A question about CreateSpace sales rankings

Just a quick question about expanded distribution paperback book sales through CreateSpace. I noticed at the end of last month that my Intellectual Property general reference book sold a larger number of copies in paperback than expected at 38. (It usually sells an average of 5 paperback copies a month through Amazon with no advertisement of any kind from me.) I was curious and after some digging found that 33 copies were sold through expanded distribution (presumably to bookstores or libraries) and I took that to mean most likely a single order for 33 copies from a bookstore--perhaps because of a new adoption for class use (it is not a textbook but is being used as such by at least one college based on a review I've received). I was surprised that the significant (for me) sale did not change the rankings at all. In fact, the book had been in the top 100 in two categories based on the usual modest sales and fell off them without an uptick (the Kindle version is still in three such categories this morning). I had not noticed this before because I don't check out my rankings that often any more and my expanded distribution sales are relatively few (most of my sales come directly from Amazon).

My question is simply whether anyone who publishes paperback books through CreateSpace know whether their expanded distribution sales count towards their sales rankings or not. Since royalties are about half of the Amazon and CreateSpace direct sales, it would be frustrating if these sales are not counted towards a book's sales ranking which can affect page views and sales directly. I will check my U.S. Author Central page in a couple of weeks (as of today they are only posting information through mid February).  I like the ability to track book sales by geographic area through Author Central and am curious to see whether they include expanded distribution in these postings. (The UK Author Central pages do not have this option.)

Kindle versions of the book are about half the price as the paperback and sell better. Books borrowed for free by Kindle Prime members do count towards the sales rankings, even though the royalties are less than half of the royalties for paid purchases for this particular book.

Sales rankings are not affected by sales from distribution, Victor. Mainly because the sales cannot show up immediately (it takes a certain amount of time for sales to show up), so including those sales in the rankings would reflect what was sold over a month ago rather than the same day.

Thank you, Shelagh. That makes sense. I know there is a lag of 30 days in the reporting from sales from distribution, but thought that once these were reported they would be counted at the time of reporting. Not counting these sales at all is unfortunate but I'll gladly take such sales.

If I could get such a fast and sensible response from Amazon to my queries, I'd be a happier author.

Victor

Amazon never explains its algorithm for sales rankings. People infer how it works from their own experience and observations. My observation is that a large number of books ordered by ONE person doesn't cause a higher rank than one book ordered by one person. So 33 books ordered by one bookstore isn't going to have a big impact on the ranking. 33 books ordered by 33 separate people in a short time frame would.