Translating Amazon Ranking into Sales

Bumped into an interesting table on a writers mailing list this morning that I wanted to share. According to research by an unnamed publisher, here’s an approximate correspondence:

Amazon number Actual books sold
75-100 250-275/wk
100-200 225-249/wk
200-300 150-200/wk
450-750 75-100/wk
750-3,000 40-75/wk
3,000-9,000 15-20/wk
10,000+ 1-5/wk

I’d be interested in any corroborating data, if you have it.

6 comments on “Translating Amazon Ranking into Sales

  1. While I can not comment on the dead-tree figures from Amazon, I can tell you that the ebooks seem to be on their own scale. I haven’t received a full-month’s accounting from my ebooks at Amazon, though. So I can not relate the ranking numbers to sales figures yet.

  2. No data here either, but my hunch is that if you’re #75 on *amazon*, you’re not just selling 250 or so books. Just my hunch though. No data whatsoever.
    I hope your weekend was grand. 🙂

  3. These are some pretty interesting number.
    I was actually looking for some other ranking information from Amazon. A friend and his wife were selling sheet music through Amazon. They have a music shop and thought this would be a good way to get some exposure. Well apparently in one month they did 80 pieces through Amazon. Only four of the buyers chose to rate them. Of the four, two were negative and the other two were positive. After thirty days she was banned from selling with no explination other then section 6 of the community guide. When they try to inquire to attempt to set things right, they get automated responses, that basically say there is no way they can. Has anyone had this kind of experience, and how might they go about fixing it?

  4. Very interesting result, Joe. Can you share with us what “section six” of the community guide says and how it applies to their situation? Seems to me that 80 unit sales in a month is a pretty good sales rate…

  5. Dunno if this is relevant. It is the sixth item from Amazon’s terms of access:
    LICENSE AND SITE ACCESS
    Amazon.com grants you a limited license to access and make personal use of this site and not to download (other than page caching) or modify it, or any portion of it, except with express written consent of Amazon.com. This license does not include any resale or commercial use of this site or its contents; any collection and use of any product listings, descriptions, or prices; any derivative use of this site or its contents; any downloading or copying of account information for the benefit of another merchant; or any use of data mining, robots, or similar data gathering and extraction tools. This site or any portion of this site may not be reproduced, duplicated, copied, sold, resold, visited, or otherwise exploited for any commercial purpose without express written consent of Amazon.com. You may not frame or utilize framing techniques to enclose any trademark, logo, or other proprietary information (including images, text, page layout, or form) of Amazon.com and our affiliates without express written consent. You may not use any meta tags or any other “hidden text” utilizing Amazon.com’s name or trademarks without the express written consent of Amazon.com. Any unauthorized use terminates the permission or license granted by Amazon.com. You are granted a limited, revocable, and nonexclusive right to create a hyperlink to the home page of Amazon.com so long as the link does not portray Amazon.com, its affiliates, or their products or services in a false, misleading, derogatory, or otherwise offensive matter. You may not use any Amazon.com logo or other proprietary graphic or trademark as part of the link without express written permission.

  6. I was banned from selling on amazon for being related to another account that was banned they kept all my money and closed all my 15,000 listings bankrupting me in the process they never replied to e mails or answered my questions i had 98% plus feedback at the time does anyone have any other stories to tell? go to sillytech or search for amazon scams as this seems a widespread con.

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