UK Amazon Kindle Forum discussion

tehe Shaun. How's 'buy my book or I'll set Captain Hayes and his ship full of sword-fighting miscreants on you'?

Jess wrote: "tehe Shaun. How's 'buy my book or I'll set Captain Hayes and his ship full of sword-fighting miscreants on you'?"

Excellent. Now anchors away ... I mean, promote away ;)

Karl wrote: "Shaun, I wasn't intimidated by the thought of the boys, honest, but I have taken advantage of your generosity and bought The Kult"

Lol. Well, I hope you enjoy it, Karl. And thank you :)

You will love it Karl. You should buy all of his books while they're so cheap. You'll regret it if you don't.

(word of mouth from fans works a treat, too)

;)

That's a great attitude, Karl.

My sales are running about 4/5 to 1 in favour of the UK at the moment, despite about half my book being set in the US and being featured recently as "Book of the Week" on a US blog. That resulted in a massive spike of one sale!

I'm still perplexed at how books can do much better in the UK. Are there UK-specific places online that are isolated from US citizens? ;)

D.M. Andrews wrote: "I'm still perplexed at how books can do much better in the UK. Are there UK-specific places online that are isolated from US citizens? ;)"

I'm not aware of any... Mine's only on Amazon btw - UK, US and Europe. Not many sales in the latter so far!

D.M. Andrews wrote: "I'm still perplexed at how books can do much better in the UK. Are there UK-specific places online that are isolated from US citizens? ;)"

It's probably one of those luck/chance things. The rankings and categories are different for each Amazon site, so if a book starts to climb a chart on the UK side it generates more sales as a result of turning up more often.

Maybe.

Hmm, Michael, although I rank higher in the UK, my sales don't follow. I have 4 times as many sales in the US compared to the UK, and yet the UK has consistently ranked higher.

D.M. Andrews wrote: "Hmm, Michael, although I rank higher in the UK, my sales don't follow. I have 4 times as many sales in the US compared to the UK, and yet the UK has consistently ranked higher."

I think Amazon have stated that on average an ebook sells 7-8 times more in the US than Uk so you're selling double whats expected in the UK based on your US sales so rankings would be higher.

This has been a useful thread for me. Sales of my book, Dark Tidings have been slow in the US and UK. I submitted it to various sites for review and got a few, but it's very time consuming. I did get some random reviews like this one at euVue , which was nice. I also got quite a few comments on Amazon which is always encouraging...Dark Tidings Amazon

I plan to try some of the sites suggested here... I'll let you know if I have any success.

I do Tweet and Blog a little, but I feel I'm shouting into a big empty space so I'm very lax with both.

I think overall I have to agree with Paul, I think we are a bit reserved... we don't like the self-promo stuff so we avoid it when possible.

I live in the UK but tend to sell more in the US. This appears to somehow be related to Barnes and Nobles. I sell far more Nook ebooks than Kindle. Could be a demographic thing. Could be a search engine thing. Who knows. Honestly, can the process of getting noticed in the US be all that different from getting noticed in the UK. Hard work, determination, and embarrassing self-promotion all around.

Since I started this thread, the situation has reversed. My first free promo resulted in downloads where the US outnumbered the UK by 20:1 Aftersales have been approx. 3:1

I realise it's harder selling children's books, but these numbers were a surprise.

Nicola, I am glad you didn't need to resort to the Janet Jackson stuff to get noticed :-) So pleased to see it's going well for you.

Honestly, as a U.S. author/reader, I find that there is just soooo much promotional noise around and I'm not sure that it's helping some authors all that much. If your style is more geared to building deeper connections and you're not really into the self-promotion then you might feel more comfortable with interviews and giveaways on various kidlit blogs. Bloggers typically appreciate those sorts of contributions, and it really doesn't feel like self-promotion all that much.

The noise we make about our own novel is swamped by the noise of everyone else, so I have changed direction. Instead of giving my self a headache pushing my book I have started a ‘Pinterest’ page for the indi books that I have read recently. As I read other indi books so they will be added. After all I get more pleasure from writing & reading than I do from selling. Of course if I sold a million copies of Ice King my attitude might, I say might, change – and if you believe that wouldn’t change me, I bet you still have the Easter bunny at home living with Santa :-o)
Check the books below - I'm still learning how to use Pinterest
http://pinterest.com/geoffscouse/

Looks good, Geoff. I love your book cover. I have a similar board on my Pinterest page and a board for Treespeaker where I've added inspiration pictures and bits and pieces from the cover. I don't know if it makes people look at the books, but I did have one person repin my Treespeaker symbol on her 'Works of Art' board. So if nothing else, I can claim to have a work of art on my cover! ;)

Geoff, that is a good way to approach things and Katie, I am not at all surprised one of your covers nabbed the 'art' label. Pinterest....yet another way to procrastinate for me

I have 11 titles on Amazon and do very well in the UK with two of my titles regularly sitting at #1 in their respective charts (and this over a 6 month period).

However, even though I have some success in the US I really struggle to get any serious response despite working hard to try and promote myself. I've no real idea why it's not happening but I wish someone would tell me the secret!!

Katie wrote: "Looks good, Geoff. I love your book cover. I have a similar board on my Pinterest page and a board for Treespeaker where I've added inspiration pictures and bits and pieces from the cover. I don't ..."

Your covers ARE works of art. :)

I get next to nil sales in the US, despite all my best efforts. Even though it's a huge market, I've sort of accepted it now. If I could match or increase upon my UK sales in the states I'd be a very happy man.

Steven wrote: "Nicola, I am glad you didn't need to resort to the Janet Jackson stuff to get noticed :-) So pleased to see it's going well for you.

Honestly, as a U.S. author/reader, I find that there is just so..."

Thanks Steven. The US is still being tight with reviews, though ;) I'll try some more blog activity and Pinterest as well.
Ken, I know what you mean about shouting into an empty space. It's like being a market trader, shouting to make yourself heard sometimes! Not my favourite part of the job either.

Mark wrote: "I get next to nil sales in the US, despite all my best efforts. Even though it's a huge market, I've sort of accepted it now. If I could match or increase upon my UK sales in the states I'd be a ..."

Same here Mark. It gives new meaning to the word frustration!

I have strted to think it might be all the 'englishisms' in my first chapter. Pavement, going to the pub, etc...
But yes, it is fustrating.

Can you access bookblogs.ning? It is a very high traffic site but they have specific threads to promote your work and advertise your work and also for freebies and to promote your blog. Also, try to put a click through cover on Pinterest.

There are weeks when I start to wonder whether any of my marketing and promotions schemes even work.

Then there are weeks when I am sure they do.

But like most authors, I have feelings of doubt most of the time. My readers seem to be mainly in the US, and I also sell quite well in Australia [although this is hard to track since there are no Australian online bookstores that are affordable (their mark-up is hefty due to distance) and trackable]. The UK used to be my best market until my second novel came out.

My three novels are with a small publisher that started out in Lancashire and is now registered in Canada and the US! This might be the reason.

Electronic reader uptake in different parts of the world might be another. My eight story collections don't do as well, but I can't distribute them as effectively as my publishers distribute my novels... and it's effective distribution that wins points for publishers, rather than promotions.

Here are my three novels - they are going great guns in the US... wonder how the future will prove for them for the rest of the world.

Hey Nicola,

I'm working on a blog post about this. Follow me and I'll address it in the future: http://reddkaiman.blogspot.com/



I don't even know the name of your book (mine's Weight Loss Terrorists, about a woman who has to lose weight or a madman will kill her husband), so for now, I'd say promote yourself sincerely and continue to work on content.

What's your book about?

Thanks!

Redd

@reddkaiman on twitter

Hi Redd

I write fantasy adventure for children of 9 - 99.
I'm currently working on the Alice Parker series, of which books 1 and 2 are already available.

Here are the links if you'd like to read the blurb!
Alice Parker's Metamorphosis
Alice Parker and the Mind Magician

I like the sound of Weight Loss Terrorists!
Will follow your blog, thanks.
Here's mine: http://nicolapalmerwriter.blogspot.com

Hey Nicola, your blog has a great design. I think if you gave a tutorial on it, you'd get noticed. I'm working on multiple stories, so my blog's going through puberty right now.

What I can say as someone living in the US is that you have to do something we're not capable of. No British rappers make it big, but Amy Winehouse and Adele are huge cause they're different. The US has more talent, but England's more open to creativity.

Go all in with creativity!

Follow me on twitter @reddkaiman

On a slightly different tack, be prepared for snarky reviews from the US if you write in UK English. US readers can be very scathing about spelling (when really it *correct* UK spelling, vs how they are used to words being mis-spelt in the US.)
In an ideal world I'd have US and UK editions.

I think of self promotion like nasty medicine.

If you take enough of it quickly, the need might go away.

Which reminds me...

Grace wrote: "On a slightly different tack, be prepared for snarky reviews from the US if you write in UK English. US readers can be very scathing about spelling (when really it *correct* UK spelling, vs how the..."

Amen to that! I've had whole pages ripping me apart as a consequence of a post being interpreted wrongly and woe betide you if you don't apologise for being English! It's quite bizarre that so-called 'readers' can be act so bizarrely.

If our 'common' language were called American' I could understand this snittiness about spelling - but it's English!

I'm convinced that these people are just the Internet version of football hooligans, out to pick a fight, and "British English" is just the weapon they choose to use.

They are clearly not actually interested in spelling or language, because their posts are themselves so full of grammar and spelling errors as to be ludicrous, or at best hypocritical. And it's not a weapon that's even accurately applied - I saw one "review" (sorry, I wasn't keeping track, so didn't note down the book) where the author was accused of being "too British", and a whole list of "British" words was quoted that "should never be used". Not one of them was actually a British variant of a word, the Author (according to his Author page) was American, and the text also clearly used American spelling and conventions.

So I'm not convinced that having an American translation would actually stop these hooligans (and American is different enough from English that just changing spelling and going from single quote-comma to comma-double quote doesn't really make a proper 'American edition' IMHO)

They are getting their kicks from putting down Indie authors, and while it does seem that they are particularly targeting British authors, I do think that if you took away the "UK English" excuse, they'd only find something else.

I think there are definitely some reviewers out to kick Indies. There's a wonderfully pernicious example in Rosen's Pompomberry House! (I am aware that this one is fictional!) The jewel in the crown of Kindle ownership is the access it gives you to some fabulously talented people who would never get published otherwise. This isn't because they lack ability, it's because their work ranges too widely over the genre lists to be categorised or marketed by the traditional publishers.

Up the Indies (in the nicest possible sense, of course!)

Ignite wrote: "I think there are definitely some reviewers out to kick Indies. There's a wonderfully pernicious example in Rosen's Pompomberry House! (I am aware that this one is fictional!) The jewel in the c..."

Amen to that Ignite!

I think most authors of any kind are going to rely to some extent on word of mouth from their personal network when they're starting out, and my social circle is based predominantly in the UK. And France. So it wasn't a massive shock when my first rash of sales were all to UK and French readers.

As reviews and links have trickled through people's social networks a few sales have come in from the US, but basically I don't think I'll 'crack' the US market until I engage directly with it. And I'm not really sure how I'm going to do that.

I'd relish the chance of being torn apart for using UK English, to be honest. I'd rather my book was loathed than ignored.

Evening gang,

Thankfully I haven't had any negative comments from our American chums, maybe I just haven't sold enough books to warrant it. But surely a book should be written in the language appropriate to where it's set etc. Can you imagine giving Catcher in the Rye a bad review based on it being "Too American" or "too New York"?

My material is set in England, in the north, and the settings and characters reflect that. When I'm a bestseller I'll let my international publisher worry about details like different versions. Or not...

I'd only think about America if I'd succeeded in Falkirk first. And I wld write in an even more exaggeratedly English English. I wld never use gonna, cause, cos, off (verb), or pissed. They are quite capable of writing like that themselves.

I think that as an English writer who writes about English characters living in England, it'd be fairly foolish of a reader to not understand that my books might have something of an English leaning to them.

Perhaps get an facebook/author page and join book groups on there. I tend to get more Amazon.com sales but I guess the market is bigger.

If you work could you ask your boss if you can put a link up at work and ask people to share even if they don't wish to buy it. Email all your mates and ask them too. I am happy to post a link on my facebook page for you.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dark-Fa...

I got on pinterest as well.

One thing you might want to try is getting some fliers or business cards done and asking if local businesses will let you give them out. If you book is suitable for schools you could try that too.

Joined those websites too

I've been lucky so far in that a couple of reviewers in the US have commented that they liked the British feel of my book.
I think that if a review is more rude than critical, then it's not helpful to anyone. So it's not worth worrying about!
I should point out that since starting this thread, when I had no reviews in the US, I now have more there than here!

Cool nice one.

I've been lucky too and have 2 great (5 star) reviews in the US and a great blog from a blogger ... but has it brought sales? unfortunately no ... I'm in the UK and it seems the advice for the US market is to drop the price to around 77 cents as they are used to paying little if anything for their ebooks.

Helena wrote: "I've been lucky too and have 2 great (5 star) reviews in the US and a great blog from a blogger ... but has it brought sales? unfortunately no ... I'm in the UK and it seems the advice for the US ..."

Not an option available to us all, though.

This is a fascinating discussion. My novel has been selling briskly on the U.S. site for the past month with the publication of a short, 10-page prologue, which is free. It gives readers a taste of my writing and the novel's characters and then it's up to them to decide whether to spring for the well-reviewed, 362-page, $1.99 novel.
To say the same promotion on the U.K. site is a disappointment would be an understatement. After reading some of your comments, I realize the problem may be that the short story has no reviews on the U.K. site, although there are several from the U.S. site if one scrolls down the page. I don't think people do that; they just look at the stars at the top. So I need to find some reviewers.
[NOTE: Since posting this, two Lust and Honor readers have posted lovely reviews...I hope they help.]
Like others, I find fewer opportunities to publicize books in the U.K. although two Scottish newspapers have written about me...thrilling!
If you're on Twitter, you can have indiekindle post tweets about your book for a week. I think you can find them at indiekindle.com or @indiekindle on Twitter. Kindle Boards is also a great place to connect with other writers and readers.

I've been reading through everyone's comments. Great advice and for me, it's been a matter of contacting bloggers and building up reviews. Giveaways on Goodreads help a lot to attract attention and I guess the key thing is time. I realise now that marketing your books is a very long term, every day campaign requiring a lot of attention. Right, back to contacting reviewers...

Yes, it's certainly a long-term project. I certainly don't do as much as I should, I can't bring myself to do marketing every day. Sometimes a week or more passes when I don't do any, but I don't think it hurts to give it a rest.

Thanks Harriet - I'll try the indiekindle promo :)