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11.
AOTW: Do you monitor your Amazon ranking, or sales numbers vigilantly?
If so, what do you find the best driver of them to be?
Cat
Bauer: I loved Amazon when it started. The first Christmas,
before they went public, they sent us all a Grouch Marx mouse pad.
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog,
it's too dark to read." Those were the days, when they had a sense
of humor. Of course, it's nice to even have a book with sales numbers
to check, but it gets old fast. When Harley first came out, I monitored
the numbers to the point of obsession, but now I'll check them out
every couple of weeks or so. I have yet to decipher Amazon's method
of calculation, so I have no idea what drives them.
Thisbe
Nissen: I check the Amazon numbers, but I can't figure out any
sense behind them at all, or what makes them go up and down, so
I don't put much stock in it. I don't know how to check sales numbers,
and that's probably a good thing, because if I knew how I'd probably
check obsessively and that doesn't seems like a very productive
thing to do, so no one teach me how, ok?
Sallie
Bissell: When In The Forest of Harm first came out, I
checked Amazon just like a day trader on the stock market. Now I'm
busy on re-writes for the second book, so I don't keep quite as
close an eye on things, although I do check a couple of time a week.
Amazon is hard to figure --- I can't tell if my book is selling
well, or other books are selling better. Also, you don't know if
you're being ranked with non-fiction, children's, etc.
Suzanne
Chazin: The Amazon.com sales rankings are like a drug. You know
you shouldn't keep looking at it, but you look anyway. I've only
just launched, so I don't really know what will make a difference
yet. I just know that looking at those sales rankings is another
form of writer's block. Personally, I wish I could just put that
stuff out of my mind.
NM
Kelby: No, but it's a fun feature. My in-laws squeal every time
I move up a notch. I love to make them squeal.
Michael
Leahey: I look at the Amazon.com site all the time, because
it's my only real, daily link to how the book is doing. I'm not
sure how valid the Amazon.com numbers are, but it's a great feeling
to see my rank go from 19,000 to 1,900 in a day !
Stephanie
Gertler: I don't monitor the sales numbers and I am trying to
control myself when it comes to checking the Amazon ranking. I think
in the first few weeks, I was on the Amazon site every ten minutes!
Lately, I've decided it's probably best just not to look and focus
on the edits for my second novel. The rankings have such swings
in the course of the day; I've come to realize it's just not healthy
to track your own book -- far too stressful.
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