Navigating the Amazon Best Seller Lists

Learning how to navigate the Amazon Best Seller Lists is a vital tool for any self-publisher. You can use these lists to do extensive research in your genre. Here, I will take you through a series of screenshots and show you how to find and navigate the Amazon Top 100 Best Seller Lists.

1. From the main Amazon page, under “Shop by Department”, you will see the word “Kindle”. If you hover over the word “Kindle”, it will bring up another box. I have circled “Kindle Books” in the picture below in green. Clicking this link will take you to the main Kindle Books webpage on Amazon.

2. From here, there are actually 3 different ways to get to the Top 100 Best Seller List. On the right side of the page, under “Browse” and “Popular features”, you will see a link to “Kindle Best Sellers”. Also, along the top of the page, you will see a list that includes “Best Sellers”. I have circled both of these links in green below.

The third way to reach the list from this page is along the right side of the page. This list says “Best Sellers” and includes thumbnails of the current Top 10 Paid and Free books in the Kindle store. If you click on “Kindle Store: Kindle Books” (circled in green), it will take you to the Best Seller list.

3. Now you are on the main Best Sellers page for Kindle eBooks. From here, you can find all kinds of great information. Along the left side, there is a list of all the broad genres and categories (circled in green). In the center of the page is the actual list of Top 100 Paid and Free books in the Amazon Kindle store (circled in blue) Amazon has them in sets of 20. Along the right side are the extra lists, such as Hot New Releases, Best Sellers, Top Rated, and sometimes you’ll see Movers & Shakers here (circled in red) Clicking on “See Top 100” will take you to that respective Top 100 list.

(*please excuse my horrible drawing skills in paint. Yes, I do know there is a circle tool, but it was taking me too long to get it looking good, so you’ll have to deal with my squiggles!)

4. To show you subcategories as well, I will choose “Romance” from the category list on the left. This brings me to the Top 100 list of all Romance ebooks in the Kindle store. You will see that now, along the left side, there is a narrower list of subcategories within the Romance main category (circled in green). In the middle, you have the Top 100 Paid and Free books in Romance, arranged in groups of 20 (circled in blue). And along the right are extra lists like the Top 100 Hot new Releases in Romance (circled in red).

5. To narrow my search, I will select “Fantasy & Futuristic” from the Romance category. If I were writing this out, it would look like this: Kindle > Kindle eBooks > Romance > Fantasy & Futuristic. It could also be written as: Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Romance > Fantasy & Futuristic. These would be the same lists, just different paths of getting there.

As you can see, we are just moving into narrower subcategories. This is a huge reason why Amazon is king of sales. Their site is super easy to navigate and it’s easy to find the types of books you want to read!

Here is the Fantasy & Futuristic Romance page:

See a pattern here? You have the same 3 sets of information on this best seller list. However, you’ll notice on the left side that Fantasy & Futuristic is as narrow as this subcategory goes. If there were more subcategories to explore, a new list would have appeared along the left side.

You can do this for any category and list. With a little practice and time, navigating the Amazon best seller lists is easy and will help keep you up-to-date on what’s selling best in your genre.