A few weeks ago my friend Joel Friedlander sent me an email (partly shown left) that he had been sent by Amazon which recommended my novel Pentecost next to John Connolly whose supernatural mysteries I really love to read myself.
I was absolutely overjoyed by the news! I put it on Twitter and also received the tweet below showing that Pentecost is being shown in the list of books that other people have bought. Subsequently I have seen it come up myself when I’ve gone in to look at other fiction books of a similar type.
This is evidence that the Amazon algorithms are kicking in and they are starting to market Pentecost themselves. These algorithms are top secret and no one knows for sure how to ensure this type of thing happens, but here’s what we can infer.
- Rankings get you noticed. Pentecost has been in the Religious Fiction rankings since Feb 7th when it launched. It goes up and down but basically has been in the Top 40 or so for that bestseller category and around 2500 overall in the Kindle store. It has also been in the Top 100 of the same ranking in the UK but that site seems to run entirely separately from the US store.
- Ratings and Reviews make a difference. Pentecost has 32 reviews as I am writing this with 4.5 star rating on Amazon.com. This is more than a whole lot of big name authors and clearly Amazon pays attention when readers are enthusiastic about a book. (THANK YOU so much if you have left a review – it makes such a difference! If you love a book, the author will be very grateful for a review!)
Why is this important?
Amazon have an amazing amount of information on readers. They target you with offers that you often find irresistable! They know the types of books you read and offer you similar ones. This is gold for authors as it means that Amazon can reach people with your book who would never have heard of it otherwise.
Why do Amazon do this?
Clearly it’s not for your benefit! They are a business and want to make more money so their algorithms look for the books that are selling in specific genres and they try to sell more of them. It’s an entirely business point of view but it benefits authors who are selling well – regardless of the publisher! That is a very key point because I can’t hope to get into a bookstore near you with my novel, but I can hope that you’ll get an email from Amazon recommending my book (if you currently buy books in this genre anyway).
As an author, have you seen evidence of this recommendation algorithm and do you have any ideas on how it works? As a reader, do you pay attention to Amazon’s recommendation emails?
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{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
This is great!
It’s fantastic to know that Amazon can help with your fans find you.
Thanks for the post!
I loved this post. Amazon can be a mysterious entity when it comes to how it promotes books, but you’re living proof that it can work for anyone who has a great book that people want to read. It’s nice to know that Amazon caters to readers looking for great books and not only to large companies with the big bucks to promote their authors.
Well done! Thanks for sharing.
Hi Tony, I really don’t think Amazon even considers who the publisher is. I think it’s all done electronically based on rankings & ratings, which means it really is a level playing field!
Since these algorithms are ultimately business-driven to maximize Amazon’s revenues, one would actually expect that the price also play a role. Clearly, Amazon would rather sell 100,000 of a book at $9.99 than one priced at 99 cents. I wonder if anyone has noticed such a bias, that Amazon is giving higher priced books more exposure.
Hi Guido, It would depend on how their relationships work with publishers – they may not be making more on higher priced books (authors don’t!)
Rankings are better with lower priced books and I’ve found this has all kicked in at the 99c price, so it’s more about what people want to buy – my opinion anyway!
Well, I remember on a mailinglist I follow someone criticising Amazon for recommending the most expensive version of a title. He said that he never bought hardcover books, but Amazon always recommended hardcover books, even when a paperback was available.
But that would be the same title.
My book is not ready for publishing yet, but I do purchase books on Amazon. Their recommended books and the “people who bought this book also bought…” are something I pay attention to. I love that they try to bring to my attention other books in the same genre. I don’t know how the algorithms work, just glad they use them and they promote new authors among all the long-time authors. I think your platform, Joanna, has probably been responsible for some of your success. Want you to know, I just received Pentecost in the mail from Amazon and am anxious to read it!
Thanks for buying the book Marcia. I appreciate your support and yes, my platform has meant that people starting buying the book – but I have sold way more than the people who subscribe to this blog, so it is spreading beyond my own network. Exciting times indeed! (must get on with the next one!)
Thanks so much for this. It’s great info. Jordan http://www.evaprim.com
I have paid attention to the Amazon emails. I suppose there is nothing wrong with marrying monetary self-interest and consumer satisfaction!
On another note, now we know why so many accusations of fake Amazon reviews have been made.
Well, the opposite is true, too–hundreds of thousands of books get buried. As one who has had books all over the charts (from #25 to #300,000), I see a definite bias toward the very top–and in much the same way the movement of wealth to the elite has crippled the American and world economy, you have to wonder if there will eventually be a detrimental effect. I am not even sure this is “good business,” although the matching of genres is certainly wise.
I believe most of the direct email announcements are paid for, because very rarely do they feature indie books (though they used to feature their Encore authors). Nothing sells like sales, which is great when you are selling, but it’s certainly not the best of all possible worlds, because it’s based on numbers and not the words themselves.
Thanks for sharing, Joanna.
Scott
Thanks Scott – you seem to be doing pretty well, I’m always seeing your books around the charts!
On the “paying for it” thing, that’s why I was so surprised to see my book on the same email as John Connolly as I would have expected his publishers to pay for it, but I certainly didn’t.
I do also think there is a correlation between the words and the numbers because books don’t sell if they are crap, although I understand what you mean, some get buried. But I have to believe it’s our responsibility to ensure they get noticed in other ways through our platform/ word of mouth etc.
Doing the work in every sense of the word! Thanks.
Great post. I think if anyone works out the algorithm they had better use it quick because the way these things work is if Amazon suspect someone is biassing sales (therefore affecting their profits) they will change it.
If anyone does work it out can they be sure to let me know via my blog please?
I’m happy to hear proof that those reviews on amazon make a difference – I just recently got into writing them.
Lots of good stuff here.
I’d guess sales weigh pretty heavily in that Amazon algorithm. It’s the one thing back-scratching social-networking authors can’t easily use to game the system, heh.
As an example on the importance of overall sales, one of my ebooks with 20 reviews is currently listed higher in a search for “steampunk” in the kindle store than a popular two-year old book with 165 reviews, a high average rating, and way more “votes” for steampunk down in the tags. Its sales ranking is close to 20k while mine hovers in the 3-5k range. (I’m sure that author has sold a bazillion paperbacks and isn’t sweating ebook sales, which would be much higher if the price was lower, but anyway…) That book is more truly steampunk than mine is too.
Fortunately (if you’re at the top) and unfortunately (if you’re with me and still trying to claw your way up there), the system seems to be built so those that do well will continue to do well. At least it’s presumably easier to make your way up to the Top at Amazon than it is to earn your way into the wealthy elite (hi Scott *g*).
I bet a few years ago there weren’t many authors who would have guessed they would soon be speculating about “algorithms.” Ha, hopefully the big blue cybernetic brain in Amazon’s basement won’t turn into SkyNet
I think Amazon has proven they are very good at thinking long term. My guess is that their system is geared to just making the sale, any sale, no matter the price. They know that 99 cents now will lead to much more in the future. I think what is ultimately most important to them is making the connection with the consumer and initiating an interactive process.
I would think this is good news for unknown/independent authors, because all Amazon cares about is results, not how famous you are. Can your book make that connection with consumers? That is what Amazon really wants. I think Lindsay’s comment is a good example of this in action.
But I still don’t know how to take advantage of this other than try to write something people will like and let them know about it in a way that’s not annoying
This article was beyond helpful! In January, I launched my first self-published children’s picture book on amazon and while it has gotten great reviews, sales have been minimal and exposure has been nil. I guess I’m not sure what to do. With picture books, half of the interest lies in the illustrations, and this IS a keepsake book so I’m not sure how it would do as an e-book. I think I have to lower the price…
Again-great post and I am so glad I found it!
Jenny Lee Sulpizio
Author of “Mommy Whispers”
Hi Everyone
Interesting article and comments. I launched my Self Help book “Creating the Perfect Lifestyle” on Amazon two weeks ago and it has been an Amazon #1 Bestseller in 4 categories.
The book is currently 99 cents (being discounted by Amazon).
I have been getting a better idea of Amazon’s algorithm.
I have been asked to run a free webinar for authors on how I got to #1 on Amazon. If you are interested in attending, please contact me directly (just Google me).
Oli Hille
Author
Actually why don’t you just email me directly: oli.lifestyle@gmail.com
Oli
Thanks! I have 3 ebooks up on Amazon but am new to internet mkt., lists etc. and I’m learning about the power of reviews from a few posts I’ve read recently. It would be nice to know who’s buying our books but I guess that’s not possible unless they leave a review or contact you? Any tips on how to handle this with Amazon and Barnes & Noble?
Jennifer
Hi Jennifer, all you can do is try to get people to come back to your site and sign up for your next book – then at least you can email them!
So I have a link at the back of my book to http://www.ProphecyNovel.com where they can sign up for the next book. Maybe only 1 in 100 actually take this step but at least it’s something!
I’ve had a few books published and have published several myself. Fascinated by the new possibilities. But baffled.
Would somebody please explain to this ignoramus what the hell is an algorithm and what it has to do with writing/selling books? I thought I had left that stuff behind when I left school!
Hi David,
I’m an author and a web developer/programmer, so have the pleasure of understanding (and now explaining – poorly) an algorithm.
There are few algorithms at work in the Amazon recommending system. These should include the reviews, ranking, other’s bought, after looking customer’s bought and recommendations.
Let’s start with the easy one. Reviews. The algorithm is something like:
sum of review scores /# of reviews
So if a book has 10 reviews mixed from 1 star to 5 star, you take the total stars of all reviews and divide it by the number of reviews. So simply an average, but an algorithm none-the-less.
Ranking presumably works by taking an average of how many books are sold per day. It would be nice to know if this ranking algorithm goes back over all days the book was sold or if it just looks at a defined period, say the last year.
The Other’s Bought feature (people who bought this also bought…) must be stored in a huge database that records all sales and matches books with others that people bought with them. This would also be weighted somehow, so that the most frequently bought books come up first.
The After Looking Customer Bought algorithm would work much the same way as the others bought algorithm. Amazon is recording what people end up buying after looking at a specific page. That means I can hope that people who buy my book first go and look at the same famous book, so one day I might come up on that page.
The tricky one, as discussed here, is the recommendations engine. I assume the algorithm takes into account the ratings and ranks found through the other 4 algorithms above and then creates a new ranking of recommended books for every title in Amazon.
That algorithm might look like this then (a complete guess/example):
For book ‘The Hunger Games’ by Suzanne Collins (B002MQYOFW) when creating a rank with Pentecost:
((Average Rating / 5) * # of reviews) – We know the books is rated well
+
(# of books in Genre – current genre ranking) – So we get a higher figure for better ranked booked
+
# of times Pentecost bought with The Hunger Games
+
# of times Pentecost bought after viewing The Hunger Games
=
The Recommendation Ranking for Pentecost with The Hunger Games.
Something like that is an algorithm. Like I said, this one is just what i came up with during the 5 minutes it took to post this. The algorithm used by Amazon is likely a hundred times more complex and based on months of think-tanks and fine-tuning.
The simple answer to your question is: an algorithm is an equation used to determine the ranking of – in this case – books for use in the recommendation features of Amazon.
Got it!
Thanks for taking the trouble to explain this, Greg.
I appreciate it.
Now all I’ve got to do is produce a best-seller and watch the algorithms demonstrate what a success it is.
Glad to help, David.
In the same boat as you with producing that best-seller.
Wow! Thanks Greg – you are a real star for going into depth on that one. I saw David’s comment and was a little scared because I couldn’t explain it very well. You’ve done a great job. Thanks again!
That’s what I’m here for, Joanna. Glad to finally actually offer something back to your Blog. I’m always jealous of the effort you put in, I am just too lazy to pull it off. It may be because I am working on websites all day in my day-job and find it hard to get inspired in the evenings.
At least, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.
Here’s the description of how Amazon’s engine works:
http://www.quora.com/How-does-Amazons-collaborative-filtering-recommendation-engine-work
Not any real method to ‘game the system’ or SEO as it’s primarily based on sales of similar books. The best hope is ensuring the category your book is placed in is ‘good’. But there are many opinions on what is the best category for a particular novel.
Thanks to all for info on Amazon insights. I’ve been watching my children’s book, The Secret Lake, rise and fall in Amazon rankings over the last 3 months – nothing like Joanna’s impressive stats (hats off as ever, Joanna!) but it is slowly making is own little waves. In particular, as it is now semi-regularly getting bought alongside other books – including Billionaire Boy and War Horse – it seems to be riding in their slipstream – which is wonderful! I even had a message today that it’s ‘often bought’ with Micael Morpurgo’! I’m hoping that all of these little things will continue to feed off each other to help the sales build over the coming months…
Happy Christmas to you all – and, Joanna, best of luck with Prophesy launch!
Karen
Lovely article and great work. I was just interested in the line when you said that the Amazon recommendation engine was kicking in – how do you know when that process occurs? I’d be really interested! Cheers!
Hi Stu,
As per the screenshot at the top of the post, someone emailed me what Amazon had sent them which recommended my book, and also it appears on the lists that other people bought etc. So you only know by people telling you and evidence of sales e.g. if you start getting really big spikes, it’s not likely to be your efforts, but Amazon’s that make the difference.
I hope that helps, but basically, nobody knows for sure
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