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Any alternatives to BISAC subject categories in iTunes Producer

When preparing a book package in iTunes Producer you need to select the BISAC subject category that best describes your book. However, none of the available subject categories really works for my novel. I had to choose one, just to get past this requirement. But is there a way to go beyond these categories and come up with others more suitable to what you've written? The description I wrote for my book more accurately describes it but when potential buyers search by subject category for books to purchase, mine would appear in a list it really doesn't belong in. I'd like readers to find my book but right now they'll be able to because of these limited subject headings.

Posted on Sep 24, 2012 9:20 AM

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6 replies

Oct 1, 2012 7:40 AM in response to prkos

Thanks for responding. My novel, KIP, is about a fox living in an undeveloped area of a university campus whose habitat is destroyed to make way for a new basketball arena. Appropriate subject headings would be something like "animal stories" or "survival stories" or even, more specifically, "fox stories." But I didn't see anything close to those among the BISAC headings. I went with "Action and Adventure" but that doesn't quite hit the mark. I know there's a way to specify age group and one might think my novel would be appropriate for younger readers but actually the style in which my novel is written would be too challenging for most readers 13 and under, so the age level is listed as 13 and up. The description I included pretty accurately describes the novel but I'm not sure if someone searching in the iBooks store would pull it up via keywords in that description.

Oct 3, 2012 5:17 PM in response to bookworm1

You mentioned "animal stories", "survival stories" and "fox stories" but I don't think this would make it clear either, are animal stories a cartoon for children or wild animals, are survival stories about bad breakups?...


Based on the current information I think Nature is the most appropriate category, I'm sure you can find something there http://www.bisg.org/what-we-do-0-117-bisac-subject-headings-list-nature.php


These sound good:


NATURE / Animal Rights

NATURE / Animals / Wildlife

NATURE / Environmental Conservation & Protection


What do you think?

Oct 5, 2012 1:41 PM in response to prkos

Thanks, they do sound OK--except my book is fiction and none of the fiction categories really work. In iTunes Producer if you designate your book as fiction, you must choose a subcategory from among those listed. I could not figure out a way to add the NATURE categories you suggested while retaining the fiction designation, which is essential. But I will look into this and see if there's a way to do it.

Oct 5, 2012 2:58 PM in response to bookworm1

Ah sorry, you got me there, it sounded like a real case! I guess it should go under Fiction then but I don't see a category that would fit nicely, what a shame.


I guess according to their guidelines you can use


FICTION / General


or perhaps


FICTION / Urban Life


To me it makes sense being able to add any other category after Fiction...

Oct 6, 2012 7:15 AM in response to prkos

Thing is, if you go to the iBooks store and search the term ANIMAL STORIES you get several screens of titles. You also get many titles when you search SURVIVAL STORIES or FOX STORIES. But my book KIP

http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/kip/id553708765?mt=11&uo=4

is not among them. So the iBooks store does recognize those terms; they're just not available in iTunes Producer. Perhaps books that get into the iBooks store through some other means than iTunes Producer have more options for descriptive search terms.

Any alternatives to BISAC subject categories in iTunes Producer

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