Charts courtesy of Black Horse Express
Good to see Arkansas Smith, the fastest draw there ever was, still holding the top spot.
Bestsellers on Amazon - 21 June
From £8.93
2. Doc Dryden, Gunslinger by Ted Rushgrove (30 April 2010)
From £10.12
3. Come See Me Hang by Chad Hammer (30 Jun 2007)
From £4.99
4. Guntrail to Condor by John Glasby (31 Aug 2009)
From £8.43
5. Murder at Los Cahuillas by L.D. Tetlow (31 Aug 2006)
From £4.18
6. Long Ride into Hell by Daniel Rockfern (Dec 2005)
From £0.56
7. Gone to Texas by J D Ryder (30 April 2010)
From £11.69
8. Beyond the Crimson Skies by Owen G. Irons (30 Sep 2009)
From £7.00
9. Murdering Wells by Greg Mitchell (30 April 2010)
From £9.25
10. The Red Roan Rider by Boyd Cassidy (30 Nov 2000)
From £0.90
1 comment:
A reader has emailed Black Horse Extra as follows, fishing (I think) for views on the Amazon BHW lists:
"I am beginning to wonder about some of the best-seller lists that Amazon put out. One particular book listed as a best-seller for three weeks in a row was published in the 1990s. Given that only a limited number of these books are printed, Amazon must have just about cornered the market to have so many on hand and if they are selling so well why did it take three weeks for them to sell out ? Maybe I am just getting old and cynical but I am beginning to think that the lists are also a means of shifting old books. Some of these are 1980s vintage and by going back over a few lists I found that something like 30% were books that had been published more than 10 years ago. It looks to me as though 70% could be best-sellers but I wonder about the others."
My view is that the Amazon lists should be regarded as nothing more than a bit of fun. I don't take them as a serious indication of the overall popularity of particular books/particular authors with the readers -- even when O'Keefe titles sometimes pop up! In most cases, very few copies of any BHW are sold to other than the libraries, who have their own set of specialist suppliers.
The books appearing on the Amazon list are not true "bestsellers", but by and large the books that have been recently available to be sold by Amazon itself and through affiliated dealers. (I believe these dealers have to give Amazon a cut of their proceeds and allow the company to set the p&p charges.) When we say "available", that includes books of any age or condition, e.g. secondhand copies and well-worn library withdrawals. The true BHW "bestsellers" are the books that were distributed most widely to the libraries, and which aren't withdrawn from libraries until they are past worth having.
With so few sales of new BHWs, ten-year-old books selling at ridiculously low prices can also make the list because secondhand dealers need the shelf space and don't want to pay the costs of dumping them. They probably also get to keep a percentage of those high and mandatory Amazon shipping charges.
The past track-record or popularity of the writer, let alone the quality of the book, plays no part in many sales. The rarer, sought-after titles seldom make the lists. They either don't need to be listed online, so don't get listed on Amazon, or have prices set at ridiculous levels which ensure they'll never sell, e.g. an unused, collectible copy of the first edition of Frontier Brides (2004) is offered currently at Amazon for £117.75.
What continues to bother me is that the fun of the lists might not be entirely harmless. Newcomers, learning about BHWs through a blog, might decide to sample a BHW or two and make their choice on the strength of a high placing on an Amazon list. They won't be aware of the small number of sales on which the list is based, or that established author popularity with regular readers, let alone experience or quality, has played little or no part in the "chart positions". Because the sales of BHWs (other than to libraries) are so low, a first book can top the Amazon BHW list through sales to friends/followers and family alone. Does this then have a snowball effect as the uninformed people buy more copies on the strength of the apparent chart performance? It's depressing to see some of the material that places on Amazon higher than books by the likes of Keith Hetherington and Paul Wheelahan, who have hundreds of successful westerns, written over decades of diligent work, but hidden from the public by multiple pen-names.
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