UK Amazon Kindle Forum discussion
Agony Aunt
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Two Amazons - separated at birth?
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Actually, the .com do show on the UK book pages.You just need to scroll down a bit.
The difference is frustrating, but I don't know if there's a difference in reading habits. Don't forget, Amazon.com covers Australia, Canada and Ireland as well. As an Australian, I find it hard to break in to either Amazon - Australia is not a huge market on its own. So yes, I guess I'd like it if it was all one.
well given the fact they have completely different selection of books in terms of when released and covers, they are very different sites.i never wanted them to combine or make a global site. we'd get shafted with exchange rates.
Massive difference, Alex, in terms of approach between Amazon US and Amazon UK. The UK Amazon people I've had to deal with have been really helpful and friendly, lots of common sense. Up the American end, however, the bottom lines seems to be how to avoid litigation - really unhelpful in getting common sense things looked at.I'm not a great fan of Amazon overall, but it seems a necessary evil at the moment.
Interesting views - thanks.One thing that started me wondering about this originally was that I did two separate promos of The Testing of Archie Rathbone, and in the first one I got 75% .com downloads (25%.co.uk), and in the second, these were reversed. As far as I can see, the only things I'd changed over the weeks that separated the two promotions were some of the book's tags.
Katie wrote: "The difference is frustrating, but I don't know if there's a difference in reading habits. Don't forget, Amazon.com covers Australia, Canada and Ireland as well. As an Australian, I find it hard to..."I read an interview with Elizabeth Moon (scifi author) a while ago. Her books are published by Del Rey in the US and Orbit in the "UK & etc". (UK rights normally include Ireland, Commonwealth & ex-Commonwealth countries. Canada though is often stuck as piggy-in the-middle [sorry Patti] and it's not easy to predict if it's covered by the US or UK publisher) One of the things she said was that the US covers are really unpopular in the UK (I agree - I think they are horrid), but US readers love them. Another thing she said is that the US title of a book sometimes doesn't work for the UK, and several times she's had to change it.
And of course that works the other way too - HP & the Philosopher's Stone was changed to Sorcerer's Stone for the US.
An interesting point relating to Amazon was made (I think this may have come from a different source), in that when it comes to DTE books, it's actually Amazon that' s selling it to you, not the publisher, and so you can order the US edition from .com and get it shipped to the UK or Australia or anywhere else. But when it comes to the ebook edition, it's the publisher that's selling it, and so they cannot sell it to you if you are outside the territory for which they have rights. And this is why there are so many complaints of 'why can't I buy x ebook in the UK?' - it's usually because the author has separate US/UK contracts with different publishers, and their publication timings are different.
I'm taking US came first?How long was it before the UK got their own one?
History of Amazon anyone?
I don't really know about Amazons past come to think about it..
Going back to the separation of reviews/ratings - presumably this is justified on the basis of assumed differences in literary tastes (as reviews ought to be independent of cover, title, publisher etc)? Not including UK reviews on the .com site presumes that a positive/negative view expressed on the .co.uk site isn't going to be helpful for a .com reader...Are our literary tastes really that different? Let's face it, there are widely varying literary tastes within the UK (just look at this site, or the degree to which reviews/ratings vary on Amazon.co.uk)...
I had a conversation with one of the developers at Amazon UK in about... 1999??? IIRC, he told me that (at that time) the systems were completely separate - the UK operation started with a blank sheet and built a brand new web site from the ground up.
This being the case, it would explain a lot about the lack of joined-up-ness.
It would go some way to explaining it, but there's (understandably - to a point) obviously a .com-centric attitude if .com reviews appear on the .co.uk site, but not vice versa, as from what you say someone had to make special provision for this.
Alex wrote: "Going back to the separation of reviews/ratings - presumably this is justified on the basis of assumed differences in literary tastes (as reviews ought to be independent of cover, title, publisher ..."I would be more inclined to believe that it was more of a different version thing or if we sell this book to Americans, Americans should be the ones to review it..
Random question: When reading reviews (if you follow any blogs or whatever) are you more likely to read someone from the same country as you?
It's a good point Elle, but if that's the motivation then why automatically display .com reviews on the .co.uk site? If the .co.uk site was created after the .com one then there must have been a decision not to include the corresponding feature that would display .co.uk reviews on the .com site...Anyway - in danger of sounding as though I take this personally (which I don't - honest!).
I'm more interested in getting views on just how different tastes in books are between the different areas covered.
:o)
The displaying of US reviews on the UK site is very recent, only in the last month or two.
With the iTunes/iBooks store there is no crossover at all from UK to US -- if you want to see US reviews you have to go to the US store and vice versa.
Alex wrote: "It's a good point Elle, but if that's the motivation then why automatically display .com reviews on the .co.uk site? If the .co.uk site was created after the .com one then there must have been a d..."I'd say the US thing is mostly due to the number of the people in the UK posting on both sites, popular demand? Maybe it's also because there are obviously a lot more people in the US so in theory a lot more reviews for a book (in my experience this is very true within the genre I read)
I don't think there is any national difference in books, apart from one based on pop culture from that country.
Louise-Lesley (Elle) wrote: "Maybe it's also because there are obviously a lot more people in the US so in theory a lot more reviews for a book (in my experience this is very true within the genre I read)"I have often seen books with one, maybe two reviews on the UK site and a link to "the other 40" reviews on the .com site. So yes, I'd agree with that.
I don't think there is any national difference in books, apart from one based on pop culture from that country.
Could depend on genre to an extent. But it isn't hard to come up with English that's perfectly normal to a Brit but completely incomprehensible to an American. And vice versa. There's a thriving industry providing translation between british English and American English, and it goes *way* deeper than colour/color or mum/mom or how quote marks are laid out.
Interesting.I've never once sought out a review from Canadians.
I'm not particularly interested in US reviews, either, TBH.
If I want to get feedback from a book I think I may be interested in I'll go for Brit opinions every time. Have done my whole life, I believe. Well for as long as the net has been around, anyway.
The big advantage of America is that there are an awful lot of them, and if your US sales were only half (proportionally) to your UK sales, you'd be selling an awful lot more books.It's a big market and it's almost English speaking ;-)
I have fouynd the ,com market a loot harder to break into. After prtomotioons, my .com sales hardly improve, if at all, whereas for the same sort of free downloads, my .uk downloads improve. I thihnnk it's harder to get noticed in the US as they are more mentally attuned yto e-books and have embraced the idea. The UK is still catching up with the idea, so there is less competition..I, for one, am glad they are different. I feel I'm still in with a chance.
It won't be long before everyone has a book on Kindle. Try and get noticed then.
Well judging by the number of kindle books out there, pretty well everyone already has :-(
I feel more optimistic - e-books are leading to a renaissance in reading - people like my mother and my wife, who used to buy 25 books a year, now buy 50. That's more sales for everyone!
I agree with that. Especially with books like 50SoG which is making being a reader seem not so.. uncool? I don't know how to describe it, but ya know what I mean!
Louise-Lesley (Elle) wrote: "I agree with that. Especially with books like 50SoG which is making being a reader seem not so.. uncool? I don't know how to describe it, but ya know what I mean!"I expect you're right. Also, much more than is the case with DTE books, I think most Kindle owners tend to carry their 'books' with them everywhere, and perhaps read more frequently (and therefore get through more books) because of it.
That said, I think Jim does have a point - as the number of books on Kindle increases it's harder to separate the good books from the dross. DTE books generally don't get published if they're rubbish whereas ebooks can be self-published relatively easily. Consequently there's very little quality control of what makes it onto Amazon's lists, and it's getting more and more difficult (for readers and writers alike) to see the eWood for the eTrees!
Very, very true.Good thing about KDP: Everyone can publish a novel
Bad thing abotu KDP: EVERYONE can publish a novel!
Another disadvantage of the UK/US separateness is that we need to add our Author Central information in two places too. That doesn't seem necessary.And another: The affiliate link system. I've set my website up so that if a visitor clicks on my book or on another that I've reviewed, and subsequently purchases the book from Amazon, I get a small percentage of the profit. However, I've set it up for the UK, but about half my sales come from the US. So a US visitor will be taken to the UK site and probably won't make a purchase there.
Louise-Lesley (Elle) wrote: "Very, very true.Good thing about KDP: Everyone can publish a novel
Bad thing abotu KDP: EVERYONE can publish a novel!"
Ha ha! I wish I'd put it that succinctly!
Actually Elle, that leads me onto another discussion thread that I've been toying with starting recently, but haven't felt brave enough - a case of pandora's box being opened I suppose. That said, perhaps now's the time to do it. I'd be fascinated to hear everyone's views on how you (as an author) make that critical judgement that your precious book is a dud (or not) - new thread to follow shortly, for anyone who's interested.
Alex wrote: "Louise-Lesley (Elle) wrote: "Very, very true.Good thing about KDP: Everyone can publish a novel
Bad thing abotu KDP: EVERYONE can publish a novel!"
Ha ha! I wish I'd put it that succinctly!
A..."
We can ask said precious book, look it in the eye, and say, 'Are you a dud? Tell me, tell me, tell me ..' If said story has a beating heart, it will answer. Of course, it is best if we instinctively know in our own hearts without needing affirmation. If we need affirmation perhaps this is a bad sign. Maybe the views of others on our work should not matter to us. But we are all weak and needly. Perhaps the strongest writer is one who is indifferent to praise and criticism in equal measure.
R.J. wrote: "Alex wrote: "Louise-Lesley (Elle) wrote: "Very, very true.Good thing about KDP: Everyone can publish a novel
Bad thing abotu KDP: EVERYONE can publish a novel!"
Ha ha! I wish I'd put it that s..."
You may well be right. I suppose the question I was asking was as much to do with the role that (in this case) the Amazon site (through the operation of its ranking algorithms) plays in determining the success or failure of a book. Intuitively, good books should succeed and bad books shouldn't, but experience doesn't always support this.
Amazon US is run from the US but Amazon UK is run from Europe. They are entirely separate and the US Amazon does not have much control (if any) over the UK/Europe part of the business.For example a book our publishing company released on the 1st of August - went live as it should have done on the US site - they included the Look Inside feature and tied the Kindle version with it immediately.
On the UK site the same book was showing as not yet released until this morning and then went to Out of stock. The Kindle version is not tied together and there is no Look Inside on the Kindle listing.
This is a fairly usual experience for us with the two systems. The US is usually efficient and thorough - the UK creaks like a warped and imminently disintegrating door. :(
One of the things that I have come to realise over the last month or so (since publishing my first ebook) is just how separate Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com are. I should say before I go any further that I realise that there are other Amazon sites, but I'm assuming that what applies to .co.uk / .com probably applies equally to the others. Just to pick a few examples:
- Reviews posted to one site don't appear on the other.
- Ratings for a book on one site aren't shown on the other
- Amazon's own ratings are different across their different sites.
I suppose the question I'm opening up for discussion it to what extent you all think that these distinctions are real and justified, and to what extent they impose an artifical and unjustified separation?
Are American tastes and shopping behaviour significantly different from UK tastes and behaviour, or would each market benefit from seeing the views of the other?