Unfortunately, it has become too difficult to track sales based on ranking due to borrows and Kindle Unlimited. For that reason, I am no longer updating my sales ranking chart, but I am going to leave the chart up for people who might be interested in seeing how ranking works, or used to work.
The numbers on the chart below reflect MY experiences prior to 2015. The idea of the sales ranking chart was to give an approximate number of books you would need to hit the OVERALL Kindle List and to give authors who don't have access to their daily sales an idea of how many books they were selling a day.
The rankings are interesting to look at if you have a book out there and you are hoping to, for example as of January 2012, get on the Top 100 Romantic Suspense Bestsellers List on Amazon. If I look at the Romantic Suspense Kindle Ebook List and click on the book title of #99 or #100 and that book has a Bestsellers Rank of 3,865 (#99) and 3,875 (#100), then I know I need a 3,875 or better to get on that list. As of 1/7/12 Finding Kate Huntley was #18 with an overall ranking of 446 and selling over 125 books a day. ABDUCTED was #40 with an overall ranking of 1,087 and selling over 80 books a day. And Dead Weight was #69 with an overall ranking of 2,182 and selling about 65 books a day.
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.
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 5 to 15 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank 5,500 to 10,000 - selling 15 to 25 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank 3,000 to 5,500 - selling 25 to 70 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank 1,500 to 3,000 - selling 70 to 100 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank 750 to 1,500 - selling 100 to 120 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank 500 to 750 - selling 120 to 175 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank 350 to 500 - selling 175 to 200 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank 200 to 350 - selling 200 to 300 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank 35 to 200 - selling 300 to 1,000 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank 20 to 35 - selling 1,000 to 2,000 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank of 5 to 20 - selling 2,000 to 3,000 books a day.
Amazon Best Seller Rank of 1 to 5 - selling 3,000+ books a day.