Kindle Forum banner

How to do a promo for FREE book in German?

679 Views 12 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  CoraBuhlert
The German  version of m winter romance, Fresh Powder, is going free for three days starting tomorrow. But I don't know where to mention it, as the normal sites wouldn't work for a free book in German.

So are there any German sites for free books?
1 - 13 of 13 Posts
Yes, there's a really good site that lists English and German books on the German site.
Get in contact with Susanne Weigand.
This is her email: [email protected]

This is the site: http://www.xtme.de/
lorelei said:
Yes, there's a really good site that lists English and German books on the German site.
Get in contact with Susanne Weigand.
This is her email: [email protected]

This is the site: http://www.xtme.de/
Many thanks!
You could use German language forums (similar to this one) like:
www.e-reader-forum.de
ebookgemein.de

These have sections for free books.
Thank you so much! The book is now up and running and also on this site:
http://www.xtme.de/
Check Amazon.ca! In an hour or two, a download should show up. :)
lorelei said:
Check Amazon.ca! In an hour or two, a download should show up. :)
Oh, great, Lorelei, hope you enjoy it. And they were so nice on the site and not only promoted my book but took the trouble to write a little bio about me too.
Fantastic! Day 2 of promo and Frischer Schnee is #2 overall in the free charts in Germany #1 in romance and one really good review. Nearly 4000 downlaods which is very good for Germany.

http://www.amazon.de/gp/bestsellers/digital-text/ref=pd_dp_ts_kinc_1

Can't thank you enough, Lorelei!
Is there a preferred dialect for publishing in German? I've heard there are many, many dialects in Germany.
Janet Michelson said:
Is there a preferred dialect for publishing in German? I've heard there are many, many dialects in Germany.
High German (also called written German). That's used in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. You can then decide if you want the new or old spelling but it would be advisable to go with the new spelling as that's the one kids learn at school these days. Some publishers use a weird mix of both but that usually something only translators and editors have to deal with.

Dialects are regional things and should only be used in dialogues and even that can be tricky (aka consult a local and diaclects can differ from town to town). Or in very specialised local writings (there's for exmaple poetry in Swabian which even most Germans outside of Swabia would have trouble understanding or something like fun editions of 'Asteri & Obelix'). It's always better to just stick to written German and maybe mention that character X speaks with this and that diaclect.
Thanks, Lyonesse. That was a great explanation. My books are for children so I would need to go with the new spelling. Much appreciated.
Mine is in high German. Seems to go down well. I just got an excellent review. 3*, which is great because the Germans are very sparing with praise. The review itself is detailed and excellent with the reader saying she wants to read all my work.

Happy dance!  ;D
As Lyonesse said, pretty much everything written is in high German with some lexical variations between Austria, Switzerland and different parts of Germany. Some regional niche literature is written in dialect, e.g. there is a niche for fiction (and sometimes non-fiction) written in Lower German (which is actually a separate language rather than a dialect) in North Germany. But since you want to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, high German is the way to go, since that's the "standard" everybody learns in school.

Another exception is that for books set in Germany (or Austria or Switzerland), it's okay to sparingly use the respective regional dialect in dialogues and scenes from the POV of a German character. However, that won't apply to 99 percent of translated fiction.

The whole "new versus old spelling" debate is annoying, but it's not that big a deal and the old spelling continues to be used and acceptable. For a children's book, I'd go with new spelling, simply because that's what they learn at school.
See less See more
1 - 13 of 13 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top