After a book promotion hit, authors always want to see how many books they've sold. This information is not easily come by. Editors keep mum, and Amazon provides only a fraction of the information that authors need.
You know what I always say: there usually is only an indirect relationship between book promotion and book sales. Still, authors are always curious to know what that relationship is, and now I've caught onto a resource that might help them find out: Nielsen BookScan U.S.
You can read about Nielsen BookScan -- who uses it and why -- online at Slate or at Nielsen BookScan U.S.'s Web site.
In a nutshell, publishers and authors can subscribe to BookScan to get the closest thing to actual sales figures that are available. According to Slate's article, there's even a verb to go along with Nielsen BookScan U.S. It's called "BookScanning" as in: "You ought to try BookScanning Stephen King's latest novel." (Sure, you could try Googling Stephen King's latest novel, but somehow, that just wouldn't be as informational.)
The good news is that BookScanning is available, and it's democratic, and it's honest. It can provide information about how much, or how little, your book promotion campaign is affecting book sales, and how wise you'd be to invest additional funds in your book promotion campaign.
So now you can stop relying on Amazon for book sales information. BookScanning is here!
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