I agree, and have this problem including ‘conflicting young person and adult categories.’ I’ve reviewed them and changed them as much as I can, but when there are no categories that actually fit my stories settings, I just do my best and wait and see.

I was caught in the suspension pipeline. Recent changes to categories apparently have trapped a lot of authors. My categories, which I had been using for years, suddenly became “misleading.” (I had even been “bestseller” multiple times in two of them.) I wrote repeatedly trying to understand what was specifically wrong, but was told only to “read the guidelines.” I did get some correspondence at one point that appeared to be from a human and did sympathize with my situation, but offered no help. I finally determined that the problem must be that the categories I had been using were not for fiction; the problem is that there is NO category that mentions my specific setting and topic for my mysteries anywhere in the voluminous list of Amazon fiction categories. I took my books out of the categories where they had been successfully selling and put them in huge, less specific, less relevant categories, and that seems to have been acceptable. None of the various webinars I’ve attended address the dangers of misunderstanding what Amazon wants you to do in your metadata; this is the first discussion of this kind I have seen. To all of us: at least, when you are challenged by Amazon for a mistake you have made, make your response as specific as possible so possibly they will understand how THEY are misleading people. I was told that my frustrated feedback would be passed on, and maybe it will.

I agree that it would be advisable to reach out for feedback in writing regarding how their algorithms treat sexual content, depending on what it may be–if you can even get them to discuss it.

But, there are some phenomena that can be observed:

“Clean” or “sweet” romances appear to be more searchable on Amazon than other romance categories, and also to generate fewer customer complaints.

Cover art seems to have a significant contributing impact on SEO. Benign covers search better; trashy covers may not search at all…

Polling around entertainment also appears to indicate a market shift away from the consumption of sexual content, especially among (but not limited to) Gen Z.

But again, these are just my observations.

@chris – One suggestion here would be to include accurate medical terminology and descriptions which lend authenticity without veering into graphic territory. Balancing the clinical aspects with the human experience should help you steer clear of any violations.

Mike—that’s a great question. Hugging and kissing are typically considered expressions of affection and are generally permissible. If you ever find yourself in doubt, KDP’s guidelines are a valuable resource and reaching out to their support for clarification is not a bad idea.

They just blocked one of my books on there. I’m now scared to upload another