[Jena H]

This hasn't happened in a while, but it has in the past, and again today.  One of my freebies will get a very large download--today's number is 170--but this big activity isn't reflected in my book's free ranking.

Seems to me there was a possible reason proffered at one time, but I don't recall what it was.  Maybe something to do with expanded distribution?  Can anyone confirm?  It's a little frustrating that my book gets a burse of activity, and I can't benefit from it by seeing a #1 or #2 in the ranking. 

 

[Gareth K Pengelly]

Rankings are all over the place atm. They're supposed to be updated hourly, but in my case they seem to be lagging by sometimes upwards of 24hrs.

I can see a few sales go out for a particular book, then not see the corresponding rank jump until the next day. Amazon is just all over the place right now.

What's worse, is the rank DROPPING doesn't seem to be delayed, only the sales REPORTING. I'm seeing sequels that are making several sales a day dropping, dropping, dropping right down into the 200-300k+ rankings, even as they're selling, then the next day they will shoot up to 50-60k.

All very confusing atm.

 

[Patty Jansen]

Because the downloads are in the UK or any of the other six-odd Amazon stores that don't count towards the .com rank?

 

[Gareth K Pengelly]

Because the downloads are in the UK or any of the other six-odd Amazon stores that don't count towards the .com rank?

I just checked and you're not wrong, Patty - 90% of my sales yesterday were in .co.uk. And when I check ranks on the UK site, they look far sweeter.

I need more coffee...

I did always think that on Author Central that showed an aggregate rank. Is it really just the .com rank, then? Am I getting my wires crossed?

 

[Patty Jansen]

I just checked and you're not wrong, Patty - 90% of my sales yesterday were in .co.uk. And when I check ranks on the UK site, they look far sweeter.

I need more coffee...

I did always think that on Author Central that showed an aggregate rank. Is it really just the .com rank, then? Am I getting my wires crossed?

Just the .com rank.

Which is why the obsession of people with rank is plain silly.

 

[Gareth K Pengelly]

Just the .com rank.

Which is why the obsession of people with rank is plain silly.

Good to know, Patty, cheers.

 

[unkownwriter]

Just the .com rank.

Which is why the obsession of people with rank is plain silly.

Plus the fact that rank isn't just the author's sales/downloads/borrows but those of everyone else and whatever algo Amazon uses to figure it out. And Amazon has been extra glitchy lately.

 

[Jena H]

Because the downloads are in the UK or any of the other six-odd Amazon stores that don't count towards the .com rank?

That's a good theory, but it can't be right, because the book is only free in the US. I think it may have something to do with expanded distribution. In the past I've contacted middle-school libraries and told them they could download the book. Maybe a couple of them have finally taken me up on it. (she said hopefully.....)

 

[Carol (was Dara)]

I have this pretty often. An old freebie will suddenly see a spike of around 200 downloads out of nowhere. No apparent change to anything. No mentions anywhere that I can find. The next day it's back to normal downloads again. No idea what prompts it. At this point, I just kinda ignore it like it's some random glitch.

 

[markpauloleksiw]

Rankings used to be update hourly but a few months ago that notation was dropped and they are actually updated on a very irregular basis.

Example. (I am just rounding the numbers) My ebook went from 100,000 to 300,000 in a couple of days. Then suddenly, the rank switched to 125,000 and it RETROACTIVELY showed my rank two days earlier as hitting 60,000.  Now on the actual day when my rank supposedly hit 60,000...that rank never SHOWED...it was sliding from 100,000 to 300,000.

The book rankings have been really off an inaccurate for over a week now and have progressivley become erratic for the last month.  I had a bunch of ebook sales yesterday and in 24 hours still are not reflected.

For everyone saying this is due to the pandemic etc...remember that Zon runs on an algorithm so this screwiness should not be happening UNLESS they are tweaking the system manually and something broke down.

Mark

 

[IreneP]

Yesterday there was about an hour when I couldn't see rank on book pages on .com.  Not my books. Not sales in KDP dashboard. Rank on book pages.

So....glitchy.

 

[Jena H]

I have this pretty often. An old freebie will suddenly see a spike of around 200 downloads out of nowhere. No apparent change to anything. No mentions anywhere that I can find. The next day it's back to normal downloads again. No idea what prompts it. At this point, I just kinda ignore it like it's some random glitch.

Yes I've had it happen before also. But I still don't understand why the glut of downloads doesn't move the needle on my "free" ranking.

 

[Decon]

This may not be correct, but wasn't it said  some time ago that they have a bot that stopped ranking free downloads if there was a surge that appeared nefarious and it caused distress as it seemed to be arbitrary, especially if you had paid for a promo. Not saying this is the case as it hasn't reared its head as a subject for some time. Just saying

 

[Jena H]

This may not be correct, but wasn't it said some time ago that they have a bot that stopped ranking free downloads if there was a surge that appeared nefarious and it caused distress as it seemed to be arbitrary, especially if you had paid for a promo. Not saying this is the case as it hasn't reared its head as a subject for some time. Just saying

Yes, I believe Amazon does do this. They sent me an email last year about "suspicious" download activity on one of my freebies, and quit showing the rank. (For the record, I never advertise that book anywhere, so I never knew why it got tons of downloads.) Amazon "fixed" the lack of rank for a while, and the huge downloads stopped, but that particular book still doesn't show me my rank.

But the book in question for this thread is a different book and series altogether. The rank is visible, but again, it wasn't affected by the the recent large spike.