This article is attached to the bardmetrics initiative and is a source of information relevant to that initiative. for more information on this project, see bardmetrics (disambiguation).
amazon sales rankings
Amazon provides book sales data through its interface (available in the “book data” section of a book’s amazon page). This data can be a bit difficult to understand as Amazon deliberately protects the algorithm used to generate it. The proprietary formula used to compile the Amazon sales ranking for a given book is a big Amazon company secret, but bloggers, authors, and internet dwellers alike have spent some time discussing what the numbers really mean.
You are reading: What is a good amazon sales rank for books
the amazon algorithm
The amazon sales rating for a given book is calculated at the time a book is sold. If you come across a book without an Amazon bestseller rating, that means the book hasn’t sold a single copy yet. As of 2004, Amazon’s sales ranking data includes sales made in both Amazon Marketplace and e-book editions.
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A book’s sales rank is (supposedly) recalculated every time that book makes a sale. The lower a book’s sales ranking number, the higher the number of books actually sold (so a #1 book has sold the most copies of all books available on amazon over a given period of time) . at the time of sale, a book’s rating will drop. the longer a book goes unsold, the more likely it is that another book has sold, moving the book to from its highest position in the ranking. this results in peaks and valleys in the book tracking over the course of a given time. if the book in question sells a large number of copies, these peaks and valleys will be closer together in a real-time analysis, allowing you to get a better average over a shorter period of time. if the book is selling slowly, it will take longer to get a true average since the peaks and valleys are further apart.
what does a range mean?
based on author theresa regan’s 2013 survey of the amazon rating system, you can make a rough estimate of the number of books sold per day via amazon’s rating of that book based on the following list :
a rule of thumb proposed by morris leventhal of fonerbooks is to check a book’s rating twice a week over a four week period. Add the rank numbers you compile and then divide by eight to find an average Amazon sales rank for that period.
how much does a range change?
again, this will depend on the frequency of a sale. a top 5000 book will generally only fluctuate by no more than 20%. titles between 10,000 and 20,000 can change by up to 60%, and titles rated below 50,000 will have wild swings.
further reading and sources
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dog ears post “what’s your rank…on amazon?”
leventhal, morris. “amazon sales ranking and author ranking”
regan, theresa “sales leaderboard”
sullivan, robin. “Demystifying Amazon’s Sales Rank”.
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