How many books do you have to sell on Amazon to make a Bestseller list?

This book is officially
an Amazon Bestseller.
Woot!

Not that many as it turns out.

The numbers are in from my recent promotion. Through the Ereader News Today link, I sold 45 copies of The Summer of Shambles for US$0.99c through Amazon in one day.

I probably sold another 15 or so (I don't have the exact numbers for this yet) through my fabulous friends promoting the book on the same day, who linked directly to the book.

So let's estimate I sold 60 books in one day on Amazon.

Those 60 sales were enough for Amazon to create those subset lists where the book went from #600,000 in Paid Kindle to #37 on Paid Kindle > Young Adult > Romance > Contemporary.

What did I earn from this? About $20.40 in royalties, or $0.34 c per book.

How much did this promotion cost me?

An absolute pittance. Get your jaw supports in place because this one is a doozy.

$3.90 US.

So my 'profit' for the day is $16.10

In the grand scheme of things, these are miniscule numbers, but it shows how affordable some promotions can be, and how with less than 100 sales in one day a writer can get into a Bestseller list.

Have you had promotions that yield great results? What's worked for you?

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