“If your book has an Amazon rank of 1,347,566, should you feel happy or sad? Most authors I know would feel disheartened that more than 1 million other titles are selling better than theirs. I suggest reconsidering that sadness. A sales rank of 1.34 million is light years from the bestseller list, but it’s also in the top 10 percent of book sales. Amazon currently offers around 15 million trade titles in English. Anything with a rank of 1.5 million or better (i.e. a lower number) is in the top 10 percent of sales. And anything better than 150,000 is in the top 1 percent. Of course, how you feel about your sales rank is up to you. But in a world of 2 million new titles a year and 15 million trade titles offered by Amazon, any rank better than 1 million is in the top 7 percent of sales. [Michael Castleman, 11/17/2024]

Okay, so I should feel pretty good about this latest ranking of my historical novel, The Cottage Industry?