What are the best practices when setting my book's categories?

The categories you use to describe your book determine who sees your book and how your book is perceived.

Before we discuss best practices, a short primer on how categories work on BookSirens.

A book can be placed in multiple categories. Our system gives equal importance to all the categories your book is in. There is currently no way to give more importance to one of your book's categories over another. In other words, there is currently no way to say one category is your book's primary category and the another category is your book's secondary category. All your book's categories are given the same weight.
There are four types of categories:

Type	Description
Standard	Genres like Romance, Science Fiction, Horror, Mystery, etc. Characters like YA, MG, Children, Cowboys, Alpha Males, Pirates, etc. Time Periods like Historical, Contemporary, Regency, Victorian, etc. Tropes like Enemies to Lovers, Forced Proximity, Grumpy Sunshine, etc. Topics like Sports, Business, Economics, etc. Themes like Coming of Age, Revenge, Survival, etc.
Triggers	Trigger warnings like Sex, Profanity, Abuse, AI Used, Blood & Gore, etc.
Ending Type	How the book ends—Cliffhanger, Happy for Now, Happily Ever After, etc.
Book Type	The type of book—Novel , Novella , Comic , Anthology , Poems, Short Stories, etc.

You can place your book under seven Standard categories maximum. There are no limits for the other category types.
Our system automatically includes your book in broader categories. For example, if your book is placed under Cozy Mystery, our system will also include your book in Mystery. This will only count as using one Standard category: Cozy Mystery
Our system automatically includes your book in combined categories. For example, if your book is placed under Young Adult and Romance, our system will also include your book in Young Adult Romance. This will only count as using two Standard categories: Young Adult and Romance

Now that you hopefully have a grasp of how categories work, following are tips on how to categorize your book to set it up for success on BookSirens.

Since all your book's categories get equal weight, focus on the major themes only. For example, don't add Romance if it's a minor subplot in your book.
1. If your book is an anthology or a collection of short stories, only add categories which apply to most or all the stories in the collection. For example, don't add Horror if just one of the ten stories is a Horror
Be as specific as your can with your categorization. If your book is a Cozy Mystery, categorize it as a Cozy Mystery, not simply a Mystery. Rest assured, our system will automatically include your book in Mystery.
Your book's categories are displayed alongside your cover, tagline, and blurb. Books attract the right readers if all these things are congruent with each other. Books don't attract readers or risk attracting the wrong readers if these elements are not congruent with each other. For example, if your categories indicate a Romance, your blurb and cover should also convey a Romance.
Before you decide to add a category, search the category in the search bar. Look at the search results and decide if your book belongs there.