Everyday Systems

With Reinhard's book imminent, I have been wondering how Amazon calculates its sales rankings. Some of us ordered The Book in advance, and presumably these pre-orders were included in sales rankings at the time, as the book did have a sales ranking.

Do the pre-order sales get counted again when the book is actually published and dispatched? It could have a big effect on rankings straight after publication. Does anybody know, please?

Thank you for your generous concern for my book sales!

From what I understand, amazon "sales rank" is calculated hourly and can swing wildly. I think it's more a sign of something good than a cause of something good, so I wouldn't worry about timing purchases to outsmart it. Pre-orders seem to count as regular orders, as far as I can tell. I don't think they'll give a second boost when they finally ship (though I hope a lot of new orders will go in then).

http://www.fonerbooks.com/surfing.htm

I've seen nos swing from about 30000 to the hundred thousands, which isn't too terrible for an unpublished book from a first time author.

Reinhard