I'm a part-time author, and like any other author I'm interested
in the sales volume of my writings.  Steve Champeon wrote a script
which charted the daily changes in Amazon.com's ranking of his
book, and I liked the idea.  follow-rank is the first-draft result.

follow-rank is a Perl script that uses the CPAN Internet and Web
modules to capture the main page of a book listing at Amazon.com.
The page is scanned for the 'sales rank' blurb and the number is
extracted.  The rank (and possibly the date) are emitted for use
elsewhere, possibly logged for later analysis.

It's simple and not elegant, and could use somr work.  However,
it gets the job done.

For more information, use the source, Luke!  And don't throw
things at me, please.  I've found this useful and so I offer
it in the hope that someone else -- you, maybe -- might also
find it useful.

The entire follow-rank package is copyright 1999 by MeepZor Consulting,
and is licenced according to the MeepZor Public Licence, found
on the Web at <URL:http://MeepZor.Com/LICENCE.txt>.

If you have questions, complaints, or suggestions, send them to
<follow-rank-package@MeepZor.Com>.

Enjoy!  I hope this makes life at least a tiny bit simpler for you..