Understanding Amazon Ranking

[Lisa]

So today I looked at my books' rankings on Amazon.ca and then compared it to the sales on the dashboard in KDP and it left me confused.

Here's where my question lies. The one book that at the time was ranked 4th has 2 sales so far today. The other book that was (at the time) ranked 13th has 6 sales today. So why is it ranked lower? Both books are in the exact same category, keywords etc. because they are book one and two of my UF series. The book that has lower sales but better rank has a lot more reviews. Does that factor in?

Does anyone know how the rank is determined?

In case you are wondering this is the category/rank I'm talking about (of course by the time you read this the rankings could have changed)

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/bestsellers/d...

[Christina]

Rank over time matters. If one book has been out longer, has had more sales in total, it will hold a rank longer.

[Lisa]

Christina wrote: "Rank over time matters. If one book has been out longer, has had more sales in total, it will hold a rank longer."

Ahhh, that makes sense. I thought it was based just on the daily numbers. D'oh! There's a reason I'm a writer and not a statistician.

[Justin]

Don't feel too bad, Amazon ranks and ratings can be quite confusing. The only time I check them is when I run giveaways cause I know they'll be ranked low other than that ehh

[Lisa]

Justin wrote: "Don't feel too bad, Amazon ranks and ratings can be quite confusing. The only time I check them is when I run giveaways cause I know they'll be ranked low other than that ehh"

Thanks. I'm still kind of new to the publishing thing and find myself 'stalking' my books. I'm trying to get out of the habit of looking more than once a day. I have a promo going on this month so I was wondering if it had started to make a difference (so far no)

[J.J.]

And another thing to consider is the ranking is in relation to everyone else. So a book might rank higher with less performance, but that means those performing just below you are performing worse.

[Pam]

Don't know if this site would be useful to anyone Sales Rank Express?

[Segilola]

thanks for link Pam

[L.S.]

Also, I've noticed UK sales don't affect my US rank.

[Owen]

L.S. wrote: "Also, I've noticed UK sales don't affect my US rank."

That is true. Sales ranks only apply within each market.