Tag: book

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Amazon, Sales Rank and Nephrology Secrets

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.

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:

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:

Secrets

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.

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When Joel met Edgar. How we got to #NephSecrets.

In late 2002, I was a second year nephrology fellow spending as much time as possible at The John Crerar Medical Library writing chapters for medical textbooks. It was an awesome year. During that time I got an e-mail from another nephrology fellow, who was also in Chicago. He was writing to say what a fan he was of the Fluid, Electrolyte and Acid-Base Companion. He also said he wanted to help write the next edition of the book. (Any day now I’ll get started on that second edition. Any day now.) That e-mail came from Edgar Lerma. Nothing ever came of that collaboration but we became Facebook friends and continued on our parallel journeys. We both went to academic university fellowships but then pursued private practice. But despite  going into private practice, we both kept our toes in medical education. Me through this blog and social media, him by writing book after book after book.

Over the past fifteen years, Edgar has repeatedly provided me with some of the most interesting opportunities of my career. Edgar is a mentor disguised as a peer. In 2013, he invited me to write about KDIGO for ASN KidneyNews. This was my first national exposure, and that article has lead to subsequent opportunities.

He helped get me on the KDIGO App Workgroup.

But the biggest opportunity was a few years ago when he invited me to help him edit Nephrology Secrets. When he asked, I said, “yes” without hesitation. I said yes without thinking of the avalanche of work I just unleashed. The book is 656 pages long. I have read every one of those page 4 or 5 times. At times, my Secrets-to-do list stretched over the horizon. It was hard, exhausting, and for awhile, never ending. But it was also rewarding.

Thank-you Edgar.

It has been an honor to know you and delightful to work with you and Matt on Nephrology Secrets.

And speaking of Nephrology Secrets, the fourth edition is now available on Kindle with the dead-tree version available (fingers crossed) at the end of March. If you have Nephrology Secrets third edition, understand this is a complete rewrite with many new authors.  It reflects a decade of nephrology advances. As we prepared for editing the fourth edition we reviewed every chapter in the third edition. Nothing reinforces how far nephrology has come quite like reviewing a decade old textbook.  From the introduction:

So take a look at the sample pages on Amazon and if inclined buy the book I don’t think you will be disappointed.