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Writer's Haven => Marketing Loft [Public] => Topic started by: alhawke on August 09, 2024, 03:07:51 AM

Title: Ranking on Amazon is batty again
Post by: alhawke on August 09, 2024, 03:07:51 AM
I'm seeing delays of 2-3 days on ranking in the US--maybe more. This happened about a year ago. Amazon appears to be up to its tricks again. Glitch? New beta update? Don't know. :shrug

I'm curious to see if you guys are seeing delays too?
Title: Re: Ranking on Amazon is batty again
Post by: TimothyEllis on August 09, 2024, 12:00:04 PM
Now is the time they do major updates.

So maybe they are.
Title: Re: Ranking on Amazon is batty again
Post by: alhawke on August 10, 2024, 12:56:17 AM
Could be. Hope it clears up soon. One book, for example, is at 3 days for one title with no rank change on Amazon US after two sales. And when I check books in promos, I'm not seeing much movement in rank.
Title: Re: Ranking on Amazon is batty again
Post by: TimothyEllis on August 10, 2024, 01:03:48 AM
My last release hasn't changed all day either.

Which is good, because it's due to start dropping off the top 100 charts around now.  grint
Title: Re: Ranking on Amazon is batty again
Post by: alhawke on August 10, 2024, 05:40:36 AM
Which is good, because it's due to start dropping off the top 100 charts around now.  grint
:icon_rofl:
I thought about that. Freezing rankings can be helpful too, I suppose.
Title: Re: Ranking on Amazon is batty again
Post by: TimothyEllis on August 10, 2024, 10:54:00 AM
It's caught up now.

Book dropped 9,000ish in the last 8 hours, and Space Opera dropped over a 100.

Hard to tell, but it looks like the reporting stopped for a while, but not the actual rank calculation.
Title: Re: Ranking on Amazon is batty again
Post by: alhawke on August 10, 2024, 11:04:59 AM
The book I was tracking has finally moved too after three days. This could mean it's taking three days to rank again. This is what was happening about a year ago. It doesn't bode well for large promotions (you lose that 1st and 2nd day ranking blitz). But this might be intentional on Amazon's part?

Title: Re: Ranking on Amazon is batty again
Post by: Bill Hiatt on August 10, 2024, 09:55:00 PM
Amazon has certainly done similar things in the past, but we can't know for sure without more data.

In the last twelve years, I've seen Amazon accused of all kinds of things, sometimes rightly, sometimes not. We never get enough data to know much until long after the fact.

My past faves:

"Kindle Scout isn't an Amazon program. It's a scam." It was an actual Amazon program, not a scam.

"Amazon is lowering our royalties to 50%." That rumor came about because 50% showed as an additional royalty point very briefly. A number of people believed this was an accidental revelation of a sinister Amazon plan. Others thought there would be a new 50% tier for people who wanted to be in KU and sell wide. (Some even thought that a good idea and started making plans to pivot into the 50% bracket.) Actually, the 50% was just someone inadvertently plugging in the royalty rate for Amazon imprints into the KDP dashboard. That was years ago, and the royalties haven't changed.

When it comes to Amazon, sometimes, we just have to wait for clarity.