There was a post in the “Writer’s Cafe” forum from a UK member about the possibility of losing a book sale if you just provide a US link to your Amazon book page.
Penrefe wote:
So, I see most of you have links to buy your book(s) in your signature. Some (read: MANY) of the book covers I’ve seen have compelled me enough to check them out on Amazon. However, being based in the UK, if I click on any of your Amazon.com links, I cannot buy your book from that page. I instead get the “Pricing Information Not Availble” message, and an option to shop on the .co.uk website instead.
Worse still, because Amazon are a little bit magoo about the whole thing, you can’t just click a button and be taken to the .co.uk equivalent. If I want your book, I have to open up a new window, type in your title/name, and search for it manually. Now I’m not saying people are too lazy to do this, I just wanted to make sure people are aware that buying your book for some impulse buyers – myself included – might not be as easy as you think!
If you want people internationally to buy your book(s) easily, you should provide links to all the individual countries that provide Kindle services (UK, FR, DE, ES, IT), so that includes signatures, links on your website(s) and blog(s), etc. I appreciate you’re limited to space, especially in signatures, but it’s something to bear in mind.
Just wanted to let anyone who doesn’t know this…know this.
This is something that I honestly had not though about. It was a great reminder that we live in a global world. Even though out book might as American as Apple Pie, your readers can come from all over the world, so we need to be accommodating for potential readers residing outside of the U.S.
It’s not just a point of being accommodating, but it preventing losing a book sale and possibly a reader that will buy more of your books.
If you’re checking off the international boxes when pricing your book, then don’t forget about your potential international readers! Amazon.com, is the site we’ll see in the America’s (USA, Canada, Mexico, etc), but for someone in Manchester, England, there going to have to go through extra hoops to buy your book if they click on your .com Amazon book page vs. the .co.uk Amazon book page.
All you need to do is add links for each country outside the U.S. that Amazon has specific regional websites for: United Kingdom (Amazon.co.uk), Germany (Amazon.de), France (Amazon.fr), Spain (Amazon.es), and Italy (Amazon.it).
The .com site will process orders in US Dollars, the co.uk in British Sterling Pounds, and .de, .fr, .es, .it, in Euros.
An easy solution to make sure you’re making easy for anyone from anywhere to buy your book!
My name is Alan Petersen I write mysteries and thrillers. You can check out my Amazon page