So in continuing my little miniseries about buying books, I thought I would turn my attention to Amazon today.

Ah, Amazon. So many products available in one place. With a click of a button, they’re mine, no matter what time of night or day it is. I have to admit that I love Amazon — free shipping on orders more than $25, no sales tax, and they have great discounts on hardbacks and trade paperbacks. Not so much on mass market paperbacks, though.

And, of course, like other authors, I obsessively check the ranking of my books on Amazon to see where they stand. Since Spider’s Bite came out on Jan. 26, my Amazon ranking has pretty much stayed above the 10,000 mark, which I’ve been thrilled about. I’ve even cracked the top 100 contemporary fantasy books a time or two and been as high as in the 3,000s.

But you know what? It’s only translated to about 500 copies sold at Amazon, according to my editor. I have to say that this surprised me. I’ve always wondered what the Amazon rankings really mean (if anything) and how many books they actually sell. Apparently, since Amazon sells everything, they don’t necessarily sell a lot of one particular thing, if that makes sense.

Spider’s Bite has sold more copies at Walmart, Barnes & Noble, and Borders group than at Amazon. Of course, I’m sure that more popular authors sell more copies on Amazon, especially as more and more folks buy Kindles.

In recent weeks, I’ve also signed up to become an Amazon Affiliate. That means when you click the Amazon link to one of my book covers, go to the site, and buy the book, that I get a small percentage of the sale. I’ve made about $8 so far this year. You have to accumulate $10 before you can cash it in for an Amazon gift card. I’m not sure what I’ll do if (or when) I hit that $10 mark. I might do a giveaway here on the blog or something. We’ll see.

Anyway, these are just some of my general thoughts on buying books at Amazon. What do you guys like or dislike about Amazon? Share in the comments.

Tags: About Books