Amazon hasn’t said how the best or most popular Kindle books of all time rank. But the company does offer helpful tools for comparing. Aside from current and annual bestseller lists, weekly charts, and the Amazon Best Sellers Rank, there are also things like customer reviews and ratings.
We are a group of people who like to read ebooks but don’t have access to Amazon’s sales numbers and complex algorithms. Our lists are made up of information that can be found on Amazon.com.
What we did is simple. We have carefully reviewed an archive of the Top 100 best-selling Kindle books in the U.S. Amazon Store from year to year.
The easiest way to make a list of the ten best Kindle books of all time would be to pick the number one book for each year from 2007 to 2017 and publish that list.
But we don’t think that a book’s being a one-time bestseller shows what it’s worth. A book is considered a classic when it keeps getting new readers and doesn’t lose its popularity over time.
It’s easy to figure out how to rank the best Kindle books of all time: every book on the annual list of the top 100 bestsellers gets points. The more points a book receives, the better it is ranked.
So, the book that comes in first on the annual list gets 100 points, and the book that comes in last gets 1 point.
Here are some more guidelines:
- A book’s points are added up if it’s on more than one annual list,
- If two or more books get the same points, they all go into the Top 100 at the same spot. Instead of using the second-level rule, we decided to keep things simple and give more books a chance to make the final list.
Amazon has three ways to rank Kindle books.
As Kindle authors, getting our work in front of millions of people is one of the best things about what we do. Amazon already has many visitors, and they’re giving you a small space to share what you love.
1: Inside of Categories
Amazon works hard to put books in the correct order based on their category. Think about the last time you went to Amazon to look at books. You might have done what I usually do. I use the menu on the left to find the section I’m most interested in. From there, I go to the category I like best and look at the bestsellers list.
When you publish, Amazon asks you to choose two categories for your Kindle book. Don’t make this choice for granted.
2. Chosen Keywords
Search is another way that many people look for books on Amazon. You might search Amazon if you have a title or subject in mind. Amazon then shows you the top books they think are the best for your search. Using keywords in your title, subtitle, and description is essential.
Amazon asks you to choose 7 keywords that best describe your Kindle book when you publish it. How you choose to say this is very important.
3: User Data
In line with ghostwriting USA team amazon also does a great job of gathering information about its users. This is why when you look at a book, you may see “other users also bought” next to it. Amazon will show you books similar to those you’re looking at but may not have heard of. If you wrote a book about time management, wouldn’t it be cool if it was shown on the book page for 7 Habits of Highly Effective People?
The more downloads you get, the more likely your book will be promoted with other books that have already done well.
How can I move up the list?
You can only get ranked if you sell your Kindle Books. You can only sell books if people see them in listings.
If you write in a genre with many books (romance, sci-fi, fantasy, thriller, or mystery), stick to the categories that are most relevant to your book and focus on selling it more than anything else. Work hard on it. When your book comes out, do as many ads and book tours as possible and keep going. This advice is especially good for authors of romance novels, who have a massive network of promo sites and forums to promote.
Use the ads on Amazon and Facebook. They’re good. You can get started if you spend more than $20 daily on launch for at least 4 days.
Once you start coming up in searches, you can add more general categories. If you’re writing in a genre that still has category options, choose the most specific ones you can. This will make people buy your books and put you on more lists.
If you use Amazon’s search engine to find the best niche keywords, you can find people who are looking for your book. In categories that are already full, the keywords you add to your listing are all that matter. This works well for romance books, where adding words like “bad boy billionaire” or “wealthy” will help you appear in searches because readers have particular tastes.
This also works well for Fantasy and Sci-Fi niches, where you can choose words like “Sword and Sorcery” or “Space Opera” to narrow things down even more. On the right, you can see an example of how keywords are now used to make subcategories for Fantasy characters.
Paid and free rankings
The Best Sellers Rank in the Kindle Store is split into two lists: Free and Paid. If you sign up for KDP Select, your book will show up on the Free list while it’s on sale free. When your book goes back into the Paid categories after the free promotion.
