Category Archives: Research

KDP Select Borrowed Books Effect Sales Rank

I get a lot of questions regarding what effects sales rank (now also known as best sellers ranking). I’ve done some testing on the matter to clear up some common sales rank myths, but I didn’t yet have an answer regarding the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Select program.

What is the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library?
The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library is a collection of books that Amazon Prime members who own a kindle can borrow once a month, with no due dates.

Today I can confirm that books borrowed through this program do effect sales rank just like a normal purchase. Oh, you want proof? Here you go:
KDP borrowed informationborrowed book sales rank

I don’t understand, why?

Simply put, a borrowed book gets a portion of the monetary pool, and since it generates revenue for the individual or organization who published the item through KDP, it is considered a sale for the purposes for adjusting sales rank positively. Remember, sales rank is a measure of sales activity of all sorts, so consider this information when you are exploring royalty info (KDP Select payments may be dramatically higher or lower than your sales price).

Why Does NovelRank Underestimate Sales for Popular Books?

Every once in a while, I get an email from an author with Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) access who wonders why their numbers are different between NovelRank and KDP. First and foremost, let me say that if you have KDP access for your titles, that is the most accurate source of sales data. Secondly, remember that NovelRank estimates sales based off of sales rank, which is also a data point provided by Amazon, a priority system for ranking books based upon their sales. This makes any estimates vulnerable to many variables, and I wanted to provide some additional info for folks.

One final note before I start listing things: I created NovelRank as a resource that allows authors to spend less time reloading webpages, spend more time writing, and get a feel for the effectiveness of marketing campaigns by seeing hourly and daily fluctuations. It’s hard to communicate this throughout the website, and a few folks have taken to disliking NovelRank strictly based on sales estimates. It hurts a little, but I try and focus on those who are benefiting from the service.

Causes for Underestimation:

  • The better the sales rank, the less variation. Since sales estimates are based upon changes in sales rank, this reduced variation is the first source of underestimation.
  • Furthermore, when sales rank is really good (low number), improving estimates usually means adding arbitrary +X amounts to sales estimates. I try and avoid this as it amounts to guessing.
  • The algorithm uses the last 1000 data points to not only identify sales, but also try and throw out false positives (when sales rank changes a small amount not due to sales but due to Amazon adjusting the ‘list’ of books being ranked in that category). This is typically a boon, but in some cases this can miss genuine sales.
  • If Amazon fails to update sales rank for that hour (common occurrence), that data is ‘lost’, because if a sale occurs during that time, by the time a new sales rank is presented, there is less differentiation.
  • Multiple sales on an individual order are represented as 1 sale by sales rank. See this post about Sales Rank Myths for more info.
  • Finally, sales rank is an ever changing secret formula which NovelRank’s algorithm is constantly trying to learn from. It will never be perfect, but I always hope it can keep up.

I hope this clarifies things for new authors. NovelRank exists so you can do more writing, selling, and living, so enjoy!

Free Kindle Books and Amazon Sales Rank Tracking

With the addition of the new Lending Library program which includes 5 days of free pricing for your kindle book, I thought it was time to write up a quick post to explain how sales rank on Amazon works in regards to free titles.

Amazon displays a separate sales ranking for books that are free compared to their paid sales rank categories (price of at least $0.01). While these are both visible on Amazon directly, the Amazon API that powers the sales rank tracking of every website, including NovelRank, will not report a sales rank for free books. This also means that if your book has a price one day, and then switches to free pricing for even just 1 day, it will no longer offer a sales rank that can be tracked until it becomes a paid title again. Here’s a breakdown of what will happen in terms of NovelRank.

  • Books switching to free will become inactive, and will not be able to be reactivated until they become paid again
  • Free books will not be available for tracking and will return a message stating that they cannot be tracked because they have no sales rank
  • Once a book becomes a paid book and thus is for sale, you can reactivate or track the book on NovelRank

The new Lending Library option to make your book free for 5 days during the 90 day period of exclusivity is phenomenal for promotional purposes, but please be aware that when that free period ends, you will need to reactivate the book for tracking on NovelRank.

I hope that clears up the free and paid sales rank issuess and how they will affect your ability to track sales rank info here on NovelRank.