Your First Hit

Keith over at Fast Company muses on how the Amazon rankings work. He just discovered that his colleague Martin Kihn's new book, House of Lies, moves up and down the rankings by the minute.

Martin, welcome to rare form of pseudocelebrity that is authordom. Also, congratulations. You have now taken your first hit of the dangerously addictive crack that is your Amazon rank.

The week before we published, we skyrocketed from #600,000 to #129. We couldn't believe it. I made Amazon my home page, and built a toothpick contraption to automatically hit the refresh button every 20 seconds.

Our rank climbed and climbed and climbed. I was certain we were going to be a best seller.

Then, after a few days, a mysterious phenomenon happened. Our rank started climbing in the other direction. It climbed and fell. Climbed and fell. As did my moods.

149? I'd take the dogs for a walk.
1,149? I think I'll sleep in today.

Our agent told us the ranking means nothing, unless we hit the top 10. And I've noticed that very little changes in the world around me, whether we are #30 or #300,000. But still, the addiction remains, and my moods swing wildly with every movement up or down the rankings.

Thanks, Jeff, for inventing this drug.
Now, could you at least tell us how it works?