BK Blog Post
Checking Your Sales and Other Data in Author Central
Posted by
Zoe Mackey,
Director, Digital Marketing,
Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc.
Zoe works with our ebook distributors to maximize visibility for our ebooks. She is leading our efforts to expand our direct to customer marketing through online methods.
Check your book’s Nielsen bookscan ratings in the sales tab in Author Central. Note that Amazon does not share its sales data directly: figures are provided on a weekly basis by Nielsen bookscan and include not just the majority of Amazon print sales, but nearly 75% of all retail print book sales in the US. Nielsen sales figures provide a good perspective on consumer sales data, but be aware that they are not complete and will not match sales data provided by BK. Nielsen data does not include most bulk purchases, sales to libraries, purchases by wholesalers, or sales retailers like Wal-Mart. Digital (kindle) sales are also not included because Nielsen does not currently track digital sales.
The Bestseller Rank History Graph tracks your title’s sales ranking on Amazon on an hourly basis. The Bestseller rank is a relative measure - it shows how your title is selling as compared to other books in their catalog. The lower the number, the better the sales. Individual sales of your book might not change its ranking because other books in the catalog may still be outselling it. You might see your sales rank jump even if your book hasn’t sold any extra copies because sales have dropped off for other books. Since Amazon take the entire sales history of your book into account, your rankings may fluctuate more if your book just released. If you would like to improve your sales rank, consider moving your title into a more specialized category where the competition of other books is lessened - more on that in the keywords and categories tipsheet.
Your Amazon Author Rank: is similar to your book’s Amazon ranking and based on sales of all your titles (print and digital) and audio products relative to the sales of other authors’ products on amazon. On the amazon site, a ranking of 100 or less will only appear for authors in the top 100 overall or top 100 in a specific category. If your ranking is not within the top 100 it will not appear on your Amazon Author Page - but you can check it in Author Central if you are curious.
