eBook Keyword Analysis: Erotica Keyword Analysis
Welcome to our inspiration center on erotica keywords. This page has some general advice on keywords for this niche, as well as some keyword lists. We have general user submitted keywords as well as real, raw search data directly from Amazon’s search suggestions. The information on this page is invaluable and in our opinion, the most complete accumulation of this niche’s keyword data on a single page. Free, now and forever.
There are many banned words on Amazon, and due to their policy of not confirming nor denying their rules, they don’t publish them. As such, there is only the knowledge of previous author’s who have had books banned and even accounts banned to go off, and I hope you have found this page before publishing your first erotica because Amazon in particular can be VERY unforgiving about banned words. Please don’t message me with examples of books that have these words in the description or title, many get through, seemingly at random. There are no hard rules, there’s always a 1% chance of you getting these words through and a 1% chance of your book being banned even without any issues, it’s the nature of the beast. Until they publish clear guidelines, check here for updates. The following keywords are, in general, banned.
BANNED WORDS
Abduct / abduction
Back Door
Bang
Banging
Blowjob
Breast, breasts (Banned in title, not keywords)
Breeding, Breed, Bred, Breeder
Brother
Choked
Daddy / Dad
Dubcon
Family
Father
Forced / Force / Forces
Gangbang
Girl / Boy
Hypnosis / Hypnotize
Incest
Knocked up/Knocking up
Lactation
Little
Niece
NonConsent
Orgy
Profanity
Rape
Siblings
Sister
Slave
Sleep Sex
Sodomize/d
Step-Whatever (Banned in erotica, not romance)
Uncle
Violate
Virgin / Virginity
[We think] Words that will increase the chance of an adult title or additional review:
Alcohol / Drunk
Anal
Ass / Asshole
Baby
Babysitter
Bareback
Barely Legal
Cheerleader
Cum/ming
Deflowered
Drugs / Drugged
Dubious
Filled
Milk / Milked / Milking
Mom
Mother
Pregnancy / Pregnant / Impregnate
Reluctant
Slut / Slutty
Stepbrother
Stepmother
Young / Younger
Unprotected, no protection
Warning (As in TRIGGER WARNING or WARNING ADULT)
Not mentioned but still banned: Generally any word that describes an illegal sex act will not be allowed, and as the word’s disturb me I’m not going to bother listing them here. This is obvious, I’m sure, so I don’t need to tell you this.
So, you’ve written an erotic story and it’s main keyword is banned. What to do? You can probably still sell it, and in fact the top 100 erotica list on Amazon is always full of content that should logically contain the above keywords.
Here are some examples of common work-arounds that people use (use these at your own risk):
Workarounds
Incest MUST be step-. If you have no banned keywords, it will still be banned, because they are quite serious about this.
Incest = Taboo
Father = Man Of The House
Mother = Woman Of The House
Daughter = Precious Girl
Instead of Hypnosis, “In A Trance” etc
You get the idea.
Example Keywords
These are examples of common erotica keywords taken from Amazon’s top 100 erotica list and other sources.
18+
Adult
Affair
Ageplay
Alpha Male
Anal
Ass Play
Ballbusting
BBC
BBW
Bdsm
Bear
Bent over
Big Beautiful Woman
Big Black Cock
Black Woman White Man
Bodice Ripper
Bondage
Booty
Breeding
Bukkake
BWWM
CFNM
Cheating
CIM
Clothed Female Nude Male
Coed
COF
Cougar
Cuck
Cuckold
Cuckquean
Cum
Cumshot
Curvy
Daddy
DDLG
Defloration
Deflowered
Degradation
Dirty
Dirty 30s
Domestic Discipline
Domination
Dominatrix
Double Penetration
DP
Dubious Consent
Erotic
Erotic [Insert Descriptor here]
Erotic History
Erotic Lactation
Erotic Literature
Erotic Massage
Erotica for Women
Escort
Explicit
Fanfic
Female Domination
Femdom
Fetish
First Time
First Time Gay
FMM
Foot Fetish
Free Use
Gangbang
Gay
Gilf
Gloryhole
Group Sex
Handjob
Hermaphrodite
Hotwife
Humiliation
Hung
Husband Humiliation
Hypnosis
Impregnation
Incest
Interracial
Knocked Up
Latex
Legal Teen
Lesbian
Lesdom
Lingerie
Mature
May December Romance
Medical Play
Menage
MFM
MILF
Mind Control
Mixed Race
MMF
Multiple Orgasm
Muscular
Mutual Masturbation
Nasty
Nude
Older Man Younger Woman
Older Woman Younger Man
One Night Stand
Orgy
Pegged
Pegging
Pigtails
Pregnancy
Punish
Reluctant
Roleplay
Ropeplay
Rough Sex
Schoolgirl
Secret Baby
Secret Heir
Seduction
Sex
Shemale
Shifter
Slut
Spank
Spanked
Spanking
Squirt
Steamy
Straight to Gay
Strap on
Submission
Swingers
Taboo
Training
Transexual
Tryst
Twink
Uniform
Unprotected
Violated
Virgin
Voyeur
Waterworks Fetish
Wedding Night
Wet
Whore
Xxx
Category Keywords
To categorize your book into a sub-category on Amazon, choose your main category, then include the relevant keywords into your keyword sections. Individual keywords can be put anywhere, multiple word category keywords must be alone in their keyword box.
Erotica/Action & Adventure: action, adventure, pulp
Erotica/Adult Fairy Tales: fairy tales
Erotica/BDSM: bdsm, bondage, sadism, masochism, submission
Erotica/Historical: historical
Erotica/Horror: horror
Erotica/Humorous: humor, humour, comedy
Erotica/Interracial: interracial
Erotica/LGBT/Bisexual: bisexual
Erotica/LGBT/Gay: gay
Erotica/LGBT/Lesbian: lesbian
Erotica/LGBT/Transgender: transgender
Erotica/Mystery: mystery
Erotica/Paranormal: paranormal
Erotica/Poetry: poetry, poem
Erotica/Romantic Erotica: romance
Erotica/Science Fiction: science fiction
Erotica/Suspense: suspense
Erotica/Thrillers: thriller
Erotica/Urban: urban
Erotica/Victorian: victorian
Erotica/Westerns: western
Erotica: Erotica Characters/Alpha Males: alpha male
Erotica: Erotica Characters/Angels: angel
Erotica: Erotica Characters/BBW: bbw, rubenesque
Erotica: Erotica Characters/Bikers: motorcycle, biker
Erotica: Erotica Characters/Billionaires: billionaire
Erotica: Erotica Characters/Cowboys: cowboy
Erotica: Erotica Characters/Devils & Demons: devil, demon
Erotica: Erotica Characters/Ghosts: ghost, spirit
Erotica: Erotica Characters/People in Uniform: uniform, police, military, nurse, maid, combat, doctor
Erotica: Erotica Characters/Rockstars: rock
Erotica: Erotica Characters/Shapeshifters: shifter
Erotica: Erotica Characters/Vampires: vampire
Erotica: Erotica Characters/Werewolves: werewolf
Erotica/Action & Adventure: action, adventure, pulp
Erotica/Adult Fairy Tales: fairy tales