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What do the numbers mean?
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Blaque
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Jun 20, 2017 12:39PM
I am still new to this whole author thing so I am confused on what the numbers mean. Ok first, it says that my book ranks about 213,000 in the amazon best-selling rank. What does that mean? Also how does the category ranking work. Yesterday when I check my book ranked 247 in a particular category, but when I checked today it ranked in the 400s and now it seems like it is ranking higher and higher. The same is for other categories my book is listing in. Today my book seems to get further and further away from its previous rankings. This doesn't seem to be good. I know the closer you are to #1 the better. It seems like my book is getting pushed further and further back. What causes this? Sorry for all the questions. I just want to understand how the numbers work.
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The best selling ranks and the category ranks are similar. The best selling rank is just all of the books out there.
Numbers will always go down without sales, freebie giveaways, or Kindle Unlimited borrows because other books are doing those things. Amazon has a really complicated formula for this, that they don't share so we can't know for certain.
It is not uncommon to have your book jump up hundreds of thousands of ranks for one sale.
Really they are just numbers. Don't dwell on them and you'll be happier for it. Use them on promotions to see how 'low' you get, but otherwise don't let it eat you up.
Mod
You are not alone in this!
Ok. That's for clarifying. I was so happy when i saw my book had ranked under 500 in all 6 categories then today it got pushed back to top 1000.
Hi Blaque, remember that Amazon deals with millions of book sales, so as one book sells more copies its rating improves. Just remember that the lower the rating # the better it is. 500 is fantastic! Also, bear in mind that the category can make a big difference in your rating. If it is a popular category like romance, chances of getting a good rating is almost impossible, but if your book is in a category with few books you stand a better chance of hitting # 1.Hope this helps.
