At 56,344, my sales rank on Amazon today is the highest I've ever seen it. Considering that a week ago it was hovering in the 400,000 range, there must be very high Sherlock consciousness in the reading world today.

 

Tags: amazon, sherlock holmes
Current Location: Office
Current Mood: surprised
Current Music: Mark Snow, "The X-Files"

That can be the only explanation for "SHPoD" traffic on Amazon lately.

My sales rank in unusually high these days, especially considering my publisher's near-total lack of support in any promotional activities and the fact that my Website is still under construction. But when I checked on Sunday, I was No. 15 in the Sherlock Holmes category. At 8 a.m. today, I was at 17, and when I checked again 20 minutes ago (just to be sure), I had risen to 16. If this keeps up, I could be a six-time sellout.

Which I will need, because I do not expect to be at the Vermont Journal much longer. That publisher has been making unreasonable demands and intruding on my authority, and if there isn't some improvement soon, I don't see any way I can continue. Hope somebody's hiring. 

Tags: amazon, sherlock holmes
Current Location: Home office
Current Mood: good
Current Music: The Charleston Chasers, "Someday Sweetheart"

Someone please tell me how the Amazon.com ranking system works. 

I spent yesterday at a party in Connecticut, seeing my niece off to Iraq. During a lull, I logged on to Amazon to see how "Plague of Dracula" was doing; lately, it's been hovering in the low six-digits in the sales ranks. This isn't a surprise; my Web page still hasn't materialized, nor has the featurette Dan's putting together for me on YouTube, and signing opportunities, rare enough to begin with, have been drying up. 

However, yesterday "SHPoD" had risen to 51,000 or so in sales rank, and No. 11 on the bestseller list in the Sherlock Holmes category. Only Conan Doyle and the inexplicable Laurie R. King were ahead of me; I was even topping Caleb Carr's "The Italian Secretary," at No. 12. A Conan Doyle anthology headed the list, and its overall sales rank was only 20,000 spots higher than mine. (For perspective, there are books on Amazon with sales ranks lower than one million.)

The problem is, I don't know what it means. I have never been given coherent information on where or how much the book is selling, and the figures I get from my publisher are depressing to say the least. (However, this information comes from people who, in front of me, sneered at the thought of spending $200 on co-op advertising for a signing that filled the room in one of the most influential bookstores in the state. Do you think that store will ever stock anything of mine again?)  

But even today the book hasn't fallen back to its lowest levels, and the last time I checked it was No. 38 on the Sherlock Holmes list, which is still pretty high. This has to mean that someone, somewhere, is buying the book, doesn't it? So, if any Amazon-knowledgeable authors who may see this will please leave a comment to enlighten me, I'd appreciate it. I need to know if I'm depressed for a reason.

My next post, I hope, will be better news from the Burlington Book Festival. I'm not appearing, but I will be putting on my best sales face in hopes of finding an agent and a way out of this mess.

Tags: amazon, sherlock holmes
Current Location: Home office
Current Mood: depressed
Current Music: Jerry Goldsmith, The Russia House