Wednesday, February 16, 2005

At knit's end with Harry Potter

What does the amazon sales ranking tell us? Doh, which book is a bestseller at amazon and which book is not. Or maybe this statement deserves a closer look.

"Harry Potter and the half blood Prince" is No 1 at amazon.ca and amazon.com. This book won't be out till July. I sure hope J.K. Rowling can fulfill the expectations.

Guess what is ranking No 9.300 at amazon.ca?? Yup, another book that's not out yet but will be on March 1st. Why would I mention this? 'Cause it's the Yarn Harlot's "At knit's end" that ranks - at least I think so - amazingly high.

Compared to the number of people who want to get a grip on the next "Harry Potter" the number of knitters must be minimal. I mean, millions of children and adults (do I really care if it's millions or thousands or what) wait for the next instalment of the Hogwarts-saga, how many thousand knitters does it take to propel a non-saga book on rank 9.300??? I wonder...

Now, not to spoil the feel-good-ranking, but what does the number 42.343 tell us? I am not so sure. Either the variety of books sold in the U.S. is much larger than in Canada or the knitters in the U.S. just don't care about the Harlot as much as we north of the border do.

Leaves us the question: If the numbers of HP-fans compared to the knitters is proportional to the sellings of rank 1 and 9.300, is the book ranking 9.300 not the same bestseller as No 1??

1 comment:

General Ginger said...

LOL You've combined my two favorite things into one entry: HP and knitting. I'll buy both books.