mcqn.com/Booklert - Keep Track of Books' Amazon Rank

Ever finish a book that you absolutely loved, only to discover that none of your friends have read it and you are left with no concept of how good of a book it actually was? A new web app, Booklert, now lets you track the popularity of a given book via its Amazon rank. Much like Alexa, you get a graph of the book’s peaks and valleys along with its current numerical standing. Booklert sends you ranking updates with an email or a tweet as often (every hour) or as little (once a week) as you like. In addition to following the ranking of a book, if you’re an aspiring author, you can also create a Booklert “badge” to post on your site that displays your book’s current Amazon rank. When site visitors click on this badge, it automatically redirects them to Amazon where they can purchase your publication. Finally, you can keep track of the hottest and coldest books of the week – every Sunday Booklert creates new lists of the highest and lowest ranked books, along with selected other statistics (which books have fallen the most in rankings over the past week, which have risen the most, etc).

“Booklert lets you keep track of the Amazon rank of your (or anyone else's) books. You get an email or a tweet of the latest ranks at regular intervals. And you choose how often - anything from every hour, to once a week”

Booklert could be a good way for authors to keep track of their publications and gauge their success. Since Booklert also lets you see how similar competitors are performing, it’s also a good method of seeing how you are stacking up against those who might outsell you. The badge tool is an interesting option and could help provide authors with increased sales.

It’s unclear how many non-authors would actually use this; do readers care about the ranking of a book more than an actual review of it? I’m not sure if people would use this in lieu of other book review sites.