Just wanted to write a few notes about sales in the UK for Kindle books.  First of all, I’m not sure why the UK has as separate Kindle store, since the rest of the world uses the American one.  The UK site has separate reviews, prices, and bestselling rankings.  As well, authors can only ever receive 35% royalties on sales from the UK, regardless of the price.

Sales of Kindle books in the UK are clearly a lot slower than in the US site.  I’ve sold 2 books (and I feel quite lucky about that) in the UK, and I’m still around #8000 in rank.  Each time that I sold  a single copy, I jumped up below the #1000 mark.   It makes anyone feel like a fleeting big-shot.

This makes me wonder if sales for Kindle books in other countries, like Canada (where I’m living) and Australia, are equally slow.  The Kindle really seems to be an especially American phenomenon right now, they have a huge head-start on the e-reader market in the US, but not so much in the rest of the world.  I’ve never seen a Kindle in Canada, but I’ve seen many, many iPads, of course.

However, I did pay for a one-day sponsorship with the UK Kindle Nation Daily on the 27th of September.  Unlike people who say the American sponsorship has paid for itself with this, it’s virtually impossible for the UK sponsorship to do the same.  It cost $40 for a one day advertisement, and if my book is selling for the equivalent of $2.99 in pounds, then I’d have to sell around 40 copies, which apparently would make me the number one best seller in the UK, considering the slow sales.

So, why did I do it then?  Well, I do believe it’s a growth market there, and really, $40 is pretty cheap.  I’ve spent that much mailing out manuscripts to publishers in the past just to get back a rejection letter three months later.