Using quantity of reviews/ratings to gauge sales.

Fiender

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 25, 2008
Messages
1,189
Reaction score
420
Location
New York
Sales numbers aren't available for every book, and I've found the digging to uncover those numbers rather time-consuming. Those sales numbers of course are useful for gauging how well a book sold, and creating a general success-rate when looking at the books an agent has represented. I've taken to using the number of ratings a book has on Goodreads as a vague success-indicator for books. I'm curious if there are more direct metrics available, or even if someone's done the math to find the average Goodreads-rating-to-copies-sold ratio.

(I know Goodreads isn't the be-all, end-all source of book reviews, but it's the site I use most regularly for book recommendations anyway. Also, sorry if this isn't the best sub-forum for this topic.)
 

veinglory

volitare nequeo
Self-Ban
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
28,750
Reaction score
2,933
Location
right here
Website
www.veinglory.com
I know it doesn't work on Amazon because it is manipulated, and even without that factor my own books have an almost perfect inverse relation between review and sales. I would not be optimistic of it being a good predictor on Goodreads either.
 

cool pop

It's Cool, Miss Pop if You're Nasty
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 20, 2009
Messages
660
Reaction score
131
Location
Texas
Reviews and ratings are useless when trying to determine how well a book sold. Some of my biggest sellers have fewer reviews than other books that didn't sell as well. Remember, reviews are often from ARCs so a book can have 100s of reviews but it doesn't mean the book sold many copies. Just like a book with fewer reviews could be a great seller. Some authors don't do ARCs but sell well so they might have less than 50 reviews while another book that didn't sell half as good might have 100s. What people don't realize is READERS RARELY LEAVE REVIEWS. The majority of everyday readers never review books. Most reviews are from authors sending out copies to their review teams, using review sites like Booksprout and Hidden Gems, or professional reviewers. Also, the authors who usually have tons of organic reviews anyway are famous authors. Organic reviews are almost impossible to come by for the average author these days.

It's almost impossible to know how a book did but you can use Amazon rankings as a start. Yes, it's not the best indicator and they tend to manipulate the rankings toward their own books and KU books but still, you can get an idea of how well a book is doing. If a book has a ranking of 100,000 for example they are selling at least a few copies a day. If a book has a ranking of 1,000,000 then it hasn't sold a book in a long time. Also, a book's ranking also depends on how other books are selling in it's category, etc. It's definitely a science to understanding the rankings.

Yes, there are some things you can use. There are websites like Book Report and you can buy PublisherRocket (formerly KDP Rocket). With PublisherRocket you can see the income and sales of your competition. Some of the free sites have closed due to Amazon leaning on them. Amazon wasn't too happy with sites using their sales figures and accessing author's dashboards.

And most of us authors wouldn't touch Goodreads with a 10-foot-pole.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Fiender

cool pop

It's Cool, Miss Pop if You're Nasty
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 20, 2009
Messages
660
Reaction score
131
Location
Texas
Another thing, the agent has nothing to do with sales numbers of a book. All they do is get you a deal. Sales come from how well you are promoted or if your book is good enough to benefit off word-of-mouth sales and just take off. It's best to pay more attention to the publisher than the agent and even then you don't know what type of deal the author got. If the author got a big push then the book most likely will do better than one that didn't. A lot of good books are signed but completely ignored by the publisher but might have been better sellers if they'd received some attention. It's so many variables.

If you're researching all this to decide what agents to submit to then I'd advise just finding an agent that fits your work because there are just too many variables and just because an agent has a couple of bestselling authors doesn't mean every client they represent will be that lucky.
 

lizmonster

Possibly A Mermaid Queen
Absolute Sage
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 5, 2012
Messages
14,537
Reaction score
24,107
Location
Massachusetts
Website
elizabethbonesteel.com
If you're researching all this to decide what agents to submit to then I'd advise just finding an agent that fits your work because there are just too many variables and just because an agent has a couple of bestselling authors doesn't mean every client they represent will be that lucky.

This. Submit to reputable agents and agencies, and then choose someone you think you can work with. There are basic questions they should be willing to answer for you, and it's good to talk to current clients if you can, but I'd rather choose an agent with a few long-term clients who sell OK than one with only bestselling clients. Any agent can rep an author who takes off; you want one who can help when the path is rockier.