UK Amazon Kindle Forum discussion
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Jim Webster, (In On a Chance! )
Huge congrats! I think it's a great book. Nice to see I'm not on my own.
M.T. wrote: "Nice going Jim. ..."I must admit to being chuffed
strangely, or rather, as usual, I've sold none in the USA. Somehow I cannot sell books into the US
I'm also hoping that it'll draw people in who discover they like my writing and try the fantasy as well
Kath wrote: "Huge congrats! I think it's a great book. Nice to see I'm not on my own."have a word with the Yanks will you. Try and convince them :-)
I will put a bit about it in next month's mail shot. My readers mostly come from ads or mailing last swaps so they tend to be international. It might help. They like comedy. :-)
thanks MT, I confess it rather bemuses me just why I don't somehow connect with Americans
Jim wrote: "thanks MT, I confess it rather bemuses me just why I don't somehow connect with Americans"
Erm, maybe it's to do with subtlety. I sort of get the impression that they prefer 'full on'.
Also, I've noticed for a while on Kindle that US readers' reviews are published on the UK site, but not the other way around.
yes it's been a source of irritation that the US reviews go everywhere automatically but not the othersPerhaps I ought to get a T shirt, 'Too subtle for America' ?
What was that song? And was it Madness?!
Jim wrote: "thanks MT, I confess it rather bemuses me just why I don't somehow connect with Americans"
My stuff doesn't either, really. I know, for a fact, that if I could reach UK readers as easily as US ones the rate of uptake on my books is double. It's getting slightly better now as I'm beginning to get Australasian readers and also folks in RSA who like it. But the US is the only truly accessible market, for ads etc, and yet of all the English speaking nations, it's the most lukewarm.
Cheers
MTM
Despite my resolve not to increase my Kindle TBR I've just bought Flotsam or Jetsam. Is that the first one Jim?
Pam wrote: "Despite my resolve not to increase my Kindle TBR I've just bought Flotsam or Jetsam. Is that the first one Jim?"yes, it's the first one set in Port Naain.
Because it has him arriving it is the first, but the rest are written so they can be read in any order (think the Sherlock Holmes stories)
However they were written and published in an order.
Also 'The Cartographer's Apprentice: Leave Them Wanting More is set before the Port Naain stuff, but you don't need to read it to understand what's going on in Port Naain.
Although I'd hope you liked Benor so much you bought it anyway :-)
I think we need a marketing campaign that goes under the heading of 'Books for Anglophiles'.The song I was trying to remember was 'Too sexy for my shirt,' by the way - struck a chord with ' "Too subtle" on my T-shirt'.
Perhaps 'books for those who can cope with the letter 'u'' ;-)As an aside Sometimes I sits and thinks actually got up to 5897 in Kindle Store
Best I've ever done :-)
Elizabeth wrote: "I think we need a marketing campaign that goes under the heading of 'Books for Anglophiles'.The song I was trying to remember was 'Too sexy for my shirt,' by the way - struck a chord with ' "Too ..."
There might be something in that Elizabeth. I used to use British Humour as a keyword and it worked rather well. When search optimisation actually did something on Amazon I used to get a fair few downloads each day and they were all on Amazon uk. Now it's very hard to get traction on the home site. All my leads are dot com.
Cheers
MTM
M.T. wrote: "I used to use British Humour as a keyword and it worked rather well."I've just added British Humour to the keywords on my funny books. So I should be a millionaire by this time next week.
David wrote: "M.T. wrote: "I used to use British Humour as a keyword and it worked rather well."I've just added British Humour to the keywords on my funny books. So I should be a millionaire by this time next ..."
It doesn't work anymore! ;-)
M.T. wrote: "David wrote: "M.T. wrote: "I've just added British Humour to the keywords on my funny books. So I should be a millionaire by this time next ..."It doesn't work anymore! ;-) "
I'll still give it a go - see what doesn't happen.
Keyword search seems a very odd way to look for books to me anyway. I can't imagine many people do it that way - or do they?
My problem is that because I rarely search Amazon as such.I will look for an author or type in a book title and take it from there.
Sometimes I'll put in a word or two less than the full title to see what else comes up
But I never search by key words or whatever so I'm totally at a loss :-(
Oh and I was pondering paperbacks and decided to use book:Sometimes I sits and thinks|34367576] as a dry run, iron out problems but not actually make it into a paper back
Found my first problem. Have to have a pdf of the picture for the front cover and as usual I haven't the software to do this :-(
What kind of file do you have? Email me it and I can convert it for you (probably)
Jim wrote: "My problem is that because I rarely search Amazon as such.I will look for an author or type in a book title and take it from there.
Sometimes I'll put in a word or two less than the full title to..."
That's more or less what I do. Usually I know what I'm looking for before I get to Amazon.
I would never use keywords. I buy all my books on recommendation from friends or because I get to know the author or because I see them in a bookshop and think 'ooo that looks interesting'. Most books I buy, I'm looking for. I would seldom use keywords for anything because they're always shite and the results returned are never what I'm looking for. Which just goes to show. But some people do and if you get one of them recommending it to their friends you might be laughing.
Mind you, I always assume that the folks who use keywords to search for books are looking for the kind of shite I don't write anyway. Phnark.
Rosemary (grooving with the Picts) wrote: "What kind of file do you have? Email me it and I can convert it for you (probably)"hopefully I've achieved this and not sent it to some other bemused Rosemary :-)
Yes got it - should be winging its way back as we speak
Is it now smelling of gin?
Thoroughly soused.
Yep - I can smell it off that post!
Rosemary (grooving with the Picts) wrote: "Yes got it - should be winging its way back as we speak"It made it and worked.
Problem is that apparently I've got the scaling all wrong, so Amazon produced a template for me to download. It claims to be a doc. document but opens as gibberish
M.T. wrote: "But some people do and if you get one of them recommending it to their friends you might be laughing.Mind you, I always assume that the folks who use keywords to search for books are looking for the kind of shite I don't write anyway."
I suppose if you are new to a genre or something like that, it is a good way of finding similar things.
I don't think I fit neatly into any category anyway. So it is all a bit arbitrary - maybe if they had a Oddball category.
Jim wrote: "Rosemary (grooving with the Picts) wrote: "Yes got it - should be winging its way back as we speak"It made it and worked.
Problem is that apparently I've got the scaling all wrong, so Amazon prod..."
Can't help with the gibberish, but my experience of Createspace and covers is that even with a professional cover designer - who swears they use the right scaling - is that they will tell you that you need at least a nip and tuck.
I did wonder if this could be related to their offering their own cover design service...
Elizabeth wrote: "Jim wrote: "Rosemary (grooving with the Picts) wrote: "Yes got it - should be winging its way back as we speak"It made it and worked.
Problem is that apparently I've got the scaling all wrong, so..."
I use lightning source/Ingram. They have a longer reach than createspace and they do cover templates so you just put in how many pages you have and it makes a template which you then send to the designer, who does it for you.
this was something of an experiment, just to see how the system worked.I wasn't intending to actually spend anything on this project as there wouldn't be a real outcome. I cannot imagine the paperback version of this being viable
I put it in the Lightning source cost calculator and it's too thin to be legit
Jim wrote: "I put it in the Lightning source cost calculator and it's too thin to be legit"May I just say "O cows snot"?
I suspect I'll have to do another and at that level it would probably be legit, I suspect you need at least 50k words
Waffling on for 50k shouldn't be a problem for you. :)
Just waffle on about lesbians in fast cars for a bit.
https://countrysquire.co.uk/2017/03/0...well hopefully it'll get a few more people interested in Sometimes I sits and thinks
Aiming for the Gucci wellie brigade?
Anybody with a spare £ and the urge to read on a kindle or other electronic contrivance :-)
Jim wrote: "Anybody with a spare £ and the urge to read on a kindle or other electronic contrivance :-)"As you don't, don't you feel awkward asking others?
Patti (baconater) wrote: "Jim wrote: "Anybody with a spare £ and the urge to read on a kindle or other electronic contrivance :-)"As you don't, don't you feel awkward asking others?"
I have no shame
Hard work and poverty has shielded me from many of life's temptations :-)
We'll get you to come to the dark side one day.
the problem with kindle is that the books I read can be more expensive on kindle! Look at a lot of academic history stuff and they can be cheaper Taake https://www.amazon.co.uk/Seleukid-Emp...
The Kindle is £11.39 and I picked the book up for £9.99 in a sale
That's only £1.40 - so the books on Kindle that are totally free would make up for that difference in no time!! ;-)
Flo has got you there, Jim.I should send you one of my old kindles this summer.
I could even pre-load it with a bunch of Dave's books.
You and he have very much the same taste in books.
yes but the books that are free aren't necessary the ones I want. Whilst the ones I do want can be £10 more on kindle than picked up in a sale in hardback. Academic publishing is a real beggar :-( Not only that but kindle doesn't seem to work well with footnotes, maps and diagrams
At the moment I'm working on a project and I've go a dozen or more hardback books sort of within arms reach, plus I'm constantly pulling stuff off the net to take passages from them.
http://www.attalus.org/index.html is a brilliant site
pick a century, at the moment I'm doing third century BC and you can click on a year and see what's available for each year
I've got a couple of CDs of pdfs that I really want to have time to read, I know the early kindles didn't do pdfs well.
But the biggest problem I have with reading electronically is that up until now I've never been able to relax. Because I spend so much of my time working on electronic documents, it's just work :-(
What I'm really looking for is something which I can physically plug into my computer to transfer files (or transfer files across with a memory stick) and which doesn't talk to Amazon, (because if I've got to go into the same room as the router to get wifi why bother with wifi? Not only that but our wifi is based on our broadband which is not just slow but if I'm using it, it'll slow it down for my lady wife working on the computer.) Also I want something that displays pdfs nicely.
I keep telling myself that I'll get something for novels or suchlike but my pile of charity shop paperbacks sits beckoning
I really need more time to read but then I'd stop writing :-(
UK Amazon Kindle Forum
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Nice going Jim.