Amazon Rankings!

Amazon have come up with another way to make authors neurotic. Amazon Author Rankings - a new phenomenon introduced the other day - will tell the eager writer exactly how poorly they are doing in relation to others.
For instance mine are as follows: All books 5835
                                                   e-books 2409
                                                   fiction     1946
                                                   romance   776
                                                   historical   315
These are supposedly updated hourly so in theory one could see a trend - probably down rather than up.
This is on the Amazon.com rankings -no doubt there is another set for Amazon UK.
I already spend far too much time checking sales data and rankings of  my books on various lists - now I shall be feverishly viewing my personal rankings as well.
Being where I am in the rankings isn't too bad - there are, after all, over one million authors to be ranked. What must those in the  hundred thousands feel like? They might well have written a blindingly good book - it just hasn't sold very well.
I know I shall be depressed if my rankings fall and pleased when they go up - but does it really matter? Unless I magically arrive in the top one hundred - the list that is shown to the public - only I can see my position. I'm sure sales will improve for the magic one hundred - but for anyone else? I doubt it.
Is this an excellent marketing tool, like KDP, or just another idea from Amazon to make writer's produce more books more often? What do you think? Will this innovation help or hinder writers?
 Fenella

Barbara's War

"A coming of age story with gripping, page-turning plot."

Barbara's War will be published as an e-book and a paper-back on October 5th  on Amazon. This is a book several agents loved but wouldn't take because "this book will not be easily pigeon-holed."

I decided to indie-publish and will await the opinion of those that read it.

I love the cover and intend to have all my covers designed by Jane Dixon-Smith in future.

Here is the blurb.

Barbara Sinclair is desperate to escape from her home in Hastings. Her beloved half-brothers, Tom and David, are being sent to boarding school because the town is likely to be a target of the German Luftwaffe when the bombing starts and John Thorogood, a childhood friend, is also leaving to join the RAF. Caught up by the emotion of the moment Barbara agrees to marry him when the war is over.

She discovers her paternal grandparents know nothing about her and she is determined to find them. Dr Edward Sinclair, her grandfather, is delighted to welcome Barbara to her father's ancestral home but her reception from her grandmother is frosty. Nevertheless, she is enjoying her new life.

Barbara is obliged to return to Hastings and her grandfather accompanies her – this visit changes her life for ever.

Now she not only has John as a dear friend, but also has Simon Farley, the son of a local industrialist and Alex Everton, a handsome Spitfire pilot, taking an interest in her.

Then everything changes. Evil stalks her paradise. Will Simon, Alex or John be the man to save her life?

Look forward to hearing what you think.