Understanding Amazon Sales Rankings
If you’ve self-published a book recently and have it listed for sale on Amazon.com, you’re probably checking your Amazon sales ranking on a regular basis. You’re also likely to be comparing it to sales rankings for other books and trying to make sense of it all. While Amazon uses a proprietary algorithm to calculate how well a book is selling, here is a general overview of how the Amazon sales ranking system works.
The sales rank is updated every hour and reflects how a book is selling relative to other books selling in the same one hour period. The number does not indicate total book sales for the title. It is a relative rank so the lower the number (eg. 123 vs. 123,000), the better the sales.
While the sales rank does factor in aggregate sales, it appears to place a greater emphasis on hourly sales. When a book is newly listed on Amazon, current book sales seem to have more weight than aggregate sales. If one book has a sudden spike in sales in an hour, while the other books don’t, that book will rank higher because Amazon uses the number of books sold to predict sales trends. Thus, a higher ranking book may not have sold more books in total than the lower ranking titles.
The bestselling books tend to have a sales ranking in the top 10,000. If a book’s sales ranking is greater than 100,000, it has probably not sold in a few days. If the sales ranking is greater than 1,000,000, you can assume book sales are very stagnant.
To get a feel for how a book is really selling, you need to check its sales rank on a regular basis, ideally every hour. If you see the rank drop, then it likely means that few if any books have sold in the past hour.
If you want to figure out how many books in total have sold or are selling for a particular title, Brent Sampson, author of “Sell Your Book on Amazon” recommends charting hourly sales rankings for a week to calculate an average sales ranking. He gives some guidelines:
- If the average sales rank is greater than 100,000, total sales are probably less than 200 books.
- Between 1,000 to 100,000, sales of approximately 1 to 100 copies per week
- Between 10 to 1,000, sales of approximately 1 to 500 copies per day
- Under 10, sales of over 500 copies per day
With this newfound understanding of how Amazon’s sales rankings work, you’ll be able to gauge how your competitors are doing and also ride out the highs and lows of watching your book’s sales ranking rise and fall.
Related ArticlesHow to Turn Your Self-Published Book Into an Amazon.com Bestseller
You don’t need to sell thousands of books or have a huge book promotion and marketing budget to get your title on Amazon.com’s Bestseller List for Books. If you’re the author of a self-published book, you’ll be surprised to learn just how easy it is to become a bestselling author on Amazon and it doesn’t have to cost you a dime. Becoming a bestselling author on Amazon is a great way to add cache to your self-promotions. Doesn’t “author of a bestselling book” sound better than just plain “author”?
- Understand how Amazon generates its bestselling books’ list. While it takes into account aggregate sales, it also strongly factors in current sales. The list is calculated every hour so if you can sell a few hundred copies within a short time frame, it is possible for your book to move up high on the list.
- Be sure to tell your current contacts/client base to NOT buy the book until you ask them to.
- To sell as many copies as possible within a short time frame, you’ll need to develop a campaign to encourage people to buy your book at a specified time. You will email your campaign to as many people within your network as possible, but absolutely DO NOT SPAM people.
- Create a large email list of your established client base and contacts. If you don’t have one, start building it now. You can do this by writing a blog and encouraging people to sign up for a newsletter and asking clients for their email addresses.
- Build a large online social and business network. You can do this by becoming an active member of twitter so that you can send out tweets about your campaign, joining Facebook or LinkedIn, and by parnering with other people who have large client bases and social networks that may be interested in your book. See more on this in Steps 7 and 8.
- Choose the best time and date to sell your book based on your extended network. When are these people going to be most willing to go online and buy your book? You need to balance this against when you think most people in general will be shopping on Amazon. This is important because you must sell more books than the other titles on this day. For example, running a campaign during the busy Christmas season wouldn’t be a good idea because you would need to outsell the other books and thus sell more copies of your book.
- Find or create incentives for people to buy your book at the specified time. You could offer a giveaway of your services or products, a draw for a prize or bonus gifts. Bonus gifts that consist of digital products such as e-books are ideal. People can download them for free. You can search for free e-books online, but you can offer more value if you partner with authors of e-books. See if they are willing to provide all or portions of their writing as a bonus gift in exchange for reaching a larger audience when you send out your campaign. Add up the total dollar value of your bonus gifts.
- Leverage your partners’ email lists by asking them to email your campaign to their contacts. Tell them how it will be a win-win situation because they will be promoted to a much larger audience interested in a similar topic.
- Write an email to send out to your contact list and any partners’ contact lists. The email should tell people about the opportunity to purchase your book and receive X dollars worth of bonus gifts. Be sure to mention the date they must make the purchase. Tell them they can claim their bonus gifts by visiting a specified website page and entering their order number and email address.
- Create a webpage for people to enter their email and order number. Once they enter the information, redirect them to a webpage that contains links to download the bonus gifts.
- Send your email (and ask your partners to do the same) a few days before the campaign date. Send a reminder email on the same day and one more a few hours later.
- Go to Amazon and watch the “Bestsellers in Books” list on the day of your campaign. Check it every hour. When you see your book in the list, take a screenshot. Congratulations, you can now claim to be a bestselling author on Amazon.com.
How Writers Can Benefit From the Five Column Technique
Do you have any limiting thoughts and feelings about your writing and your potential as an author? Here are a few examples: “I’ve never been any good at writing”, “Nobody will be interested to read what I have to say”, “I haven’t heard back from those agents I sent my proposal to so obviously my book is no good”, “I really should turn up to write every day but…”
If you recognize any of these, and/or can come up with other statements which hold you back from making progress with your book, then you will be interested to know of the Five-Column Technique.
This technique was originally developed by Dr Aaron Beck at the University School of Medicine and mentioned by Joeseph Sestito in our recent IACCW member interview on How to Inspire Your Creative Writing with Buddhist Wisdom.
The Five-Column Technique is a way for you to release, reduce, eliminate and transform your negative beliefs and feelings about your writing and your authorship. Here’s how you can try it out to see if it works for you. Take a sheet of plain paper and draw five columns on it which you are going to write in as follows:
Column 1: Identify the Writing Situation or Event
Here you just write down the facts of the situation you are facing. For example, that it is time to do your writing and you are at your desk with your laptop open and ready for a writing session.
Column 2: Negative Emotions
In this column you need to write down the self-defeating emotions you are feeling and give them a rating of intensity expressed as a percentage. For example, anxiety 80%, anger 20% and so on.
Column 3: Self-Cherishing, Irrational Thoughts
Next you write a numbered list of your irrational thoughts and what your writing means to you. For example: 1. I’m hopeless at turning up to write regularly 2. There’s no point in doing my writing because it won’t be any good however hard I try…
Column 4: Rational and Other-Cherishing Responses
In this column you turn your attention to identifying the distortion in your negative thinking and replace your defeating emotions with enhancing beliefs for your writing. You might write something like: “How can I know before the event that my writing isn’t going to be any good? Instead of assuming the worst, why not just make a start, keep an open mind, focus on getting into a creative flow… and just see how it goes…”
Column 5: Negative Emotions (After)
Finally, rewrite the emotions from column 2 and give them a new rating after having transformed your thoughts and feelings in column 4. So, for example, “anxiety” may be down to 10% and “anger” reduced to 2%.
Try this technique next time you find yourself stuck and unable to make the progress you know deep down you want to make with your writing or indeed with any of the activities involved with your authorship.
Managing your thoughts and emotions along the path to publication is a key component for success. So why not see how much positive influence you can have on how you think and feel about writing your book and achieving your vision of successful published authorship.
If you already have experience with using this or similar techniques, or have any comments to share about this approach, I invite you to add your contribution below…
[With thanks to Joseph Sestito for outlining this technique in our interview. For a more detailed explanation plus examples, see Joseph's book Write For Your Lives: Inspire Your Creative Writing with Buddhist Wisdom].
About the author. Julia McCutchen is the Founder & Creative Director of the International Association of Conscious & Creative Writers (IACCW) where writers discover their authentic voice – on the page and in the world. She offers FREE articles, audios and videos for writers at http://www.JuliaMcCutchen.com. For a FREE 10 Point Action Plan to discover your authentic voice plus information on training and the benefits of joining the IACCW writer’s community, visit http://www.iaccw.com
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Related Articles12 Simple Steps to Create a 3D Book Cover for Your eBook Using Photoshop
A 3D book cover can make your eBook more tangible for potential readers and it’s fairly straightforward to make a 3D book cover using Photoshop. As long as you have some basic Photoshop skills, all you’ll need to do to create a 3D book cover is to follow the steps below.
- You will need to create a spine for your book cover. To do this, use the select tool to copy a slice of your book cover on the left side. Do not include any of the text in your selection.
- Paste the selection into a new image (File, New, then Paste). At this point, you can easily adjust the width of the spine by changing the size of the image (Image, Image Size). Uncheck the box that says “Constrain proportions”. Then enter the appropriate width. Add a fine outline around the spine by increasing the canvas size (Image, Canvas Size). Add one pixel to both the width and the height. Choose grey for the “Canvas extension color”.
- To add your book title to the spine, rotate the spine 90 degrees counterclockwise (Image, Rotate Canvas). Choose a font and font size so that your book title will fit within the spine. Click the type tool and make your choices in the menu. Place your cursor in the spine and type out the title. It does not need to be perfectly clear. It only needs to convey an image of a book spine to people. Rotate the spine back 90 degrees clockwise. Go to the Layers Window and flatten the image (click the expanding triangle and select “Flatten Image”).
- Add a fine outline around your book cover using the same procedure outlined in Step 2.
- Next, you will need to create a new file for combining all of these images (File, New). Make this image twice the size of your book cover. You can always trim it down later, but you’ll want the extra space for adding drop shadows and turning your 2D cover into a 3D cover. Be sure to set the background color to white if you want the book cover to be set against a white background. Copy and paste the book cover and the book spine into this new file.
- Select the layer with the book cover in it. If you do not see the layer window, click Window, Layers to make it appear. You will need to skew the cover (Edit, Transform, Skew). This will cause small boxes to appear on the cover’s corners. Holding the shift key, click the upper right corner and drag it upwards. Do the same for the bottom right corner until the top edge and bottom edge are parallel. Hit Enter when you are satisfied with how your cover looks.
- Next select the layer with the spine in it. Skew the spine by clicking the upper left corner and bottom left corner and dragging them upwards. Hit Enter when you are satisfied with how your spine looks.
- Now, you will add the “pages” at the top of the book. Select the pencil tool and choose a mid-grey color. Set the brush size to 1 pixel. Take your cursor and place it on the top left corner of the spine. Click your mouse. Then press and hold the Shift key. Move your cursor to a few pixels to the left of the upper right corner of the cover and make sure it is roughly parallel to the cover. Then click your mouse again. A parallel line will appear. If you do not like the look of it, use the undo feature and try again until you like how it looks.
- Choose a very pale shade of grey. Draw another line at the upper right corner of the cover to represent the edge of the pages.
- To add a little bit of a dimensional effect, choose the brush tool. Set the brush size to something smaller than the width of the “pages”. Use the pale grey and set the opacity to 30%. Color in the “pages” using a single sweeping line between the front and back covers.
- Add a drop shadow to your cover. In the Layers Window, click on the layer with the book cover in it. Choose Layer, Layer Style, Drop Shadow from the menu. Set the angle to 120 degrees. Play around with the Distance, Spread and Size until you like what you see. Click OK when you are done.
- Crop the image using the cropping tool. Save your file as a Photoshop file in case you need to make edits later. Then save it as a jpg. You now have a 3D book cover.
Writing For Money – Is Your Blog Making Cents?
If you have a blog with regular readers, you may be wondering how you can make money from your blog. Many bloggers started out writing for fun until they learned how easy it was to start writing for money. Here are several ways to earn income from your blog.
Writing for Money Using Google AdSense
Google AdSense is very easy to install on your blog and pays you for every time a reader clicks through to one of the sponsors. Many bloggers start out making money on their blogs using Google Adsense.
One drawback to Google AdSense is that you cannot control the ads that appear on your site. Google AdSense bots review the content on your page and choose the ads they deem most relevant. That means sometimes the bots will recognize a metaphor or example you used in your blog post as the theme of your blog and will put up some wildly irrelevant ads. It is important to use the right keywords and stay on topic if you want ads related to your niche that will interest your readers.
Writing for Money Using Banner Ads
Once you have a loyal following, you can consider contacting relevant, complementary advertisers and negotiating a rate for placing their banner ad on your site. There are a number of ways to negotiate payments:
- a monthly rate for posting the ad
- a rate based on the number of readers that click on the ad
- a rate based on the number who actually make a purchase
- a percentage of total sales
For example if your blog is about cosmetic dentistry, you might include ads for plastic surgeons. This way you will control the content and appearance of the ads on your site and will be able to ensure that your not displaying direct competitors or off topic ads.
Writing for Money – Affiliate Reviews
Your readers will look to you as an expert in your field. This gives you the authority to make recommendations on the products and services in your niche. Many of these products and services will offer you a percentage of sales.
- Do not fall prey to the temptation to make reviews based on the income you might earn. Make reasoned recommendations based on your own experience and your readers will become satisfied customers that return to hear your opinions on future releases.
- Always reveal your affiliate relationships. Most of your readers will understand that affiliate relationships are necessary for you to make a living from your blog, but many will feel deceived if they think you tried to hide this relationship.
Writing for Money by Marketing Your Own Information Product
The best way of writing for money is to offer an information product you own. As an expert in your niche, you know the problems your readers face and want solved. You may also survey your readers to find out what problems you could solve and what they would be willing to pay for these solutions. Use this information to create a product that solves a problem your readers face, and you will be able to sell your product over and over.
Blogging has taken over the internet in a way few anticipated when the first “web logs” appeared a decade ago. Now many internet giants start with a simple blog and a monetization plan. If you feel uncertain how to begin with your own product, you can use advertising and affiliate relationships to start making money while you are building the readership that allows you to build your blog into a money making enterprise.
Tammi Kibler shares her best tips on writing for money at Write More. Write Fast. Write Now. Click here ==> http://writemorewritefastwritenow.com/subscribe/ Get your free e-book “Making Money Writing Online: 4 Ways to Boost $$ Per Hour.”
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Related ArticlesA Comparison of CreateSpace and Lulu Print-On-Demand Services
If you’re ready to self-publish your book, you may have narrowed your choice of book printing to an on demand print service such as CreateSpace and Lulu. This makes a lot of sense since they’re both great print on demand self-publishing services. You can print as many or as few books as you want — even just a single copy.
CreateSpace and Lulu are often the on demand printing services that most people evaluate when they’re interested in self-publishing a book. If you’re new to self-publishing and trying to choose between CreateSpace and Lulu, here’s a comparison of these two book printing services.
To begin, you’ll want to compare price, book quality, customer support and a few other factors when deciding whether CreateSpace or Lulu is the best self-publishing option for you.
The most accurate way to compare book printing quality is to upload your digital file and order a copy of your book from both online self-publishing services. If you want to save time and money, don’t bother doing this step because the general consensus is that Lulu has better print quality.
A simple perusal of CreateSpace’s own community forum reveals a host of complaints about inconsistent quality with book cover colors varying between print run, ink appearing a bit faded and typeface appearing jumbled. That said, these tend to be edge cases and the majority of books turn out fine. CreateSpace will also replace any defective books free of charge.
One other thing to note is that books ordered directly from CreateSpace are printed at a different facility than CreateSpace books ordered from Amazon. The Amazon ones tend to print out much better and more consistently.
Next to quality, price per book should be compared when looking at your book printing options. Hands down, CreateSpace is much better priced than Lulu. For example, a standard 200-page paperback, 6” x 9” in size, costs $8.50 at Lulu vs. $5.50 at CreateSpace. If you sign up for the CreateSpace Pro Plan for $39 and a $5 annual fee, the cost is $3.25 for a single book.
While price and quality are the most important things to compare when printing your book, you should also take into consideration customer service. Lulu gets mainly glowing reviews for its customer service in its members’ forum whereas there is a sense of more complaints in the CreateSpace forum.
In my experience in 2008, customer service tended to take longer than the specified time period to get back to you. This may have been because CreateSpace was undergoing rapid growth when it was bought out by Amazon. Amazon appears to be investing heavily in building this business, so I imagine the service has improved. In fact, a recent inquiry in 2010 was answered promptly and effectively.
One final thing to look at are the available distribution channels. This could be very costly if you omit this step.
It used to be that you could only sell CreateSpace books on Amazon.com. However, CreateSpace recently introduced a new distribution process to allow you to sell to small retailers and the larger bookstores as well. For their Expanded Distribution Service, the commission is 60%. When you sell through Amazon, you only have to pay 40% commission because CreateSpace is a division of Amazon. The other bonus to this is that it is an automated process to get your book listed on Amazon.com.
Lulu offers a few distribution options. To sell your book as a marketplace listing on Amazon or on Ebay, you will need to pay $25 for their marketREACH program. To be listed in major bibliographic databases and sell your book as a regular listing on Amazon, the price is free for their extendedREACH program. Your book needs to meet unspecified eligibility requirements. I’m guessing it probably relates to having a standard sized book format. To sell beyond Amazon, you need to purchase their globalREACH program. The pricing and eligibility is not easily available on their website.
If you want to sell your book outside of Lulu’s website, Lulu will charge a 20% commission. If you factor in that most resellers want to add a 50% profit margin, the price of your book has just gone up 40% (20% commission x 2) with none of that money going to you, and you’ll likely sell fewer at the higher price.
So which service is best? It really comes down to your self-publishing needs. Is quality and customer support paramount to you? Are your margins high or is your book a loss leader? Maybe Lulu would be the best book printer for you. On the other hand, if “good enough” is your motto and you want to maximize your profits, Createpace my be the best print on demand service.
Regardless of which service you choose, you can expect a decent book at a decent price,. If you only need a few books or even a few hundred, using an on demand print service is extremely cost-effective when compared using a regular book printer.
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