Pondering the Rankings

Amazon rankings...  There's a love/hate relationship going on there.  But what does it even mean?

If I sell one book, that book's ranking jumps from somewhere in the millions to somewhere in the hundred thousands.  The higher the ranking obviously means better exposure and thus better sales, but only when you get in the top 100 on the narrower genre listings.  Does it really make a difference to readers if the book is in the overall 6 digits rather than 7? 

For that matter, does a higher ranking mean a better book?  I've read some highly ranked books that were total dogs and some lowly ranked books I thoroughly enjoyed. 

Is it a matter of following the herd?  Oh, look how many people bought this book, it must be a good one? 

I can get my books to jump by offering them at a steep discount and advertising the hell out of them, but that only means people were looking for a deal and something about my ad sparked their interest.  Whether the jump in ranking equals a jump in sales?  No clue.  Generally, once the ad gets shuffled to the back of everyone's inboxes and the new ads for the day come out, my sales tank. 

How often does anyone really look at the lists?  I mean if you manage to get on one of the Top 100 lists, that is.  Beyond that, you can't look at anything. Wonder what #102 is?  Too bad.

Last month, I actually took the time to find new books on the Top 100 lists in political thriller and suspense.  I found two books I actually wanted to read.  (New to me, and underappreciated, of course.)  One of them was a dog.  I haven't started the other yet, because I got burned on the last one.  If the other one sucks, too, I'm done trying to find books on those lists.  I ain't got time for that shit.

So, how does the book buying public make heads or tails out of any of this ranking stuff?

:shrug:

Just pondering.

Do you look at rankings when you're trying to find a new book?  Can you make any sense of this stuff?

Decisions, Decisions

Okay, so it's now October and this book that I should've finished writing in June is giving me fits.  And I've got a decision I need to make pretty soon.

Do I keep plugging ahead with a book that obviously does not want to be written right now or do I set it aside and work on something else?

Which leads to a secondary question: Do I 1) use the spot I have with my cover artist for UatB anyway and hope I have something to publish early next year, 2) use the spot I have with my cover artist to let her do Unequal, or 3) do I let the spot slide?

Neither decision is an easy one.  I so don't want to disappoint readers who are expecting a sequel to Sleeping Ugly sooner rather than later.  Then again, I so don't want to disappoint readers by throwing out a piece of crap (which is what UatB is shaping up to be at the moment).  And I definitely don't want to lose my spot with my cover artist who has become highly sought after and therefore super busy.  I have another scheduled spot with her in February, but that's a long way off and what if UatB breaks free...  Argh.

But I'm also not inclined to spend money on something I don't need at the moment. 

Now, I'm not asking you to answer these questions for me.  I'm just throwing them out there to maybe help me make a decision.  Because sometimes writing stuff here does that.  And, you know, it's out here in case anyone else is in a similar quandary and is looking for a sense that they're not alone.  That sort of thing.

Of course, it doesn't help that SU is not the overnight sensation I'd hoped it would be which makes it harder for me to justify all this effort and expense on a sequel.  Blerg.  But having sequels helps sell the first book... or something...

Ah the life of a writer.  It's fun!  Yeah, yeah... fun... that's the ticket.

What are you having fun with right now?  Facing any big decisions? 

And Therein Lies the Rub

I finished reading through Sleeping Ugly last night.  And I hate myself a little.  It ends.  But it doesn't end.  It needs sequels!

Like Wish in One Hand, I never intended for Sleeping Ugly to be a series starter.  And like WIOH, it appears that it's going to be a series whether I am prepared for it to be one or not.

And I am so not prepared for this to be a series.  I don't have clue one about what might happen in the next book.  I have zilch for ideas on a series title.  Or other book titles to go along with 'Sleeping Ugly'.  Nada.  Zip.  Gah.

So, here I've written this awesome book that's so fun and fast and interesting even I had a tough time ripping myself away from the story to make edit notes, a book that's due out in August, and I have no sequels lined up behind it. 

The question now is: Do I stay on schedule and publish this in August knowing any sequels might not be quick in coming OR do I set this aside to write other books in the series so I can release them in sequence while I have my editor do Unequal for an August release?

Gah.