As of earlier this week, Amazon released the Product Advertising API for Amazon.it, Italy. Within a few hours, NovelRank was enabled for tracking sales rank on Amazon.it. If you want to add your book for tracking, just repeat the process you used when first adding your book: Copy and paste the Amazon link (can be from any Amazon domain, doesn’t have to be the Amazon.it link) into the Sales Rank tracking page. Make sure you check ‘Add Additional Domains’, and click the track button to finish the process. Within a few seconds, all of Amazon’s domains will be checked to see if updates for tracking are available. Enjoy!
Posts Tagged ‘sales rank’
Amazon.it (Italy) Sales Rank Tracking Now Available
Friday, August 5th, 2011
Sales Rank Check Frequency Changes – Growing Pains
Thursday, March 17th, 2011
Starting today, a new structure has been put in place to ensure the longevity and speed of NovelRank continuing through year two and beyond. This is based on the frequency that NovelRank will check the sales rank for a particular book on a particular domain (.com, .de, .co.uk, etc.). I thought long and hard about this, especially as an author who sells from 1 to 10 books a month in some cases, and I think this will be valuable and fair to everyone.
Here is the breakdown:
- If a book has been sold in the last 7 days on a specific domain, it will continue to have its salesrank checked hourly.
- If a book has been sold in the last 14 days (but not the last 7), the checks will occur every 4 hours.
- If a book has been sold in the last month (but not the last 14 days) on a specific domain, the checks will occur every 8 hours.
- If a book has not been sold in the last month on a specific domain, the check will occur once per day.
It’s important to note that as soon as a sale is made, the clock is reset and the book goes back to hourly salesrank checks! It is also domain specific, so in the case of some books (see my PHP book for example), it will check .com hourly, but .fr and .ca would be daily, thus it will vary between domains even within the same book, as many books are popular only in specific regions.
But WHY?
Two big reasons:
- Less frequent checks allow the system overall to be faster at loading pages and data (more improvements coming soon on this)
- More capacity for NovelRank to support tracking a larger number of books and benefiting more authors going forward. Amazon has limits on the amount of data you can request per second, so there is a raw limit to what NovelRank can provide due to these restrictions by Amazon.
I want NovelRank to always be useful, fast, and benefit as many authors as possible, and this is just the first step in continuing to uphold these goals. This slow down for books that are not actively selling but actively being tracked will be gradual and be in full effect by April 6, 2011.
What about new books?
When a book is first added to NovelRank for salesrank tracking, its last sale date is set to the day the book was added, so it will immediately be treated to hourly sales rank checks for at least the next 7 days (more if it continues to sell books!).
Final Word
When I use the term books here, I am referring to any paperback, comic, hardcover, kindle, etc. format that is tracked on NovelRank. For simplicity I just refer to everything allowed on NovelRank for tracking as books. The FAQ has also been updated to reflect this change. Photo courtesy of digitalmums.
Sales Rank Myths Busted – What Effects Changes in SalesRank
Tuesday, January 4th, 2011
It’s time to put myths, legends, and mysteries to rest. Sales rank has been elusive for too long, so thanks to the support of NovelRank donations, I’ve conducted a series of tests to answer some long standing questions about this elusive beast we call, Amazon’s Sales Rank!
MYTH: Sales rank improves when a review is added.
Reality: False. Testing reviews, verified purchases as well as unverified reviews had no effect on a book’s sales rank. This is false for anything except actual sales which do effect sales rank.
MYTH: Sales Rank automatically returns to original value when a kindle book is returned.
Reality: False. This was tested by purchasing a Kindle book at 5:47am. at 8am, Amazon reflected the new sales rank. At 8:30am, customer support was contacted and the e-book was returned. Sales rank deteriorated normally and did not reset back to the original pre-sale value.
MYTH: Book purchases effect sales rank immediately.
Reality: False. There is a 3 hour delay between when a purchase is completed and when the sales rank is reflected by Amazon. This ensures that the order will not be canceled (they are fast). This is true for both Kindle and print purchases.
MYTH: Purchases that are affiliate driven (Amazon pays a percentage of the price to the affiliate referrer) do not effect sales rank.
Reality: False. There is no difference to Amazon between an affiliate sales and a sale driven by Amazon.com direct searches. To them, a sale is a sale is a sale is a… you get the idea.
The above image began with “fairy tale map” by angelic0devil6, Creative Commons: Attribution license.
MYTH: Purchasing multiple copies on a single order does not improve sales rank like purchases made on two separate orders.
Reality: True! To perform this test, I purchased three different books within a single order. One was a control (single copy), one had two copies purchased in a single order, and the last had a single copy purchased. After submitting that order, using the same Amazon account, 10 minutes later I purchased a second copy of the 3rd book (which had a single copy purchased in the first order). The results? After 3 hours, all 3 books moved from a rank of 1,020,000 (+/- 14,000) to a rank of 123,500 (+/- 500). After 1 additional hour, the 3rd book moved to a rank of 64,000, reflecting the second purchase order!
MYTH: A canceled order will cancel the sales rank effect.
Reality: True. Purchasing a copy of a print book and then canceling the order 20 minutes later (while still allowed by Amazon) will not trigger a change in sales rank.
Final Thoughts
I hope everyone enjoyed this insight. If you have any myths you’ve always wanted busted, put them in the comments below. This is one of those tests I wanted to do for a long time, so I’m glad to finally get this information into the hands of authors. Basically, increase sales, and if possible, have them all happen at the same time using separate orders on Amazon to ensure the largest effect on sales rank! Make sure to use the links below to share this post with your fans and fellow authors.
Finally, thanks for using NovelRank and thank you to the supporters whose donations made this possible!
Author Central and NovelRank Sales Rank Tracking Comparison
Monday, December 13th, 2010
On December 10th, Amazon announced a new set of features available for free through Author Central: BookScan sales and historical sales rank data. Naturally, since at first glance these seem to be a similar feature set to what NovelRank offers, I took a look (along with thousands of other authors). After careful analysis, I decided to write this post and help inform current and future NovelRank users about the key differences and benefits. I’ve always said, if there is a 10,000 lb elephant in the room, put the spotlight on it.
First, a few quick links. If you want to read some FAQs about Author Central Sales Info, login to your Author Central Account, or learn more about BookScan, then take a look and then come back here. Otherwise, let me refresh your mind on a few key points.
BookScan data represents Nielsen tracking of 75% of book sales through retail and online providers, as identified through the Amazon provided graphic to the right. Strangely, Amazon is not supplying their actual sales data to their suppliers (i.e. authors), but rather a 3rd party’s data. Granted, it offers a broader scope, but Amazon still is not providing actual data (like it does with Kindle sales for self-publishers through the digital text platform). BookScan data does not track Kindle sales, and thus authors cannot get this data through Author Central.
The sales rank tracking provided is a daily history of sales rank, collected at 11am PST (7am GMT). It goes back as far as October of 2009 or when you joined Author Central, if that date is after October of 2009. This matches NovelRank’s oldest tracking, as it launched in Oct 2009 as well. However, within 24 hours, Sales Rank can fluctuate dramatically providing valuable hourly sales data analysis.
None-the-less, I think there is some great information here, but I’m still happy to have NovelRank. Below is a breakdown of the strengths of each of these services.
Author Central Strengths
- BookScan data includes retail sailes
- Geographical data offers touring authors useful data
- Sales Rank history is available without prior request (as long as you had an Author Central account)
- 100% reliable sales rank collection from the source
Author Central Weaknesses
- No sales data for Kindle ebooks
- Sales data only available for the most recent 4 weeks
- Only available for Amazon.com (no international support yet)
- Limited to your own books (no competitor or research tracking)
- Sales Rank recorded only once per day
- Data updated weekly (not real-time)
NovelRank Strengths
- Hourly Sales Rank tracking
- Support for Amazon UK, Canada, Germany, France, and Japan
- Ability to track books by others; for competitor or book development research
- Support for Kindle books on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk
- Historical sales estimates available beyond recent weeks
- Downloadable sales and Sales Rank history (CSV)
- RSS feeds, widgets, and other integrations
NovelRank Weaknesses
- Sales estimates are not 100% accurate
- Sales estimates are based on only Amazon sales
- No geographical sales data
- Sales Rank data only available from when tracking was initiated
I’m excited for the benefits to authors that Amazon is providing, but I’m still thrilled to be offering this free service, NovelRank, to authors and publishers across the world with more specific needs. If you continue to enjoy this service, remember to consider a donation to support it.
