| Back in the days before the Internet we all | | | | books, this is usually a great way to see how |
| had to rely on best seller lists, book | | | | others think the books compare. I have seen |
| reviews in the newspaper or magazines, or | | | | reviews written by buyers praising a |
| word of mouth to get a feel for the quality | | | | particular book only to find a later review |
| of a book, but now we have a few much more | | | | of another book where the same buyer has |
| powerful tools to help us. | | | | obviously had a change of heart and found the |
| | | | later book to be substantially better. You |
| If you are considering buying a book, look | | | | can check to see if a buyer has reviewed |
| it up on The website has several pieces of | | | | other similar books by clicking on the |
| information that will help you determine the | | | | hypertext, "See all of my reviews" next to |
| quality of it, including, the sales rank, the | | | | any reviewer's name. |
| reader reviews, the number of used copies | | | | |
| available versus new copies, and possibly | | | | Many authors now participate in the Connect |
| some information posted by the author. These | | | | Program which allows the author to post |
| tools are particularly helpful if you are | | | | additional or follow-up information on |
| considering an instructional "how to" book. | | | | Amazon.com's product detail pages for the |
| | | | books they have written. This will quite |
| The sales rank will only give you an idea of | | | | often provide an insight into what type of |
| how well the book is selling on The lower | | | | book this author has written. |
| the number the better it is selling on | | | | |
| Amazon. Consider that there are over | | | | One of the not so obvious ways of seeing what |
| 4,000,000 books ranked on Amazon, so any book | | | | readers think of a book is to see how many |
| with a sales rank under 200,000 is among the | | | | used copies are for sale. While this is not |
| top 5% of sellers on Using the sales rank | | | | a real good indicator for books in general, |
| alone is not a good indication of the book's | | | | it is certainly a good indicator for |
| quality because it is strictly a measure of | | | | instructional "how to" books as the better |
| sales through and a good rank is quite | | | | instructional books will be kept by the |
| possibly only a measure of good marketing. | | | | original buyer as a reference instead of |
| In the past, I have found some books with | | | | putting it up for sale. I know that when I |
| great sales ranks to be quite lacking in | | | | buy a book and finish reading it I am not |
| information and some books having poor sales | | | | likely to put it up for sale if I think I |
| ranks to be extremely informative. | | | | want to reference it later, and other buyers |
| | | | keep theirs too - unless it wasn't deemed |
| Reader reviews are also a very good indicator | | | | worthwhile, then it goes up for sale to |
| of the book's quality. They are written by | | | | recover whatever it can bring as a used book. |
| people that have purchased and read the book. | | | | If a book has been published for a few |
| Quite often the reviewers will indirectly | | | | months and listed on Amazon.com, and there |
| compare the book to other competing books, | | | | are few or no used copies available, it is |
| giving you an indication of how the book you | | | | almost always a keeper and a very worthwhile |
| are interested in purchasing stacks up | | | | instructional book. If it also has good |
| against others on the same topic. You should | | | | reviews and a respectable sales rank, it is |
| also look at the detail pages of other | | | | probably one of the best you could find on a |
| similar books and see if there are any | | | | topic. |
| reviews written by buyers common to both | | | | |