Theresa Ragan has written the most useful article I've read concerning what Amazon's sales ranking means: Sales Ranking Chart.
Theresa's entire article is well worth the read, but here is an excerpt:
Amazon Bestsellers Rank is the number you find beneath the Product Description. Every book on Amazon has an Amazon Bestsellers Rank. Click on any title and then scroll down until you see it.Once again, Theresa Ragan's article is: Sales Ranking Chart.
March 2013 update: rankings have changed substantially in the past few months and I am making changes to reflect rankings and book sales as information is given to me.
Amazon Best Seller Rank 50,000 to 100,000 - selling close to 1 book a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank 10,000 to 50,000 - selling 3 to 15 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank 5,500 to 10,000 - selling 15 to 30 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank 3,000 to 5,500 - selling 30 to 50 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank 500 to 3,000 - selling 50 to 200 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank 350 to 500 - selling 200 to 300 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank 100 to 350 - selling 300 to 500 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank 35 to 100 - selling 500 to 1,000 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank 10 to 35 - selling 1,000 to 2,000 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank of 5 to 10 - selling 2,000 to 4,000 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank of 1 to 5 - selling 4,000+ books a day.
I came across Theresa's blog because I've started reading The Naked Truth About Self-Publishing, a book she contributed to. So far it's been informative.
Photo credit: "verfremdeter lavendel" by fRandi-Shooters under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.
