On April 30th EarlyWord the site that bills itself as “The Publisher | Librarian connection” posted about the book Multi-Family Millions: How Anyone Can Reposition Apartments for Big Profits hitting #1 on Amazon. EarlyWord commented that “Lindahl does seminars on real estate investing. Wonder what his advice is on getting loans to buy those apartment buildings? The book has not been reveiwed pre-pub and is not owned in libraries.”
Seemingly the book jumped to #1 with no reviews which raises the question of who was buying all the copies? To hit #1 on Amazon a significant number of copies need to move.
In comments to a negative review on Amazon it was suggested that the author is purchasing his own books to raise the sales rank. As of the time this is being written the sales rank is 959. Falling from 1st to 959th in eleven days seems unusual. You can see a chart of the sales ranking over time here.
Does a book hitting the Amazon top ten factor into purchasing decisions for any libraries out there? Does the fact that the sales rank can be gamed effect this? The WSJ has an article about the Amazon sales rank being gamed.
The Secret!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kevin Trudeau, The Secret, — people see a crowd form and it creates desire. Remember Caesare from the movie The Idolmaker? they just plastered Who’s Caesare posters all over until everyone was dying to see who he was. And like Gabbo from The Simpsons.
We are idiots, and we are sheep. So yes, Amazon top ten lists influence our buying because we get what our patrons want.