Wednesday, December 15, 2010

WRITER WEDNESDAY: Bookscan Numbers

Holy crap! Twitter went NUTS the other day with Amazon's announcement it was making Bookscan sales numbers available to authors. Some touted. Some lauded. Many industry types bemoaned. Me? I'm not sure how I feel about it. I tend to be obsessive about things (shut up, Heather if you're reading this...:P ), and like many agents on Twitter said, it'll just be one more thing for authors to obsess over.

I've been reading Rachelle Gardner's blog post on the subject, and she said, "The numbers Amazon is reporting are from Bookscan, which is an admittedly incomplete picture of your sales since Bookscan doesn't report on the entire market." And while this might be a great new tool, as some claim, I don't know about you but I do not want to stalk something that's incomplete.

Yes, Bookscan gives you a good idea of how your sales are going, but it doesn't include whole sale purchases, library purchases, Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, Kindle or ebook. Not huge, but a fair chunk of book sale change here people. So, my advice is to proceed with caution, and take those numbers with a grain of salt. It's like getting a piece of gossip from the second or third person in line--a little bit of something is missing. Those of us writing YA, or living with YAs in real life know how damaging gossip can be.

Check your numbers if you must (if you have them).
Better yet, write another book!

What's YOUR thoughts on this new development in our writing community?

1 comment:

  1. Since I don't have a book for sale on Amazon I just think, wow, I wish I could have something to obsess about. Even if it's not the whole picture, you could look at those numbers and think, well, at least it's this much--but probably more assuming it's selling elsewhere as well.

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