Although there is no way of telling how many books have been sold on Amazon in the past without having access to the sales figures, it is possible to estimate daily sales based on the book’s best-seller rank.
The Amazon Best Sellers Rank (see the chart below) is updated hourly, so you’ll always be able to see how a book is doing in terms of relative sales. Keep in mind that the number of copies sold is just an estimate – it doesn’t include books that were given away for free or ones that were sold outside of Amazon.
Still, it’s a good way to get a general idea of how a book is performing and whether people are interested in reading it.
In this article, I would like to explore:
- How to estimate daily book sales on Amazon (according to rank)
- How many books do Amazon best sellers sell?
- What is Nielsen BookScan?
How To Estimate Daily Book Sales On Amazon (According To Rank)
On Amazon, you can find a book’s best-seller rank in the product details. This number is based on a variety of factors, many of which have not been released to the public.
In general, the Amazon best-seller rank is based on the number of books sold compared with the number of other books sold within the last hour, day, and week.
The table below is a list of Amazon best-seller ranks, and the estimated number of books sold each day in order to attain this rank.
| Amazon Rank | eBooks Sold | Paperbacks Sold |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | 6390 | 2250 |
| #10 | 3620 | 1073 |
| #100 | 1000 | 300 |
| #500 | 175 | 110 |
| #1000 | 113 | 72 |
| #10,000 | 15 | 12 |
| #25,000 | 11 | 9 |
| #50,000 | 5 | 3 |
| #75,000 | 3 | 2 |
| #100,000 | 1 | 1 |
Because the number of books sold on Amazon each day varies wildly, and the number of books available to buy continues to grow exponentially, it is difficult to make accurate predictions of the number of books sold based on the book’s best-seller rank.
However, it is possible to make a good estimate of the daily sales needed to gain a particular rank.
If you would like to get an estimate of a particular book’s sales based on its current rank, take a look at this fab calculator from Kindlepreneur
.
#PRO TIP: If you want quick access to all best sellers’ ranks without opening each book’s sales page and scrolling down to the product description, then you can install a Free Chrome Extension called DS Amazon Quick View. Check it out here.
How Many Books Do Amazon Best Sellers Sell?
Being a best-seller on Amazon means a book sold more than any other book within that category. Best-seller ranks change quickly and the numbers of books sold vary wildly between categories on Amazon.
For example, being ranked #1 overall on Amazon would require sales of 6390 books a day.
However, to be ranked as the ‘Best Sellers in Teen & Young Adult Sci-Fi Mystery eBooks’, you currently have to beat a rank of #51,532, which means selling more than 3 books a day.
It is worth studying the ranks of the #1 best-seller and the #20 best-seller in the same category, as their ranks can tell you a lot about how well a particular market is being served.
If the #1 best-seller has a high overall rank of around #2500 (selling 80 books a day) but the number #20 book has a far lower rank of around #52500 (selling only 5 books a day) then this can tell you that there is an eager market that doesn’t have enough books to serve them.
What is Nielsen BookScan?
Nielsen BookScan is a service that tracks sales of physical books in countries including the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. It is widely considered to be the most accurate measure of book sales, as it captures around 85% of all print sales.
The data from Nielsen BookScan is used by publishers, authors, and booksellers to gauge the success of a book and many best-seller lists such as The New York Times Best Seller list are based on data from Nielsen BookScan.
Despite its accuracy, Nielsen BookScan has some major limitations. It only tracks sales of physical books, it doesn’t include sales from many independent bookstores, and it doesn’t always track returns, which has led to the best-seller lists being duped in the past (You can read more about the great YA pre-order scam in a Guardian article here).
So, although you could use Nielsen BookScan to see how many physical copies have sold, you cannot tell how many of those sales are per-orders or returns, and there is no way to track ebooks.
In Summary
The Amazon best-seller rank is based on the number of books sold compared with the number of other books sold within the last hour, day, week, and possibly even month.
Because the number of books sold on Amazon varies wildly, and the number of books available to buy continues to grow exponentially, it is difficult to make accurate predictions of the number of books sold based on the book’s best-seller rank.
However, it is possible to make a good estimate of the daily sales needed to gain a particular rank which can help you understand how well books in a particular niche are selling.
Good luck, and happy publishing!