What is Sales Rank Express?
Sales Rank Express is an Amazon sales rank checker, designed for quick, up-to-the-minute checking of Amazon sales rank (ranking, rankings) and other vital info about your own books or others that interest you. It is not a sales rank tracker—like TitleZ, Charteous, RankForest, RankTracer, Books & Writers, or the old JungleScan—because it does not record or chart sales rank for analysis over time. But Sales Rank Express is unequalled at providing a snapshot of a book’s status and standing on Amazon. In one handy place and format, it collects the info that would take you much longer to dig up on Amazon itself.
From the main page, you can check on books that match author, publisher, title, and/or ISBN. For each book displayed, you can then check all additional versions of that book as linked by Amazon, or check on books that Amazon pairs with it for promotions. Sales Rank Express even helps you correct any errors of Amazon’s that you spot!
One of the chief advantages of Sales Rank Express is its international scope. You can just as easily check your books on Amazon in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, or Japan. And most of the info is yours without knowing any language other than English.
Sales Rank Express works by collecting and organizing data from Amazon Web Services—specifically, the AWS program called Amazon Associates Web Service—which is operated by Amazon itself. Sales Rank Express is completely free to use, as much and as often as you like. It is supported by book promotions and by commissions on your purchases at Amazon if you follow links.
While this FAQ gives you everything you need to use Sales Rank Express, the book Aiming at Amazon, by Aaron Shepard, provides background to help you interpret and improve your results. Another important resource for background is Morris Rosenthal’s frequently updated article “What Amazon Sales Rank Means,” at www.fonerbooks.com/surfing.htm.
Updated Nov. 26, 2007
What are those foreign words on top?
Amazon’s own translations of “sales rank.”
- French—classement parmi les ventes (plural, classements parmi les ventes)
- German—Verkaufsrang (plural, Verkaufsränge)
- Japanese—ランキング
Updated Nov. 2, 2007
How do I look up books?
To start, the Sales Rank Express search form is set to search Amazon.com, Amazon’s U.S. site—but you can switch to any other of Amazon’s national sites by clicking one of the radio buttons at the top of the form.
Next, fill in one or more of the text boxes. (You can quickly move from one to the next with your Tab key.)
Author. The name or any part of it.
Publisher. The publisher name or any part of it.
Title. The title or any words from it. Words like “and” or “the” are ignored, so you can skip them.
ISBN. The International Standard Book Number, used to identify each format of each edition of any title. The ISBN is generally found on the book’s back cover in the bar code box, and also on the copyright page (title verso). You can enter either the current, 13-digit version or the older, 10-digit version. (The 13-digit version is often called the EAN—European Article Number—because it’s a type of EAN, though just for books.) Don’t include any hyphens.
Fill in just one of these boxes to get all matches for that entry. Fill in more than one box for results that match all entries together. For instance, entering Joe Small as the author, and Big Books as the publisher, will give you all books by Joe Small published by Big Books. It will not give you Joe Small’s books from other publishers, or books by any other Big Books author. (In database query language, this is an AND request, not an OR.)
For convenience, and to avoid getting caught by listing problems, enter only enough info to bring up the book or books you need. For instance, almost any individual book can be brought up with a last name in the Author box plus two or three keywords in the Title box. If you instead fill in the complete author name and the full title—and if Amazon happens to list one or the other slightly differently—then the book might not come up.
Capitalization doesn’t matter, so you may type all lower case or all upper case for convenience. For accented letters, you can leave off the accent and still get a match—in fact, due to current problems at Amazon, you might get no match with the accent!
You can use quote marks around an entry to ask for that exact phrase instead of the individual words. (11/26/2007—Due to a bug at Amazon, this is not working properly with author names.) You can also use an asterisk at the end of any word or number as a “wildcard” character. For instance, entering “soap*” in the Title box will get books that have titles with “soap,” “soaps,” “soapmaking,” “soapmakers,” and so on. Bonus tip: In the ISBN box, this means you can place an asterisk after a publisher prefix—the identifying digits that don’t change—and get all books from that publisher, even if Amazon lists the publisher in different forms or as different imprint names! For instance, “9780938497*” in this box would give you all books from Shepard Publications, including the ones that Amazon lists under “Shepard Pubns” or the imprint “Skyhook Press.”
Below those boxes are a set of options for the request. They differ according to country but may include:
Sort order. Sales Rank Express offers a number of sort orders, reflecting at least some of the choices Amazon offers for search results on its sites. Since the set of choices differs by country, your selection applies only to the country you’re checking in at the time.
The default here for all countries is “Sampled Sales,” which is hopefully a less misleading name—if no less a confusing one—for Amazon’s “Bestselling” order. Though the order is based on sales, Amazon derives it from a sample taken only twice a week—so don’t expect it to match the sales ranks you see. For a fuller discussion, see below.
For U.S. results only, Sales Rank Express offers an extra sort order: “Relevance.” This helps avoid getting mostly irrelevant books at the top of results, as can often happen in broad searches because of Amazon’s Search Inside program. If you’re having this problem with U.S. results from Sales Rank Express, try a “Relevance” sort in place of “Sampled Sales.”
Origin. This option appears only for Amazon sites in non-English-speaking countries. You can select either “Imported”—books from outside the country—or “Domestic”—books from within the country—but not both together. For instance, if you are an American author checking the sales rank in Japan of your book published in the U.S., you would choose “Imported.” Your choice applies only to the country you’re checking in at the time.
Availability. This appears as a checkbox with the words “Available items only.” If you check the box, you’ll get only books available for ordering on that Amazon site, either from Amazon itself or from a third-party seller that is listing there. Note that you will still even get books out of print, as long as used copies are available.
Sales Rank Express uses “cookies” placed on your own computer to remember the text you enter and all your selections, saving you from starting over on your next visit. To get this to work, though, make sure you’re reaching Sales Rank Express by the exact same address each time—your browser will store settings separately for “salesrankexpress.com” and “www.salesrankexpress.com.”
The form finishes with buttons for various actions:
“Save” and “Recall.” These sets of buttons let you save your entries and recall them whenever you like. For instance, you can fill out the form to check books of your own, then click a “Save” button to make Sales Rank Express remember indefinitely what you entered. If you then temporarily make changes to check different books, you can quickly revert by clicking the matching “Recall” button.
Sales Rank Express has buttons to save and recall two distinct sets of entries. The entries saved are those that apply to all countries—author, publisher, title, ISBN, and availability. To save and recall, make sure you’re reaching Sales Rank Express by the exact same address each time.
“Start Over.” This clears your entries from the form so you can start fresh. The entries cleared are those that apply to all countries—author, publisher, title, ISBN, and availability.
“GET RANKS!” This tells Sales Rank Express to go check Amazon sales ranks and other info. Note that you don’t actually have to click on this button. If you’ve been entering text in one of the boxes and your cursor is still there, you can just hit Return or Enter on your keyboard to start the process.
Updated Sept. 7, 2008
What are the extra links for?
Below the form are a number of helpful links that are specific to the country you choose. Here is what you might see:
Contact. Short for “Contact Form.” An Amazon online form for contacting Customer Service. Specific forms may include
“General Contact.” For any inquiries at all.
“Catalog Contact.” For inquiries about book listings and availability, including corrections you can’t handle through other forms.
“Features Contact.” For inquiries about special features and services like Customer Reviews, Search Inside, and Your Profile. (The list varies by country.)
“English Contact.” For inquiries in English directed to a non-English site.
Actually, all the forms for each country—or even several countries—send messages to the same place. They’re forwarded from there if necessary, mostly according to the subject heading you select from a menu on the form, but also according to content. So, in a pinch, any form for a country should get your message to the right department.
Your Profile. If you have an account on that Amazon site, you either have a profile or have the opportunity of creating one. Besides offering a view of you to other Amazon customers, this can act as a “central control” in your submissions for various Amazon special features like Customer Reviews, Listmania lists, AmazonConnect, and so on.
AmazonConnect. A powerful program for authors that allows you to blog on your book pages. So far, only available on Amazon.com.
Affiliate Program. This is Amazon’s program for commissioned referrals, mostly through links from your Web site. It’s called Amazon Associates in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.
Publishers and Authors Guide. This is a help section appearing on each Amazon site (except France) for publishers or authors who wish to correct data, add content, or participate in special programs. The material is mostly aimed at publishers, but authors too can use much of it. Even if you don’t speak the language, you can often pick out enough key words and contact listings to make it useful.
Books Content Update Form. This is a form provided by Amazon in each country (except France) for submitting extra kinds of book information like descriptions, samples, and reviews. For Amazon in non-English-speaking countries, you must choose between a content form for books in general and one for English-language books. To help you navigate the form in various languages, Aiming at Amazon 2.0 or later includes translations of key terms. But here too you can sometimes use the form even if you don’t understand the language—especially if you compare it to one from a country where you do.
Updated Oct. 21, 2008
What’s on the results page?
Results are displayed on a series of pages with up to ten books each. The maximum number of pages you can access this way is 400. Here’s what you’ll see:
Page title. This identifies the country of the site you’re checking in.
Summary. This tells you what entries you were trying to match and with what option settings, the date and time in local format (as set on your computer and formatted by your browser), the total number of items in the results, the page number, and the total results pages. This info appears also at the page bottom.
Header/Footer. The header and footer provide navigation links to the next and previous pages, to the home page, and to Sales Rank Express’s support functions.
Item listings. This is what you came for—the info for each individual book, with up to ten books per page. See below for details.
Ads. Oh, yes, let’s not forget the book ads. All links and buttons in an ad go just to the book’s page on Amazon. So, you can click freely without worrying that you’re committing to buying.
Updated Oct. 7, 2007
What does this show me about each book?
Sales Rank Express shows you more data on your books than any other Amazon sales rank tracker or checker. Here’s what’s shown for each book on the results page, moving from left to right, and top to bottom.
Scores column. This is where you’ll find the most direct indicators of a book’s popularity with Amazon’s customers, starting with the indicator you most love to watch.
Amazon sales rank. For Amazon sites in non-English-speaking countries, the sales rank compares sales only among books published in that country, or only among foreign books, depending on which you were checking. For much more about Amazon sales rank, see below.
Customer rating. This is an average of the ratings in customer reviews submitted to Amazon. Sales Rank Express shows it both numerically and as a set of stars like Amazon’s.
Customer Reviews. Sales Rank Express shows you the number of reviews, and it also links to them on Amazon in newer-to-older order. Underneath in parentheses is the date of the latest review (in year-month-day format), so you can see whether any have been added recently.
Taggings. For Amazon.com only, Sales Rank Express shows you the number of taggings and also links to their listing on Amazon. A “tagging” is each time anyone applies any new or an old tag to a book. Sorry, this info is not available when looking up pairings with the “Get Pairings” button (see below).
Pairing position. If you’re looking up pairings with the “Get Pairings” button (see below), you’ll see the number of the book’s position on the list.
Book cover image. This is the image that Amazon shows for your book, in one of the smaller of Amazon’s standard sizes. Sales Rank Express will also tell you if Amazon has no cover image for the book at all. Clicking on the image sends you to the book’s page on Amazon.
Book Data rows. The first three rows in the main info area include the data that identifies and describes the book—what people in publishing often call the “metadata.”
The first row includes
Full title of the book, with a link to the book’s page on Amazon.
In parentheses, any identifier that Amazon has for the edition, apart from what’s in the title itself.
The second row includes
Author or authors, plus any other contributors, with their contribution identified.
Publisher or imprint (publishing division).
Publication date, in year-month or year-month-day format.
The third row includes
Binding or other kind of format. (The language used to describe it will vary by country. Sales Rank Express will translate the most common terms for you, and you can also see below for those translations.)
Length in number of pages or discs/cassettes.
For children’s books, the reading level, if any is specified.
ISBN, without hyphens. (This is the current, 13-digit form, also known as EAN.)
ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number). This is what Amazon uses internally to identify the book. For most books, it’s identical to the old, 10-digit ISBN, again without hyphens. But if the book never had an ISBN, or if the ISBN is unknown, Amazon uses its own identifier.
All this info is just as displayed on Amazon. If some data is wrong or missing—which it’s likely to be, if you’ve never checked your book’s data before—you can correct most problems with the “Fix Data” button, as explained below.
Offers rows. These rows describe the offers for the book being made by Amazon and other sellers on the site.
The first row focuses on Amazon’s offer. For a book sold by Amazon, it should include
“List” price. This is the publisher’s suggested retail price, as you’d normally see on the book cover. For books imported into the various countries, this is normally translated to native currency.
Amazon’s price, in native currency.
Percentage discount, if any, that Amazon’s price gives the customer, plus the actual amount saved. Sales Rank Express will also alert you if a surcharge is being applied.
Availability, meaning how long Amazon says it will take to ship the book. (The language used will vary by country, but Sales Rank Express will translate key terms.) Reported problems may be expressed here in different terms than on Amazon’s own site, so go there to look for more info.
If Amazon doesn’t sell the book itself—or if no one at all sells it on Amazon—Sales Rank Express will tell you on this row.
The second Offers row gives info on all offers together—those of Amazon and of other sellers combined. It includes
Link to all the offers on Amazon.
Total offers, and the lowest price available.
In parentheses, total offers of new copies, of used copies, and of “collectible” copies—which Sales Rank Express calls “rare,” to save space—and the lowest price of each.
If there are no outside sellers at all, Sales Rank Express will tell you that instead.
Pairing row. For use in promotions, Amazon tries to pair each title with similar titles, mostly by seeing which books are bought most often by the same customers. This row shows the #1 title among the paired books, with a link to its page on Amazon. For much more about pairings and their importance, see below.
This row will be missing if the book you’re checking doesn’t have enough of a sales record for Amazon to establish pairings.
Versions row. Sales Rank Express lists all of a title’s linked versions in this row, starting with the book they’re being listed under. For more about linked versions, see below.
This row includes
Total number of linked versions.
Each version’s format, with a link to that version’s page on Amazon.
In parentheses, each version’s ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number)—usually the same as the old, 10-digit ISBN.
After the first version in the list, the rest are listed in numerical order by ASIN. Among versions from the same publisher, this means they’re listed roughly from oldest to newest. The versions are also numbered by Sales Rank Express in the order of listing, but only as a reference aid.
In normal U.S. results, Sales Rank Express is similar to Amazon.com in that only one version is displayed fully, with the rest appearing only in this listing of versions. But Sales Rank Express also provides an easy way to look up all of a book’s versions together, with the “Get Versions” button. (See below.)
The Versions row is omitted if the book is in only one version, or if none other are linked, or if you’re looking up versions directly with the “Get Versions” button.
Updated Sept. 7, 2008
What do the buttons do?
To the right of each book’s info, Sales Rank Express offers one to three buttons for special action.
“Fix Data.” This button brings you right to Amazon’s Online Catalog Update Form for that book. There you can correct most errors you may have noticed in the Book Data rows. Even if the form is in a language you don’t understand, most of the current data will be shown in your own language, so you’ll see where to correct it. For additional help, see the translations of key terms in Aiming at Amazon 2.0 or later.
“Get Pairings.” This button brings you info on Amazon’s top ten pairings for the book. For much more about pairings and their importance, see below.
When you look up pairings, there are a couple of differences in the info displayed for each book. In the Scores column, you’ll see a number representing the position of the book in the list. Also, Sales Rank Express will not list other versions of the title, or show the “Get Versions” button.
If a book has too little sales history to allow Amazon to establish pairing, Sales Rank Express shows “No Pairings” in place of the button. Note that Amazon itself may still show pairings on the book’s page—but in that case, Amazon is simply listing popular books in the same category till it has more to go on.
“Get Versions.” With this button, you can check the listed book and the other versions Amazon links to it, all together. For much more about linked versions, see below.
Because of programming limitations, Sales Rank Express cannot display linked versions in a series of pages, the way normal results are presented. To work around this, titles with more than ten versions get a series of buttons instead of just one. The regular “Get Versions” button displays the first ten versions, the button below it displays the next ten, and so on. Starting with the second button, each one is labeled to show which of the numbered versions from the Versions row will be displayed.
To check each set of ten, then, you must return to these buttons and click another one. The maximum number of versions that can be checked this way is 100. (Yes, there are titles with more than that!)
When you look up versions, the only change in the display of results is that each book’s listing of other versions is omitted, along with the book’s “Get Versions” button.
In normal results, if a title comes in only one version, you’ll see “No Versions” in place of the button. When you check pairings, info on other versions is not available, so you see no listing, button, or notice.
Updated Sept. 7, 2008
Will this work on my iPhone/iPod/PDA/cellphone?
Though Sales Rank Express has no specially adapted format for handhelds, it has been designed to scale gracefully to screens much smaller (and much larger) than the typical desktop monitor. You may need to scroll sideways for some functions, but as a rule, you should be able to comfortably check Amazon sales ranks on any device that lets you run a standard Web browser (for instance, Safari on the iPhone).
If you find the Sales Rank Express display too large for comfort on your small screen, simply use your browser’s text size or zoom command to shrink it. Internet Explorer has both kinds of command, but the zoom command will probably work best for you. Just don’t use both commands on that browser together!
Updated Oct. 20, 2007
What does Amazon sales rank really mean?
Amazon sales rank is basically a popularity contest, in which each purchase of a book constitutes a vote for it. It is not an absolute measure of sales quantity, but only a relative measure of where one book stands among all others sold on Amazon. Approximate correlations of average Amazon sales rank to U.S. sales can be found both in Aaron Shepard’s Aiming at Amazon and in Morris Rosenthal’s Amazon sales rank analysis. But these are ballpark figures only—especially Aaron’s—and besides, they’re subject to changes over time and season.
Amazon sales rank for all books is now updated once each hour, and all at once. At that time, a book jumps to a higher sales rank (a lower number) for the sale of any new or used copy. With no new sale, the sales rank will drift lower (to a higher number) as books that have sold copies push it down. If a book has no sales rank at all, that means no one has ever bought it!
The time of hourly updating is fairly regular but changes over time and also varies according to your geographical location. For instance, here at the Sales Rank Express control center in Olympia, Washington, it was found one day to occur regularly at about a quarter after the hour. On the same day, at the Foner Books offices in Springfield, Massachusetts, it was found to occur on the hour. And on another day here in Olympia, it started out at quarter to the hour, then switched later to a quarter after.
The jump in Amazon sales rank that results from a sale will probably not occur at the next hourly update. Tests in May 2007 showed a typical time lag at Amazon.com of around two to three hours between the sale and the jump in sales rank.
Occasionally, Amazon’s system may become “stuck,” so that sales rank does not advance after a sale. You may see sales ranks remain completely static for long periods, or see most of them drift slowly downward. Just wait a while, and Amazon will fix it.
Amazon sales rank is a lot less steady than it used to be, now being subject to wide fluctuations. So, you’ll have to check a book’s sales rank now and then over an extended period to get a good sense of its true position. This, of course, is a weakness of a sales rank checker like Sales Rank Express as opposed to a sales rank tracker with its recording of historical data. But the upside is that you’ll get a better sense of short cycles in book sales.
Also, a sales rank tracker might check sales rank only once a day in the middle of the night, when some books may not sell at their best. Sales Rank Express, by contrast, shows your sales rank as it is right at the moment, in real time.
Updated Sept. 23, 2007
Where did the stock numbers go?
Sales Rank Express used to report the number of copies of a book in stock at Amazon or at its drop-shipping partners—but no longer. Two days after this capability was reported in The New York Times, Amazon ceased offering the data. Guess we scared them!
Updated Aug. 10, 2007
What are “pairings,” and why should I care?
Amazon tries to pair each title with similar titles, mostly by seeing which books are bought most often by the same customers. These pairings are then presented to customers in various ways to encourage additional purchases.
The most prominent of these ways are the featured pairing and the “Also Bought” display that appear on the page for most books. Amazon uses these same pairings for exit offers, showing them to customers who have just placed a book in their shopping cart. The pairings are also used in email solicitations sent to purchasers of particular books.
The results page of Sales Rank Express shows you the top paired title for each book. Generally, this will be the title used for the book’s featured pairing—the one that shows two cover images side by side—called “Better Together” in the U.S. and Canada, and “Perfect Partner” in the U.K. Two possible exceptions to this are when the paired title is not available for sale by Amazon itself, or when that featured position has been purchased as a paid promotion. (If it’s a paid promotion, the pairing will be called something different—like “Best Value”—and will offer an extra discount.)
Sales Rank Express also provides a “Get Pairings” button as a quick, easy way to get info on the top ten paired titles for a particular book. This fuller listing can help you in several ways.
First, it can help you check on your competitors—because that’s really what the paired titles are, from an author’s or publisher’s point of view. In particular, keep an eye on their Amazon sales ranks in relation to yours. That will show you how your book is faring compared to others in its field—and it will also help you avoid worrying about variations in rank that have little to do with your own book. While sales rank may fluctuate widely, the sales ranks of books related in subject tend to rise or fall together. So, if your Amazon sales rank is slumping but so are your competitors’, you have less to worry about. On the other hand, if your sales rank is slumping while your competitors’ are rising, you might have a problem!
“Get Pairings” can also help you evaluate the marketing strength of your book. It does this by allowing “chaining”—one of the most powerful features of Sales Rank Express. For instance, you can start by getting the pairings for your book. You can then get the pairings for each of those books. Do you see your own book on the list of one of those others? How high is it? Has it risen or fallen since the last time you checked? The more pairings you see, and the higher they are, the stronger your book’s position on Amazon.
Finally, “Get Pairings” can help you analyze trends in Amazon policy and practice. For instance, in the summer of 2006, Amazon made changes in its formulas for pairing that seemed to favor books sold to Amazon on better terms, as well as books with higher list prices. This discrimination—possibly from nothing more than a programming error—grew gradually stronger but was then removed at the beginning of 2007. Sales Rank Express, by making it easy to check pairing positions of particular titles, proved helpful in documenting the rise and fall of the effects. Some of this info was presented to Amazon and may even have helped encourage the problem’s resolution.
Updated Sept. 7, 2008
What exactly are “linked versions”?
“Versions” is a loose term that includes bindings, media, editions, or anything else that can distinguish publications of the same title. If Amazon recognizes the connection between the versions—either through its own analysis or because it’s been told—it links them in its catalog. That means that features like book descriptions and Customer Reviews will carry over from one version to the next. It also generally means that only one or some of the versions will appear in search results, with links to others.
S.R.E.’s results page gives you a quick list of all linked versions for each title. In many cases, Sales Rank Express displays more linked versions than Amazon itself will show you. Unfortunately, because of limited data from Amazon, this list can describe the versions only by format, not also by edition.
You can get more info on up to ten linked versions at a time with the “Get Versions” buttons. This makes it much easier to check for the title’s range of Amazon sales rank, look for errors, notice missing elements, or even turn up an unauthorized edition, or an extraneous listing from an outside vendor.
If you don’t see versions linked that you know should be there, you can request the links with Amazon’s Books Content Update Form or by contacting the Books Catalog Department. (For details, see Aiming at Amazon.)
Updated Aug. 21, 2008
What are all those foreign words?
Some of the info from the non-English-language sites is reported in the language of that site. For the most common terms, Sales Rank Express will provide a translation in parentheses—but you might also want these and other translations for reference.
You’ll find some useful ones below. The languages displayed left to right are English, French, German, and Japanese. Note that some “translations” are actually “equivalents,” since Amazon may not use exactly the same term in each language.
Here are some of the more common kinds of binding.
Hardcover • Relié • Gebundene Ausgabe • ハードカバー
Library Binding • Belle reliure • Bibliothekseinband • 図書館
Paperback • Broché • Taschenbuch • ペーパーバック
Mass Market Paperback • Poche • Broschiert • マスマーケット
Print on Demand • Print on Demand • BOD • オンデマンド
Here are some of the more common kinds of contributor.
Author • Auteur • Autor • 著
Illustrator • Illustrations • Illustrator • イラスト
Editor • Sous la direction de • Herausgeber • 編集
Translator • Traduction • Übersetzer • 翻訳
Preface/Foreword • Préface • Vorwort • はしがき
Introduction • Introduction • Einleitung • 序論
Here are several terms from availability listings.
In Stock • En stock • Auf Lager • 在庫あり
Weeks • Semaines • Wochen • 週間
Days • Jours • Tagen • 日
Hours • Heures (h) • Stunden • 時間
Minutes • Minutes (min) • Minuten • 分
Not yet published • À paraître • Noch nicht erschienen • 近日発売
Temporarily out of stock • Temporairement en rupture de stock •
Derzeit nicht auf Lager • 一時的に在庫切れです
For additional translations try Google Translate at translate.google.com, the translation widget in Mac OS X, or another tool. Aiming at Amazon 2.0 or later includes translated phrases to help navigate Amazon’s online forms.
Updated Nov. 14, 2008
How do I supply cover images?
That depends on your situation. Some ways to submit new or replacement book cover images are described in Amazon’s Publishers and Authors Guide, available for each country except France. Follow the link below the Sales Rank Express search form when it’s set for the country you want.
Other ways are described in Aiming at Amazon 2.0 or later. Among these, the simplest and most reliable is to upload your images through the Web form made available by Amazon Advantage. You must sign up with Advantage to use this, but you do not need to sign up any of your books, including the one represented by your image.
Updated Sept. 7, 2008
Why is my book missing?
First make sure you entered the right info in the right boxes for the right country. Remember that you don’t have to fill in all the boxes, or even fill in any of them completely. Just enter enough to identify what you’re looking for. Make sure you haven’t selected “Available items only.” When searching in a non-English-speaking country, make sure you’ve properly selected “Domestic”—books from that country—or “Imported”—books from anywhere else. If you entered an accented letter, try an unaccented one instead. If you’re checking more than ten books at a time, remember that you need to click the “Next Page” link to see the rest.
If a book is missing from results but you know it’s on Amazon, it’s probably because of data at Amazon that’s missing, incorrect, or simply in a different form. For instance, if you check books from “My Publications,” you won’t find any books that Amazon says are from “My Pubns.” Or if you check books from “My Bestsellers Inc.,” you won’t find books that Amazon says are from just “My Bestsellers.”
The first thing to do is to find the book a different way. Generally, you can find it by either 13-digit or 10-digit ISBN, if all else fails. (Remember too that you can use your publisher prefix with a wildcard, as in “9780938497*”.) If the ISBN brings up the book, examine its data for accuracy and consistency. To make corrections, use the “Fix Data” button.
If the book is new and you’re not sure it’s on Amazon, start with those same steps. If you can find it by ISBN but no other way, and the book data is all as it should be, then you probably just need to wait a few days for the book to show up normally. If it doesn’t, report the problem to Amazon. For the U.S., for example, you would do this by following S.R.E.’s link for the Catalog Contact and choosing “Books” as the subject. If you’re not sure which link to use for another country, you might get that info from that site’s Publishers and Authors Guide.
If the book doesn’t show up even by ISBN, then probably you just haven’t waited long enough for Amazon to list it, or else it’s not being reported to Amazon. Trace the book back through its distribution chain to find where it’s hung up.
Updated Sept. 7, 2008
Why is my book’s sales rank missing?
First hit your browser’s reload button to make sure it’s not a momentary glitch. If that doesn’t work, it’s probably for one of two reasons.
Your book has not yet sold a copy.
Your book has been classified as “adult” material, and the sales rank has been suppressed to keep the book from showing up in some searches and bestseller lists.
Updated Feb. 16, 2008
Why are my books in the wrong order?
They’re not! But Sales Rank Express relies on Amazon to sort the results sent to you, and unfortunately, Amazon does not offer sorting by current sales rank. The nearest it comes is a sort order that Amazon calls “Bestselling” and that Sales Rank Express calls “Sampled Sales.” Though this does actually come from sale rank, Amazon bases it on a sample taken only about twice a week. So, since Amazon sales rank changes hourly, it’s likely that the order of your matches won’t reflect current sales ranks.
Though it would be possible for Sales Rank Express to ask Amazon to re-sort its results by sales rank, this could be done only for one page of up to ten matches at a time as Amazon sends it. This would mean that the order would be correct within each page, but not always between pages. Rather than allow this to produce obscure and possibly confusing error, Sales Rank Express sticks to Amazon’s own sort orders.
Updated Oct. 20, 2007
Why is your tag count different from Amazon’s?
Amazon reports the total number of tags, while Sales Rank Express gives you the number of taggings—a more useful number. With this, you learn how many times any tag—old or new—was applied to a book.
For instance, say you have a book that Amazon reports has two tags: “soap” and “soapmaking.” Amazon also reports that the “soap” tag has been applied by two customers, and the “soapmaking” tag by three. Rather than make you add it up, Sales Rank Express just tells you at a glance there were five taggings.
In some cases, Amazon presents a long list of tags while Sales Rank Express reports there are none. If you look carefully at Amazon’s description, you’ll see that it is providing sample tags from “similar products,” not tags applied to the book itself. It will keep doing this as long as the book has no tags of its own.
Updated Nov. 12, 2007
What if it just doesn’t work right?
If Sales Rank Express gives you odd results, here are a few things you can try:
Click your browser’s Refresh button to renew the results page once or twice. (If your browser asks if it’s OK to resend form data or such, say yes.) This will help if there was a hiccup or glitch at Amazon Web Services, on the Internet, or at the site of the Sales Rank Express host company. That kind of problem can give you a window full of unformatted text, or cause some data to be missing.
Return to the main page and click the Refresh button. This can help if a file on the S.R.E. site has been updated but your browser is storing an older version.
Check what you entered in the form. This can help if you goofed!
Take a vacation and try again when you get back.
The Amazon sales rank shown on Sales Rank Express should at all times exactly match the sales rank displayed on Amazon itself—and generally it does. If you find it doesn’t, it probably means that Amazon Web Services has gotten out of sync with other Amazon systems, possibly due to changes in those systems. This has happened in the past, and while it becomes less likely as Amazon’s systems mature, it is still possible. So, if accuracy is essential, you should verify it by clicking through to Amazon for two or three books in each country of interest to check the sales ranks displayed there. (But make sure you’re not caught by the hourly update, which can create a discrepancy in the sales rank between when you view it in Sales Rank Express and when you check it on Amazon.)
In general, please keep in mind that Sales Rank Express is entirely dependent on Amazon Web Services for the supply and accuracy of its data. In other words, if something goes on the blink here, it’s likely to be Amazon that has to fix it!
If you find a persistent problem with Sales Rank Express or with the data it displays, please report it. If it’s new and not a problem with this site, Amazon Web Services will be notified.
Updated Oct. 20, 2007
How do you get all this info?
Here’s how it all works: The form you fill out on the main page sends a request to Amazon Web Services, telling it what you want to know. AWS collects the requested data, and also retrieves a file from Sales Rank Express instructing it how to format that data. With all that, it then fashions a Web page of results and sends it direct to your browser. Sales Rank Express, then, merely acts as a conduit between you and Amazon.
Sales Rank Express operates under agreement with Amazon and was built using Amazon Web Services documentation. There are no hacks involved in gathering this data. The primary programming is in XSLT—an offshoot of XML—with some JavaScript added for style and convenience.
Updated Sept. 1, 2007
Do you hold on to my data?
Aside from standard data on Web site traffic, Sales Rank Express collects no info from you at all. In fact, what you enter in the forms never even goes to Sales Rank Express—it goes directly to Amazon, which formats the results according to S.R.E. instructions and relays them directly back to you.
Sales Rank Express does convert your form data to cookies for your browser, storing them there on your own computer. But this is only to adjust and refill forms automatically the next time you view the page. Sales Rank Express never sends this cookie data to its own site or anywhere else.
As for Amazon, it has no idea what your request is meant for, or how the results will be used—so there’s nothing it can learn from the data, even if it happened to care. Of course, if you follow a link from S.R.E. results to Amazon, then Amazon collects data on you just as from any other customer.
Updated Aug. 10, 2007
How do you count your visitors?
The visitor count is based on downloads of an S.R.E. stylesheet file. Since these downloads normally occur once and only once per browser session, this gives a reasonably accurate estimate of visits, in contrast to counting page views, which would yield an inflated figure. This also excludes visits by search engine spiders, since they ignore external stylesheets.
The count posted on this site is updated manually and occasionally, to avoid the use of automatic counters that may accidentally reset to zero. It’s added up from weekly reports of traffic statistics.
The period of the count is from Jan. 4, 2007, when Sales Rank Express first went online under this name and on this dedicated site.
Updated Sept. 1, 2007
Who is that man behind the curtain?
Sales Rank Express was created and is maintained by Aaron Shepard, author of Aiming at Amazon: The NEW Business of Self Publishing, Perfect Pages: Self Publishing with Microsoft Word, and The Business of Writing for Children; and Webmaster of Aaron Shepard’s Publishing Page. It was first developed to meet Aaron’s own need to efficiently check Amazon sales rank and other info on Amazon, and it grew from there.
Updated Sept. 1, 2007