I have finally figured out something about the sales reporting methods used by Amazon. While I still can’t get hard numbers, I was able to discover PL:THR’s sales ranking on the website since the beginning of the year. It shows that since January 12th, the book’s sales ranking out of all the books offered through the Kindle app has climbed into the top ten percent of all books sold for the month. Bear in mind that Kindle offers over one million titles but that means PL:THR is selling better than nine hundred thousand being offered.
Some more quick stats:
- The paperback sales have vaulted into the top twelve percent of all January sales;
- My author ranking (how my books are faring against those of other authors on Amazon) is now in the top twenty percent;
- Those numbers hold true for the genre’s the book is being sold through; sci-fi and mystery/thrillers.
The most important aspects of all this is that it’s both proof the marketing works and that books are being sold. The fluctuations reveal that Kindles and paperbacks are moving, I just don’t have firm numbers. That no hardcovers are shown to be sold during this period further verifies legitimate sales activity in the other areas.
This bump began on January 12th, when I went completely to Twitter ads that featured quotes from the positive professional reviews I have received to date. Instead of landing on the review page and hoping for the best, I made Amazon the landing page and posted reprints of the reviews there for the curious.
To date, since the change on January 12th I’ve had roughly 6,000 clickthroughs on 120,000 impressions. I’d love to be able to say that it means I’ve sold 600 books in less than two weeks but I’d be just as happy if the number was 200 (3%).
AGENT SEARCH UPDATE- stands at four rejections. Nothing from the rest. That’s ok- once I have some solid sales numbers, I’ll query the other half on my list.
Stay tuned.