Thursday, March 11, 2010

NewsFlash: Amazon Rankings Beat Out Bad Hair Days for Mood Control

I got a bad hair cut today. One of those where I went in saying, "Just a little trim, please," and walked out with four inches chopped off and layers cut from here to kingdom come. LAYERS!!  I nearly cried. I did. My hair's now short. And poofy.

And then I opened my internet to stalk my amazon page and realized that someone must have bought my book. More than one someone.  Because my amazon ranking for Some Kind of Normal shot up to 29,000.

For those of you who don't know what the Amazon ranking is, it's somewhere between science and mystic wand-waving. I think technically it's supposed to mean that that many book sold more books than mine. They say it changes hourly for the best sellers, daily if your book sells ten or more copies a week, and weekly if your book sells less than that. Except mine changes nearly minute by minute, and I'm no John Grisham, so I have no idea what that means.

If you are an Amazon ranking watcher, you'll realize this number means... well...it means I'm no John Grisham. 29,000 is a lot of books beating out mine. But since my number has been as high as 700,000, today was looking pretty good.

But even more than that, under the amazon ranking was a new number...a new rank.

Some Kind of Normal is ranked #51 among medical fiction. #51!!!

I looked it up. You know what that means? It means I'm in the same list as Jodi Picoult and Robin Cook, on the same page as Patricia Cornwell and Michael Crichton; I'm sandwiched between Michael Palmer and Robert Ludlum.

My book was in the top 51 medical-based fiction books sold today.

Is that crazy???

I printed out the list.. all seven pages of it. I don't know if I'll ever get any higher, and knowing Amazon, I'll be back in obscurity tomorrow.

But today... today I rank with the best of the best.

And I decided maybe my hair looks pretty good just the way it is.

14 comments:

  1. How exciting is that?? I love that your name was sanwiched between the biggies.

    Take heart with the hair. I've had every style known (a lot of bad ones, too). ;)

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  2. I've been known to cry after getting short hair cuts, so I feel your pain!

    And congrats on moving up on Amazon. That's awesome!!

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  3. That's incredibly awesome!!!!

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  4. Caroline and Megan - it helped that when I picked up the kids everyone raved over the haircut. Maybe I just have bad taste... or am stuck in a time warp...which is entirely possible. :)

    Thanks for the congrats! I'm already off the list again, but don't think I won't be checking every hour! :)

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  5. I'm glad to see your book doing well! As for the hair ... I had 4 inches cut off AND layers put in on purpose several months ago (though I do intend to grow it back long again) because my curls were coming back and it just looked weird to have long straight hair topped by curly hair. But I know what you mean. Pss ... "they" say that once women get past a certain age they shouldn't have long hair because it draws attention to the character lines. I say we should find out whoever "they" are and hunt them down and do something diabolical!

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  6. Cathi - hahahahaha!!!! I totally am guffawing at that!! Yes!! Let's hunt them down!!

    ...and I think some people look awesome in layers, and in short hair... I just don't think I'm one of them. :)

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  7. I remember when you didn't know which genre to put your book in, now you know medical fiction. That's awesome.

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  8. Congratulations!

    And I totally take credit. lol

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  9. That is fantastic, Heidi! I hope your numbers continue to improve every single day. :-)

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  10. That is awesome and something to make you forget that bad cut! BTW, I had that same cut done to me two months ago. Trying someone new next.

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  11. Wonderful news, Heidi!

    Much be the season for bad haircuts. You'd think a stylist would know the difference between a trim and several inches. Mine didn't and that's the last time she gets my business.

    ;-)

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  12. Wow!

    Nice!!!

    And deserved!!!!

    (the nice thing about bad haircuts is that hair grows.)

    Y'know, I'm not surprised you're up there with the best. Not surprised at all. But it's still AWESOME!

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  13. Holy crap! Congratulations on the sales ranking! I'm going to be a woman obsessed when our book hits Amazon. It's going to make my statcounter addiction look like child's play.

    And whatever on the hair. It always grows back. At least that's what I told myself when I accidentally dyed mine maroon last year. Oops..

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  14. Heidi! I am so excited for you! I mean, a poofy haircut is the BEST!! Wait...I mean, #51 is THE BEST (well the 51st best). That is awesome news. I mentioned you on my blog today in a roundabout way. No awards, I promise.

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