17 Dec

novelrank

Because it’s difficult to know exactly how well my book is doing, I went looking for online apps that might be able to help.

I came across NovelRank a few weeks ago, which keeps track of your Amazon SalesRank and uses the fluctuations in the value to try figure out when a sale happens.

At first I was a bit disappointed, as my own ratings should not many sales going on, but I realised that this was because there were no reviews out there so people a) didn’t know about the book, and b) didn’t know if it was worth buying.

Since the reviews have started coming in, sales have picked up, as can be seen in the NovelRank graph for my book.

I like this application – it’s a simple idea, and the author has made it freely available (I assume he makes money from affiliate links).

Want to see it in action? Buy JQuery 1.3 with PHP and then view NovelRank graph for my book the graph a few hours later to see your very own blip appear on it.

It’s interesting to see that the book is not selling at all in Canada. What’s wrong with you Canadians?? 😉

On a very related note, I’m in talks with Packt to produce another book. More on this later when details are more concrete.

One thought on “novelrank

  1. First and foremost, congrats on the sales! Also, thanks for the kind words about NovelRank, I’m really glad you find it as useful as I do (I’m an author myself). Yes, the site is currently supported out of pocket by me and is starting to pick-up some affiliate revenue. The idea is that once or twice a year I would also solicit donations from authors using the tool, NPR style, but that’s at least 6 months off at the earliest (and if necessary).
    Stay tuned for more improvements as 2010 rolls into us, there is a lot planned (see the FEATURES list)! 160+ hours and counting.

    -Mario
    Creator, NovelRank.com
    Author, PHP Reference: Beginner to Intermediate PHP5

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