Amazon Sales Rank

[MarlowBunny]

I compulsively watch the sales rank for my tiles on Amazon. Does anybody else? I am trying to correlate sales rank to my publisher's statements and royalties. The various theories and equations that can be found on the net do not reflect my experience.

I will share my data if you will share yours. I was about to include my data in this post, but don't want to seem arrogant or find out just how small of a fish I really am even though I think I have done well.

 

[sr71plt]

I watch the rankings pretty closely. In the Kindle store, I'm happy with anything registering under 100,000. There are a whole lot of titles on Kindle, including best-selling authors in the mainstream. And there are now over 500,000 Kindle titles, so 100,000 is the top 20 percent. I don't frown on anything that stays consistently below 200,000. I've noticed from a couple of mine that pretty consistently staying under 30,000 is generated by about 100 sales/month. Those rankings update constantly and only represent resent sales, not total sales, so it's quite a dynamic rating system.

If you have a lot of titles on offer (I'm pushing about 80 now, including all pen names), it doesn't take many sales of an individual title to generate some nice cash. Sales picked up significantly since the Christmas season and haven't slacked off any that I've noticed--my sales have gone up each month since December. Of course I add two or three titles each month, so that helps.

 

[manyeyedhydra]

Highest I've spotted being was 7,000 on the co.uk site.

My two books tend to bounce around 40,000 to 140,000. That bracket isn't too exciting, usually around 1 sale/week.

Having lots of books out there seems to be a good strategy. Must write faster!

 

[MarlowBunny]

I have several titles that were developed through mainstream publishers and are available in dead tree additions as well as electronic.

Advances ranged from $10,000 to $45,000 depending on the book.

One of my titles has been under 5000 overall sales rank for an entire year. It spent a day in the top 100 and often dips into the sub-1000 group. The book is available in four languages. (English, French, German, and simplified Chinese) In spite of that, I have seen total sales through all channels of about 60,000 copies.

I have another title that has been available for 9 years and still sells about 1 to 5 copies per month. It is usually ranked around 100,000 overall.

My data matches manyeyedhydra's 1 sale per week is ranked 100,000 metric.

I am not sure sr71plt's estimate of 100 sales per month with rank under 30,000 matches my experience.

 

[sr71plt]

What author name are your titles under? Four of my author titles are habu, Dirk Hessian, Stephen Kessel, and Shabbu (the latter two coauthored ones). We can't really talk comparisons here--and doing so is meaningless--if one poster can be checked out at Amazon and the others can't be.

I work in the world of mainstream print publishing. And I'll believe stories about advances when I can check the actual books/authors out. Advances are reported in Publisher's Weekly.

 

[sr71plt]

I have several titles that were developed through mainstream publishers and are available in dead tree additions as well as electronic.

Advances ranged from $10,000 to $45,000 depending on the book.

One of my titles has been under 5000 overall sales rank for an entire year. It spent a day in the top 100 and often dips into the sub-1000 group. The book is available in four languages. (English, French, German, and simplified Chinese) In spite of that, I have seen total sales through all channels of about 60,000 copies.

I have another title that has been available for 9 years and still sells about 1 to 5 copies per month. It is usually ranked around 100,000 overall.

My data matches manyeyedhydra's 1 sale per week is ranked 100,000 metric.

I am not sure sr71plt's estimate of 100 sales per month with rank under 30,000 matches my experience.

Some statistics based on today's Kindle ranking at Amazon of a few of my erotica releases.

Title -- This afternoon's Amazon ranking (a highly dynamic number) -- this month's sales (3 weeks)

Sailorboy -- 56,356 -- 15

Fetish Galore -- 126,396 -- 10

Cairo Surrender -- 105,042 -- 8

Homeward Bound -- 91,231 -- 2

Canine Connections -- 125,038 -- 1

(So, whatever the time of measurement for ranking is for Amazon, it isn't based on a monthly or weekly period)


My best-selling e-book (not erotica and title undisclosed) at the moment is ranked 17,959 with 84 sales thus far this month.

 

[Boxlicker101]

This is interesting. I have one ebook on Amazon, and it is ranked 148,529, after having been listed since March 15. I write under the name George Boxlicker.

 

[PrincessErin]

.....

 

[MarlowBunny]

Some statistics based on today's Kindle ranking at Amazon of a few of my erotica releases.

Title -- This afternoon's Amazon ranking (a highly dynamic number) -- this month's sales (3 weeks)

Sailorboy -- 56,356 -- 15

Fetish Galore -- 126,396 -- 10

Cairo Surrender -- 105,042 -- 8

Homeward Bound -- 91,231 -- 2

Canine Connections -- 125,038 -- 1

(So, whatever the time of measurement for ranking is for Amazon, it isn't based on a monthly or weekly period)


My best-selling e-book (not erotica and title undisclosed) at the moment is ranked 17,959 with 84 sales thus far this month.

I write computer programming books for an increasingly vogue electronic device. You'll forgive me (I am sure) if I try to keep my erotica persona separate from my professional persona. I would also like to avoid having people/trolls from this site writing bogus reviews and spamming Amazon even if they have to buy the book to do it. I am not referring to anyone in this thread, but there are some serious ass hats who post here. I have already taken lumps for no apparent reason in other posts.

I said at the outset that I didn't want to appear arrogant. I suppose I will have to live with failure.

 

[sr71plt]

I write novels in the mainstream (and edit books on government policies). So, I also want to keep my erotica and "real life" writing separate. If you use pen names for your erotica, though--and do some masking of income routes--you can do this. I do. And if you don't, there's really no place for you in a comparison discussion--because what you post can't be verified.

Neither one of my erotica publishers knows who I really am (and my mainstream publisher doesn't know I also write and publish erotica), and I've managed to maintain that. Yet, anyone here has permission to PM either Sabb or Selena Kitt, the faces behind the four erotica publishing houses I publish with, for verification of statistics I give. They are both members of the Lit. community.

I'm posting numbers and statistics. I would have posted more, but only the publisher for what I posted here gives me real-time access to my sales figures.

 

[manyeyedhydra]

Some statistics based on today's Kindle ranking at Amazon of a few of my erotica releases.

Title -- This afternoon's Amazon ranking (a highly dynamic number) -- this month's sales (3 weeks)

Sailorboy -- 56,356 -- 15

Fetish Galore -- 126,396 -- 10

Cairo Surrender -- 105,042 -- 8

Homeward Bound -- 91,231 -- 2

Canine Connections -- 125,038 -- 1

(So, whatever the time of measurement for ranking is for Amazon, it isn't based on a monthly or weekly period)


My best-selling e-book (not erotica and title undisclosed) at the moment is ranked 17,959 with 84 sales thus far this month.

Sailorboy is fresh out this month, right? I think the 15 might be from a spike in the first week (where it was probably higher than 50,000) and it's dropping to the 1/week level.

From what I've seen of the rankings, anything bigger than around 40,000 is just an indication of how long a book has gone since it last sold a copy. That's the point my books seem to jump to when they make a sale and then the ranking decays down to 100,000+ until the next sale comes in. That's the pattern I've noticed. I don't know if it's the same for others (I'm M.E. Hydra on amazon if anyone wants to check)

 

[sr71plt]

Sailorboy is fresh out this month, right? I think the 15 might be from a spike in the first week (where it was probably higher than 50,000) and it's dropping to the 1/week level.

From what I've seen of the rankings, anything bigger than around 40,000 is just an indication of how long a book has gone since it last sold a copy. That's the point my books seem to jump to when they make a sale and then the ranking decays down to 100,000+ until the next sale comes in. That's the pattern I've noticed. I don't know if it's the same for others (I'm M.E. Hydra on amazon if anyone wants to check)

Sailorboy is new this month, yes. Its attraction, though (is also selling well elsewhere, which isn't always the case. I've found that about 80 percent of the sales are at Amazon) is that it's a $.99 short story. They sell well. (Fetish Galore is several months old and expensive for an e-book. But at over 80 stories and 260,000 words it seems to have been identified as a bargain.)

I watch books by several authors, and erotica rarely jumps as high as 40,000 at Amazon at all, I think. More like in the 100,000s. Most everything under 80,000 or so, are mainstream best-sellers and mid levels. Decaying down in erotic e-books at Amazon is more like 300,000. If the title is at the A end of the alphabet, it can sit there without any sales at all.

 

[manyeyedhydra]

Sailorboy is new this month, yes. Its attraction, though (is also selling well elsewhere, which isn't always the case. I've found that about 80 percent of the sales are at Amazon) is that it's a $.99 short story. They sell well. (Fetish Galore is several months old and expensive for an e-book. But at over 80 stories and 260,000 words it seems to have been identified as a bargain.)

I watch books by several authors, and erotica rarely jumps as high as 40,000 at Amazon at all, I think. More like in the 100,000s. Most everything under 80,000 or so, are mainstream best-sellers and mid levels. Decaying down in erotic e-books at Amazon is more like 300,000. If the title is at the A end of the alphabet, it can sit there without any sales at all.

Is there an alphabetized component to the rankings? Always wondered about that.

The quarterly sales for my first book was 13 copies over the last quarter of 2010. During that period it was bobbing between 40,000 to 100,000 or so, which is where I got the 1/week from.

The first three months this year have been about the same with a spike to coincide with the second book coming out. I won't know the figures until Selena puts the next quarterly out.

I've not been higher than 200,000 though. This might be because I'm targetting a niche where there isn't much competition. Too extreme to hit the mainstream, but guaranteed a small audience.

 

[sr71plt]

Is there an alphabetized component to the rankings? Always wondered about that.

The quarterly sales for my first book was 13 copies over the last quarter of 2010. During that period it was bobbing between 40,000 to 100,000 or so, which is where I got the 1/week from.

The first three months this year have been about the same with a spike to coincide with the second book coming out. I won't know the figures until Selena puts the next quarterly out.

I've not been higher than 200,000 though. This might be because I'm targetting a niche where there isn't much competition. Too extreme to hit the mainstream, but guaranteed a small audience.

I think if books sell exactly the same number of copies in a ranking period at Amazon, they must kick in with some other ranking criteria. Other distributors (like ARE and Fictionwise) use the alphabet. It's logical that Amazon would too.

Your niche wouldn't matter in determining Amazon rankings. The rankings are across all of the Kindle books, regardless of niche. So, if you stay below about 150,000, you are probably doing very well in comparison with everyone else (including the biggies like Stephen King and Nora Roberts--I always get a kick when I see a book of mine ranked better than a Nora Roberts book or two, if only for a few days or so).

I haven't added up my eXcessica sales from the fourth quarter of 2010--the last reported to me--but for the third quarter I had sales of 1,240 books on 42 works--so an average of about 30 each for a quarter year.

 

[Bianca_Sommerland]

This is a very interesting thread, gives me an idea of what to watch for when my ebook hits Amazon. Right now I only have a print book there and I'm not holding my breath for many people spending 14 bucks on an author they've never heard of.

My sales are all from my publishers website at this point, but I have noticed the rank for my print on Amazon fluctuating even without sales. From the explanation on the stats page, it seems the rank is a comparison between books of the same category. So if I sell two books in a week and no one else in my category sells for a month, my books ratings will spike.

I could be wrong, but that's my understanding. And I'll put some numbers up when I have some on amazon to share. Thank to everyone who already did. It helps give us published newbies some realistic expectations

 

[sr71plt]

From the explanation on the stats page, it seems the rank is a comparison between books of the same category.

It couldn't be this, I'm sure. I'm sure the ranking is across the entire spectrum of what is on offer.

I keep track of some mainstream authors I know. They can be listed in the top ten in their category and still be ranked at the same time in the 20,000 area. If the rankings were by category, they couldn't possibly rank that low and still be in the top ten in the category.

 

[Bianca_Sommerland]

It couldn't be this, I'm sure. I'm sure the ranking is across the entire spectrum of what is on offer.

I keep track of some mainstream authors I know. They can be listed in the top ten in their category and still be ranked at the same time in the 20,000 area. If the rankings were by category, they couldn't possibly rank that low and still be in the top ten in the category.

Maybe that's because of tagging? My books #1 under menage http://www.amazon.com/tag/menage?ref_=tag_dpp_cust_itdp_t&store=1
but that doesn't mean I'm selling better than the other authors in my catagory.

I could be wrong though. I don't have much experience with Amazon.

 

[sr71plt]

I suppose if someone sees a duplicated ranking number at the exact same instance, this may mean that the rankings are by category. I believe there's a separate number for each book, though, which would mean the ranking goes across the entire spectrum--which, I think, is far more the likely explanation.

Can't really see multiple categories each going up into the 500,000s for e-books already.

 

[Boxlicker101]

It couldn't be this, I'm sure. I'm sure the ranking is across the entire spectrum of what is on offer.

I keep track of some mainstream authors I know. They can be listed in the top ten in their category and still be ranked at the same time in the 20,000 area. If the rankings were by category, they couldn't possibly rank that low and still be in the top ten in the category.

Not to mention how unlikely it is they would have so many books in a single category. I have one ebook there; its rank now is 167,048, down from about 124,000 the first time I looked. If this ebook is compared only to others in the Erotic Romance category, that means they must have millions of books in that one category, besides all the others they offer.

 

[mia_erotica]

sales

I have sold about 425 books since Cinderella Club was released on Aug. 6th.

 

[sr71plt]

I have sold about 425 books since Cinderella Club was released on Aug. 6th.

On Kindle only or across the board on several on-line distributor sites? If across the board, what percentage of sales were on Kindle? I'm finding about 80 percent of my total sales being there.

And have sales tapered off over time? They would do so drastically in print unless something happened to reinvigorate the attention the book got. But the tapering off doesn't seem to be happening as much with e-books.

In any case, that's a pretty good record for an e-book.

 

[mia_erotica]

It's over 400 overall. Last month on Amazon.com I sold 20 Kindles, 2 on Amazon UK and I think 2 paperbacks. This month I'm up to 12. So it has been steady. Goes up after a review. Amazon and Fictionwise were where I was selling best.

It is very exciting because besides my blog and some posts on Facebook, I don't do much publicity.

Can't wait until my other books are released!

Mia

 

[Jake Marlow]

Here's some of my Amazon rankings:

Play Date: 165,531
The Sexiest Mom on the Block: 36,478
Losing Jamie:182,362
Kelsey Learns the Ropes: 202,052
Slaves of the Device: Madi's Submission: 81,587
Audrey's Awakening: 219,908
His Wife, His Prostitute: 139,862

Most of the others look to be in the 200k to 350k rank range.

 

[MarlowBunny]

Here's some of my Amazon rankings:

Play Date: 165,531
The Sexiest Mom on the Block: 36,478
Losing Jamie:182,362
Kelsey Learns the Ropes: 202,052
Slaves of the Device: Madi's Submission: 81,587
Audrey's Awakening: 219,908
His Wife, His Prostitute: 139,862

Most of the others look to be in the 200k to 350k rank range.

But how do the sales ranks correlate to units sold? How many more copies per month for "The Sexiest Mom on the Block" vs. "Slaves of the Device: Madi's Submission: 81,587" ?

 

[sr71plt]

But how do the sales ranks correlate to units sold? How many more copies per month for "The Sexiest Mom on the Block" vs. "Slaves of the Device: Madi's Submission: 81,587" ?

I don't think they do--and I think I demonstrated that with my listing, which gave both the current ranking and the current sales by unit. I have no idea what the time period is for establishing a ranking (it's not total; and it doesn't appear to be weekly or monthly either--but it changes almost hourly), but there's obviously some lag in it. If you have access to the daily sales (I do for one of my publishers), that's pretty much a real-time number.

Thus, in the example I gave, Homeward Bound's monthly sales total was only 2, and yet it was under 100,000 on the ranking list (which is a good placement).

Fetish Galore and Canine Connection were virtually the same placing, but the former had sold 10 thus far this month and the latter only 1.

Think the best you can do is look at it as a percentile of the total rankings available (over 500,000). It's likely that the bottom half haven't had any sales at all in that ranking priod. But that leaves anything above, say, 150,000, as still moving books in the reporting period.