This is an index of all of the supported placements (also known as co-op placements) in our store, category by category. We provide this information so you can see which placements have been underwritten by publishers. Amazon.com's editors only feature books we think you'll want to know about. And we give favorable reviews only to those titles we believe in. For more information on how we choose the books we display in our store, and our independent editorial opinion, read our selection and review policies below.

For a store to make this kind of information available to customers is an unusual step. We'd like to know what you think about it. Please send your thoughts to co-op-comments@amazon.com.

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Our Selection and Review Policies
How is a book chosen to be featured at Amazon.com?
Our editorial and merchandising staffs--the largest of any online store--comb through thousands of titles each week, looking for the best books to feature in our store. We only feature books we think our customers want to know about. There are several factors that influence that decision. The top ones are:

• We found a great book (famous author or unknown, large publisher or small)
  
• A well-known writer has a new release
  
• A particular title is getting a lot of attention in the media

What's a "supported placement"?
Amazon.com does accept publisher cooperative marketing funds, commonly called co-op. This is money that publishers have set aside to help promote and publicize certain books. Most booksellers accept co-op funds, everyone from cozy neighborhood bookshops to giant megastores.

What do publishers buy with co-op funds at Amazon.com?
Our promise of where and when we'll feature a particular title, once it has passed editorial muster. Here's how it works: publishers nominate titles that they're interested in promoting with co-op funds. If our editors think those books deserve your attention, then we agree to feature them on a certain schedule, and we accept payment for that promise. But if a book doesn't meet our standards, we won't feature it for any price. Period. Our editors regularly reject titles that don't make the grade.

Why do you accept these funds in the first place?
It's pretty simple: co-op helps us keep costs low and discounts to customers high. We want to offer you the best titles at the best possible prices.

So, if publishers are buying a placement, how can Amazon.com reviews be independent? Don't you have to say a book is good if a publisher paid you to put it on a page?
We don't sell our reviews, and we don't say a book is good just because it's a publisher-supported title. Our reviews are independent; our editors tell you what they think of the books they review. We have no interest in saying something is great if we don't think it is. We would never trade our long-term relationship with you for a single sale. That's not the way we do business. And that's why we've developed the returns policy we have. We stand behind our reviews.

I see more positive reviews than negative ones. How come?
Well, we spend more time reviewing titles we think are good. Those are the ones we want to tell you about. But there are exceptions to that rule. Sometimes a book becomes a media phenom--something everybody is going to read, but few would call really good. As a bookseller, we wouldn't be serving customers well if we didn't make those titles easy to find. And there are plenty of books that are likely to delight some readers--say, fans of a certain genre--but disappoint others. What's right for one customer isn't necessarily right for another. So, through the review, our editors try to provide enough information to help you make the purchasing decision that's right for you--even if that decision is not to buy the book.

Here are a couple of examples:
The Royals, by Kitty Kelley
Deadline Y2K, by Mark Joseph

To make your decision even better informed, we also provide reviews from respected sources like Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Dr. Dobb's Journal, and many others.

What if I think the Amazon.com review is off base?
Please tell us! As always, customers are free to disagree with us about how good a title is, through customer reviews. Here's a fine example of a rampant debate among customers. We love it when customers duke it out over a title. (Though, when we first went into business, many publishers were more than a little uncomfortable with some of the intensely negative customer reviews we allowed on our pages.) Aside from the pleasure of lively debate, customer reviews can be valuable in helping you decide whether you'll enjoy a title. We also give publishers an opportunity to enter information about books. These comments are clearly labeled as coming directly from the publisher.