What's new in Bookshift: category research and clearer setup

Last week I mentioned that a multilingual KDP category browser was coming soon. This week, the main change is that it has moved from "coming soon" into a real workspace you can use.

There was also a lot of less glamorous cleanup: better help material, a smoother series and cover setup path, and more translation reliability work. The theme is pretty simple: fewer blank boxes, fewer mystery steps, and more of the publishing prep in one place.

The KDP Category Finder is now a full research workspace

Bookshift now has an Amazon KDP Category Finder for marketplace category research.

You can use it in two ways:

start with a specific book or translated edition and ask Bookshift for category suggestions;
switch to catalog search and manually research the category tree for a marketplace.

That matters because KDP categories are not just translated labels. A category path in the German store, French store, or Japanese store can be structurally different from the US store. The finder is designed around that reality: choose the Amazon store, choose the edition or enter details manually, then keep the store-language path visible while using explanations to understand what you are picking.

Bookshift KDP Category Finder with manual book details, marketplace selection, filters, saved options, and final KDP picks

I also added a more practical shortlist flow. You can save categories you are considering, then narrow them down to the final three KDP picks. That is closer to how authors actually make the decision: collect likely options first, compare them, then decide what goes into the publishing dashboard.

Better help for getting started

The help center now has a broader Getting Started with Bookshift video. It covers the main workflows in one place: translation, covers, paperback wraps, KDP categories, proofreading, transcription, and publishing prep.

Bookshift help center video card for the Getting Started with Bookshift walkthrough

I refreshed the cover help material as well, including the cover workflow videos and cover help articles. This is the kind of change that is easy to overlook, but it matters when you are trying a tool for the first time and just want to know which button to press next.

Smoother cover and series setup

Series-aware cover work also got more automatic.

Bookshift now does more to carry series style context forward, so later cover jobs can start from stronger visual continuity instead of making you rebuild the same direction from scratch. The aim is to make a translated edition, series cover, or box set feel connected to the wider series without turning every job into a long setup form.

There were also fixes around the cover language selector and EPUB cover insertion, so cover translation and cover replacement should feel less fussy when you are preparing final files.

Translation reliability work you may not notice directly

Some of the week went into translation and processing guardrails rather than visible screens.

The translation system now does more to avoid tiny, unhelpful translation tasks, and there is more checking around source fidelity before work moves forward. In author terms, that should mean fewer weird edge cases where a real manuscript gets split, resumed, or validated in a way that creates unnecessary risk.

This is not a flashy button, but it is the sort of work that makes Bookshift better with actual books instead of clean demo files.

Coming soon: BookReels

One more thing I am excited about: BookReels is getting closer. The goal is to help authors turn a book into short, social-ready trailer clips without starting from a blank video editor. I am still testing the workflow before opening it up more broadly, but the direction is promising: use the story, tone, and reader hook of the book to create promotional clips that feel specific to the manuscript rather than generic book ads.

The exciting part is the specificity. The characters are your characters. The locations are your locations. The background music is shaped around the vibe of the scene, and when it lands, it lands near-perfectly. I think BookReels are going to set BookTok alight, and not just in English.

What to try first

If you are preparing a translated edition for Amazon, try the KDP Category Finder first. Pick the target marketplace, enter your title, genre, keywords, and blurb, then use the saved options area to narrow down the final three.

If you are new to Bookshift, start with the Getting Started video in the help center. It gives you a quick map of where the translation, cover, print, category, and proofreading tools fit together.

And if you are working on a series, keep grouping related books in Bookshift. More of the cover and translation workflow is starting to use that shared series context, which should save time as the catalog grows.