World, Writing, Wealth discussion
All Things Writing & Publishing
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Tapping into different markets...
I write literary fiction. My books are listed on all of those above mentioned including .jp.
@Miss Mehreen: Thank you, ma'am!! Do you happen to know your top 3 to 5 markets? Like, where you have sold/are selling the most copies?
Genre: Historical Fiction/MysteryThese are my biggest markets in order (ebook):
1. USA
2. Australia
3. Canada
4. UK
Paperback Sales
1. USA
2. UK
My genre is romantic suspense1. USA (this is where I sell basically all of my books the other countries only get a handful of sales)
2. UK
3. Australia (since I live in Australia I think my very few sales here are from people who actually know me!)
4. Canada
Good luck with your intel gathering!
@Miss Jane: Hiiii! *waves excitedly* Thank you!!! Huh. I wonder why my Canadian sales are so meh. I do waaay better in Germany *scratches head* How strange...
You're super welcome Annie! When I say my Australian sales are low I mean VERY low, so its not like most people who know me buy my books, but I think the handful of sales from Australia are from a few friends!
Also not sure if its anything you're interested in but I also typically most months have more books read through kindle unlimited than actual copies bought
@Miss Jane: Oooooh, very interesting with KU > copies sold for you. Personally, I'm not exclusive to Amazon but I believe many authors are, so Select intel is veeeery much appreciated!!
Big hugs,
Ann
You're welcome, Annie. That's why I stay exclusive to amazon!
@Miss Jane: I've heard many authors say that and it makes logical sense, for sure!!Who else is Amazon exclusive here? I'll tally that up too. For no other reason than cuz I totally can *smirks*
Cool idea, Ann! Welcome Jane!Genre: Hist. fic, Thriller, Noir, undefinable
1. US
2. UK
3. Negligible sales anywhere else: Australia, Germany, Canada, Holland
India market should have a great potential
Our Select vs. Non-Select tally thus far:Amazon exclusive:
Marie, Jane, Tim
Rebelling again the Zon:
Tara, JJ, me
Doing both:
Nik
EDIT: Fixed my boo-boo with Mr Nik.
Annie wrote: "Our Select vs. Non-Select tally thus far:Amazon exclusive:
Nik, Marie, Jane, Tim
Rebelling again the Zon:
Tara, JJ, me"
I'm - mixed. I'm with select on 1-st and 3-d and multi-platform on the 2-nd. Don't try to find any logic. There is none -:) It just so happened and I intend to reshuffle the venues more than once
(((Come to the dark side Tara, JJ, Annie)))
*applies war paint**stands my ground against the Zon god**like David and Goliath or something equally epic*NEVER!!!
Unless you have cookies over there. I mean, it'd be rude to say no then...
...cookies as far as the eye can see... :)About Kindle Unlimited...I have looked through all my other markets and can't find a single page read over KU except for on .com. So, there's that.
However, I made a few hundred dollars in royalties last month just from KU. I am unsure if I could make this much $ on the other digital platforms ??? Decisions, decisions.
@Miss Marie: Mmmm. Cookies...I'm also on Kobo and I definitely do NOT make anywhere close to hundreds per month on there.
Hmm. I have zero doubt my earnings would increase significantly by going Select since Amazon is where 99.38% (yeah, I calculated it haha!!) of my sales happen. But...
I've had a few readers email me that they purchased an ePub cuz they don't use Kindle. Yeah, I dunno. Something about being available to everyone just feels right to me. And the whole control freak thing LMAO!!
Annie, TONS of cookies over this side! I absolutely LOVE to bake, in fact I baked fresh homemade cookies yesterday!I've been considering making my books available in other places, but until I sell more than I get read through KU I'll be staying as I am, I don't like change!
@Miss Jane: I am the queen of (reckless) change hahaha!! No, for reals. It's a serious issue. You can keep me grounded any day of the week. And bake me cookies too... *smirks*Hugs,
Ann
I have fourteen books out there - four are scientific, three of which are select to Amazon (largely because I don't think the others handle this sort of thing at all well, but I may be wrong.) Of the scientific,From Amazon: Most sales in US and UK.
From the rest: Sales in UK and, oddly enough, NZ from Google.
Novels: Two general, 8 select to Amazon
From Amazon: Most sales in US and UK. Scattered sales from Canada, Australia, Germany, and the odd sale elsewhere, BUT none of these have reached the pay threshold Aaaargh!
From elsewhere (the thrillers) Mainly US, but can't be sure because I use Smashwords as an aggregator, which has a much lower payment threshold.
I am just finishing another thriller-type novel and can't make up my mind how to try and sell that.
Hi Jane, I also like to bake a ton of desserts! As well as make Mexican food. And Italian. And sushi. I'm thinking we should have a meet up and eat. Eating Unlimited! Ahem, back to the KU and marketplace biz...so KU pages read have the ability to boost your book rankings. It plays a huge part in my books staying in the top 20 in their category for as long as they have (going on 3 months). I have been extremely curious about Smashwords, Kobo, Nook, and ibooks, since I have been on Select since day 1, but I think the added visibility of KU is helping my books along.
I do wonder why I am not getting pages read internationally ???? I also wonder the number of international subscribers (vs. only Amazon.com subscribers), as well as how much KU is advertised in other countries. Lots of questions. (See how I'm trying so hard to stay on topic? It was hard after the cookies incident...)
Ian, just putting this out there in case it is helpful. If you set up an account for direct deposit/EFT payments, you do not have to wait to reach a payment threshold. Both Createspace and KDP transfer royalties at the end of each month regardless of amount.
Maybe we could have an FAQ for international Amazon payments in our resources folder. We could use a Google drive doc for our group. We do have "world" in our group title and it would seem remiss if we didn't take an international view of publishing.(Of course, we'd want to have a URL to the Amazon FAQ first.)
@Miss Marie: You beat me to it! I was just about to say that haha!! As for staying on topic...*looks around nervously*
@Mr Ian: I didn't even realize there was a pay threshold. How are you receiving your KDP royalties?
Hugs,
Ann
@Mr Alex: You have too many stellar ideas for me to keep up with >_< Any chance you can compile a list of your brain children in one place? I'm sure to miss something otherwise...
Marie wrote: "Ian, just putting this out there in case it is helpful. If you set up an account for direct deposit/EFT payments, you do not have to wait to reach a payment threshold. Both Createspace and KDP tran..."That is probably true in the US, but I have made such arrangements with Amazon and I do not get such payments. They have to add up. Even from the US! (Amazon has always treated NZ somewhat differently than from US citizens.) Actually, i don't mind that because banks tend to charge a fee for international transfers, and a small transfer just ends up with nothing. As an aside, this is where Google shines - they have a NZ office that simply pays for "Big Google" and no bank fees.
Annie I'll bake you cookies whenever you wish but be forewarned most of what I bake has a chocolate theme! A very strong chocolate theme! Not that I'm a chocoholic or anything though!! Marie, love the Eating Unlimited idea!! I absolutely LOVE baking! Only from scratch I don't like packet mixes! I also love to make cake decorations, I actually have something new I want to try out for my mom's birthday next week. I don't cook as much as I am a super picky eater but I have a pizza recipe I adore and wish I had the time to make more often!
Hmmm . . . now thinking up an on topic comment . . . I'm not sure that in Australia we have access to KU, so maybe other countries don't either, I think I only get KU pages read in the USA and UK. Not positive that Australia doesn't have KU though, I much prefer paperbacks then ebooks so perhaps we do have access to KU here and I just don't know it!!
Dessert and cookies meet-up sounds compelling! I'll bring the wine.Thresholds are my disaster too. Last time I checked (maybe 3-4 months ago), Amazon availed their EFT payments in 4 countries - US, UK and probably Canada and Australia. For most markets, you need to accumulate over 100 in royalties in any local currency, for Amazon to send a check. Don't see it ever happens in Holland for example, where 1 or 2 books sold are unlikely to ever result in royalties received. I asked Amazon why they don't avail credits for purchase on Amazon as an alternative to threshold. They replied that they'd forwarded my idea to business development department or something like this -:(
Nik wrote: "Dessert and cookies meet-up sounds compelling! I'll bring the wine.Thresholds are my disaster too. Last time I checked (maybe 3-4 months ago), Amazon availed their EFT payments in 4 countries - U..."
Don't hold your breath waiting for th Business development branch to do anything in your favor :-(
Oooh!Marie,
Have you tried onigiri? Once I got sushi down to a science I tried onigiri and I love it - so much fun and so pretty sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds.
Jane
What is your project for your mom's birthday cake? I just got my first pastry tips set and I am so geeked out about it. I have been working on my french macaron recipe all summer and am 98% close to getting the d@#& thing right lol. They are about $4 apiece so yeah, i *will* learn to make my own ha ha.
Annie
Let's embarass Marie and create a thread just so she can share her secrets with us. You in?
Tara, I love to make my own fondant, completely homemade, and usually I colour it and then make whatever decorations I have planned, but this time I want to try keeping it all white, making the decorations, and then using the food colourings to paint it instead of colouring the fondant itself, not sure how it will work out but fingers crossed! Good luck perfecting your french macaron's, I totally understand the desire to get it perfect!
It's 9:49 friday night here and I'm too tired to think up an on topic comment, so I'm just going to be bad and leave it with these off topic remarks!
Enjoy your day all
Tara wrote: "Let's embarass Marie and create a thread just so she can share her secrets with us. You in?"*evil grin*
Pickled plum onigiri...
*drools on self*
Oooh, Marie's secrets. Sounds like a delicious scandal :).
Annie wrote: "@Mr Alex: You have too many stellar ideas for me to keep up with >_< Any chance you can compile a list of your brain children in one place? I'm sure to miss something otherwise..."
thx but even if i have a good idea unless there's demand for it, then it won't be used. so i'd rather put the question out there and see if it gains traction. or maybe the same questions come up again and again, then we can see if we should have an FAQ on it.
Ian wrote: "Don't hold your breath waiting for th Business development branch to do anything in your favor :-( .."Yeah, my favor interests them the slightest
Apple has been my biggest market since I expanded to Smashwords. I've been playing with raising prices the past month and it doesn't seem to matter.The Siege of LX-925, Book 1 of my Freedom Reigns series has been gradually climbing the rankings at B&N. It is a free book, but B&N doesn't seem to run separate rankings for free and paid like Amazon does, so I'm a bit impressed.
When USS Krakowski shot up the charts on Amazon last year, UK was my largest market outside the US.
The Siege of LX-925 saw a surge on Amazon's .AU site when I released the final book of the series. Though it's done well as a free book, I think I actually had more paid sales out of Australia than the US before Amazon pricematched it.
I had a random sale of my first Timberlands novella on Amazon's .fr site last year and it put the book at #15 for English language>horror>occult :D
J.J. wrote: "I had a random sale of my first Timberlands novella on Amazon's .fr site last year and it put the book at #15 for English language>horror>occult :D"Say what??
*fist bump*
Yeah, gotta love those niche categories.On a side note, it motivated me to claim my author page on a few of the foreign domains. If anyone hasn't noticed yet, when you claim your author page on Amazon's .com site, it does not translate to the .au, .fr, etc. Similar to how reviews from one site do not show up on the others. You have to claim your author page for each site, but not all versions of Amazon support the author page. And since those sites are in the native languages, the registration will be in French on the .fr site, German on the .de site, etc.
J.J. wrote: "Yeah, gotta love those niche categories.On a side note, it motivated me to claim my author page on a few of the foreign domains. If anyone hasn't noticed yet, when you claim your author page on A..."
Yeah, Amazon is not exactly cooperative with their raft of Amazons.
I see it, no problem. It's there offered for 2.99 or free for kindle unlimited
I'm in Israel and as there is no local Amazon, therefore I think by default I belong to .com site or maybe continental Europe.I don't have Kindle option on UK site, for example
Funny and confusing stuff. Hope you are safe -:)There are just so many identical geographic names. Don't remember any single time when I had only one option, if I wanted to check weather forecast for different locations.
For example, they say there are 22 places named 'Moscow' in USA alone. Never would've thought:
https://rbth.com/multimedia/2015/06/0...
There is Georgia in Caucasus and in US, Slovenia and Slovakia. Maybe Reykjaviks are not that frequent -:)
Nik wrote: "I see it, no problem. It's there offered for 2.99 or free for kindle unlimited"same here. looks good.
btw, have you considered offering a print version? Penn's marketing book (which I just read) said that since the print version would be listed at a higher price than the ebook version, then customer's immediately register that the ebook is at a discount.
Tim wrote: "If I can get either optioned, I'll then go to trad publishers with the novel(s) and offer paperback rights and will sell the rights to each country separately... It's a plan..."very cool.
it's okay if the hardcopy is £20 b/c the point is that it shows that your ebook is such a great deal when compared to the hardcopy, and that price difference will influence readers to buy the ebook.
interestingly, pricing a hardcopy inherently includes pricing by book length--and in this case, size does matter--whereas the price of an ebook is quite a bit more divorced from the material costs and so the page count is not factored into the price as much. therefore, by showing the price of hardcopy, one is also showing how much creative work/labor (part of production costs) went into the product. all things being equal, it does take more labor to write a longer, integrated story than a shorter one.
therefore, by showing the hardcopy price, the reader is able to more accurately match the ebook's perceived value (price) with its costs of production.
Tim wrote: "You're right of course, Alex. I think they are also doing me out of a true page count on KU and when I complained, they said if you publish through Create Space, we'll take that page count as your ..."lol. yea, they want their cut from their createspace imprint.
Nik wrote: "There is Georgia in Caucasus and in US ..."I'm sure you can imagine the jokes over here when Russia invaded...
-:)Yeah, I can imagine Georgians peeping out if the windows to spot Russian tanks on the streets-:)
My genres are Horror, Poetry and Crime Thrillers. They only place they market in that I've noticed is the U.S so .com would be the end result lol.
I'd like to gather a bit of intel about which authors/genres do the best in which markets. Would you guys mind sharing your genre and...um...most popular Amazon markets? Or SW if you're not on Kindle. Here's mine...
Genre: Contemporary Romance
1) .com (by a ginormous landslide haha!)
2) .de
3) .co.uk
4) .mx
5) .au
6) .br
7) .ca
8) the rest
Thank youssss!
Hugs,
Ann