Novelrank and Co.
Authors always want to know where their book is and how it is received by the readers. If you feel the same, there are some resources online that you can use to find out roughly whether and how successful your book is. Novelrank and Author Central can help figure out which marketing methods are driving sales and which are not.
Authors would of course like to know how their books are received by the reading public. But tracking the sales figures and thus your own "success" is not that easy. Most writers don't want to wait for their publishers' annual accounts and only then face book sales. If, as a writer, you want a vague estimate of your sales as the year progresses, the internet can be of great help.
This is how Novelrank works
Novelrank is an English-language site where you can check your book sales with Internet provider Amazon. To do this, you need either the title of your book (if it is already registered with Novelrank) or the Amazon URL of the work you want to follow.
- Visit the website Novelrank and click "Track your Book" to keep track of your book and its sales.
- Open Amazon in a second window and look for your work from the inventory catalog.
- With a click (sometimes double-click) in the address bar of the browser, the link is highlighted in blue (sometimes in a different color).
- Now right click on it and select "Copy".
- Go back to the window you opened Novelrank and right click on the blank white box next to the words "Book URL on Amazon". Select "Insert" and the address will appear in the field.
- Click on “Track Book!”.
- You can now keep track of your book sales. When a book is sold, the sales number appears after the corresponding month. Example: In March, the sales figures are after the word "March Sales". The figures for the entire month are always shown. The numbers are therefore not to be interpreted as daily sales.
- With a click on "Update Chart" you can display sales charts. Here you can also select a period in which the sales should be displayed.
"Book on Demand" books are coming onto the market with increasing frequency. The computer does it ...
Warning: Novelrank is only a guideline and does not provide precise information. It is possible - especially with high sales figures - that the information is far below the actual sales. It should also be noted that although Amazon is a major supplier, the actual sales figures (can) be much higher, since your book is also offered by other booksellers.
Other ways to track books
- Amazon itself also offers the option of keeping an eye on your own sales figures. As soon as you are listed as an author on Amazon, you can contact the author's center "Author Central"create an account. After logging in, add your work under "Add a book to your author page". Now you have an overview of them, as well as incoming reviews and other services from Amazon. With a click on "Sales history" you can display the respective sales ranks. The following applies here: If the graphic goes up, you have sold at least one book. If the graph goes down, sales are currently rather sluggish.
- Even if other websites such as Thalia.de or Buch.de do not offer an author's center, it is also possible here to follow the book rankings. Simply create your own graphic table and enter the rank your book occupies on each day. This is how you can see if sales are increasing, decreasing, or staying the same.
Attention: Amazon regularly updates the sales ranks. So there can be extreme fluctuations, especially with well-placed books.
Sense and nonsense of the ranking
- Of course, it is good if, as an author, you have a small overview of the sales and do not have to let everything come your way. Even so, you shouldn't take the ranking so seriously. If your book is on the "decline" it doesn't have to mean a slump in sales. A falling rank without loss of sales is possible, for example, if another book is being hyped and is therefore being bought a lot. It then overtakes your own work without actually selling less.
- The rankings are also helpful when you start marketing measures. Here you can always see directly whether and to what extent your advertising is bearing fruit. Ascending ranks show: Your work was perceived more strongly than before. Decreasing ranks (even a few days after the promotion) show that you shouldn't waste any more energy and energy on this type of advertising and that you can devote yourself to a new idea.
So don't let the ranks drive you crazy, use them for yourself and the expansion of your marketing.
