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Refining Your Search: A User Guide

April 2024  ·  Updated June 2026  |  User Guides

Updated Keyword search just got more powerful. You can now combine multiple words, wrap a phrase in “quotes,” and leave terms out with -word. Jump to what’s new →

Sleuthy’s search page packs a lot of filtering power into a small space. This guide walks through every option, explains what it actually does, and offers some practical strategies for finding better leads faster.

The search form has two text fields that work as a pair: Keyword Search and Exclude Keywords. Understanding how they work together is the key to getting precise results.

Keyword Search

Type one or more words here. They’re matched against a book’s title, description, author name, publisher, and category tags, all at once. When you type more than one word, results must contain all of them, so each word you add narrows the results, helping you home in on exactly what you want.

Three small extras give you precise control:

Example: Typing cozy mystery finds books that contain both “cozy” and “mystery” somewhere in those fields. Want them strictly together? Use "cozy mystery".

Example: Typing detective small town narrows to books that mention both a detective and a small town, far tighter than either word alone.

Tip: Add words to narrow, use “quotes” when the order matters, and reach for -word to clear out a recurring theme you don’t want. Very short words (one or two letters) are skipped automatically; Sleuthy will tell you if it ignored any.

Exclude Keywords

This is the opposite: any book mentioning one of these words is removed from your results. You can list several: a book is dropped if it matches any of them. It’s useful for cutting out recurring themes or subgenres you’re not interested in. (You can also exclude a single word inline using -word in the main Keyword box; the Exclude field is just a roomier place to list several.)

Example: You’re searching Science Fiction & Fantasy but want to avoid vampire books. Set Genre to Science Fiction & Fantasy and put vampire in Exclude Keywords.

Example: You want thrillers but keep seeing the same mega-bestseller clogging up results. Put the author’s name in Exclude Keywords to filter them out; add more names separated by spaces to clear out several at once.

Tip: You can use Keyword Search and Exclude Keywords together. For instance, search for dragon but exclude erotica. One pulls in, the other pushes out.

The Genre Dropdown

This is your broadest filter. It pulls from Sleuthy’s genre database, which mirrors the tier structure we use in our annual genre rankings.

You can select a top-level genre (e.g., Romance) or drill down to a specific subgenre (e.g., Romance | Paranormal). Leave it on “All” to search the entire database.

Tip: If you’re prospecting broadly, start with a top-level genre and use the keyword and sort fields to zero in. If you already know your niche, go straight to the subgenre. Remember that books can appear in multiple subgenres, so casting a slightly wider net can sometimes reveal titles you’d miss in a narrow search.

The Numeric Filters

These three fields let you set minimum thresholds. Think of them as a quality gate: only books that meet all your criteria will appear.

Filter What It Does When to Use It
Best Seller Cutoff Only shows books with an Audible bestseller rank better (lower number) than the value you enter. Books with no rank are excluded. Use this to focus on books that are actually selling. A cutoff of 250000 is a reasonable starting point. Lower it to 100000 for proven sellers, or raise it to 500000 to cast a wider net.
Minimum Average Rating Only shows books rated at or above this level (on a 5-point scale). Setting this to 3.5 or 4.0 filters out poorly received titles. Useful when you’re looking for proven quality, less useful if you’re hunting for undervalued gems.
Minimum Rating Count Only shows books with at least this many ratings. A book with a 5.0 rating and 2 reviews tells you very little. Setting this to 10 or 20 filters out titles with too little data to judge. For established categories, 50 or 100 can be useful.
Tip: These filters stack. A search with a bestseller cutoff of 200,000, a minimum rating of 4.0, and a minimum review count of 20 will only return books meeting all three conditions. Start loose and tighten as needed; it’s easier to narrow down a big result set than to figure out why you’re getting zero results.

The Checkboxes

Four quick toggles at the bottom of the form let you exclude common categories that often clutter results for narrators and producers looking for indie opportunities.

Checkbox What It Removes
No University Publishers Academic press titles. These are almost never relevant for commercial narration prospecting.
No Major Publishers Titles from the big publishing houses. Major publishers typically have their own narration pipelines, so these leads are rarely actionable for independent narrators.
No Free Books Books listed as free on Audible. Often public domain or promotional titles, unlikely to be active royalty-share opportunities.
Exclude Romance Removes the entire Romance genre from results. Useful when searching broadly across all genres if Romance isn’t your thing; it tends to dominate results otherwise.
Tip: For most prospecting searches, ticking “No University Publishers” and “No Major Publishers” is a sensible default. These rarely yield leads you can act on.

Sort Order

How you sort your results changes what floats to the top, which changes what you find. It’s worth thinking about.

Sort Option Best For
Lead Score The default, and usually the best starting point. Sleuthy’s lead score combines multiple signals into a single number. Green (70+) means strong prospect, amber (40–69) means worth a look, red (below 40) means proceed with caution.
Bestseller Rank When you want to see what’s selling right now. Lower rank = more sales. Good for spotting hot categories.
Average Rating When quality matters most. Useful for finding well-regarded titles that might benefit from audio editions.
Number of Reviews A proxy for reader engagement. High review counts mean an active, invested readership: exactly the audience you want for an audiobook.
Most Recently Updated See what Sleuthy has refreshed most recently. Our data updates regularly, so this shows you the freshest information.
Most Recently Published Brand new releases. Great for catching books early, before other narrators have found them.

Search Strategies That Work

The Broad Sweep

Pick a top-level genre, tick the publisher exclusions, sort by Lead Score, and just scroll. Don’t overthink the filters on the first pass. You’re looking for patterns: which subgenres keep showing up, what kinds of titles have strong scores, where the opportunities seem to cluster. Then tighten your search on the second pass.

The Niche Hunter

Already know your niche? Go straight to the subgenre dropdown, add a keyword for your speciality, set a reasonable bestseller cutoff (say 300,000), and sort by Most Recently Published. You’re hunting for new releases in your wheelhouse that haven’t been snapped up yet.

The Quality Check

Set Minimum Rating to 4.0, Minimum Rating Count to 50, and sort by Bestseller Rank. You’re now looking at books that are both popular and well-reviewed. These are the titles with proven reader demand and strong word-of-mouth: the kind of projects that tend to generate steady royalties.

The Fresh Catch

Sort by Most Recently Published, set no keyword, pick a genre. You’re browsing what just arrived. Newer books are more likely to be looking for narrators, and you’ll be among the first to spot them.

The Author Deep-Dive

Found an author you like? Type their name in the Keyword Search field. Every book by that author in the database will appear. If they’ve got multiple titles performing well, that’s a narrator’s dream: one relationship, multiple projects.

Common Pitfalls

Too many filters at once. If you set a tight bestseller cutoff, a high minimum rating, a high review count, and a specific keyword, you might get zero results. Start with one or two filters, see what comes back, then add more.

Forgetting the genre dropdown is set. If you searched “Romance | Paranormal” on your last search and then type a new keyword, you’re still filtering by that subgenre. Check the dropdown before each new search, or set it back to “All.”

Ignoring the lead score colour. A long list of red-scored leads is not the same as a short list of green ones. Quality over quantity. Use the score as your first triage tool.

Not trying different sort orders. The same result set looks completely different sorted by Lead Score versus Most Recently Published. A book that’s buried on page five by one sort might be at the top of another. Experiment.

One Last Thing

The search is a starting point, not the finish line. When you spot a promising title, click through to the book details page. Check the full description, the publisher, the lead score breakdown. Use the “View on Amazon” button to see the live listing. And if something looks like a strong lead, save it. You can keep up to 100 leads in your list at a time.

Happy searching!

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