The song has nothing to do with what I’m about to say, but I like it. Not sure what is so catchy about it.
Anyway, I’ve toned down my number checking with a morning/noon/dinner/evening check. Most times I go looking to see if a I have a new 5-star review that I can put into a Facebook blurb. This is dangerous because it means I have to see when I get negative reviews, but that’s besides the point.
Last night I went to bed with both books in the 7,000 and nowhere near the lists. This morning I woke up in the 5,000 and back on the list. In fact, Prodigy of Rainbow Tower leaped into the 50’s on the eBook Fantasy list. What does this mean? I’m not really sure because I have no idea what the algorithms mean. Sold over 20 of each book so far this month, so I’m thinking these are the factors:
- Rate of sales
- Amount of sales
- Time book is out
- Royalty amount
Not 100% certain on that last one. Yet, I do see a burst in the numbers when I sell quickly. The same level of burst in month two can have a weaker effect during month three. It’s an interesting factor, which might not be heavy in the equation. After all, there are a lot of books that have been out for years that are ruling the tops of the lists.
Legends of Windemere 
Seems so random
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I’m sure there’s something behind it, but it’s too complicated for me to figure out.
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Interesting.
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Yeah. I’d say confusing too.
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Or it could be a system devised by women to drive men bloody mad. Just saying. I’m a mathematician.
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I could believe that. We’re an easy gender to drive insane. Hiding the remote can do it.
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Oh Julian…have you seen the remote?
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Might only be for American men. Especially if they’re favorite sports team is playing.
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Even meaner, hide all the batteries and put the television on either a soap opera or Twilight.
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He is bad about football. Secondly he will actually watch twilight so I am kind of out of luck there.
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Kicking football or tight pants with pads football? Not sure what to say about the Twilight thing.
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He’s a secure man. Arsenal. He doesn’t swear at me over my love of Swansea though.
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To each their own, I guess. I’ve heard of Arsenal, but Swansea is a new one. I can’t mock anyone considering how the Giants are doing.
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Did you see my poor rams? To the niners? Ugh…
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I didn’t even watch the Giants game due to apple picking. Plus side for you is that the Rams have a win. We’re 0-4.
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I think you’re right about the royalty. I have a technical book with a high list price which doesn’t sell anywhere near as much as my other, lower priced books, and very often the sales rank is in the same neighborhood. It would make sense for Amazon to do this. They don’t care how many books are sold per day as much as they care about the total sales price per day. So if you can sell 20 $4.99 books per day, that’s better than selling 40 $1.99 books per day.
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Going to be interesting when I debut my third book at $2.99. Although, I now wonder about one thing. Is the algorithm the same for every list? It just struck me that while genre lists could all be the same, the Hot New Release lists might be different. Those could be amount of sale base since a sign of debut success is number of sales.
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Maybe the stats are designed to drive authors to drink, to keep up the stereotype started by Hemingway and others alive. Anyway, the song seems appropriate for a post about Amazon ratings because it reminds me of the Adams Family theme song: They’re creepy and they’re kooky, mysterious and spooky, they’re all together ooky, the AMAZON RATINGS! 🙂
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Didn’t think of it that way. It works. 🙂
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Now I’ve got that tune stuck in my head…
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