HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR AMAZON SALES RANKING

THE LAST DAY!

RITES OF PASSAGE AT #10!
http://www.amazon.com/RITES-OF-PASSAGE-ebook/dp/B004XQVPYM

See poor dead Rachel on the cover?

Make her ghost smile by writing just a two sentence review. Eric keeps threatening to write: "This book didn't suck. Read it, and I bet you agree with me!"

1.) ONE NEW POSITIVE REVIEW

can be the one thing that encourages a potential reader into buying. And one new sale can make the Amazon Sales Ranking go up considerably.

And many buyers want to buy what everyone else is buying.

2.) THE FIRST SHALL BE LAST:

Amazon sales rank is generated by a proprietary algorithm. The more copies a book sells on Amazon, relative to other books, the higher the rank---

or, the lower the number. So, a rank of 10 is higher than a rank of 257,090.

3.) ENOUGH ABOUT ME. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT ME?

Link to the Amazon page for your book in the signature line of the emails you send. Then, everyone who receives email from you will be exposed to your book. The chances are that at least some of them will click on the links.

No, I don't do this ... I have so little free time with my job as a rare blood courier that sadly I send very few emails. But many of you do send many emails. Make them count.

4.) REMEMBER PANDORA AND THAT CURIOUS CAT?

"Search Inside the Book" is an important property to put in place for your book. It allows customers to actually browse through parts of the book. They'll be more likely to buy a book that they've been able to flip through.

5.) A PATH TO HIGHER SALES THAT MAY MAKE YOU FEEL UNEASY:

Write Listmania Lists that include your book. These are lists of books that fall under a particular topic and include links to the Amazon page for each of them. Write lists for as many categories as your book could reasonably fall under.

6.) LIST FOR FREE:

It may translate into higher sales AFTER the free period stops. If your book is priced at 99 cents, others may take note of higher sales rankings and take a gamble on your book.

7.) DON'T INDULGE IN AMERICAN IDOLism:

Amazon Sales Ranking is a popularity contest wherein your book's sales are compared to the thousands of sales of its neighbors.

Statistics say you will have to keep your day job. Or in my weary case, my day AND night job!

Write because you love it. If you touch one heart, then you have succeeded.

8.) Enough about me ...

I cannot know if I have touched that one heart unless you post a review. Please do so for RITE OF PASSAGE. It is a lonely dark road for most of us as we struggle in self-publishing. One sale, one supportive review can light the dark and warm a lonely heart.

Do it, not just for me, but for others toiling in the shadows of meager sales.

Have a lovely weekend. Me? I will be driving lonely rural roads all weekend and into the week. Darn that storm! :-) Roland

THE GHOST OF ALBERT EINSTEIN THREW UP HIS HANDS.

Why?

I asked him to explain Amazon's Sales Ranking.

Let me explain how AMS can help both you and Victor in his contest :

YOU ENTER BY FIRST POSTING A REVIEW OF VICTOR'S BOOKS ON AMAZON.

{Why my concern with reviews?

Many readers will not buy an Amazon eBook without seeing 10 positive reviews.)

Say 10 of you review LEGEND or VOODOO. They know each other and decide among themselves to send a copy as a gift to a friend within hours of each other.

What happens?

THE LEGEND OF VICTOR STANDISH which is at 60,000 ASR goes to 7,000 ASR.

Great for me, you say. Actually since all profits go the Salvation Army, great for them.

I have tied my prizes to the ASR, so great for those 10 reviewers. Since :

** 1 of those 10 will receive the MICHAEL WHALEN AUTOGRAPHED DRAGON LITHOGRAPH right off the bat.

AND ... one of those same ten will win the following :

1.) An 8 X 10 AUTOGRAPHED BY ALEXANDER SKARSGARD! (ERIC NORTHMAN OF TRUE BLOOD) {at the 40,000 mark)

2.) A 16 X 20 limited, numbered fine art print, MOONDANCE, AUTOGRAPHED by the stunning artist (in two ways), OLIVIA DE BERADINAS (#1650 of 4000!) {at the 30,000 ASR mark.}

3.) An 8 X 10 photo of Tony Stark AUTOGRAPHED BY ROBERT DOWNEY, JR {at the 20,000 ASR mark!}

4.) THE GOLDEN COMPASS movie poster AUTOGRAPHED by

DANIEL CRAIG

NICOLE KIDMAN

SAM ELLIOT! {at the 15,000 ASR mark.}

5.) THE COLOR PURPLE movie poster AUTOGRAPHED by

STEPHEN SPIELBERG (director, producer),

QUINCY JONES (composer, producer)

KATHLEEN KENNEDY (producer) and FRANK MARSHALL (producer!) {at the 10,000 ASR mark}

6.) The British movie poster of THE BOURNE IDENTITY AUTOGRAPHED BY

MATT DAMON! {at 7,000 ASR mark}

THAT'S APPROXIMATELY $1000 IN PRIZES because 10 reviewers decided to buy a friend a $3 gift (that goes to the Salvation Army) within hours of each other.

WHY AM I DOING THIS?

I am hoping to start a ripple effect and get to 100 in ASR.

Once that happens, Amazon puts Victor on several other of their lists :

100 BEST DEBUT TITLES

100 BEST YOUNG ADULT TITLES

100 BEST FANTASY/SCIENCE FICTION TITLES

100 BEST PARANORMAL ROMANCES

Perhaps even one of the three Featured KDP Books on their monthly newsletter!

***
There will many Kindles given this Christmas, I want Victor to come to the attention of those who want something to read that won't cost them an arm and a leg.
***
Even after all those prizes are given away, there are many more.

7.) At 5,000 ASR!

RESIDENT EVIL : EXTINCTION movie poster AUTOGRAPHED by

MILLA

ALI LARTER

and THE OTHER CAST MEMBERS!


8.) At 1,000 ASR!

AVATAR movie poster AUTOGRAPHED by

JAMES CAMERON

SIGOURNEY WEAVER

SAM WORTHINGTON

ZOE SALDANA

STEPHEN LANG {Listen up, marines. Pandora will eat you up and shit you out like little ju-ju beans!}


9.) At 999 ASR (Just for laughs - It is 666 upside down and Bruce would get a chuckle over it! And it's easier to get than the #600 I was giving it away at.)

{For fanboys everywhere!}

BRUCE CAMPBELL AUTOGRAPHED EVIL DEAD 2 special Book of the Dead edition DVD!


10.) At 700 ASR! {For Fan Boys everywhere!}

Double-sided SERENITY movie poster AUTOGRAPHED by :

JOSH WHEDON (who is now directing THE AVENGERS!)

SUMMER GLAU

NATHAN FILLION

RON GLASS

ADAM BALDWIN

JEWEL STRAITE

ALAN TUDYK {of TUCKER & DALE versus EVIL fame}!

11.) At 500 ASR!


THE ROCK movie poster AUTOGRAPHED by :

SEAN CONNERY

NICK CAGE

ED HARRIS!


12.) When Victor hits #300 in ASR :

ENYA AUTOGRAPHED POSTER!


13.) When VICTOR hits #200 in ASR!
FROM DUSK TO DAWN movie poster AUTOGRAPHED by :

QUENTIN TARANTINO

GEORGE CLOONEY

The beautiful SALMA HAYEK

HARVEY KEITEL

CHEECH MARIN

JULIETTE LEWIS and the most of the rest of the cast!


14.) When THE LEGEND OF VICTOR STANDISH hits 150 ASR!
STEPHEN KING AUTOGRAPHED copy of ROSE MADDER!




**** At 100 :

AN AMAZON KINDLE FIRE!!

I will give the profits of ALL MY BOOKS THROUGH JANUARY to THE SALVATION ARMY whose donations plummet in that month.

If you want to give a little present to yourself, POST A REVIEW of either Victor book.

If you want to give a little present to yourself AND a friend AFTER THAT, GIVE YOUR FRIEND A COPY OF THE LEGEND OF VICTOR STANDISH.

THE SALVATION ARMY WILL THANK YOU and I will feel that my writing dreams are helping more than just me.
***
For chuckles and the extended footage :

WHO UNDERSTANDS AMAZON'S SALES RANKING?

Megan Fox wrote me, asking if I would explain Amazon's Sales Ranking.

{I was dreaming at the time, of course!}

Megan just wrote me again with some interesting figures from April of this year :

Interesting numbers:

- 28 out of 100 top e-books in Kindle Store are self-published; 11 are in top 50,
- all of those publications are priced $3.99 or less; that means 28% of top Kindle e-books cost less than $4,

- 18 of the titles are given the lowest possible price tag: $0.99,
- the shining star is John Locke with 8 titles (7 of them in top 50); Vegas Moon is the best self-published book – ranked #4,

- Amanda Hocking is sliding down; her best selling book, Ascend, is #64 (a result of signing a contract with a publisher?),

- authors to watch: Heather Killough-Walden, Julie Ortolon, J.R. Rain and Debbi Mack – with 2 or more titles in top 100.

{Megan being a "good" bad girl gave Piotr Kowalczyk credit for those figures. Her figure she takes full credit for!}


Ah, the ever popular "Amazon Sales Rank. Often debated, never fully understood. And Amazon never fully explains.

So we're left to speculate like the number-crunching data addicts that we (or at least some of us) are.

Not only can it indicate how a book ranks in sales to other books, but it can be used to approximate actual copies sold.

The ASR is a unique number that is constantly recalculated. For example if a book has an ASR of 100,000, then 99,999 other books sold more copies and approximately 4,900,000 books sold fewer copies at that particular time.

Rankings can spike due to large corporate purchases or heavy marketing promotions and are accurate only for the exact time they are calculated.

ASR’s from 1 – 10,000 are recalculated hourly. ASR’s from 10,001 to 110,000 are recalculated daily. ASR’s above 110,001 are re calculated monthly.

The ASR is based on a single ISBN (edition), not the book title. Therefore, the ASR for a title released as a mass-market paperback ISBN does not reflect the sales of that title as a hardcover edition, trade paperback edition, or special edition.

An average rank of 1,000 (or lower) means you have a seriously successful title;

an average rank of 10,000 means you’re doing pretty good for a book that’s no bestseller;

an average rank over 100,000 means it’s (your book is) not going to contribute significantly to your income.”

If you have a book on Amazon, for fun, you might :

Note when there’s a big spike in the number. Did someone review your book around that time? Did you post a comment on a blog or website the day before? Note the spikes in sales over time and what might have caused them.

So, why are we obsessed with our Amazon Sales Rank?

Well, no matter what the number may be, if the number is rising it means a sale, which means a royalty payment in the end.

It might not be much of a payment, but keeping your book at a higher sales rank definitely increases exposure,

which hopefully increases sales and increases money in your pocket.
***
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