Tracy Falbe's Blog

How Indie Authors Reach International Markets

The emergence of ebooks as a viable medium for authors has enabled independent authors to reach wide audiences through digital delivery on the internet. As an indie author, I've benefited from the global distribution of my titles. A portion of my income every month comes from readers outside the United States, predominantly in countries that have English speakers and readers such as Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and India.

What Platforms do I use to sell ebooks worldwide?

Most indie authors, especially in the United States, are familiar with Kindle Direct Publishing through Amazon. This platform places ebooks in the Kindle store in numerous countries. Some of the Kindle stores serve markets that don't have a strong English language audience, like France and Brazil. I do, however, have consistent Kindle sales in the UK and Australia. Canada, although it has a Kindle store, does not produce many sales for me. My sales to Canadians tend to come through Kobo and Google Play.

Kobo has long been known as a source of ebooks in the Canadian market. It also has a substantial international reach. I've sold ebooks to various countries through Kobo. This is a platform that indie authors should definitely be on. The company is friendly to self publishers, who can directly publish through Kobo Writing Life. Authors can also have their titles sold through Kobo by third parties like Smashwords. Some authors enjoy substantial success at this retailer that reaches many audiences not well serviced by Amazon.

Google Play offers me my most robust international selling platform. As well as enjoying many sales in the United States, I regularly reach other countries, including Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, and sometimes India. Sales come in from countries like Switzerland, Norway, and New Zealand too. Because I've always struggled for visibility on Amazon, Google Play has emerged as my most profitable outlet most months. I publish directly at Google Play, and I'm not aware of any third parties offering access to this store.

Apple has the iBooks store within its iTunes system, and people in over 50 countries can buy my ebooks there. Over the years, I've had sales come in from all kinds of countries at iBooks like France, Germany, and Australia. I use Smashwords to sell my titles at iBooks. Apple does have a self publishing system, but I'm not familiar with it.

Speaking of Smashwords, its retail store also represents a means of selling ebooks globally. The reporting system at Smashwords does not show me the countries of origin on my sales, but I do know that the store has an international customer base, and I've sold hundreds of ebooks through their website.

Finally, my own website Brave Luck Books serves as a global retailer for any digital goods produced by me. My ebooks are delivered automatically after payment through the service SendOwl, and my credit card processor accepts many currencies.

You can go pick out a free ebook right now to see how it works without entering any credit card information.

http://www.falbepublishing.com/free3/

Binge reading starts now - 99 cent ebooks available at all retailers this weekend

It's cold and dark where I live, and curling up with a good book under blankets is a good survival plan. Today I'm sharing a big list of bargain ebooks in the science fiction and fantasy genre, so you can load up your tablet and have money left to pay the heat bill.

For the weekend of January 7th and 8th, you can find ebooks for only $0.99 through the website of Patty Jansen. She's done the hard work of gathering titles and organizing them by retailer.

Google Play

Kindle

Kobo

Nook

iBooks

Smashwords

The January promotion features one of the titles that I produced. It's a multi-author box set that sells for only $0.99 every day. 

Outcast Journeys: Fantasy and Sci Fi Box Set by Eight Great Authors by Nathan Anton, Tiffany Cherney, Tara Maya, Scarlett Van Dijk, Tracy Falbe, Ashley Capes, Alex James & James T Kelly.



Kindle

http://amzn.to/2aByRMY

Google Play

https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Tracy_Falbe_Outcast_Journeys?id=wFavDAAAQBAJ

Apple iBooks

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/outcast-journeys-fantasy-sci/id1132254573?mt=11

Barnes & Noble Nook

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/outcast-journeys-tracy-falbe/1124079091?ean=2940153116204

Kobo Books

https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/outcast-journeys-fantasy-and-sci-fi-box-set-by-eight-great-authors

Smashwords

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/648407

If you love to read fantasy and sci fi or you're looking for something new to excite your imagination, read Outcast Journeys.

A note from Tracy Falbe: Be the first to know about my new releases and special sales at Brave Luck Books. Join the Readers' List. Ebooks and audiobooks available worldwide. Print in select countries.

Discover Ebook Reading with Your New Android Tablet

For those who received a new Android tablet as a gift, you're now in possession of a perfectly good ebook reader. Like me, you'll use your tablet to do other things like research the web, waste life energy on social media, and watch movies, but I also enjoy reading ebooks on my tablet.

Every Android device comes with access to the Google Play store. This store sells apps, music, television shows, movies, and ebooks to a global audience. You can also easily add apps for other online media retailers and services like Kindle, Kobo, and Netflix to your tablet.

Today I'm going to focus on reading ebooks from Google Play and independent sources on your tablet with an emphasis on finding free ebooks.

You'll open the Google Play store by tapping its icon on your tablet. It might already be on your home screen. If not, you'll find it in the Apps area.Unsurprisingly, the ebooks section of the store won't be particularly obvious when you enter the online store. Touch the little horizontal bars near the top of the page to open the store menu. Then you'll see Books as a choice.Once you're in the Books section, you'll be able to search and sort for whatever you desire to read. Lots of free ebooks are available on the Google Play platform, but the retailer does not make them particularly obvious or easy to find.To dig into the free offerings, you'll want to do a store search with "free" as a keyword. For example, free historical fiction or free Arthurian books. This will produce substantial results for you to consider. You will also be able to sort ebooks by Deals. Discounts on all sorts of titles are typically available at this retailer. Browsing by deals, you'll start to find titles for $0.99 or even smaller amounts like $0.79 and $0.19.


As you become familiar with your tablet, you could also download ebooks from independent sources outside the retail giants. 

You might find free ebooks given away by expert authors hoping to provide how-to, self-help, or fitness advice. An abundant supply of free fiction can be accessed by doing searches for favorite authors or simply "indie authors" who frequently give away ebooks. There really is no limit to the amount of free nonfiction or fiction ebooks online.When you download ebooks from independent sources, you'll likely choose a file in PDF or Epub format.Your tablet will open any PDF files that you store on the device. When you tap on a PDF file, you'll be presented with options for opening it. Unless you have other appropriate types of PDF viewers installed, you'll choose between Drive PDF viewer or an Office application. Either work fine.To read Epub files on your tablet, you'll need to install an Epub reader application. There are many to choose from. The easiest way to load one on your tablet, is to go to the Play store and search Apps for "free epub reader." You could also do an internet search and download Epub viewers from other sources that you might find. There will be paid versions of these applications as well if you want more features.Once you have an Epub reader on your tablet, you can select Epub files whenever you want to download an ebook. These files are typically smaller in size than PDF files, and they reflow content for digital viewing.
This is the process that you would use if you chose to download a free ebook directly from my website. 

http://www.falbepublishing.com/free3/

How to find Free Ebooks at Nook

The Nook ebook store presents readers with a steady supply of free reads. The merchandising system does not make it easy to find them, but if you do a search with the word free, such as "free romance," the results will come back with a bunch of free titles.

Try this search with any type of genre or topic after the "free" like "free fantasy" or "free shifter fiction."

You can then sort search results by the menu options for "newest to oldest," "bestsellers," and so forth.

As you browse the results for free ebooks, you're likely to find titles by many indie authors. Indie authors frequently offer free reads to people to attract new readers. People don't have to pay anything to try these new authors.

Because I'm a series writer, I giveaway the first books in my series and then earn money when people pay for sequels. 

See my fiction at Nook. 
Although headlines have been consistently bad for the Barnes & Noble bookstore company, I continue to connect with readers who shop at the Nook store. 


Despite loss of market share and an inability to commit to foreign reading markets, the Nook store remains a viable source of fiction by indie authors in the United States. Authors like me have the freedom to offer free samples. My ebook giveaways aren't restricted to a small number of days like authors that only publish on Kindle. Readers can access my free ebooks at Nook any day of the year.

Many of my ebooks are free on Kindle as well, but this is only enabled by Amazon's willingness to price match my free ebooks at other retail sources. And Amazon does not always price match. If I'm participating in a marketing event that drives readers to my Kindle freebies and a free title gets a bunch of downloads, Amazon always snatches away price matching and makes what should be a free ebook cost $0.99. I assume this is triggered by a system that does not want me to give away ebooks even though it WILL LEAD TO SALES.

My ebook giveaways are classic loss leaders. I satisfy curiosity for free and then gain a few sales from that portion of readers who enjoyed the free read.

I hope that Barnes & Noble continues to operate its online ebook store. It would be silly for a struggling company to ignore online revenue potential, and customers of Nook have been good to me for six years now.



See my fiction at Nook. 

A note from Tracy Falbe: Be the first to know about my new releases and special sales at Brave Luck Books. Join the Readers' List. Ebooks and audiobooks available worldwide. Print in select countries.

Free this weekend at Kindle, Kobo, iBooks, Nook, Google Play, and Smashwords

It's the first weekend of the month, and that means author Patty Jansen has put together a massive list of free ebooks for fans of science fiction and fantasy.

At her website, all the titles have been organized according to retailers. Readers worldwide will be able to find a free read. This is a great way to discover new authors that might not be presented to you when you're browsing at a retail site. There's so many hidden gems, and promotions like these uncover them for you. Lists made by Jansen offer you one of the few venues for discovering free ebooks at Google Play or Smashwords.

This month, I have a title available in the promotion. It's the historical fantasy Werelord Thal: A Renaissance Werewolf Tale.

See Werelord Thal and many other fine novels during this promotion. All listed titles will be free on December 3rd and 4th. Many of them are free all of the time.

Free on Kindle

Free at Kobo

Free for Nook

Free at iBooks

Free at Google Play

Free at Smashwords

Did you miss the free promotion days?You can still read Werelord Thal for free.
http://falbepublishing.com/free2/


A note from Tracy Falbe: Be the first to know about my new releases and special sales at Brave Luck Books. Join the Readers' List. Ebooks and audiobooks available worldwide. Print in select countries.

Take a break from shopping on your iPad with iBooks

You've been browsing for gift ideas and comparing prices on your iPad or tablet until you don't know what to choose. When you get to that point, it's good to shift internet gears and move into entertainment mode. The relaxing pleasure of reading novels is another use for your tablet. As always, reading offers an alternative when you're not in the mood for the passive consumption of video content.

Taking a break to pick up a wee goodie for yourself might break the ice of gift shopping. The jealous spots in the reptilian relics of your brains might need a little soothing before you slog through decisions about gifts for kids, spouses, and the office secret Santa program.

If you're chilling on an iPad, you have access to a huge catalog of ebooks at iBooks. It's the book-reading platform within the Apple operating system and it's part of the iTunes ecosystem.

Some of my free titles that might interest you there are:



Werelord Thal: A Renaissance Werewolf Tale


Rys Rising


Union of Renegades
For foodie willing to explore the simplicity of vintage recipes, I'll suggest:

My Grandma's Vintage Recipes: Old Standards for a New Age


In it, I present over 60 recipes salvaged from my grandmother's handwritten cookbook started in the 1920s. With the holidays on the horizon, you might be interested in the chapter about fruitcakes. (They're marvelous and mood altering!).

 http://www.falbepublishing.com/free3/

A career author becomes a hybrid author

I recently joined a writers' group in my community. I've never had an opportunity to do this before, and it's been great being exposed to other writers and their career paths.

One member is Maris Soule, who has enjoyed a long career as a romance and thriller author. (See a list of her books.) Her works have been read by 100,000s of thousands of people over the years. She has a new book coming out this spring from a publisher, but today I'm going to talk about her release of a title on Kindle. She's done this as an indie author after regaining her rights to Heiress Seeking Perfect Husband, which Silhouette had originally published in 1997.

At the time, the novel had been produced as a paperback. Fast forward to 2016, and Soule was able to prepare the novel for digital publication because she still had the manuscript on a computer disc.

Although Soule still publishes traditionally, she also takes advantage of the publishing opportunities available to anyone. By self producing her works that she has rights to, she can keep her creations in front of potential audiences and sustain her career.

I'm eager to learn more about her experiences as an author.

Heiress Seeking Perfect Husband is $2.99 in the Kindle Store and available to Kindle Unlimited readers. 


Shannon Powell thinks the interview is over when she mentions that her late husband never wrote her love letters. She isn’t prepared for a headline that says, “Heiress Wants Love Letters.” When the letters start arriving, she decides to answer a few...to even meet some of the men. Clint Dawson isn’t sure what to do. His title is chauffeur, but Shannon’s late husband actually hired Clint to be her bodyguard. She’s said she doesn’t need a bodyguard and has threatened to fire him if that’s his job, which means he must keep Shannon from seeing him as he follows her on her dates. What’s worse, Clint ends up writing letters for one of the would-be suitors. It’s Cyrano de Bergerac all over again as Clint writes the words he’d love to tell her in person, if he only felt worthy.




A note from Tracy Falbe: Be the first to know about my new releases and special sales at Brave Luck Books. Join the Readers' List. Ebooks and audiobooks available worldwide. Print in select countries.

Big Weekend Blast of Ebook Savings for Fantasy and Sci Fi Readers

It's the first weekend of the month and that means a big list of $0.99 ebook deals at PattyJansen.com. I don't have any of my titles in the promotion this month, but I'm sure many of my blog readers would like to see the great reads on sale. Some of the titles in this Science Fiction and Fantasy promotion will only be $0.99 for the weekend. Others might be at that low price for longer periods. Sale prices are valid for November 5th and 6th.

This ebook list is for everyone. It features over 100 titles at all major ebook retailers.

Go to the page at Patty Jansen's site and click on the retailer where you get your ebooks.

If you're coming across this page after the weekend, consider reading Outcast Journeys: Fantasy and Sci Fi Box Set by Eight Great Authors.

It's always $0.99!

Get any format you need at Smashwords.




A note from Tracy Falbe: Be the first to know about my new releases and special sales at Brave Luck Books. Join the Readers' List. Ebooks and audiobooks available worldwide. Print in select countries.

Enter to win $15 Amazon gift card

The Silver Dagger Scriptorium has launched the promotional blog tour for The Rys Chronicles.

This is the first epic series that I wrote and published, and it's time to drum up new publicity for it. Thousands of readers all over the world have enjoyed this series since I completed its publication in 2007.

If you're looking for a new epic fantasy full of interesting characters and magical challenges, you can read the first book, Union of Renegades, for free. After downloading a copy, go over to the Silver Dagger Scriptorium and enter the giveaway drawing for a $15 Amazon gift card.





A note from Tracy Falbe: Be the first to know about my new releases and special sales at Brave Luck Books. Join the Readers' List. Ebooks and audiobooks available worldwide. Print in select countries.

Fantasy readers get tons of free content at Google Play store

Through Friday, October 21st, you can read Lessons Learned: A Rys World Short Story for free. This short dark fantasy reveals an important episode of back story alluded to in the epic series The Rys Chronicles. If you enjoy short reads or want to check out a new fantasy world, read Lessons Learned.

It's free worldwide this week at Google Play.

My Ebooks that are free all of the time. 

I also have many novels available in Google's store. Each series starts with a free ebook. I write much beefier stories than little Lessons Learned. To join in the adventures of characters struggling in magical worlds, look for my free ebooks at Google Play.


Werelord ThalThal embodies the ancient magic of the pagan past. He challenges a world conquered by a spiritual system that denies the flesh and forgets the Earth. 

Union of RenegadesThe epic begins as Dreibrand Veta and the conquering Horde of the Atrophane Empire reach a mythic Wilderness that beckons with a magical call to glory.

Rys Rising A young warrior ruined and near death is saved by Onja a mysterious rys female. Forsaking all that he was, he will take the name Amar and serve his new magical mistress.


A note from Tracy Falbe: Be the first to know about my new releases and special sales at Brave Luck Books. Join the Readers' List. Ebooks and audiobooks available worldwide. Print in select countries.