YOU CAN’T WIN

No matter what you do, your book will never be good enough.

Editing:

• If you don’t get your book proofread well, the critics can be brutal.
• But even if you iron out every spelling and grammar issue, people can still complain about editing. Show more, tell less. Language is too plain and simple. Language is too complex. The point of view changes where it shouldn’t have.
• And even if your book is masterfully edited, you can still get a sour grapes review that claims that it’s poorly edited. For if the book just has a few reviews and one mentions editing issues, most customers will believe this at point-blank. Unfortunately, it’s often the case, so such sabotage can easily be effective. Your book is vulnerable. (But not defenseless.)
• No matter how well-written a book is, there will still be readers who don’t appreciate the style. You

… Our Father, Lady, Countess-Grae, ached fretful and pensive in her bilious Ostrich Feather quilt. Her pale face was pale. She was ailing but the money spiders still fell from her breasts in herds, as tiny, multi-limbed Bilberries, they scattered onto the ivory down all speckled and bright and abundant, shining like studded leather. Her lithe body basked in the wetness of her fever, twisted and wound in tangled sheets which bunched and gathered in knots over her shoulder then smoothed into gentle folds, swelling the busy spiders as they ran. A rather sickly looking leg limped from the covers, sickly but attractive. It relaxed and flopped to one side suggestively. The white pigs on the window sill blushed and snorted their disapproval.

“…But darling, how very clever of you…”
Earl Grae dripped petulantly from one of the wrought iron arches of the bed rest.
“Why, what can you mean…

INTRODUCTION

How does Amazon sales rank work? Specifically, what factors affect the sales rank of books (or other products) at Amazon.com?

These questions will be answered in this article—as the result of years of research on this topic.

It’s easy to perform controlled experiments on Amazon.com sales rank. Here is the kind of research that went into the preparation of this article:

• I’ve purchased hundreds of books, e-books, and other products over the course of several years on Amazon, both directly from Amazon and through third-party sellers on Amazon. It’s easy to monitor the sales rank before and after each purchase.
• I’ve studied years of sales rank data for dozens of books that I’ve published. I’ve compared this data to royalty reporting and Nielsen Bookscan data from Author Central.
• Since 2008, there have been cases where I was able to make firsthand observations of purchases on Amazon, in which case…

I first read The Prodigy of Rainbow Tower back in 2013. Here’s the Amazon review I wrote for it:

Months after reading this book, my mind is still drawn to it. The fight scenes are descriptive without being overdone, the characters are realistic and dynamic, and there are surprise punches I just didn’t see coming. It’s a great adventure story. There’s a lot going on in this book, but Charles Yallowitz somehow made it all flow together seamlessly. I’ll continue to recommend this series to anyone who enjoys reading fantasy.

That holds as true now as it did when I first read the book. Nyx is a complex, exciting character who I feel really compliments Luke Callindor’s character. The fight scenes are realistic and the action is both fast-paced and smooth. It kept me reading and reading.

It’s been a busy week, so I haven’t finished reading through The Prodigy…