Amazon Author Rank

On Amazon's Author Central, authors can check their author rank in books and categories of books. My highest rank was in Action & Adventure (my children's fic. novels). I ranked #2,589 on December 21, 2012.

Have you checked your author rank?

My highest rank was in the 2,000's one year for Ghost Orchid in Literary Fiction.  It's such a transitory number, however.  I had #1 and #10 for travel books, Bahamas and Dominican Republic once for Arirang: The Bamboo Connection.  That book ranked highly in many travel sub-categories often.

That's not the same thing, DK. If you go to your Author Central stats, there's a link "Rank" on the top navigation bar. This shows your rank as an author against all other authors on Amazon. My highest overall author rank for all ebooks is #14,515 on March 24th, 2013.

My rank is not as high as yours, Shelagh.

Boo hoo!

Oh, yes.  I've checked that also, Shelagh, and it goes up and down as well.  I don't remember my high.  It was also in the 2,000's though at one point overall.

alice wrote:

My rank is not as high as yours, Shelagh.

Boo hoo!

You might be just seeing your most recent ranking, Alice. When you click on the "Rank" tab, you have to then click on the "all time" link. Then hover over the highest peak to see your highest ranking. In the left-hand column, you should see categories of books similar to this:

Author Rank

• All Books
  
  
  
  • Kindle eBooks
    
    
    
    • Literature & Fiction
      
      
      
      • Action & Adventure
        
      • Contemporary Fiction
        
      • Fantasy
        
      • Literary Fiction
        
      
      
    
    
  
  

You can do the same for each category to find your highest rank. I've just found a higher rank under the category "Fantasy"!

Author Rankbeta (What's This?)
All Books > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Fantasy

Period:

• 2 Weeks
  
• 1 Month
  
• 6 Months
  
• All Available
  

November 27, 2012 - August 18, 2013 Current Rank: #11,579 (updated hourly)

Highest rank: #2,111

alice wrote:

My rank is not as high as yours, Shelagh.

Boo hoo!

It would be interesting to know DT Pollard's highest Author Rank.

I took a screenshot:

Now I can't even find my author's central page. Help!

My current rank for Kindle/History is 2271; my highest rank in that category is 1,120 on April 24, this year. My highest rank, in that category, for August was on the 6th, when it reached 1517.

The rankings do not always match up to current sales, though, I've noticed, like right now, where the "rank over time" category has this message at the top:

Quote :

We are experiencing a delay in updating your sales info. Rest assured that we are working to update this page as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience!

A book can rank higher or lower depending on the category. for instance, Redstone's Valley ranks much higher in the "Metaphysical/Visoinary" category because there are fewer books available there than there are in "Historical Fantasy." Those subcategories are not available on the Author Central board, though. RV's highest ranking in "Fantasy" was 1,537 on November 15, 2012.

Alice, quickest way is to go to one of your books, hover over your name and an insert opens up; link to author central is near the bottom of that insert. If you haven't been before, you will have to register.

Annie

Thanks, Ann.

I just checked, 1,651 in Kindle, literary fiction

alice wrote:

Now I can't even find my author's central page. Help!

Sign up here, Alice:

https://authorcentral.amazon.com/

Thanks, Shelagh, I found it.

I don't check ranks. I look at Amazon once a day at beginning of fall and spring semesters to gauge how well my texts are selling, but that's it. It's unproductive. What is the benefit of repeatedly checking your rank? I think the number of "also boughts" are more informative. No "also boughts" indicates low sales to me.

As you can see from the screenshot, LC, I was more interested in the overall rankings than the most recent Author Rank. I can see the effectiveness of promotions (spikes) and gauge when to set up another free promotion.