Something going on with ranks again.

[TimothyEllis]

I've a book releasing today.

The AUS rank hasn't changed now in 14 hours, which is highly unusual.

The UK rank also hasn't changed in the last 8 hours or so.

The US rank has changed though, and always lags a long way behind the UK rank.

So either something is happening in the back end of the AUS and UK stores, or I've simply got no sales or downloads there from this release.

Both got an initial drop, and then nothing.

My AUS rank is 3107, and normally I'd expect to be down below a thousand and near the 600 mark like 6-8 hours ago, and be on the rise again now. No movement at all though since I started looking when I got up.

It's very unusual. And makes me wonder if I'm losing any chance for a decent rank for this book because of back end problems.

Anyone heard what's going on?

[alhawke]

Sales seem to lag by about a day on Zon lately over the past couple months, but I've found ranking was picked up internationally almost immediately in the UK and Australia. US and Canada tends to be the worst.

It seems all hit or miss these days with Amazon. And frustrating 

Hope ranking moves for you soon in Australia.

[TimothyEllis]

8 hours later and AUS and UK ranks are still exactly the same.

 

The US rank seems to be behaving normally.

[TimothyEllis]

This from Amazon help.

Someone has no idea how their own system works.

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). I hope you are having a lovely day.

My name is Tamara, I am the Senior Support Agent that will be assisting you today.

I can empathize with the position you are in and I will gladly do my best to assist you!

After further research I can it can be confirmed that the ranking for your book(s) is correct. There are multiple factors that determine the rank of a book and we cannot share our sales rank algorithms and related criteria.

Keep in mind that Sales Rank fluctuates every hour in line with customer demand and in relation to the demand for other books, both of which may vary based on factors such as popularity of new releases, seasonality, etc. While monitoring your book?s Amazon sales rank may be helpful in gaining general insight into the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and other initiatives to drive book sales, it is not an accurate way to track your book?s sales or compare your sales in relation to books in other categories, since a particular item?s sales rank does not absolutely reflect its sales.

I understand that you are concerned about your sales rank, so I have requested that our technical team look into this just to verify that there is no issue that I have missed.

You can expect a response within the next 24 hours.

Have a great day further.


Thanks for using Amazon KDP,

Tamara
Kindle Direct Publishing
http://kdp.amazon.com

I have never seen a book remain the same rank for 24 hours without there being a major problem.

Plus I checked the category ranks, and they're not even close to what's displaying.

 

[alhawke]

Sorry this is happening, Timothy. It's happened to me in the US market lasting a couple days--a few times. And it's messed up promos. It sounds like whatever algorithm has been affecting the US on Zon is traveling to Australia. I haven't had issues with Australia ranking before.

[alhawke]

{edit: also,  the response they gave you is the same they've given me when I've called. I don't see customer service helping with this.