FYI, the best explanation I've seen of Amazon rankings is http://www.fonerbooks.com/surfing.htm - pretty complex read, as it tries to reverse-engineer the different ranking systems used by Amazon.

Also, I've posted some Ingram sales figures (single distributor) on the related thread on dKos. Even though it's one distributor, the numbers are surprisingly close to the blogged Bookscan numbers.

In my personal experience as an author, Ingram figures make up only a fraction of total sales, which makes sense as they are only one (though the biggest) distributor.

Trying to translate Amazon rank to precise sales figures is as imprecise as reading as tea leaves -- however, an agent once told me that a 5,000 or 10,000 rank means that your book has sold one or two copies that week.

Which would be good by Amazon standards for a midlist book -- so your single or double digit rank on Amazon speaks volumes.

And may have little or no relation to brick and mortar stores, especially once used copies start being offered on Amazon. (At Barnes&noble.com I once sold 25 copies, in the same period that 1,000 books were sold in their stores.)

The best indication of how well your book is doing at this point are the orders from book stores and number of printings from your publisher.

Again, by any standard, three printings of 50,000 copies in the first month is fantastic for a small publisher, and a medium-sized or large, East Coast publisher would also be pleased if any midlist book fared as well, especially since there's room for growth at the beginning of a press tour, and the book would appear to have legs.

The actual sales of 10,000 in this short a period of time is once again, a mark of distinction for a mid-list book (in other words, those books outside the block-buster category of Godzillas, such as the Clinton biography, which are buttressed by a major-money publicity and ad campaign.)

To me, it looks like this flap over numbers is an attempt to get hosts to cancel book signings and interviews.

Making up negative BS sales numbers will have no actual impact on actual sales, so I can only imagine it is aimed at the tour.