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Authors look to Amazon rankings

07.08.07

The New York Times reports that many authors are putting their manuscripts aside because they cannot stop checking their rankings on Amazon.com. "When Amazon created the system 10 years ago, it could hardly have known how greatly its list would change the dynamics of the publishing business (much the way the company itself did) or how hard writers and industry executives would work to game the system. Today the Amazon rankings list — and, to a lesser extent, a similar list on the Barnes & Noble Web site — is the subject of great microanalysis and some mystery."

"In the old days, an author had to wait six months or more for a royalty statement. Today the rankings provide a quick, albeit crude, way for an author to keep tabs on book sales.  Neither Amazon nor Barnes & Noble will divulge the algorithms they use for rankings. What Amazon will say is that sales rankings are updated hourly for millions of items. The sales history counts, but recent sales are weighted more heavily." For most books, it does not take many orders to increase rankings. Knowing this, authors, publishers, even nonprofit organizations like MoveOn.org will send out e-mail blasts asking people to buy a book at a set time, or buy up copies themselves. Some authors get their friends to write reviews or even write a positive review for a rival book and mention their own title.


NYTimes

amazon Author

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