I am reading the biography of Jeff Bezos, The Everything Store by Brad Stone.
And as I’m reading about Amazon’s innovation after innovation, one jumps out as being particularly relevant to me: Amazon Best Sellers Rank.
That's right. @NephSecrets is ahead of Vander's Renal Physiology, where it should be!https://t.co/44PvkTh195 pic.twitter.com/bs6kFs75tx
— Joel M. Topf, MD FACP (@kidney_boy) April 28, 2018
I’m not surprised that Secrets is the best selling new release in Nephrology. The series is very popular and the last edition is 10 years old. I suspect there is significant pent up demand.
What shocked me is where the Fluid Electrolyte Acid Base Companion is on the Nephrology Best Seller List:
Next step: pass @doc_faubel’s old, out-of-print, Fluid, Electrolyte and Acid-Base Companion (#9?!) on the nephrology best seller list…https://t.co/C9rheO66Oy pic.twitter.com/it9ybOVcpF
— Joel M. Topf, MD FACP (@kidney_boy) April 28, 2018
Fluids came out in 2000. I think we printed 1,200 copies and never did a second printing. We sold out the last of our inventory over a decade ago. If Amazon is telling the truth about their sales either someone has counterfeited the book, these are used books that are being sold over and over again, or this is new old stock that someone found at the back of a warehouse.
My daughter suggested another possibility, that all nephrology books sell like crap. (I’m beginning to come around to this theory as I see how much the sales rank jumps around.
Here are the current sales ranks for some nephrology books of note:
Acid-base, Fluids and Electrolytes Made Ridiculously Simple 3rd Edition
Fluids, Electrolytes, and Acid-Base Companion
Handbook of Dialysis Fifth Edition
Clinical Physiology of Acid-Base and Electrolyte Disorders (Rose and Post)
The rankings look funky because I wrote this post in two sessions, separated by a number of hours. Apparently at these sales volumes the the ranking are pretty erratic.