Does anyone know how to calculate sales from Amazon Ranking?

mdmkay · Mar 30, 2005

I realize I'm beating a dead horse but I have a question. My book started at above 2.2 million on the sales ranking at Amazon (my publisher is (all together now...........groan) Publish America. It has risen as far as in the 75,000 at one time then over a million and down to 200,000 up, down you know how it goes. They said on my last royalty statement that I had sold a total of 6 books (no this is not a typo) my Barnes and Noble ranking also goes up and down so I know there is some activity there. I called Ingrams in England that has a computerized system you can call and they said they had 8. I'm trying to figure out how to get the number of books sold. Forget just asking....neither Barnes and Noble or Amazon will give out that information (even to the author) which burns me to a crisp and my book has been picked up be several specialty bookstores. CINDY WHEN HELL FROZE OVER, by Kay L. Schlagel is a session by session account of using hypnosis to recover supressed childhood abuse memories and the diagnosis of MPD/DID. It was a hard book for me to write and it took over 20 years before I had the guts to try and publish it and if PA think I'll take this laying down they have another thought coming. If you interested in the book you can find it at www.mdmkay.blogspot.com. if you click on the oldest archive you can see self-portraits painted by my alters, they are quite a surprise (at least they were to me).

jchines · Apr 2, 2005

mdmkay,

Unfortunately, there's really no way to judge sales numbers from Amazon rankings. Amazon changed their ranking system so the numbers are much less stable over time. My own book jumped up to about 15,000 or so, and is now down to almost a million. It only takes two or three sales <i>in a short time</i> to push a book up to 75,000 or higher.

http://www.fonerbooks.com/surfing.htm has some information about the old and new Amazon ranks.

Sympathy and best of luck dealing with PA!

Vipersniper · Apr 7, 2005

Don't expect Pa to be truthful

:guns:

The lower the rating on the site the better the book sales. And you really cannot expect PA to be honest with you on your royalties. I did not expect to sell a million copies in one year. But I did expect to get paid for what I did sell. I kept a record of the ones that I signed and the names of the people who bought my book. PA only paid me for four books and that made me hot when I had signed thirty books. So I am waiting but not holding my breath for Septemeber to roll around. If not properly paid my attorney will fill a small claims in our state because that is where I wrote the book and signed the contract. So good luck to you you can also check the reviews that you get but keep your nose on the ball. I am and I just wish I had come here first but that is water over the dam. I do however have the option to rewrite my book in script style and there is not a thing they can do about that because it is a script and not a book.

Does anyone know how to calculate sales from Amazon Ranking?

mdmkay

jchines

Got the hang of it, here

Vipersniper