Authors: Info on Amazon’s Bestsellers Ranking

ByPhyllis Zimbler Miller

If you are an author and have ever wondered about the Bestsellers Rank on Amazon, perhaps you would like to read the response that author Jerrye Sumrall received when she sent an email to KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) asking about the ranking of one of her books on the U.K. Amazon site:

[T]he Bestsellers Rank is relative and may change even when there are no sales of a book, or may not change when there have been new sales. For example, if you were to sell a copy of your book and the rest of the books in the store happen to be selling more often than normal, your Bestsellers Rank may not change.

While monitoring your book’s Amazon sales rank may be helpful in gaining general insight into the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and other initiatives to drive book sales, it is not an accurate way to track your book’s sales or compare your sales in relation to books in other categories.

This is not applicable only for Kindle books. It is applicable for all the products on Amazon.

Yes, I realize that, although this response may not be very insightful, it is interesting to see what Amazon thinks is a helpful response.

Click here to check out Jerrye’s five-book Bayshore Mysteries Middle Grade series. I’ve read all five books and found them fascinating.

© 2015 Miller Mosaic LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller) is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks, including HOW TO SUCCEED IN HIGH SCHOOL AND PREP FOR COLLEGE and the romantic suspense spy thriller CIA FALL GUY, as well as newly written books not yet published. She can be reached at pzmiller@gmail.com

3 Comments

  1. Phyllis,

    Thank you for posting the information about Amazon’s Best Sellers Ranking. I certainly agree with you about their generic response. I wonder if they want to keep the author in the dark about their methods of ranking author sales.

    1. Jerrye —

      Who knows with the power-that-be at Amazon what the thinking is about providing information to authors. Still, I do wish there was more transparency.

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