Amazon has added a new feature to their website, called Author Central.

It allows authors (duh) to create a bio page and other services to help them connect with their reading audience. But even better, it posts rankings, showing how well an author’s book is selling compared to all other Amazon authors, and authors of similar genres. So, I can see how well my book (Dare to Love–in case you’ve been hiding under a rock) is selling compared to other Romance authors on Kindle.

They create a fun little graph, that is updated hourly, so I can obsessively chart my progress over time. So, I now know that my overall Amazon bestseller rank today is #19,610 – an all-time high!

I’m trying to temper my enthusiasm, because, while this may mean I’m selling more books (increased numerator), it may also mean that other writers are selling fewer (decreased denominator). See, math is fun and useful!

I can access another chart that indicates I was the #957 best selling author of historical romance ebooks last week. Sadly, I’m now down to #1,738, but it’s been climbing for the past day or two.

AND according to Amazon, as of 12/11, I’m the #52 best selling author of Kindle ebooks in the category of fiction/historical fiction/British. Sure, if you add enough qualifiers, I’d eventually find myself in the top #100 of something, but I think this is a fairly substantial category.

Thanks, Amazon, for creating this feature. It’s like watching my own private stock market game.

Even more importantly, thank you to everyone who has bought my book. It is an amazing thrill to find people are interested in reading what I’ve written. And…AND…some of them have actually enjoyed it. Look at all the positive reviews!

Life is sweet.