Readers in Germany and Japan?

Laer Carroll · Jul 20, 2017

One way we have of getting more sales is to publish another book, according to several posters in this forum. I understand that. All my books have a sales spurt that lasts for two or three months after each new book, then returns to a slow trickle.

But what I don't understand is what has happened twice to me this year. In January and the two months after German sales picked up. Not huge, but several dozen over the time period. Last month and now this month I'm getting a couple dozen from Japan. And Australia just had a half dozen sales.

I can maybe understand Australia, since English is the national language. But Germany? Japan? Except to get my latest book ready to publish I've done absolutely nothing in the last year to increase my sales anywhere, much less there.

Any explanations?

thethinker42 · Jul 20, 2017

My guess is word of mouth. Someone found your book, read it, recommended it, etc.

There are a lot of English readers all over the world. In fact, after having titles translated into French, Italian, and German, I saw a pretty solid uptick in sales on my English titles that hadn't been translated yet. I've had a number of readers tell me they prefer to read in English even if it's not their first language, too.

So I couldn't tell you why your books specifically saw an uptick, only that there is definitely a demand for English ebooks in countries where English isn't the first language.

Dennis E. Taylor · Jul 20, 2017

I remember getting a spike in sales a couple of times when one or another of my books was mentioned in a review or blog or some such. Now I just assume that whenever I get an unexplained spike. Screw it, money is money.

Catherine · Jul 20, 2017

I would be curious to know how that happened too--if only to replicate the results.

Max Vaehling · Jul 21, 2017

I'm guessing word of mouth, too. Maybe if you google for mentions of you or your book in the period around that spike, something will come up.

I've got an ebook out that picks up roughly every two years around Spring. It's about German philosopher Theodor W. Adorno and his spotty attitude towards jazz music and my best explanation so far is that somebody somewhere offers a musicology class every other Summer semester and I'm on the reading list. Never checked it out, though. I guess I didn't want to jinx it.

J. Tanner · Jul 21, 2017

I'm guessing a random sale or two in Germany of a book in English might be enough to trigger an also-bought and that creates a small pile-on effect of a few more sales before it flows back out of the system over time.

Readers in Germany and Japan?

Laer Carroll

Aerospace engineer turned writer

thethinker42

Abnormal Romance Author

Dennis E. Taylor

Get it off! It burns!

Catherine

Max Vaehling

J. Tanner