One of the biggest problems plaguing both readers and publishers–from the major household name to the individual self-published author–is discoverability. To put it mildly, there is simply too much to read for books to automatically standout, which is a great problem for book lovers to have. The result, though, is that content owners spend vast amounts of time and money trying to promote their work to avid readers, or risk languishing in the high-millions for book sale rankings.
Amazon, ever the careful retailer with a lot of technology at its disposal, has a new feature aimed at helping readers find great content. Thanks to Amazon Charts, you can now sort your search by “most read” (as in, the books with the highest percentage of page views on Kindle and the longest amount of read content on Audible), and the books that are the “most sold,” meaning the books that have sold the most copies, although this doesn’t equate to those books necessarily being read and enjoyed.
The final and perhaps most interesting list on the Chart is the “stories behind the books” list, which lets readers “browse fun insights into how other readers are reacting to each book. From which books were Most Anticipated based on the rate of customer pre-orders, to which Kindle books were simply Unputdownable, according to how quickly customers read a book from cover to cover.”
“When friends make a book recommendation, they recommend books they are really reading and loving,” said David Naggar, vice president, Amazon. “Many well-known bestseller lists today add, remove, or re-rank books based on editorial considerations and customers have asked for a bestseller list that is based on reading engagement and sales data, rather than an opinion-based list of what books they should be paying attention to. We’re excited to give book lovers Amazon Charts to help them discover their next great read.”
Of the three lists, the “stories” list might be the most interesting while the “most read” list might prove to be the most useful. It’s a demonstration of how much of a particular title actually gets read, rather than simply purchased. Knowing that the majority of readers drop off in the first 20% of the book would be a very useful piece of information prior to making a purchase.
To browse through these unconventional bestseller lists and to see which books are currently kicking off the new Top 20 Most Read and Top 20 Most Sold fiction and nonfiction Amazon Charts, visit www.amazon.com/charts.
Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.
