A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: Why Amazon Rankings and Sales Don't Always Align

 

📊 Why Rankings and Sales Don’t Always Align

• Amazon’s Sales Rank ≠ Sales: A book can rank in the top 100 of a niche category and still not sell a single copy that month. Category ranks are relative and can be misleading if the category itself has low traffic.
• Inventory Lag: If Amazon still has stock from earlier orders (especially from expanded distribution), sales may not register with your distributor until that stock is replenished.
• Used Book Cannibalization: When Amazon lists used copies (often from review copies, returns, or third-party sellers), those sales don’t generate royalties for you—but they can still fulfill demand and suppress new sales.

 

It is Tuesday. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side.

This week, the topic is one that authors often ask me about, with frustration. Why do great sales ranking on Amazon not show up as great sales? This is actually a very common situation, and there are reasons for the seeming mismatch.

• Amazon’s Sales Rank ≠ Sales: A book can rank in the top 100 of a niche category and still not sell a single copy that month. Category ranks are relative and can be misleading if the category itself has low traffic.
• Inventory Lag: If Amazon still has stock from earlier orders (especially from expanded distribution), sales may not register with your distributor until that stock is replenished.
• Used Book Cannibalization: When Amazon lists used copies (often from review copies, returns, or third-party sellers), those sales don’t generate royalties for you—but they can still fulfill demand and suppress new sales.

Bottom line: Understand how Amazon works, and you will understand better what the real situation is with your book and its sales.

The Tuesday talks reflect real discussions between the management of MSI Press LLC and our own authors or those would-be authors who come through our doors but don't make the cut--yet. If you have a topic that you would like addressed, leave the question in the comment section. Chances are, in our 22 years of publishing first-time and experiences authors, we have had a conversation with one of our authors that we can share with you.

 See more Publisher Conversations with Authors HERE.

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