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AuthorHouse / WordClay / Words of Belief / Author Solutions, Inc.

James D Macdonald

Software

If you visit some book on Amazon, that book will tend to show up on Amazon's front page when you look there, with a title like "Recommended" or "Featured book."

That's only on your computer. They track who you are with cookies, and assemble the pages you see on the fly.

If you visited your book at Amazon, it's likely that you saw it on the front page with some kind of label urging you to order it Right Now.

I'm interested in the exact words, and exactly where you saw the "top selling" label.
 

XThe NavigatorX

Re: Software

Sorry, warrior. Didn't mean to come across as pushy.

Those damn Amazon recommendations get me every time. I'm living proof they work well on the easily susceptible.
 

battlechaser

Re: PROMOTE AT WILL

The freaky I had with Amazon was when my book hit the 5,000's for 2 days then reverted back to the rank before it went to the 5,000's - which was over 2 million.

Now that is freaky!

Anyways, isn't there a site that will track amazon sales?
 

James D Macdonald

Track Amazon Sales Rank

Yes... that site is <a href="http://www.junglescan.com/" target="_new">http://www.junglescan.com/</a>.

You'll find all kinds of weird glitches in Amazon, strange spikes in the numbers.

Fortunately, Amazon is a small player in the great world of booksales.
 

marky48

Re: Track Amazon Sales Rank

I don't think the inquirer will make sense out of that. Even Amazon's explantion that ranking is based on many factors without listing those is fuzzy.

Matt's doing well. I think.
 

battlechaser

Re: Track Amazon Sales Rank

That site is down.
Anyways, I want to know about the actual sale, not the sales rank.

I thought there was a web site that lets you know the amount of books sold through Amazon and/or BN.

I know one can call Ingram though.
As a beginner in books being sold to the public it sucks to wait for a quarterly sales report.
 

marky48

Re: Track Amazon Sales Rank

I don't know about your POD company Tony, but my two have online charts that track what distributors and buyers order and from where. They're always behind 3 months though.
 

battlechaser

Re:

1stbooks Library only tracks books and ebooks sold through them.
I made the prices higer on 1stbooks beacuse I want people to buy at Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com - I would actaully make more money throught 1sbooks beacuse there is no middleman, but screw that, not too many people buy books from a POD publishers website, so why direct them there?

Once they see what it is, they will be swayed away.
That's what I see.
 

freindofannes

Writer beware

Warrior,

To get information about your book sales from the Ingram computer system, call 1-615-213-6803. Know your ISBN.

That will tell you how many of your books have sold in the past week and to date.
 

marky48

Re: Writer beware

He knows that.

Tony, mine track them from anywhere. But yes, why direct them there? I agree.
 

freindofannes

Writer beware

Marky,

Just in case you were responding to me:
You said, "He" knows "that".

Who knows what?
 

freindofannes

Writer beware

Marky,

What "number"?

Surely you're not claiming the Ingram computer system phone number was given to Warrior on this thread--Warrior being the entity who started the thread?

On this thread, most responses to Warrior's request involved links to understanding the enigmatic amazon.com "bestseller" data. Although interesting, it didn't help Warrior. To my reading, Warrior was concerned he was being cheated by his publisher. Hard sales figures would reassure him, not math equations.

In any case, the Ingram computer system number bears repeating, doesn't it, Marky? It's useful info for published authors. Useful info doesn't deserve dismissive treatment by a bystander. Does it, Marky?
 

XThe NavigatorX

Re: Writer beware

Um....

read nine down from the top. James' response, right after mine.
 

Dancre

Re: book on top seller list, yet claims zero sales????

hi warrior
I'm going to give my two cents on this. from what you've written, your publisher won't give you the needed information about your royalties. obviously they are hiding something from you. instead of trying to figure out how many books you've sold, what i would do is first call the BBB (Better Business Bureau), tell them exactly what you've told us here, and let them put some presure on this publisher. if that didn't work, then i would call the states attorney general and my lawyer and see if i could sue them. if this publisher was honest, then they wouldn't try to hide information from you, by sending you from rep to rep and not returning your phone calls. you shouldn't have to "beg" to get your royalties. also if you could, e-mail victoria at writerbeware (?) i think that's where she's at and dave over at P&E and warn them of this scam. i really think that you were suckered into a black hole and now you need to fight back by getting the law behind you. this publisher is banking on the fact that you'll just leave them alone and you won't be smart enough to fight back. Once they know that you mean business, they'll work with you. good luck with this. i think you'll need it.
kim
 

marky48

Re: Writer beware

It doesn't warrant moronic repetition either. Why didn't you just read the thread before starting the insults. Trust me you don't know who you're dealing with. The kid has no complaint let alone a lawsuit. It's a POD; he paid them; 7 is normal. Like many, he doesn't get it.
 

SRHowen

Re: Writer beware

I think what needs to be understood here is best selling what?

You have the NYT list

You have hardcover bestsellers

You have mass market paper back

Fiction

Non-fiction

Even broken down by genre

The we can get into best self-published work

And top selling POD books

ETC.

If the average top selling POD books sells 10 copies, then that book is the "best seller" when you go look at POD books for sale. Period. Not bestseller overall.

And Amazon like any computer advertising "thing" takes what you look at and applies it to what you want to "see." You look at POD books--the software is going to offer you POD books--and it will claim they are great best sellers. Just like every kind of whitening toothpaste says it's the best. They can't all be the best.

You need to understand the ranking system and not just get stuck on those words.

Also I wonder why you don't advertise your book. Published authors do PR all the time. That's how you get to real world of bestseller--how do you know people here won't go buy your book--then you would sell more than the average POD.

Telling people the name of your book and the book number or the name you write under is not bashing the publishing company. And others may have had the same experience or good experiences with the same publisher.

Take a look at others here who are pro writes--we advertise--it's called PR. It's called getting sales and a name for ourselves.

Saying I am a new writer--well, the only way to learn is to get out there, write, and listen to those who have gone before.

Do some PR.

Shawn
 

battlechaser

Re:

That's right.
No matter what publisher publishes your book, you should always promote it. Publishers like it and they do count on it to a certain degree.

It's also in most contracts that the author will so some PR.
 

marky48

Re:

Sure, although it's not required in any way legally, but adding a link to your website; send out one of those free foolish PR's, the list. Just don't expect it to matter with vanity publishing. Nothing you do will rescue one of these dogs. They're designed to fail from the author's end anyway.
 

James D Macdonald

Publicity

Generally speaking, when there is a mention of publicity, it says that the author should cooperate in the publisher's publicity campaign. Which means: I they arrange an interview, I have to do it, and if they ask for a photo, I have to supply it.
 

Godiva48

real author's submit themselves to P houses for scrutiny

I just about fell out of my chair when I read ebookren’s list of POD success stories and saw that “The Little Book of Happiness” was included. I made the mistake of buying this stinker on Amazon after reading the glut of positive reviews. It was TERRIBLE!! I couldn’t believe something this bad could make it onto Amazon. The thing was riddled with awful spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. The whole thing was double-spaced, printed in a huge font with slanted lines that often ran off the page. The few pages I managed to get through were full of cloying clichés and outright plagiarism of other people’s writing. I found out (15 dollars) too late that this “author” uses spam marketing to sell his wares, going online and posting outright lies posing as other people. In one of these posts he claimed that his book was the most successful of all the “Oprah recommended books” in another he claims to have seen himself on Larry King. A little research revealed that he’d not been on either show. A little more research and I’ve found that there is not, nor has there ever been a publication called the “Central New York Table Hopper” that ebookrens cites to promote this POD author. So you will excuse me if I question the validity of the rest of the media references ebookrens has listed.
 

battlechaser

Re:

If I would have read this lost thread back in 1492 I probably would not have gone with 1stbooks.

However, they did a great job with my book, of course, one has to edit their own book with a POD. The cover is sweet, only because it's my brothers art work.

Only crap I hated with 1sbooks was the mistakes they kept making, which in turn I had to wait 2-3 weeks at a time before they send the galley. That back and forth crap went on for months.
It was mainly formating problems since my book was poetry; I used many different fonts and sizes for the poems.

Still, I am quite happy with this book.
 

SRHowen

In response to self promotion bad publisher--

toodlin, I'd have to ask if you had an agent, and what publisher treated you so poorly.

If you didn't have an agent to negotiate your contract then you needed to make sure that you got some wording in there about PR, selling etc. If you did have an agent I hope you fired him/her.

Yes, you have to do your own PR work, the publisher will do some. But the majority on a first book, or even mid books after that will fall to you, unless you hit mega bestseller money.

You shouldn't be doing sales etc. How is a POD publisher going to differ? You said yourself you still have to do all that, but now you get to have the POD stigma attached. OK OK

Some have said hey in the "book store" here in town they have like three POD books--hey great, but how many other books do they have?(not POD)

I've worked the other side of the fence for many years, as an Editor, an Acquisitions Editor, and a PR person--I've seen every sort of submission. I know what makes books jump off the slush pile, I know what turns editors and publishers off. I've seen the good the bad and the ugly in contracts. Most times I can tell you whats going to be mid list, flop or soar.

Yes, you have to work, no matter what way you go. But if you went with a big name publisher or even a small house--well, a waring to others check that contract. Some agencies even hire to just go over a contract for you and negotiate a good deal for a one time fee.

And, (yes James will disagree with me), but I've seen the difference in sales etc, hire publicists even for a first book. That few thousand you spend will be made up in the sales they earn for you.

Also don't assume that no one here has any pro credentials because you had a poor experience.

Shawn
 

marky48

Re:

Anyone talking about POD and publicist in the same sentence is off the grid. An agent isn't absolutely necessary but a real publisher is. Get one and follow their instructions as to personal effort.