Amazon sales rank
Amazon sales ranks explained
13/09/07 19:13 Filed in: Miscellaneous
One of our authors sent a mail today, asking whether
we could double check his sales figures. He had
checked his amazon ranking and according to those
numbers he felt that his sales could be higher.
Unfortunately the amazon sales rank has little to do with the actual number of sales a book has made. Instead it is, amongst many other factors, both an indication of how well a book doing against other books and projection of future sales.
Steve Rhodes writes:
Fluff has an in-depth information and graph page available, although you need to be a bit of a geek to understand it. Another explanation can be found here.
Unfortunately the amazon sales rank has little to do with the actual number of sales a book has made. Instead it is, amongst many other factors, both an indication of how well a book doing against other books and projection of future sales.
Steve Rhodes writes:
Later he reveals "One sale a day can put a title in the top 10,000 sellers; a sale every few days can land a title in the next tier of 100,000. When the rest of the list is updated each month, rankings are determined by a complex mathematical formula based on the most recent sale and the time between sales."
The article concludes by showing even a small number of books ordered can have a big impact on the rank: "...wishing won't make it so, but action can work wonders. Lew McCreary saw his well-reviewed thriller 'The Minus Man' (Penguin Books, 1994) locked in Amazon.com's dark middle kingdom since the start of the rankings. He regularly checked the ranking over several weeks. It barely budged. Last week's slot: 680,281. 'I just want to know what to do to get under 500,000,' he said last week.
"After some thought, Mr. McCreary, whose day job is editorial director of CIO, a magazine for chief information officers, rallied the magazine's staffers at lunchtime. He told them he would reimburse them for the book's $9.95 purchase price if they called Amazon.com and placed an order. Five hours later, 10 books had been bought, and Mr. McCreary was making a run for glory.
"By 5:35 p.m. his rank was 368. 'I feel like I have the bends,' chortled the author, preparing for a night of celebration. 'I surfaced much too quickly. I just hope I can stay up this high until morning.'"
Fluff has an in-depth information and graph page available, although you need to be a bit of a geek to understand it. Another explanation can be found here.
|