Amazon Best Sellers Rank?

There are a lot of things I need to learn in the publishing business. I noticed several writers talking about their Amazon Best Sellers Rank, and so I checked mine for "The Light Bringer's Kingdom," saw that I was really at the bottom rungs in the "Paid in Kindle Store" category. I think I was at about #1,800,000. 

When it comes to ranking, the lower the number the higher your sales AND sales potential, according to what I've read. Page visits and people reading your preview pages add to your sales potential. I think the number of Amazon reviews your book has also helps. Sadly, I have only 1 review despite knowing a number of people who've bought my book,,, Q.Q

I can totally understand, though. I think it's quite time-consuming to review and critique written work, especially novels which need a whole lot of attention.

From the Amazon FAQs

While the Amazon Best Sellers list is a good indicator of how well a product is selling overall, it doesn't always indicate how well an item is selling among other similar items. Category and subcategory best seller lists were created to highlight an item's rank in the categories or subcategories where it really stands out.

We choose a few of the most popular subcategories in which the item has a high ranking in relation to other items in that subcategory, and showcase the item's rank on the product page. As with the main Amazon Best Sellers list, these category rankings are based on Amazon.com sales and are updated hourly.

Yup, apparently it changes hourly. I checked my rank again a week later. Surprised at how far I've jumped, suddenly at the hundred-thousands mark. Not sure what it means but it made me happy!

Had to read up on this. An improvement in rank doesn't necessarily mean more sales, I found. The ranking is relative to other books being sold in Amazon. So, if they are suddenly selling less, I could see an improvement in my rank despite selling the same amount of books the past few weeks. In the same way, if suddenly everyone (including me) is selling more units, my sales rank might not improve because I'll be doing just as well as everyone else.

There's a summary of the potential sales my current rank means, and it looks like I'm selling less than one book a day...NOOOOO. From makeuseof:

Amazon Best Seller Rank 50,000 to 100,000 – selling close to 1 book a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank 10,000 to 50,000 – selling 5 to 15 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank 5,500 to 10,000 – selling 15 to 25 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank 3,000 to 5,500 – selling25 to 70 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank 1,500 to 3,000 – selling70 to 100 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank 750 to 1,500 – selling 100 to 120 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank 500 to 750 – selling120 to 175 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank 350 to 500 – selling175 to 250 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank 200 to 350 – selling 250 to 500 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank 35 to 200 -selling500 to 2,000 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank 20 to 35 – selling 2,000 to 3,000 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank of 5 to 20 – selling3,000 to 4,000 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank of 1 to 5 – selling4,000+ books a day.

Anyway, it's still the royalty statement that holds the true number. I'll wait for it and compare with these sample projections.