E-Book Week Success Story

This past week (3/7-13/10) was E-Book Week. I partcipated in E-Book Week with my book, Second Chances, by offering a discount coupon off the list price at Smashwords.com.

My sincere thanks to everyone who downloaded Second Chances during E-Book Week. Thanks to you who did, my Second Chances is now listed as Number 17 on the Romance Best Seller List at Smashwords.com.

One reader has already finished reading Second Chances and left a fabulous review for it at both Smashwords.com and at Amazon.com. She even commented to me that my book was only the second one that she downloaded during E-Book Week that she truly enjoyed and would recommend.

All in all, I consider E-Book Week as a success for me personally and as a whole. I get lots of new readers and people were introduced to lots of new authors and e-books in general.

What a great week!

Happy reading!
Kristie Leigh Maguire, romance author

Amazon.com rankings - does anyone understand the system?

I have never understood the sales rankings that Amazon.com posts for books. I know that the lower the number the higher the ranking. I use to think it was the other way around, the higher the number the better the ranking but that is not the case. I don't know what it means when there is no ranking at all posted by a book. Does this mean that the book hasn't even sold 1 copy on Amazon?

I have also never understood how Amazon comes up with their list of best-selling books under genres and even sub-genres (i.e. romance, then with the sub-genre of sensual romance which is the category that I write).

Just today I did a search under Amazon Kindle books (I have 4 of my titles released in the Kindle version) for sensual romance. My novel Desert Heat is listed as Number 15 and my novel Cabin Fever is listed as Number 21 out of 119 books on the BEST SELLING sensual romance books list.

This is copied and pasted from the Amazon site:

Kindle Store › Kindle Books › "sensual romance"
Showing 13 - 24 of 119 Results Sort by Bestselling

15. Desert Heat (Affairs of the Heart) by Kristie Leigh Maguire (Kindle Edition - Jan 15, 2009) - Kindle Book
Buy: $3.19
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(10)
Other Editions: Paperback

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21. Cabin Fever (Affairs of the Heart) by Kristie Leigh Maguire (Kindle Edition - Jan 15, 2009) - Kindle Book
Buy: $3.19
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However when I go to the Amazon Kindle pages for Desert Heat and Cabin Fever, there are no sales rankings listed. Does this mean that NO copies of those books have been sold? If that is the case how are they Number 15 and Number 21 on the Best-Selling Sensual Romance Books at the Amazon Kindle Store?

When I did the same search but had it sorted by RELEVANCE instead of BEST SELLING, my Cabin Fever book came up as Number 1 and my Desert Heat book came up as Number 6.

This is copied and pasted from Amazon:

Kindle Store › Kindle Books › "sensual romance"
Showing 1 - 12 of 119 Results Sort by Relevance

1. Cabin Fever (Affairs of the Heart) by Kristie Leigh Maguire (Kindle Edition - Jan 15, 2009) - Kindle Book
Buy: $3.19
Auto-delivered wirelessly

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6. Desert Heat (Affairs of the Heart) by Kristie Leigh Maguire (Kindle Edition - Jan 15, 2009) - Kindle Book
Buy: $3.19
Auto-delivered wirelessly
(10)
Other Editions: Paperback

As I said, it is all a mystery to me. I have never found anyone who understands the system. I have an author friend who knows someone who works for Amazon. According to the friend of my friend, even Amazon doesn't understand how their system works. Do YOU?