Amazon Author Rank
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
From my inbox, and probably yours.
"Dear [author]
Today we have added a new feature, Amazon Author Rank, the definitive
list of best-selling authors on Amazon.com. This list makes it easy for
readers to discover the best-selling authors on Amazon.com overall and
within a selection of major genres. Your Amazon Author Rank is [whatever] in[genre] .
Amazon Author Rank is your rank based on the sales of all of your books
on Amazon.com. Just like Amazon Best Sellers, it is updated hourly. The
top 100 authors overall and the top 100 in selected genres will be
displayed on Amazon.com. And you can see your Amazon Author Rank
trended over time in Author Central.
You can find your Amazon Author Rank in Author Central under the Rank
tab. Historical rank data is available from September 28, 2012.
We’re always interested in feedback, so please let us know what you think.
The Author Central Team
https://authorcentral.amazon.
P.S. You may have friends who are authors; feel free to pass this email
along to them. Amazon Author Rank is a feature available to all
authors registered in Author Central."
[Heavy sigh.]
Why does everything have to be a frelling competition?
8 comments:
In their minds I guess they think this is important somehow. To me it's a non-issue. I don't care how I sell or what my rank is vs another author. Their fans are not my fans and we aren't competing.
If another author is writing contemporary and I only write paranormal/scifi/fantasy how does that compare? We don't have the same readership. People reading Stephen King aren't being read by the same people as Nalini Singh.
Totally stupid concept, Amazon.
Everything is a competition. That's the American way.
It's an American thing, Emily. It baffles me as well (I am not American, but my husband is, and trust me, that "competition" thing... he does it even without realizing it he is doing it WITH ME). No further comment :P
M.
I'm American for the record. See my first post for my take on this.
There are always exceptions to generalizations.
The "self made man" and "rugged individulist" ideal promoted in the US requires competition. The entire social and political structure is based on it.
I'll probably use the feature to identify the "undiscovered" authors further down the list.
John Scalzi has a good post on this, which amongst other things notes that it has to be a competition because that furthers Amazon's goal of increasing Amazon's profits in the long term. From Amazon's perspective, it is not in the least stupid, because anything that gets authors competing to have the highest ranking *on* *Amazon* is likely to result in increased market share for Amazon at the expense of Amazon's competitors.
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/10/10/amazon-author-rankings-and-who-they-actually-benefit/
Let me make that a clickable link (I hope):
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/10/10/amazon-author-rankings-and-who-they-actually-benefit/
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