Amazon.com is now offering BookScan information to authors enrolled in their Author Central program. For authors, previously one had to subscribe to BookScan or to get their sales numbers through their agents or publishers.

Amazon says:

We’re happy to announce that – for the first time ever – authors can see weekly sales trends of their print books as reported by Nielsen BookScan. On the new Sales Info tab you can view your print book sales geographically, as well as by paperback or hardcover. These features are on the same page as the existing Amazon Bestsellers Rank History so that you can view all your sales-related activity in one place.

Note that BookScan doesn’t report every book sold. Though it’s still widely regarded as the industry standard for tracking print book sales. And now, through Author Central, you have access to this data for free. Check out Sales by Geography and Sales by Week now!

SFWA member Jim C. Hines reports Amazon is offering the information as a four-week window. Which means that an author who wished to track their books over a longer span would need to check in regularly and take screenshots or otherwise record the trends.