Author Topic: Amazon's New Author Ranking (Read 705 times)

Anne Marie · « **on:** October 10, 2012, 11:19 AM »

I along with many of you received an email from Amazon this morning about their new statistic, available through Author Central. They're now ranking authors numerically which I gather is a number derived from all book sales, not just book by book. The top 100 will be made public. That's not me, for sure.

Some people are up in arms--I am indifferent. I have enough to obsess over and this isn't one of them.

But I'm curious--can anyone think of any purpose for this information? What does Amazon think authors will do with it? Why should we care? What am I missing?

Kell · « **Reply #1 on:** October 10, 2012, 11:30 AM »

I don't know why people are upset! It's so meaningless to anyone but the top 100.

(I'm well aware that I'm approximately number 8 million. I don't need to look)

xiaotien · « **Reply #2 on:** October 10, 2012, 11:36 AM »

i think most authors are tired of amazon, the bad boyfriend,
ranking everyone. and then he does it again. ha

ruecole · « **Reply #3 on:** October 10, 2012, 11:41 AM »

Actually, I think it's kind of a cool feature. It's not just the top 100 bestsellers, but they've broken it down into the top 100 by category. So you've got the top 100 thriller authors and the top 100 literary authors and the top 100 historical romance authors, etc. So you could show up on a top 100 list somewhere, depending on your book's categories.

Right now I've got ranks based on my self-pubbed short stories. Definitely not in the top 100 anywhere, but definitely not down at the bottom of the barrel either!

Anyway, I understand, since this is still in beta testing, they haven't included children's authors yet. So no need to panic yet, guys!

Hope that helps!

Rue

Kell · « **Reply #4 on:** October 10, 2012, 11:41 AM »

Yep, it's like we're walking past a frat house while the brothers hold up numbers.

Stephanie J. Blake · « **Reply #5 on:** October 10, 2012, 11:43 AM »

I have been ranked...and my book is not even out yet. My number is in the 5 digits, but what does it mean?

Perhaps Literaticat will have an opinion?

Anne Marie · « **Reply #6 on:** October 10, 2012, 11:53 AM »

Quote from: Kell on October 10, 2012, 11:41 AM

Yep, it's like we're walking past a frat house while the brothers hold up numbers.

LOL!!!

JennaWren · « **Reply #7 on:** October 10, 2012, 11:54 AM »

Quote from: Kell on October 10, 2012, 11:41 AM

Yep, it's like we're walking past a frat house while the brothers hold up numbers.

Quote from: xiaotien on October 10, 2012, 11:36 AM

i think most authors are tired of amazon, the bad boyfriend,
ranking everyone. and then he does it again. ha

217mom · « **Reply #8 on:** October 10, 2012, 01:14 PM »

Quote from: xiaotien on October 10, 2012, 11:36 AM

i think most authors are tired of amazon, the bad boyfriend,
ranking everyone. and then he does it again. ha

Oh, perfectly said^.
And Kell, are there even eight million authors? This reminds me of DS's favorite medal he got for a swimming race. He got third place in a two people's race. He threw away the others, but this one he says he'll always keep.

Kell · « **Reply #9 on:** October 10, 2012, 01:33 PM »

Not 8 million, Mirka? Oh good, then maybe I'll be 6 million.

I'm with a small press! I will be able to live just fine with smaller sales but having a number stamped on my forehead is a little uncomfortable. Ouch!

Marissa Doyle · « **Reply #10 on:** October 10, 2012, 01:35 PM »

What Cindy and Kell said. I think that secretly Amazon hates authors and thinks it's terribly funny to give us another thing to be neurotic about.

Jaina · « **Reply #11 on:** October 10, 2012, 01:50 PM »

So, I found this interesting today, but I want to understand how you guys are seeing it (literally). Do you see your author rank somewhere (besides the email they sent)? I don't see any author ranks, just the Top 100 in the "Most Popular Authors" area. Am I not looking in the right place?

Joni · « **Reply #12 on:** October 10, 2012, 02:33 PM »

Another one echoing Kell.

Anne Marie · « **Reply #13 on:** October 10, 2012, 02:55 PM »

Quote from: Jaina on October 10, 2012, 01:50 PM

So, I found this interesting today, but I want to understand how you guys are seeing it (literally). Do you see your author rank somewhere (besides the email they sent)? I don't see any author ranks, just the Top 100 in the "Most Popular Authors" area. Am I not looking in the right place?

Jaina,

There's an area for authors called Author Central where you can get sales information, add things to your author profile, etc.. Now they've added this author rank. It's not visible to the public except for the Top 100 so we are just looking at our own pages.

AM

laura · « **Reply #14 on:** October 10, 2012, 02:59 PM »

If you go to any book and scroll down past all the reviews to the author section. If the author is ranked in the top 100 you'll see it. If not, you won't.

And I believe this is more for readers to find other authors in the genres they like, then it is about the authors.

Anne Marie · « **Reply #15 on:** October 10, 2012, 03:11 PM »

Quote from: laura on October 10, 2012, 02:59 PM

And I believe this is more for readers to find other authors in the genres they like, then it is about the authors.

That's probably true, but why tell authors that their ranking is 12,000 or 60,000 or 8,000,000?

AM

AnneB · « **Reply #16 on:** October 10, 2012, 03:48 PM »

John Scalzi (SFWA prez) just blogged about this earlier this afternoon: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/10/10/amazon-author-rankings-and-who-they-actually-benefit/

lizstraw · « **Reply #17 on:** October 10, 2012, 04:34 PM »

What, is this supposed to be like being picked last for a team? I seldom by best-sellers and I do not by Nora Roberts books, I mean how many books does she get published a year?

As for children's books, we write what we like and either get it published (I of course am not published yet) and hope kids will like the book(s) or their parents will and they will be bought. As to what Amazon thinks, phht, I would rather influence a few kids minds that care what rank I was in Amazon's world.

Alison A · « **Reply #18 on:** October 10, 2012, 06:06 PM »

Reminder that Amazon doesn't count those books sold to school libraries and public libraries.
For some of our books, those numbers will vary widely from Amazon sales.

Joni · « **Reply #19 on:** October 10, 2012, 08:41 PM »

Quote from: AnneB on October 10, 2012, 03:48 PM

John Scalzi (SFWA prez) just blogged about this earlier this afternoon: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/10/10/amazon-author-rankings-and-who-they-actually-benefit/

Some awesome points in there. Thanks for that link, Anne.

Sacha · « **Reply #20 on:** October 10, 2012, 08:57 PM »

Weird, I didn't get the email from Amazon. I guess it's okay, though I'm not sure why we need to be ranked AGAIN! One more thing to panic about, I suppose. Who knows, maybe we'll nab a few extra sales.

Lyon · « **Reply #21 on:** October 10, 2012, 09:09 PM »

Oh great - another number to obsess over.

I saw the rank thingy yesterday when I went to check my amazon author profile for something else.

I actually have a fairly good (or did this morning) in the religion and spirituality breakdown.

That being said, most of my book sales are not on amazon or even in brick and mortar book stores. The majority of my books are old through specialty shops, and their sales number are not counted by amazon or the (I am drawing a blank on a name) other sales recording outlet.

I think the only number that really matters is the one following the dollar sign on our royalty checks. Seriously, those numbers are ones that affect my bottom line. amazon is a bully playing the popularity game of a jr. high girl. I never won those as a kid, I was too weird even then to rise to the most popular in anything.

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Author Topic: Amazon's New Author Ranking (Read 705 times)