Books and Tracking Sales

Sunset Last Evening

I read a post yesterday where an author referred to the, 70,000,000 books available on Amazon. Is that correct? If it is, that is a lot of books. Makes me feel better about my sales rankings for my slower selling titles.

I took a quick look at Amazon this morning and found these numbers,  Soft cover – 34,438,903 -  eBooks, 5,557,018 and hard back, 14,631,957.  Quite a bit short of the 70 million, but this does not include, audio or large print, and various other book categories so it might end up close to 60 or 70 million, and as I said above, “That’s a lot of books.

Breaking down the two most common types, soft cover and eBook it looks like if a writer has a softcover book in the top three and a half million, they are in the top ten percent on Amazon. As for eBooks, a book in the top 555,000 places the author in the top ten percent once again. Interesting.

What is a Best Seller - I occasionally see a book or an author listing their book as a best seller, when I check it out the book often does not make my top ten percent numbers. Not really saying anything here, the numbers are fascinating though.

If I look only at the numbers above I have two books, my two Blade Holmes western mysteries in the top five percent of all books – not bad. So how much do I make from these two each month – drum roll please, around a hundred bucks. Not exactly Steven King or J. K. Rowling money. I do have other books that boost this to enough to make some good pocket money every month.

Good Numbers – Bad Numbers - So how about my worst seller? It’s my attempt at a humorous look at gardening. I like this book with useful gardening tips, humor and four short murder mysteries with a garden setting.  Well, it ranks in the top half in both soft cover and eBooks, actually top 20% in soft cover. Total earning or this book, $42.00.  Not so good, and I like this book. I am thinking about giving this one away for a few days next spring, just before gardening season, see if it can get any traction.

Selling Books Myself - One last thought, my CCC book does not rank high in eBooks or softcover because it is a local history book. I do quite a few speaking engagements, around the area, about this book and the CCC.  I have peddled several hundred copies myself and because it is sold in area museums and book stores it does quite good. This was my first to sell 100 copies and my first to pass 500.

Canyon four miles north of town - nice setting for a western story

Checking Sales - I don’t know of any writers that sell on Amazon who is not, at least, partially addicted to checking sales numbers and author rankings on Amazon. I try to limit myself but it is hard to not check each time I set down to the computer.

Sandy Cove at Guernsey State Park

Have a great rest of the week and keep on reading and keep on writing.