So, I’ve mentioned that I was watching the rankings to see if I could get a clue about how they work. I’ve concluded that I have no fucking idea. Prodigy of Rainbow Tower was staying around 6,500 for most of the day then it sold 1. Moved around 6,200. I leave and come back to find it’s now sold 11 and it’s at 7,050. A few things can be guessed here:
- A lot of people were selling books and doing better than me. Very possible.
- The rankings are bullshit. Quiet possible.
No idea what I’m supposed to be doing. The Facebook lists seem to be helping, but if a big sale results in a ranking going down then I’m stumped.
Legends of Windemere 
Here Here! I agree with #2
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Sold more just now. Wonder if the Top 100 lists change every hour and the big list changes every 7-9 hours like Ionia just emailed me.
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very cool.
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Maybe it’s like the view bar here and it’s based on rankings within a time period. Yeah, I’m grasping at straws.
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I did read that rankings dealt a lot with amount sold in a 24 hour period.
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I was trying to figure it out too, and it never seemed like the things that should connect, did. So, I have nothing of value to add except that I think it refreshes on a different rate than the sales pages do. No proof of that, just a hunch from what I saw.
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It just dropped to 6,275 after 2 more sold. I give up on trying to figure it out. Just strapping in for the wild ride.
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What I’ve noticed is that the rankings do not track sales in real time. Just as there is a lag between sales occurring and them showing up on your KDP report, there is also a lag between that and the rankings adjustment.
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I’m noticing. I thought it was only an hour lag like they mentioned somewhere on the site, but it’s look more like a couple hours.
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Sales rank is more sensitive the lower the rankings get. Many of the top books have active promotions that kick in, expire, etc., so sales frequency can easily vary with the rankings. Those sales should help in the longer term, even if not in the short term. Although Amazon claims that sales ranks update hourly, often they don’t seem to do that. Similarly, reports aren’t immediate either. So if you see several sales reported, you can’t be entirely sure when they sold (I’ve heard reports of very lengthy delays, on occasion). Then whenever they actually did sell, it may take time for the sales rank to reflect this (occasionally, there are lengthy delays here, too). Then there are occasional glitches in the system. For example, my author rank hasn’t changed by one digit in the past four days, so there’s obviously a glitch there. It stinks when you’re working hard on marketing and sales rank and reporting isn’t regularly updated while you’re investing time and/or money into promotions, but it happens… Another note is that prior sales history may have more relevance than immediate sales with the lower rankings.
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I’m noticing the timing. Soon after I made the post, I shot down to 4,871 and now I’m up again. Keep coming within a hair’s breath of the Top 100 lists and I’m sure that’s what helped my first book get the success that it did.
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A watched pot never boils, or something like that. Don’t look at it for 24 hours, see what happens. You might end up at #1!
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Not going to beat Martin, I know that. 😉
I check it occasionally, but I’m at the computer typing away for most of the day. Hard to resist and the number movements help remind me when another Tweet or FB blast is needed. I think the FB work is helping a lot. Even the first book made it back into the 22,000’s.
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