Why can't I crack Amazon.com?

[Paul]

When I first began selling my ebooks on Amazon I used to make about 80% of my sales on Amazon.com and the remainder on Amazon.co.uk. This seemed about right given the proportional difference in populations between the UK and US.

For the last two months however, things have completely swapped around. My Amazon.co.uk sales have boomed, increasing greatly (for which I am seriously pleased!) but my Amazon.com sales have plummeted to almost nothing. I've never targeted my marketing work at either market, and I can't say I've changed my approach at all.

I'm mostly wondering if it's something I've done, or is the US Market down at the moment?

[Michael]

Haven't Amazon recently changed the rankings and search function works?

Possibly this has meant that your books aren't showing up as much in various searches.

I think the only way you will find an answer to this, is by finding out how people were buying your books in the first place - which you may never be able to do.

[Jenn]

I've been experiencing the same thing you have. I think the US market is just glutted with more free books and more competition for attention. As Michael said, the formulas for how books are promoted too seem to have changed in the US.

Also, in my case, my genre is humorous science fiction, and that seems to be embraced a bit more easily by the UK market.

[Andrew]

My short stories have never done a great deal on the .com side, but it's not a market I've particularly looked at. I don't know to what extent my 'quirky' voice works on the other side of the Pond.

It could just be that you've exploited the immediate audience for your book in the US market, and now you need to hope they spread word about your book?

[Rosen]

I usually find that a KDP Select promo, concentrating on submitting news of the promo to eReaderNewsToday etc, can give US sales a boost.

[Paul]

Rosen wrote: "I usually find that a KDP Select promo, concentrating on submitting news of the promo to eReaderNewsToday etc, can give US sales a boost."
That's the kind of thing I've been doing, but seems to only boost UK sales now.