Every week I get asked by authors how the Amazon Best Seller Rank works. In this blog I will explain how it works and how it can impact on your books sales figures.
Your books ranking will not generally have any impact on conversion rate, simply because your average customer will not be aware that the Amazon book rankings exist. To you, however, a book’s ranking is very important. If your book manages to rank in the top 100 of any category on Amazon, you are automatically a best-seller, and this ‘status’ can be used to help promote your book.
Your books ranking will not generally have any impact on conversion rate, simply because your average customer will not be aware that the Amazon book rankings exist. To you, however, a book’s ranking is very important. If your book manages to rank in the top 100 of any category on Amazon, you are automatically a best-seller, and this ‘status’ can be used to help promote your book.
AMAZON BEST SELLER RANK EXPLAINED
Amazon’s book rankings are not that easy to understand, and there do not seem to be many people who understand them outside of Amazon. However, from my own experience of selling on Amazon for a number of years, here’s what I do know:
– Amazon’s book rankings are updated every hour. – If a customer purchases a book on Amazon it may not get registered as a sale on the book ranking system for a few hours.
– Amazon lists approximately 8 million books.
– If a book does not have any ranking, this means it hasn’t sold any copies.
– If you see a book with a rank in the four or five million range, you’ll know it’s a poor seller.
– A book’s rank will change hourly, unless it has not sold any copies. A book may gain a good rank due to a burst of sales, but if it doesn’t sell any more after that it will gradually fall down the rankings.
– If your book reaches the top 100 of any book category then your book is classed as an Amazon best-seller. Each particular book is ranked against every book sold on Amazon.
To put it simply, the smaller the number your book’s rank is, the better, and if you have a ranking of 4,000, it means that 3,999 books are ahead of you in terms of book sales.
– In general, a ranking in the five digits, say 30,000, means your book is selling relatively well on Amazon. Many of my books consistently rank in the top 10,000 on Amazon, every hour of the day.
The following is not exact, however it will give you a rough indication as to how many books you might sell based on a particular ranking:
Disclaimer: The Amazon book ranking changes continuously, and therefore the information provided here is not guaranteed – it is simply a guide.