Authors Addicted To Amazon Rankings

from the gotta-check-the-numbers dept

There's just something about being able to quantify and rank things that, when combined with the easy access of the internet, makes people obsessive. In the early days of the internet people would focus on making their website "counters" cycle higher and higher. Nowadays, people rely on Google counts as an indicator of popularity. Social network users try to increase the number of friends in their "network" to win the popularity game. Stock owners follow online stock pages. Bloggers concentrate on their Technorati rankings. Authors, it should be no surprise, are apparently obsessive over their Amazon rankings. There's even a story of authors rushing to a computer throughout a publishing party to continually check on the latest rankings. It appears that the internet has simply fulfilled many people's deep desire to "keep count" of things.
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  • identicon
    Mick, 3 Mar 2004 @ 5:25pm

    JungleScan

    JungleScan allows you to keep a constant eye on the ups and downs of your ranking

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    xman, 4 Mar 2004 @ 2:37am

    bloggers?

    I don't know any bloggers (please stop using that vile word - it's webloggers!) who are even remotely interested in their rankings anywhere. Why would they be?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    thecaptain, 4 Mar 2004 @ 7:43am

    its plain stupidity and pride all mixed together..

    its like some idiots who pride themselves at getting the "first post" in slashdot.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Michael Moncur, 4 Mar 2004 @ 11:26pm

    As an author...

    As an author, let me just say that this article is quite an exaggeration. Any experienced author knows that Amazon rankings mean virtually nothing. The only people checking rankings more than once a day are new authors.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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