completion. I'll be in familiar territory and won't be at the mercy of Zon's erratic algo changes, thank God.


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## Hildred (Sep 9, 2012)

I'm guessing it's a glitch like other sudden missing subcats other people are reporting. But it's a really crappy one for us.

But yeah, in the free list only Harper Bliss is still on top, but lol she's Harper Bliss. The paid list is all M/M for pages on end. There's a reason I shop in the L subcat and not in the general LGBT cat.


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

It's not just me then. My book has dropped out of one of its categories where it had been hovering at about number 40-50. It's not a free title.


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

Often-overlooked fact: if a lot of stuff gets published in a short amount of time, people see their rankings drop and blame an algorithm change on Amazon's part, when in fact it's just a lot of new releases in a short amount of time.

Good example was last fall when all those backlogged Harlequin and Silhouette romances when online, almost all on the same day. There was a TON of "it's the algorithms" talk that week.

But it wasn't. It was something like 5,000 titles getting added all on the same day.


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## sarahdalton (Mar 15, 2011)

My categories have been squiffy all week. First I was dropped out of Children's and moved to Book>Teens. Then I was dropped out of Books>Teens and moved into two action and adventure sub categories. 

Now I'm only in two instead of three, and The Unleashed is only in one!

On the plus side I've moved up to #3 in Genetics after some books have dropped out.


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## MitchHogan (May 17, 2013)

CraigInTwinCities said:


> Often-overlooked fact: if a lot of stuff gets published in a short amount of time, people see their rankings drop and blame an algorithm change on Amazon's part, when in fact it's just a lot of new releases in a short amount of time.
> 
> Good example was last fall when all those backlogged Harlequin and Silhouette romances when online, almost all on the same day. There was a TON of "it's the algorithms" talk that week.
> 
> But it wasn't. It was something like 5,000 titles getting added all on the same day.


This can happen, but this I don't think this time it's the issue. Books categories can be seen under "Look for Similar Items by Category" and these have changed, which in turn has affected rankings. For example, my book was #5 in Hot New Releases Epic Fantasy and disappeared entirely from that list, while books with an overall Amazon Best Sellers Rank lower than mine are still on it. It was also #13 in Sword & Sorcery and completely disappeared from that list too.


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## Linda Barlow (Jul 5, 2013)

MitchHogan said:


> This can happen, but this I don't think this time it's the issue. Books categories can be seen under "Look for Similar Items by Category" and these have changed, which in turn has affected rankings. For example, my book was #5 in Hot New Releases Epic Fantasy and disappeared entirely from that list, while books with an overall Amazon Best Sellers Rank lower than mine are still on it. It was also #13 in Sword & Sorcery and completely disappeared from that list too.


Same for me. I was number 7 in a category that was one of the two chosen by me when I first uploaded the book a few weeks ago. Now I'm no longer showing up in that category, or anywhere on the top 100 list for that category, even though my current sales rank would still put me higher than most of the books on that list. Meanwhile, my sales are dropping because of the lowered visibility.


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## RinG (Mar 12, 2013)

Yep, I lost about 3 categories, and now am only in two. I'm still in romance/sci-fi though, so that's something. Can't say it's slowed sales any, since they were at a standstill anyway.


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## Kia Zi Shiru (Feb 7, 2011)

I updated the price on Disturbed Connections and am now down to 2 categories instead of the  I had, I'm down to 
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Gay & Lesbian
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Romance > New Adult & College

I used to also be in Romance > Gay romance and Romance > Paranormal > Werewolves

Disturbed Fate, which I didn't change a thing for, is still in the categories it was in.


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

MitchHogan said:


> This can happen, but this I don't think this time it's the issue. Books categories can be seen under "Look for Similar Items by Category" and these have changed, which in turn has affected rankings. For example, my book was #5 in Hot New Releases Epic Fantasy and disappeared entirely from that list, while books with an overall Amazon Best Sellers Rank lower than mine are still on it. It was also #13 in Sword & Sorcery and completely disappeared from that list too.


Good points!


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## brie.mcgill (Jun 5, 2013)

My book was selling 2 copies/day, which put it in ~30-50 for the Cyberpunk category, which I used as a keyword (small category, I know).

My listing in the Cyberpunk category disappeared a couple of days ago, and my sales subsequently died. The book, since yesterday, still had enough sales to bump it back into its spot, but it's not listed in the Top 100 Cyberpunk, even though it's ranking higher than half the books in the subcategory.

Doubly weird because it's still listed as Cyberpunk, top rated...

It's peanuts, but still... those were my peanuts.   Or, I thought they were. 

Has anyone had anything like this happen before? Will it fix itself? Or should I print those screenshots of my book beside William Gibson because it will never happen again?


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

I did not check my categories till just now, but I lost 2 categories off my listing of my permafree book. The Create Space paperback ones are gone, my book ONLY shows up in the Kindle listing now... but I did jump from 40's to the 20's in one of my sub categories even though my downloads do not show any real change.


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## lynnfromthesouth (Jun 21, 2012)

I would not make any changes right now to try and fix it, since it's happening to so many people. It may be something temporary that will fix itself.


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## unkownwriter (Jun 22, 2011)

I've been surfing and looking at various books lately, and this has been going on a while. I've noticed lots of books (not just indie) that have hundreds of reviews, have been out for a while, but have no sales rank.

Since this has been happening for at least a week, affects all sorts of books, includes loss of categories, and involves more than just ranks dropping, I would venture that something is going on behind the scenes. Perhaps something to do with those "exciting changes" that Amazon VP was talking about a while back?


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## jvin248 (Jan 31, 2012)

.
Or quite a few of the 'Zon staff are on their last summer vacation sprint -- so other hands are on the levers until they return. 
This happens in the stock market. Disturbing that the changes happen when something on a book is updated - will make writers wary of uploading improvements.
.
.


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## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

Seeing some issues with mine as well.

If I "Browse All" under my genre (Fantasy) and then drill-down based on "Characters" (I don't remember that being called 'Characters'), I don't see either of my books. I don't see one of them this way even though I know it's #11 in Greek & Roman Mythology right now.

However, if I search by title, I can see my books under those sub-cat's. Though it does seem like they've lost some of the categorizations.

Despite this, I did sell a couple of books overnight, so someone's finding my books (somehow).


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## JenniferHarlow (Jun 8, 2013)

All of my books still only have one category under Kindle and my traditionally published books changed categories as well under the general "Books." They're now in Horror-Vampires, even though one of the books doesn't have vampires. When I went to bed on Saturday my superhero one was at 40,000, (it was in Comics & Graphic Novels-Superhero) I woke up Sunday and it was at 90,000 and is still plummeting along with all the others. Anyone know when/if this will get fixed?


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## EmparentingMom (Jun 20, 2011)

I've also noticed quite a sales drop-off over the past couple of days, just when I thought I was gaining some (small) momentum. Does this happen a lot?


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## Kathy Clark Author (Dec 18, 2012)

The ranking, sales and royalties reported by Amazon seemed to be totally disconnected.  August has been a 100% + increase in sales over July using the month to date report that is the basis for royalties thus far but the rankings and sales numbers show an opposite trend when you look at it that way.

Forget Book Scan...almost 100%of my Amazon sales are not reported.

So given the metrics re so hosed up all I care about is what am I getting paid for and I'll trend and slice and dice those numbers and go back to writing.


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## EthanRussellErway (Nov 17, 2011)

The amazon algorithm gods are very fickle, and often unjust!


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## Kwalker (Aug 23, 2012)

I would really like my subcategories back -/ 

I had great momentum going, then in the middle of a bookbub ad the sub cats disappeared and things have definitely slowed.

I'm sure my slow down isn't only because of the sub categories going away, but I do blame it for some.


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

JenniferHarlow said:


> All of my books still only have one category under Kindle and my traditionally published books changed categories as well under the general "Books." They're now in Horror-Vampires, even though one of the books doesn't have vampires. When I went to bed on Saturday my superhero one was at 40,000, (it was in Comics & Graphic Novels-Superhero) I woke up Sunday and it was at 90,000 and is still plummeting along with all the others. Anyone know when/if this will get fixed?


Unless you're talking about a graphic novel, once this shakes out, you should probably move to Fantasy > Superhero.


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## Kia Zi Shiru (Feb 7, 2011)

And I just lost categories on Disturbed Fate too :/


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## JenniferHarlow (Jun 8, 2013)

Unless you're talking about a graphic novel, once this shakes out, you should probably move to Fantasy > Superhero.

It was in that category, then I switched to Graphic Novels as the biggest books were classified as that. It was there for about two weeks and did well, better than it did in Fantasy-Superhero, but now I can't get it back in the original because it's not one of the options on KDP. It's now just "Fantasy" with no sub-category. And all my books either changed or lost categories, then tanked. I'm going to give it a few more days.


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## NothingToSeeHere... (Jul 26, 2013)

I do not consent to the new TOS, and do not give my consent by posting and maintaining my membership here.


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## otterific (Jan 31, 2012)

Several of my books, specifically the ones that had the titles missing from the KDP report page, have lost categories. Most notable is Yellowstone Heart Song, which was in three categories before, and now appears to have lost all of them. It is only listed in Kindle store>kindle ebooks. I haven't had a sale in two days on that book, which hasn't happened in a long time. 
I hope they fix this glitch or update or whatever they are doing, soon.


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## Kia Zi Shiru (Feb 7, 2011)

Aaaaand Amazon is offline... Let's see if this stuff is fixed by the time they're back up...


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

"Our brief experiment with an AI system administrator did not go as smoothly as planned. We will resume our normal operations as soon as out IT team disables it. However Amazon still believe that this project, nicknamed 'Skynet' is the wave of the future."


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## Joseph J Bailey (Jun 28, 2013)

My happily eclectic subcategories are currently vaporized.  

Gone are my metaphysical and visionary and asian mythology subcategories as well as my humorous ones.

I am hoping some sales will bring them back.


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

My UK sales have remained at their usual average today, but my US ones (which are the only ones affected by the change) have plummeted by about 80%.


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## Daizie (Mar 27, 2013)

Kwalker said:


> I would really like my subcategories back -/
> 
> I had great momentum going, then in the middle of a bookbub ad the sub cats disappeared and things have definitely slowed.
> 
> I'm sure my slow down isn't only because of the sub categories going away, but I do blame it for some.


Sorry to hear that. That really sucks in the middle of a promo.


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## CharlieVenkman (Jan 25, 2012)

Definitely some weird stuff going on.

I suddenly lost most of my sub-categories yesterday, including the most important: Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Superhero

I just republished this afternoon, and now all of my sub-categories are back...

So if you lost your categories, if you republish now, they might come back. Perhaps whatever they were working on is done, or the glitch is fixed...


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## Joseph J Bailey (Jun 28, 2013)

I spoke with Amazon through their customer service center via Author Central.  

The rep indicated this is a known issue and their technical services team is working to correct the problem.


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## Wansit (Sep 27, 2012)

CharlieVenkman said:


> I just republished this afternoon, and now all of my sub-categories are back...


I just did the same and it worked - thanks. Of course I'm not ranking in any of them now sigh


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## beccaprice (Oct 1, 2011)

how does one check categories and subcategories?


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## lynnfromthesouth (Jun 21, 2012)

beccaprice said:


> how does one check categories and subcategories?


It's at the very bottom of your book pages.


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## Kwalker (Aug 23, 2012)

Republishing worked for me as well.

As far as ranking in those categories, I suspect that may fix itself sometime within the hour, as the top lists recalculate.


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## lynnfromthesouth (Jun 21, 2012)

I put Rebel to republish, as I was thinking about trying a price raise anyway. Surfer Girl's categories came back up right after I did without any changes, so I dunno if they are related or just happened at the right time.


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## JennR (Sep 14, 2012)

My new book has a ranking that should be in the western romance category this morning but it's not. But a book that has a ranking of 13,000 lower than mine is #96 or #98 in western romance!


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## Barbara Morgenroth (May 14, 2010)

This is so odd because yesterday I chose to take my book off perma-free.
There's been complete disruption in everything else and that nice teen category is gone.  My definitely not for children YAs are now in children's books.


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Repubbing my other books, but I'm afraid to do so on my perma-frees. Will updating mess with that?


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## B.A. Spangler (Jan 25, 2012)

Kwalker said:


> Republishing worked for me as well.
> 
> As far as ranking in those categories, I suspect that may fix itself sometime within the hour, as the top lists recalculate.


Trying that now!

Didn't Work for me.


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## valeriec80 (Feb 24, 2011)

The last time I republished all of my books (to change back matter), I got slapped with one of those, "Prove that this is your book" emails, since I have stuff for free on my website. Not only that, it would take forever, because I have too many books. I'm really hoping these categories will just fix themselves soon? So far, no dice. Sigh.


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## otterific (Jan 31, 2012)

My book Yellowstone Heart Song, lost all categories for the last two days, and I lost my sales. I just checked, and I have sales again, and lo and behold, all my categories are back. 
So then I check my book Come Home to Me, which has been #2 in time travel romance and #7 in western romance for several days, and now I lost all the categories on that book! It's like they are cycling though the books over there, to mess everything up.


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## brie.mcgill (Jun 5, 2013)

Republishing didn't help me...

I've been checking periodically throughout the day, and one of my categories came back... but the other nine categories (two or three in which I was ranking high) are still sadly absent.

If it's not fixed soon, my book will be buried... (until I get back to work and release my second one in another two months.)

Bummer. C'est la vie.


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## David Alastair Hayden (Mar 19, 2011)

I lost two of mine as well. Considering all of Amazon was down for half an hour today, obviously a glitch. I wouldn't panic and start republishing and whatnot.


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## elizabethareeves (Jul 6, 2013)

I think there are some more kinks happening. So all day my new release How (Not) to Kiss a Ghost has been on top of the Psychics Romance and Witches and Wizards list. Now it is no longer on those lists in those categories. Its like I got kicked off and now I am on the Fantasy list. But now all my other books are a lot higher on the list. However, I need my new book to be on the Top New Release pages. It frustrating to have your book move all over the place. 

Anybody else still experiencing any weird things?


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## Guest (Aug 20, 2013)

Whoa, my perma-free book is now #1 on the free romance > science fiction subcategory ... out of a grand total of four titles on that list.


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## dotx (Nov 4, 2010)

beccaprice said:


> how does one check categories and subcategories?


It's below your book's rank, but only if your rank is low enough to get you into the top 100 of a list.


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

Yep, definitely something going on. My permafree dropped out of one category today and moved into a new one. I'm not complaining since it came with a rankings boost. I'll keep my shirt on for now and see what happens.


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Well that was a heck of a tremor. The book I was worried about is back in its categories and the second in the series, which I had stupidly forgotten to update the keywords for, is now in the same categories as the other two.

However, it's STILL able to be borrowed through Prime somehow


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## Kia Zi Shiru (Feb 7, 2011)

Disturbed Connections has their categories back, though Disturbed Fate is still without them.


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## RinG (Mar 12, 2013)

My categories are back. And I'm number 87 in Sci-fi romance. I'm not complaining...


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## David Adams (Jan 2, 2012)

Sure is funny being #1 of 1. I'm the best by default!*










*just like always... ;_;


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## brie.mcgill (Jun 5, 2013)

My categories are all still missing... Glad to hear some of you have gotten yours back. Did you contact Amazon, or did it just happen on its own?


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## sarahdalton (Mar 15, 2011)

I've just re-published all of mine as well. I actually needed to tweak a few of the categories anyway, they set up the Teens>Dystopia category after I published my first few books.


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

I'm going to republish. My rankings are plunging. Plunging, I tell you.


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## brie.mcgill (Jun 5, 2013)

O wise and experienced authors... What is the best thing to do in this situation?


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## Tim_A (May 25, 2013)

Hey, I'm No. 87 in Science Fiction->Post-Apocalyptic!  

That's in the UK store. I don't sell enough in the US to get a category.


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## Ryan Sullivan (Jul 9, 2011)

I went to bed last night with only 2 of 5 categories.

I still only have 2 categories, but I did wake up to a surprise -- being #57 in the Paid Top 100 YA Sword and Sorcery.

Even though I've only made 2 sales this month. I'm pretty sure it's just all the switching in categories. With less people to rank against, of course you're going to have a higher ranking. If only my rank was legitimate.


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## RinG (Mar 12, 2013)

I didn't do anything at all to bring mine back.


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## Ryan Sullivan (Jul 9, 2011)

So I republished, and I STILL only have 2 of the 5 categories I used to have.


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## Kia Zi Shiru (Feb 7, 2011)

Ryan Sullivan said:


> So I republished, and I STILL only have 2 of the 5 categories I used to have.


Just wait, not all my books are back to normal but some are. Give it a bit of time.


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## Ryan Sullivan (Jul 9, 2011)




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## 58907 (Apr 3, 2012)

I republished as well and nothing. Guess it's a waiting game--as sales and ranking plummet...


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## DuncanMH (Apr 24, 2013)

I got dropped from all my categories in the past few of hours so it seems that whatever is happening is ongoing…


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## Kia Zi Shiru (Feb 7, 2011)

I'm back in my categories but I just checked the best sellers and I should be in some rankings with Disturbed Connections but I'm not... which is annoying...


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## lynnfromthesouth (Jun 21, 2012)

Kia Zi Shiru said:


> I'm back in my categories but I just checked the best sellers and I should be in some rankings with Disturbed Connections but I'm not... which is annoying...


I also still have no rank in the categories that were dropped and came back.


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## RinG (Mar 12, 2013)

I'm wondering if they're clearing the categories a bit. I noticed that the Sci-fi romance category is a lot more targetted now. All the books look like they might actually have Sci-fi in them, rather than paranormal!


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

Rinelle Grey said:


> I'm wondering if they're clearing the categories a bit. I noticed that the Sci-fi romance category is a lot more targetted now. All the books look like they might actually have Sci-fi in them, rather than paranormal!


Mine's about as squarely in its category as it can get and yet they still removed it.


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## RinG (Mar 12, 2013)

Lydniz said:


> Mine's about as squarely in its category as it can get and yet they still removed it.


Yes, they seem to have removed pretty much all of them, then are putting hem back selectively.

Or else I'm completely wrong, and it's all random!


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## Kia Zi Shiru (Feb 7, 2011)

Rinelle Grey said:


> Yes, they seem to have removed pretty much all of them, then are putting hem back selectively.
> 
> Or else I'm completely wrong, and it's all random!


I'm still trying to get into Romance > Paranormal -> vampires but I can't seem to get there. They have no problem putting me in New Adult, psychics or Werewolves though...


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## NothingToSeeHere... (Jul 26, 2013)

I do not consent to the new TOS, and do not give my consent by posting and maintaining my membership here.


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## Guest (Aug 20, 2013)

brie.mcgill said:


> O wise and experienced authors... What is the best thing to do in this situation?


Just keep swimming writing.


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

I republished to no effect, so I've gone back in and tweaked my keywords.

Of course, it could be a coincidence. Maybe my title has simply reached the end of its natural run.


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## Lady Vine (Nov 11, 2012)

Just wondering if this affected the trad published books.


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## Harriet Schultz (Jan 3, 2012)

The second of my two categories (Latino/Hispanic fiction) was dropped, but it still appears as a choice on the kdp scroll down list...so I chose it again and am re-publishing. 
If they eliminated a category, wouldn't they have also removed it as an option or is that too logical? I went from #2 in that category to nada and my biggest fans are Latinas! Ay!


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## Daizie (Mar 27, 2013)

My books actually picked up more categories, with no extra effort on my part. I was only in New Adult and College. Now the books are in Coming of Age too, and Book 1 is ranking #3 in Coming of Age Free.


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## MH Sargent (Apr 8, 2010)

I just checked on Daniel Silva's book, The English Girl, and he has a new category of horror. Believe me, that's a huge error, so it is across the board, not just indies. Ironically, like Silva, I write thrillers and my books are in the horror category now too. 

Also, two days ago they made my perma free book paid, which is huge jolt. Sales of the next books, all part of a series, will drop dramatically, it has happened before. So I'm hoping things go back to normal soon.  

UGH.


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## Taking my troll a$$ outta here (Apr 8, 2013)

Lady Vine said:


> Just wondering if this affected the trad published books.


It looks like it has as well. I noticed Time Travel Romance is now well, for want of a better word...wacked. There were some heavy-hitter big names with upcoming books on those lists that are no longer ranked.
I did some tweaking, and now my books are in different categories but at least they are ranked. These last few days have been killer.


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## lynnfromthesouth (Jun 21, 2012)

I sold a couple last night, but none since midnight that I can tell, and my rank in Teen Action Adventure has been steadily dropping, even with no sales. So they must be taking books out of that category now. Even though I got the other categories back, I still haven't ranked in them.


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## Isabelking (Jan 16, 2012)

Okay, I got booted out of werewolves/shifter romance. I can't find that category at all when I look under romance sub-categories. Does it even exist any more?

I sent an email to KDp asking to be put back in that category.

In the meantime - if I unpublish and republish - will I lose my ranking and all my reviews? And how long does that generally take? I've never done it before.


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## Incognita (Apr 3, 2011)

My new release that was actually doing pretty well has now completely disappeared off the SF romance hot new release list and the bestseller lists.  

This is so frustrating. 

I'll give it a while and see if it bounces back, but if not, I'll go in and pretend to do something to the file and push it through the publishing process again. I know that's not working for everyone, but I don't know what else to do.

Man, do I want this horrible month to be over.


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## Zoe York (May 12, 2013)

I lost Romance - Holiday and Romance - Anthologies and Collections ... I may not get the latter back, although now I have two books live, and they do make up a collection LOL. But my book is a Christmas romance novel! Grrrrrr.  I've republished just in case that helps.


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

There are books in the category I lost which are selling far less than mine. It's a bit annoying as I was solidly in the top 10,000 and even 5,000 for months, and now I've dropped out.


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## John Daulton (Feb 28, 2012)

Republished last night, but my categories are all still gone. Nothing to add beyond that, just adding to the information pool.


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

I'm a little confused. My sales were terrible Thursday-Saturday last week, but then bounced back Sunday through this morning. Nothing spectacular, mind you, but enough to keep me from worrying too much. Many of my sales are on subsequent books in a series and I had a big free run about three weeks ago so it could all just be related to that. The book that was free is only selling about three or four books a day the last few days but on the three days last week, I think it only sold two total, so I have to think whatever algorithm change took place, for once, didn't effect my books negatively.


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## Zoe York (May 12, 2013)

Well, that was quick - republished, which has already gone through, and they gave me all the categories back. Keyword specified and selected through KDP dashboard.


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## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

One of mine that I re-pub'ed last night is back in its correct categories.

I've got another one in-process which is just a price change, so I'll watch it to see if it gets reshuffled correctly as well.


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## Daizie (Mar 27, 2013)

Zoe York said:


> I lost Romance - Holiday and Romance - Anthologies and Collections ... I may not get the latter back, although now I have two books live, and they do make up a collection LOL. But my book is a Christmas romance novel! Grrrrrr.  I've republished just in case that helps.


You lost Romance? as in the Main Romance? If so, I'd definitely contact them in a couple days. That's ridiculous.

Oh, that's good! I just saw your update. I'm glad it changed quickly.


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## NicWilson (Apr 16, 2011)

I'm getting tired of the whole shifting categories thing. I've emailed amazon five times  to remove a category I NEVER assigned for a book it's not even remotely appropriate for, and now I just discovered that they randomly put one of my other books into "teen and young adult", which it's not even remotely targeted toward.  Another book is in the middle of a free promo, and I just checked it, to discover it in the general kindle ebook label, with NO categories. No wonder I've barely had any downloads!  Almost all of my books have been dropped from categories they were in, even the new book I just published yesterday. I have a feeling I'll have a massive migraine trying to sort this all out.


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## Ty Johnston (Jun 19, 2009)

My guess would be this situation is the culprit: "Amazon Lost $120K a Minute During Outage"

http://www.newser.com/story/172822/amazon-lost-120k-a-minute-during-outage.html


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## KevinH (Jun 29, 2013)

The categories for the print versions of my books weren't showing up, so I called Createspace and the rep I spoke with said she could actually see all of the relevant categories on her screen.  She put me on hold for a minute and went to speak to someone, and when she came back she told me that the culprit seems to be the new product detail page.  

For whatever reason, if your PC, tablet, etc. pulls up the new page, some of the categories may not be there.  However, she assured me that the categories were actually present; they just don't have an idea of when the issue will be resolved such that everyone will be able to see all the categories for a particular item.


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## MH Sargent (Apr 8, 2010)

Lydniz said:


> There are books in the category I lost which are selling far less than mine.


^^^ This. I went through the popularity list where my first book usually pops up, and I'm finding books I've never seen before. I click on them and they have a ranking of four hundred thousand. So what the heck is going on


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## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

Ty Johnston said:


> My guess would be this situation is the culprit: "Amazon Lost $120K a Minute During Outage"
> 
> http://www.newser.com/story/172822/amazon-lost-120k-a-minute-during-outage.html


I wish I had such problems!


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## Taking my troll a$$ outta here (Apr 8, 2013)

Now mine are closer to what they should be, except the first book in my series is not in Time Travel Romance, it's in  Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > United States > Native American.
I'm afraid to complain because my sales are actually up today.   Not happy though, I hope Amazon sorts this out soon.


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

Wow. The _Science Fiction and Fantasy _ category is looking pretty interesting right now. Lots of billionaire erotica and children's picture books mixed in with paranormal romance, sword & sorcery and hard sci-fi.


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## B. Justin Shier (Apr 1, 2011)

Dara England said:


> Wow. The _Science Fiction and Fantasy _ category is looking pretty interesting right now. Lots of billionaire erotica and children's picture books mixed in with paranormal romance, sword & sorcery and hard sci-fi.












B.


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## 13893 (Apr 29, 2010)

Kiss Me Hello is categorized in gothic romance, but it's still not showing up in the top 100, which it should compared with other books' rankings that are there.

And of course this happens when I'm having a BookBub day ...


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## Isabelking (Jan 16, 2012)

I republished, and have emailed KDP help twice - and two of my three categories are still missing. It. bites. I had a book ranking at 69 (!!!), and it had been climbing steadily until categorypocalypse, and then it dropped 15 points. Yes, ranking in the 80s is still miraculous and astounding, but I'm selling several hundred less copies per day now. That is a HUGE financial hit.  This book was my first big hit, and it's very frustrating. I think it would have continued to climb higher if this hadn't happened. And I have no idea when, if ever, I will get my categories back.  

First KDP response was, they were working on it. Haven't heard back on the second email.


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## Linda Barlow (Jul 5, 2013)

I did get my categories back (after writing to ask about it AND republishing) but either my needle is stuck (seems unlikely) or my book has stopped selling (no sales recorded on my KDP report since yesterday). I could certainly believe the no sales thing, although I would have thought my rank would have crashed even more significantly if that were so. Obviously things are still pretty messed up in Amazon's various databases...


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## 13893 (Apr 29, 2010)

Kiss Me Hello has now reached the 200s in the Kindle store and has no ranks in any categories. ::sob::


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## Robert Bidinotto (Mar 3, 2011)

FWIW, after some tinkering last night and today, plus emails to Author Central and KDP, my listings in my old category are back. And the sales, which had ground to a halt for about 16 hours, are back again. Huge relief. I hope you all experience the same fixes in the coming hours.


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## Ty Johnston (Jun 19, 2009)

I didn't do a thing, and my categories were only lost for maybe a few hours. Guess I got lucky. However, my Author Rank has tanked big time, even though I've had a pretty good day of sales. Maybe the Rank is behind or glitchy.


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## JennR (Sep 14, 2012)

My categories haven't come back :-( and my new book isn't in hot new release western and it should be, even if the glitch hadn't happened. I'm going to email them.


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## AngryGames (Jul 28, 2013)

So I noticed I lost Sci-Fi - Alien Invasion and Sci-Fi - Post Apoc and was only left with Fiction - Gay & Lesbian. 

Went to repub, and I see why now. There is no more 'alien invasion' category, nor a 'post apoc' (it is now 'apoc & post apoc'). 

I have a feeling everyone that lost categories because the categories their book was in are no longer available. 

edit: there doesn't seem to be a 'Gay & Lesbian' section anymore to choose, just 'gay' or 'lesbian'.


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## Guest (Aug 21, 2013)

I had lost all my categories on one of my books, even though the sequel still showed all the same categories. I re-published - I just changed on of my keywords then published again - and now all the categories are back. Weird.


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## sarahdalton (Mar 15, 2011)

Whoa, this glitch thing has put me at number 7 in Books > Teens > Sci-fi. Loving this! I'm above Veronica Roth at the moment. 

On a more serious note. My two chosen categories are back for The Blemished but the other books are a bit all over the place.


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## Isabelking (Jan 16, 2012)

My categories aren't back, and I dropped off the top 100 list. I have repubbed TWICE now. Emailed them again this morning. I am praying it's fixed today.


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

Good luck, Isabel. I emailed them this morning. They haven't replied yet but I've just checked my categories and I've got the one I lost back, plus I've gone straight in at #11! W00t!


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## B.A. Spangler (Jan 25, 2012)

Most of my categories are back.


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## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

I've got one that's fine and another that's not. I emailed KDP this morning about the one that's messed up. I'll wait and see.


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## Harriet Schultz (Jan 3, 2012)

Isabelking said:


> My categories aren't back, and I dropped off the top 100 list. I have repubbed TWICE now. Emailed them again this morning. I am praying it's fixed today.


If you haven't tried this yet, this worked for me. I re-pubbed once and that didn't produce my sub-category. Then I added a relevant keyword and re-pubbed again and that sub-category reappeared this morning. Worth a try.


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## Guest (Aug 21, 2013)

Harriet Schultz said:


> If you haven't tried this yet, this worked for me. I re-pubbed once and that didn't produce my sub-category. Then I added a relevant keyword and re-pubbed again and that sub-category reappeared this morning. Worth a try.


I agree with this. I read I think on this thread to add a keyword before you re-publish. ALL of my categories had disappeared on one of my books, so I just changed one of the keywords to something else (just so there was some kind of change) and all of my categories came back. I don't think re-publishing without a change of some kind works. I was freaking out because there wasn't a single category, but now all of them are back Phew!


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## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

Kitten said:


> I agree with this. I read I think on this thread to add a keyword before you re-publish. ALL of my categories had disappeared on one of my books, so I just changed one of the keywords to something else (just so there was some kind of change) and all of my categories came back. I don't think re-publishing without a change of some kind works. I was freaking out because there wasn't a single category, but now all of them are back Phew!


Trying this now. I removed one of my less relevant keywords and pub'ed. Once it goes through, I'll see if there's a change. I might go back and put the keyword back in, but not sure I want to tempt fate (assuming this works for me at all).


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## Incognita (Apr 3, 2011)

Isabelking said:


> My categories aren't back, and I dropped off the top 100 list. I have repubbed TWICE now. Emailed them again this morning. I am praying it's fixed today.


Isabel, you're number one in your category. (I recognized the cover.) 

My SF romance is back where it should be on that category's bestseller lists, so maybe things are starting to normalize.


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## elizabethareeves (Jul 6, 2013)

My new book How (Not) to Kiss a Ghost was on both the Pychics and Witches and Wizards categories and now my book is not in those categories anymore. It now shows up on the Romance Fanasy category. 

I want it to go back on to the other two categories and I have emailed Amazon twice. They say they know about the problem and are working on it, but I am impatient because the problem, I see, is I am losing days my book can be on the Top New Release list because it will only be on for 1 month.


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## Satchya (Sep 5, 2012)

We lost the "book" version of the technothriller category for all three of our books.  And when I check that category, there are a LOT of other books missing.  We tried republishing last night, but so far no good.  The good news is it hasn't had any effect on ranking (in fact sales are a bit better than over the weekend, go figure.)

One thing I did notice...when you go to the "book" section (rather than the kindle section) of the popularity list, it looks different than it used to.  It heavily favors trade paperbacks/hardbacks.  I don't know how to put it into words, exactly.  I think they are changing things on purpose, but aren't done yet.  Go look for yourself and see.  Maybe someone who is better at describing these things can explain what it is that has changed.


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## Isabelking (Jan 16, 2012)

Hey Christine! Yes, beautiful cover, isn't it?   
I am now back on the top 100 overall for the Kindle store, but not as high as I was before.  Last night when I saw how low I'd dropped, I lowered my price to 99 cents. I will leave it there for a day or two to see if that helps me climb back up in the rankings.  Crud. I was on such a good trajectory before.


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## K. D. (Jun 6, 2013)

Satchya said:


> One thing I did notice...when you go to the "book" section (rather than the kindle section) of the popularity list, it looks different than it used to. It heavily favors trade paperbacks/hardbacks. I don't know how to put it into words, exactly. I think they are changing things on purpose, but aren't done yet. Go look for yourself and see. Maybe someone who is better at describing these things can explain what it is that has changed.


May be 'Zone tries pushing expensive things to get more out of those sales? 
They pulled the plug for free content promoting affliates. Hrmpf


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## Incognita (Apr 3, 2011)

Isabelking said:


> Hey Christine! Yes, beautiful cover, isn't it?
> I am now back on the top 100 overall for the Kindle store, but not as high as I was before. Last night when I saw how low I'd dropped, I lowered my price to 99 cents. I will leave it there for a day or two to see if that helps me climb back up in the rankings. Crud. I was on such a good trajectory before.


 

That is frustrating, though. How long has the book been out? If you're still early in your 30 days after release, there's plenty of time to pick up momentum again (assuming the might Zon doesn't throw us all another curve ball...).


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## brie.mcgill (Jun 5, 2013)

I've been steadily republishing with hopes that my categories might reappear, but no dice. I've had a few exchanged with KDP Support, sent them a pile of screenshots, and as of this morning, I received an email saying it wasn't fixed yet.

I hope they fix it.


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## Kia Zi Shiru (Feb 7, 2011)

This afternoon I found out that my book was in 2 top 100, one for gay romance and one for gay fiction (both ebook categories). I don't care that it's mostly because the categories were crewed up but I can use all the extra help I can get


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## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

Re-pub'ing did it for me. Hope everyone else has luck with that approach.


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## Guest (Aug 21, 2013)

brie.mcgill said:


> I've been steadily republishing with hopes that my categories might reappear, but no dice. I've had a few exchanged with KDP Support, sent them a pile of screenshots, and as of this morning, I received an email saying it wasn't fixed yet.
> 
> I hope they fix it.


Did you change anything before you republished? I don't think republishing will fix the categories unless you change something, for example changing a keyword. That's the easiest option. Then when you republish the categories should reappear. Maybe try that, and I hope that works for you.


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## Isabelking (Jan 16, 2012)

ChristinePope said:


> That is frustrating, though. How long has the book been out? If you're still early in your 30 days after release, there's plenty of time to pick up momentum again (assuming the might Zon doesn't throw us all another curve ball...).


Aug. 6. It's climbing the ranks again; I'll leave it at 99 cents as long as the rank is improving.


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## MH Sargent (Apr 8, 2010)

I have the category Horror now for my thrillers. One the first book, I did the re-publish yesterday, nothing happened. So this morning, I changed one keyword, hit publish and now the categories are back. Now I have to do the same on the other books in the series. 

My wish list now includes wanting the sales to perk up a ton, and get the first book back to permafree. Then I'd be a happy camper.


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## brie.mcgill (Jun 5, 2013)

I've tried republishing with and without swapping keywords, changing prices (good heavens, I've tried it all). Categories are still missing, but there was a change in my rank (it's nearly what it was at before the crash) without reported sales... Sooo, I'll republish again.

And try to... write some more... while waiting...  

Edit: I did notice, as of this morning, there were only 50 books in the Cyberpunk subcategory. Now there are about 85. (Before this happened, there were about 600.) The categories are slowly returning...


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## JennR (Sep 14, 2012)

I emailed them yesterday and got a reply that they were working on fixing the problem :-(


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## Writer1000 (Jul 28, 2013)

Republishing seemed to have worked for me.


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## brie.mcgill (Jun 5, 2013)

After many attempts at republishing, the last one finally resurrected my categories. But there are still less than 100 books in several Top 100s... One thing at a time, I suppose.

The buy link to the kindle edition of my book in the UK store completely disappeared for about two days, listing only as a paperback. That fixed itself today.


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## Anna Faversham (Jan 26, 2013)

After struggling into the top 100 of Kindle>Romance>Time Travel, like many of us on this thread, I found that my sales stopped completely on the .com site and my book, Hide in Time, disappeared from the top 100.

Then I noticed that hundreds of others must have disappeared too because the chart consisted of just 160 books and it had been in the thousands before (I think). 

Of those still in the chart some were ranked at 500,000+ whereas Hide in Time was about 50,000 and nowhere to be seen. HiT plummeted in the overall chart but has now risen for no apparent reason.

The Kindle>Romance>Time Travel chart has increased slowly but regularly from the 160 books and now stands at 248.

I've found Amazon to be amazing in so many ways and so I sat back and waited, trusting. But there came a time when the horrible thought of all those lost sales led me to take the advice of those who have suggested republishing with a couple of changes to the keywords.

I'll let you know if anything happens.


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## Maya Cross (May 28, 2012)

I noticed some books disappearing off the charts in erotica yesterday. If you clicked on them, they still listed their overall Kindle Store rank, as well as their rank in erotica (the book I was using as a sample was supposed to be #5), but when you opened the actual charts, the book was no where in sight, and a different book was in #5.

It appears to have been fixed now, although I can't be certain that's the case for every title.


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## brie.mcgill (Jun 5, 2013)

My categories have been restored, but I'm still waiting on the Top 100. (There are still about 500 books missing from the one subcategory I'm watching, though many other are drastically smaller, too.)

I received an email saying it was fixed, but I cleared my cache and it is still missing on my end. After I received an email saying my categories were fixed, it took about another day after that for me to see the changes, so...

I'm not seeing my regular sales, which leads me to believe it's not yet fixed.   But there are more books than last night...


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## elizabethareeves (Jul 6, 2013)

Well it only took three days from when this all began to get back on to the categories I am supposed to be on, but I am so happy to be back. I think everything has worked its way out. I hope all of you are now not having any conflicts with this whole debacle that has occurred. 

Good luck everyone. Lets end August with a bang.


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## AngryGames (Jul 28, 2013)

There are still only 3 books listed in the Sci-Fi - Alien Invasion category. This is messed up as my sci-fi self-pub hero Michael R. Hicks always has the #1 or #2 spot on the free side, and he's not listed at all =/. 

I repubbed and finally got my categories working, but I had to lose they Gay & Lesbian category to get back into sci-fi for some reason (this is the 3rd repub in 36 hours to get my categories working again). 

In the long run, it is Amazon, and they'll fix it. I don't believe blindly in them or any other company, but the longer Amazon's categories are messed up, the longer they will have reduced sales (and of course we will too). They'll fix it.


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## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

Mine just got listed back onto its Top 100 lists and I already got a sale.

This is 1-2 days after its categories were restored after I re-pub'ed.


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## NicWilson (Apr 16, 2011)

So how many people are going to use the random list placement from this little fiasco in their marketing? Seems like cheating, and hol-eee crapsuckers, there's some weird rankings.

My new release is #38 and #37 in two categories, despite it only JUST getting its categories back, and sales not really being reflected in the rankings. My newest short story collection is #1 in Historical Thrillers, and #2 in Metaphysical Fiction. My permafree is #16 in Technothrillers. I must say- I never envisioned my entry into any of Amazon's genre lists being like this... And the book I've been trying to get OUT of the space marine category for months is #81. Ouch.

I, uh, never figured my first placement in the lists would be_this._ Now, onwards to get there, for real!


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## brie.mcgill (Jun 5, 2013)

Everything is about 95% fixed for me now... I'm slightly higher in my subcategories, but that's because 5/6 of the books in those categories are still missing.  

William Gibson is missing. (Half the fun of being in Cyberpunk is trying to get my book beside his... and then fanning myself.)


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## JennR (Sep 14, 2012)

My rankings haven't come back yet :-(


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## Ryan Sullivan (Jul 9, 2011)

Oh, hooray! I republished for the second or third time and my categories are back.


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## Kathleen Ball (Aug 23, 2013)

Mine were listed as westerns- somehow the western was dropped. I have contacted author central- the fixed one but not all. My numbers have plummeted listed as just romance or just contemporary. I have emailed them again - wait and see


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## JDHallowell (Dec 31, 2012)

The categories on my book page are back, but the keyword placements aren't working properly, and customer service is absolutely no help on this. They don't seem to understand the difference between browse categories and keywords. So my books show up as Epic Fantasy and Sword and Sorcery and as Teen and Young Adult, but they don't show up in any of the YA subcategories  - not YA > SF & Fantasy and nothing below that, either. It's killing my sales, which had been excellent up until now.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

My categories are back but my sales aren't.
This is now the second day in a row with NO sales. The few days before then were no picnic either but I've never not sold _something_ for two days in a row.
That's it. I'm washed up. I'll be over there, writing snarky blog posts about the evils of publishing *sniff*


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## lynnfromthesouth (Jun 21, 2012)

Quiss said:


> My categories are back but my sales aren't.
> This is now the second day in a row with NO sales.


Same here, though I had a friend buy a copy to test it, and it didn't register in KDP or on the sales page. So, if that keeps happening, things are going to be very wrong. I am hoping sales will show up all at once, but if it continues, then there is going to be a problem.


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## Incognita (Apr 3, 2011)

LynnBlackmar said:


> Same here, though I had a friend buy a copy to test it, and it didn't register in KDP or on the sales page. So, if that keeps happening, things are going to be very wrong. I am hoping sales will show up all at once, but if it continues, then there is going to be a problem.


There's often a good deal of lag. If that sale still doesn't show up after 24 hours, then maybe it's time to worry, but sales aren't reported in real time in many cases.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

LynnBlackmar said:


> Same here, though I had a friend buy a copy to test it, and it didn't register in KDP or on the sales page. So, if that keeps happening, things are going to be very wrong. I am hoping sales will show up all at once, but if it continues, then there is going to be a problem.


Good idea. I just bought my new title, which is still on the 90-days list and had been chugging along just fine until two days ago. I received the confirmation email and the book. Now let's see if it'll show up on the report (eventually)


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## Guest (Aug 25, 2013)

Yeah, I think it's just lag.  I got a fairly big dump of sales this morning, after almost no sales reported yesterday.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Joe Vasicek said:


> Yeah, I think it's just lag. I got a fairly big dump of sales this morning, after almost no sales reported yesterday.


No, sale came through. It's official. My career is over. 
I wonder if there's a future in cat hair macrame. I could do that.


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## JennR (Sep 14, 2012)

My rankings came back today on my 2 books that were in the same categories and my sales have improved for one book that was released last week when this all happened.

I only republished one of these books and today both of them were back in the right categories.


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## Ty Johnston (Jun 19, 2009)

Quiss said:


> I wonder if there's a future in cat hair macrame. I could do that.


Maybe a book about cat hair macrame?


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## RockyGrede (Apr 19, 2013)

25 days later - still no sign of categories (for Uk store)

I've emailed amazon asking them to remove my books from KDP select. I don't see the reason of me keeping my books just on amazon anymore, especially with all these glitches and visibility issues. There is no way you can find my books unless you type it in directly or click my links in my sig.


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## Anna Faversham (Jan 26, 2013)

My earlier post said I'd let you know if anything happens.

It did. After republishing and including a change in one of the key words, my book "Hide in Time" was able to be found in its Romance, Time Travel chart. That was the good news.

The bad news is that it had only one sale while it was "invisible" and so it slipped down the charts rapidly. My sales have not recovered. I notice that some have said that they had a sales dump a few days later - I haven't.


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## lynnfromthesouth (Jun 21, 2012)

Finally saw sales register this morning. Phew....


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## Eric Rasbold (Aug 27, 2013)

Monique said:


>


"Looks like a pick a hell of a day to quit shooting heroin!"


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## Jonathan C. Gillespie (Aug 9, 2012)

Recently I got this when I sent support a category change request on one of my books:



> The number of browse categories allowed for Kindle titles was changed from five to two in order to provide our customers with a more relevant searching experience and achieve parity with our guidelines for physical books.
> 
> Books published before this change will retain their original category assignments of up to five. However, if a publisher chooses to change their category assignments after this change was implemented, their title will be restricted to two categories.
> 
> ...


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## Richardcrasta (Jul 29, 2010)

Jonathan C. Gillespie said:


> Recently I got this when I sent support a category change request on one of my books:


What is not clear to me is whether these keyword requirements apply to literary fiction, essays, nonfiction, humor, and so on.

Also, does this "FICTION > Fantasy > Historical" qualify as one keyword? Is this how it's done?

Sorry, I seem to have missed this and only noticed the absence of categories for many of my titles today.


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## Jonathan C. Gillespie (Aug 9, 2012)

The key takeaway, I think, is that you used to be able to specify five categories (outside of the use of keywords), and now you can only have two. But whether or not they're beginning to force that change to propagate through existing titles or not is another question.

Someone more versed than I could probably comment on what is going on, but this is the impression that I get.


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