How to Choose the Right BISAC Categories for Your Book
Read on to learn what BISAC categories are and how to choose the right ones for your book. For more tips, tune in to our interviews on the I Date Money Podcast and The Publishing Performance Podcast.
How to Choose the Right BISAC Categories for Your Book
When brainstorming ways to maximize their books’ discoverability, many authors immediately think of ad campaigns, book review services, and networking on social media. While these things can certainly boost sales and widen your reach, it’s necessary to ensure your target audience can easily find your book in the first place.
Crafting good metadata is at the heart of boosting discoverability, and if you’re in the North American market, a huge part of doing so is choosing the right BISAC categories for your book.
BISAC stands for Book Industry Standards and Communications. BISAC categories provide a structure for organizing books based on their content, making it easier to find and browse books based on specific genres or topics.
Retailers, libraries, and educational institutions utilize BISAC categories for organizing their physical and online inventories. BISAC categories also play a part in filtering search results and determining what books are recommended. For instance, when a customer clicks on a book at Amazon, their system analyzes its categories to suggest similar titles.
Regardless of how heavily you market your book, choosing the right BISAC categories will help ensure your book is discoverable to readers interested in your genre. But how do you choose the right categories? Let’s dive in.
An Overview of the Main BISAC Categories
BISAC categories are organized into a system that comprises main categories and their corresponding, more detailed subcategories. The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) website includes a complete list of BISAC categories and helpful information about each main category. BISG sets the standards for book coding in North America.
The main categories are numerous and include Fiction, Reference, and Self-help, to name just a few. Each of these categories is further divided into many subcategories. For instance, within the Fiction category, you can find subcategories such as Urban Fantasy and Psychological Horror. This allows authors to drill down into more specific subjects that more closely match their book's content.
The more detailed you can be, the better.
Selecting Your BISAC Categories
The BISG recommends choosing no more than three categories, (and if you’re using IngramSpark or KDP to publish your book, you’ll only be allowed a maximum of three categories). In fact, if you find only one or two categories that fully describe the book, that’s fine. Choosing fewer than three categories is best practice in this case.
Furthermore, you shouldn’t mix age groups. There are specific categories for Juvenile and Young Adult books, the rest are typically considered Adult. If you wrote a children’s book, you should stick to categories shared in the Juvenile section, even if certain themes in your book might appeal to older generations.
Primary BISAC Category
Your first category is your primary category and should reflect the main focus of your book. This is your most important category.
Before you begin writing your book, it would be helpful to determine your target audience and the major themes you’d like to explore, which, in turn, will help you categorize your book. Even while you’re writing the book, you should revisit these considerations to determine if anything has changed.
If, when you’re done writing, you’re not clear on your book’s themes, now is a good time to get them straight. What is your book about? What is the overarching or recurring theme? What do you want readers to take away? Who is your audience? Make a chart to clarify your direction. If you can’t narrow down your thoughts, you can ask your editor, reviewers, or beta readers for advice, then weigh their answers against your chart.
It’s also wise to research other books similar to yours to learn how they are categorized, and you can read their reviews to see what readers expect from books in those categories. If you find that your book aligns with a popular category, you’ll need to weigh the benefits of higher visibility with the cons of entering a more highly saturated market.
Once your themes are sorted out, compare them against the list of BISAC categories on BISG.org to find those that align best with your book.
Secondary BISAC Categories
If your book blends genres or has many themes and could fit more than one BISAC category, secondary categories can further define your book’s content and help you reach additional readers.
For example, say your book is a memoir with strong themes of friendship and family relationships. Your primary category could be Biography & Autobiography/Memoirs, while your secondary categories may focus on the next most relevant topics of family and friendship.
Consider the aspects of your book that may appeal to different readers outside of your main audience. Your primary category might cover your book’s key theme, but there are other aspects of your book that can impact your selection, such as your setting and characters.
Secondary categories can be helpful, but be careful not to choose too many, as overclassifying your book can lead to reader confusion.
Updating BISAC Categories
You can change your categories as needed, even after publishing, but first, familiarize yourself with the requirements of whatever platform you’re using to publish your book. Some platforms might limit the number of times they allow you to update your categories, and others may not allow you to revert to your original categories if you change your mind. If you desire to also update your categories at Bowker after assigning your ISBNs, the process may be less straightforward but still doable.
There are a few reasons you may decide to change your categories. If you release your book and realize that its existing categories don’t really fit or it isn’t receiving the traffic you hoped for, adjusting the BISAC categories might improve your book's visibility and help new readers find your book who otherwise wouldn’t have.
Listen to your audience, and especially to seasoned professionals in the industry. If they mention the book would fit better in other categories, you should consider their advice and conduct further research.
The BISG subject code committee meets once a month to discuss the BISAC codes. Codes are updated annually, usually in late October or early November, so you may benefit from checking the code list regularly to see if there are new categories that better describe your book.
Last but not least, if you feel your book isn’t accurately represented by the existing categories, you can request new codes be added. Just keep in mind that any new codes suggested should benefit multiple authors/publishers, not just you (BISG’s rules).
Conclusion
Ultimately, the right BISAC categories will enhance your book's discoverability and establish its credibility within the literary community. Set your book up for success by choosing accurate, relevant categories.
Of course, before publishing your book and worrying about BISAC categories, it’s imperative to ensure your book will compete well on the market. You should have an eye-catching cover, an expertly edited and typeset interior, a well-crafted title, an engaging book description, and, depending on the formats you’re interested in, professional eBook formatting and audiobook production.
1106 Design offers all this and more. Better yet, all our services come with hand-holding and author coaching. Contact us today to learn more.
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Thanks. This is an important subject that is always confusing.Some of my books fit well in categories and others defy my every effort to find a good fit.
This is often true, and no book is for everyone. It may help to choose the top three categories based on audience size.