How Global Are You?

global authorI don’t think there’s an avid reader in the world who would argue that eBooks haven’t changed the way we read. It’s nothing for someone in the U.S. to publish a novel, and through the wonder of the World Wide Web, a person in Australia finds it. Even ten years ago it was almost unimaginable to think we could sell books like that. When paper was king, that same reader in Australia would have to jump through hoops, pay an exorbitant amount (including import taxes), and patiently wait while their book was sent to them by the slowest route possible. Not today!

Where is your audience?

Two major eBook sites can help give you that answer. Smashwords.com has the best “metric” for seeing where your books are selling. Amazon is not quite as good due to their constrictive sales channels and their data reporting. Your market with them consists of: U.S., India, U.K., Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Japan, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and Australia. I’m sure they’re working to add more, but for now, this is all they offer.

Let’s take Smashwords for a spin. Because of their agreements with twelve global distributors (I don’t think they have the partnership with Amazon yet), you never know in what country your book will find a new home.

rowe1

On your sales page there’s loads of information. And knowing which distributor you’re selling the most books through is mighty handy. I noticed that I sell a lot to Apple and a fair amount to Barnes & Noble and Sony. But where are their customers?

If you scroll down, you’ll find the nuts and bolts of where your books were sold, and to whom (country) bought them. As you go through, some of the countries are easy to figure out: MX is Mexico; GB is Great Britain; etc. But there were some on my sales sheet that had me scratching my head. I went to Google and put in the codes. Some gave me a return, like BE is Belgium, and CA is Canada. What is CH? And what about “country__1”?

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I emailed Smashwords and asked if they had a standardized system for countries. I got a nice reply and she said they use this site:

http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/ctycodes.htm

She also mentioned that if you see “country__1” in your sales data, that’s the U.S.

So what country goes by CH? Switzerland! That means someone way across the pond bought my book. Now isn’t that cool? What about: AU__NS__? I figured that out to Australia, New South Wales. Or CA__ON__? Ontario, Canada.

All right, some of you may think this is senseless drivel. Isn’t it every author’s dream to have their books sold around the world? No, they may not be bestsellers, but your words are being read by people in Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Mexico, Australia, Finland, France, Belgium, and a host of other nations that just a few years ago would have been a closed market to us.

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I recently discovered a review on Amazon from someone in Germany who bought one of my romance novels from Amazon.de. She said it was her very first English novel on her Kindle and she enjoyed it immensely. That gave me nice warm fuzzies for the day. Four years ago when I started publishing, I never dreamed that I’d have a global reach to readers. Today it seems logical with the internet, that when we publish a book, we want the world to read it.

So, tell me, where is your audience?

Author: K. Rowe

K. Rowe is an experienced and prolific multi-genre author. She draws from over twenty years of active Air Force service. Kathy lives in eastern Kentucky with her husband and a zoo of farm animals. Among her many duties she finds time to offer services as a publishing consultant for new authors. Learn more about Kathy from Facebook, and her Amazon author page.

11 thoughts on “How Global Are You?”

  1. Kathy, thanks for the primer; I was surprised to see the number of my books sold in Canada, Australia and Great Britain. Who knew? Thanks for the great post.

  2. Nice post! It’s great when you see readers from across the globe. My Christmas book showed a nice pop in several countries, including some I had never sold in like Italy, Spain and Japan.

  3. That’s very cool, Kathy. Looks like all of my Smashwords affiliate sales have been in the US. But I hit nearly every country with KDP Select giveaways last year — even Japan.

    1. I can’t say for fact, but maybe Twitter would help you in international sales. Those handy # things can send you post all over the place! I found my post being read in Africa.

  4. I am delighted to know, mainly just from reading the reviews for Ripple, that my readers are from New Zealand, Australia, all over the USA, the UK, Switzerland, Germany, Bangkok, Canada, the Czech Republic (by the person translating it there)
    And since IU put me on to Readwave, I’ve built up a new readership from my stories there, that is mindblowingly more international than ever. There can hardly be country left in the world that does not have people who have read my work. And I live in a tiny isolated South Pacific country, What chance would I have had of this in the old days?

    BUT, I have to say that the majority of my readers are from the USA and this is the biggest deal of all to me from way down here in NZ, and only possible because of the new order. I sell both print and e-books to the USA. So let me take this opportunity to say thank-you to all the wonderful Americans who read my stuff. One of you, who lives in the New York area, is a sci-fi author and also the artist who designed my wonderful cover art free of charge. HE IS ARRIVING HERE IN NEW ZEALAND IN A WEEK or two. He is staying with me for three weeks! I can hardly believe it.
    On top of that, my ocean-set story is soon to begin life as a translated tradpub in a landlocked central European nation! What a weird and wonderful international journey for an SP book to take..

    1. Isn’t it cool to see that you can sell so many books to countries you’ve never been? Oh, I’m jealous for that NY sci-fi author– I’ve long wanted to visit NZ. But being a farmer in the middle of nowhere Kentucky means I don’t get out much. 🙁

  5. I have a book being published right now on Amazon and had heard about smashboards. I am very much interested in all you can teach me through your posts. A friend introduced me to your blog and I am very happy to now meet you

    1. Howdy! Welcome to the IU world. I’m sure if you type Smashwords into the search bar on the IU site, you’ll find a tutorial or two about SW. If not, contact one of the IU staff and we’ll do our best to help you out. The best info can be gleaned directly from the SW site. In order to get “premium” catalog, you must follow certain guidelines. There is a free downloadable book called the Smashwords Style Guide. Grab a copy and read up on it. The meatgrinder can be your best friend or (to most of us) your worst enemy! But having the knowledge going in will make your experience pubbing with them better. Happy publishing!

  6. Great timing – I’d just started recording my Smashwords sales into a database and wasn’t sure what country_1 represented. 🙂

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