Went from number 2 to no where?

[Garth]

Yesterday I was number 2 on the sci fi top 100 list.  Was number 1 two weeks ago.  Today I am not even on it.  Just sold another 150 books.  Anyone else had a similar experience?  I emailed lulu about it but sometimes you don't get a response from them. 

The Grid, James Jeffery (JJ) Gregory.

thanks,

[kevinlomas]

No idea. I did not even know there was such a list here.

[Garth]

Yeah, go to the buy page and select a particular genre and there's a top 10 list of the top 100 over on the lower right.  The guy in number 1 replaced me last week and I moved down to number 2.  Just sold another 150 books and now I'm not even on the list.  Sadly I was using that link in some of my online advertising so I've had to go remove it until it's fixed.

[kevinlomas]

Oh, yes, I do think I recall someone saying they went from Number 98 to Number 1 with the sale of just 1 more book. :-) So it seems a pointless list.

[Garth]

You may well be right.  I HOPE it didn't have to do with my feedback review??  I actually bought a publishing service and just yesterday sent in my customer survey.  Just told them the truth.  The cover was great.  But from formatting, through edit, to epub things just got progressively worse.  Actually had to move epub offsite because of the lead time they quoted me.  Waiting to see how global distribution does?  Most all my sales to date have been direct from me since other than Kindle which I did myself, I am still not showing up in stores.  That said, they got mostly 3's but I gave a lot of commentary.  Not like I gave them all 1's.

Since I hit number one when I reached only 55 books sold and now I am over 200, I wouldn't think that would cause me to go from 2 to no where?

[kevinlomas]

Ah well, it just goes to show it's best to learm how to DIY, then you can only blame yourself. But at least DIY is free :-)

[Garth]

Too true.  Now I do know how to do it.  Too bad I learned by all the mistakes that were made by others "hiring it done".   And I thought if I tried to do it all myself, I would make all the mistakes and learn everything the hard way.

So, with exception of perhaps hiring their cover art folks again which was pretty good, the next 2 I have in the works will be self-published.

[kevinlomas]

No one sees, or should see, your learning curve unless you publish it too early :-)

[simonralli]

Well on the upside if you have sold 150 books in just a few days that is just excellent!

[Garth]

Yeah, but like everything else here it seems, offering a top 100 "service" is important.  If you cannot do it right, then don't do it.  There's just no way I went from 2 to no where in 1 day.  And, like I said, I have some online advertising and I was using my top 100 position here in my ads.  Actually had a potential customer accuse me of lying which is when I checked and, she was right, from one day to the next I went from number to to no where.  I moved into the number one position after I moved only 56 books, the current number one bumped me down to number 2, so I moved 150 more and now I'm out of the top 100 completely.  Something is fishy.

Still wonder if it wasn't related to my less than stellar customer survey I gave them on the publishing package they sold me?  I just told the truth.  They've got some issues here they need to get fixed.