[robwhite247]

I'm having a good day in the UK. It is just after midnight here and I'm about to turn in, but I need to get this clear in my head and then check in with you guys tomorrow.

OK, the reason for my good day, is that after my free weekend promo, I got 1044 free downloads in the UK some 700 more than when I tried this little ploy two weeks ago.

In the US I got 61, yes 61! That was 140 less than the last freebie, and I promoted the book like crazy on US sites.

Now for the interesting part. I'd sold 17 copies of THE FIX in the 7 days prior to the free promotion in the UK. As of the time of writing this, I've topped 230 paid downloads in just over 8 hours and my second novel DIRTY has sold 34 on the back of it.

In the US I've sold 1 copy of THE FIX (and that was pre-promotion) and zero for DIRTY, not a sausage, bugger all!

On the .co.uk site, THE FIX has six reviews averaging 4.8. and six 'likes.' DIRTY has three 5 stars.

On the .com site, THE FIX has one 'like'

Is Amazon missing something here? Surely the idea is to promote our books to all? Are they so blinkered that they don't believe that sharing those reviews across the sites won't be good business for all?

I am positive that I, and therefore in turn Amazon, would have benefited from the sharing of this information and seen increased sales in the US.

Still, I am a Brit and the hot chocolate has kicked in, so goodnight. I hope to see your opinions in the morning.

Robert

 

[Mathew Reuther]

I honestly don't know why English language reviews are not just lumped together. It doesn't make sense to keep them separate.

 

[Jackal Lantern Books]

Never understood their logic surrounding this either. Doesn't make sense really. And when they price match they don't price match across the board either... it's a real pain 

 

[Cherise]

I signed up with uk author central, and my .com reviews port over to the uk site. Not in the review section, though. In a special section at the bottom of the book page, just for .com reviews to port over.

 

[MT Berlyn]

One of the best reviews I could ever imagine to receive was from the UK by someone named Skycat.  I dearly wish it were on the U.S. Amazon site as well.  I agree that integrating English language reviews would be a good idea for Amazon to implement.  At least on the UK, one can link to U.S. reviews.  Why it doesn't work the other way around is anybody's guess.

 

[A.A]

I love the UK'ers and their reviews!
It would be great to bring those reviews over to the .com

 

[OliviaF]

I signed up with uk author central, and my .com reviews port over to the uk site. Not in the review section, though. In a special section at the bottom of the book page, just for .com reviews to port over.

I was just going to make this same point. All of my reviews from .com show up at all of the other stores (Except for Brazil for some reason). They show up in a different spot under the reviews for that country in a section called "Most Helpful Reviews on Amazon.com (Beta)." That don't get counted in the ratings, though.

For me they also show up in countries that I haven't signed up for an Author Central account.

 

[Carradee]

I honestly don't know why English language reviews are not just lumped together. It doesn't make sense to keep them separate.

Makes sense to me. Different countries have different cultural preferences, as displayed by different publishers' covers for the selfsame book.

 

[Mathew Reuther]

Makes sense to me. Different countries have different cultural preferences, as displayed by different publishers' covers for the selfsame book.

They're reading the same book. If US/UK bothers you, what about US/Ca?

My wife is Canadian. Her siblings are. (My kids are trip citizens by birth, actually.)

They're not all foreign and weird.

And neither are my friends in the UK and elsewhere in Europe who read in English.

The reason there are different covers is more due to the fact that they often don't have rights to the covers outside of a region than any deep cultural preference. Also, because tradpub can do wasteful bullshit like that.

The actual REASON is likely technical, having to do with logins and cross comments and data transfer, and not some perception by Amazon that people who speak English are hyper nationalistic.

 

[Carradee]

It

They're reading the same book. If US/UK bothers you, what about US/Ca?

It isn't a matter of being bothered. It's a matter of things being different in different regions-even the U.S. can be a case in point. It's legal for cousins to marry in some states; illegal in others; and it's considered icky and morally wrong by a not insignificant portion of the population. It's a cultural difference that'll affect the reviews.

(There's one book series I read and enjoy, but it keeps throwing me when the author has all the characters freak out and consider it wrong for cousins to be romantically inclined-when it's set somewhere where it's actually entirely legal for cousins to marry, so you'd think at least somebody would be used to it.)

Sure, there are technical reasons the reviews don't all cross over, but various cultural beliefs, preferences, and taboos differ, so I don't find it unreasonable that the reviews are kept segregated. I wouldn't mind to see them united, mind you, but I also don't mind having them separated.

 

[Mathew Reuther]

It isn't a matter of being bothered. It's a matter of things being different in different regions-even the U.S. can be a case in point. It's legal for cousins to marry in some states; illegal in others; and it's considered icky and morally wrong by a not insignificant portion of the population. It's a cultural difference that'll affect the reviews.

By that standard we should segregate red states from blue ones for reviews.

(There's one book series I read and enjoy, but it keeps throwing me when the author has all the characters freak out and consider it wrong for cousins to be romantically inclined-when it's set somewhere where it's actually entirely legal for cousins to marry, so you'd think at least somebody would be used to it.)

Bad research? It happens.

Sure, there are technical reasons the reviews don't all cross over, but various cultural beliefs, preferences, and taboos differ, so I don't find it unreasonable that the reviews are kept segregated. I wouldn't mind to see them united, mind you, but I also don't mind having them separated.

Look at .co.uk . . . it serves most of English-speaking Europe. You want to talk about different cultures? A Norwegian and a Greek.

I don't buy that cultural differences make a difference. Or rather, I do, but don't believe for a second that it's a reason to segregate reviews, that's all.

 

[Natasha Holme]

I read somewhere that Amazon US and Amazon UK are separate business enitities. They have different rules, etc. I know, for example, that on the US site I can link to my own book in a review with impunity. If I try that on Amazon UK, I get my wrist slapped.

 

[OliviaF]

I don't buy that cultural differences make a difference. Or rather, I do, but don't believe for a second that it's a reason to segregate reviews, that's all.

I like that And I completely agree.

 

[robwhite247]

Look at .co.uk . . . it serves most of English-speaking Europe. You want to talk about different cultures? A Norwegian and a Greek.

My take exactly. The first review I received after publishing was this one by KB.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Antiheroes are alive and well 14 Jan 2013
By KB

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

"The Fix starts like any good book by building up characters and mapping the scenarios past and present. Then the story takes off at 120 miles an hour like James Rollins books with sub plots, flashbacks and serious physical damage administered to both good and bad guys.

My laptop was on fire as I turned the pages furiously whilst enjoying the story telling to the max. And what was most pleasant was the really satisfactory ending which not a many writer can do.

I devoured this book over the weekend and just loved it. I sincerely hope there is a sequel as I would like to read more of the team's extraordinary missions."

I thought the language was a little stilted, but hey, it was a 5 star review so I wasn't complaining. A few days later KB turned up on my blog and I discovered that she was a Fin living in London. English being her third language.
All I can say to KB is "kippish" (I have to spell that phonetically as I am an Anglophile and we are terrible at any language other than our own.)
It means "Cheers."
KB and the others have helped me reach #5 paid Action and Adventure in the UK. It is a shame that technical difficulties, or any other reason, prevents the crossover of reviews. I believe we as authors and Amazon as a business would be better off.

 

[P.C. (Peter) Anders]

I have had that problem too. And, being a U.S. author for whom the British happen to me my second best customers--and not only that, I get 70% royalty from every sale there of $2.99 or above--I would love for the reviews to be automatically posted on both sites.

If they fear that a UK reader might wrongly assume a U.S. review to be by a UK resident, such reviews could be marked: "From amazon.com".

 

[Atunah]

I would think this is mostly a logistical issue.
So I am in the US, I write a review for something while I am signed in to my US account. I can go in at any time and either edit or remove the review. I always have access to it. If they put that same review I wrote on any Amazon website that is in the english language, I would still need to have access to my reviews.
So they would have to merge all the countries to my account. They can't do that. There is a reason we have to specify a county in our account. Lots of issues with digital items. And the different ways companies are run in each country.
And not all items books or otherwise are available in all countries.

Plus, if I write a review in the US, I don't feel comfortable to have it show up on other sites. UK amazon would be a different site. I didn't write it there, nor do I have an account there.

Hey, its bad enough to have your reviews belittled in one country, I don't need to add more to that.  

 

[vrabinec]

Yeah, good point Atunah. I don't want Amazon's feed from every other country around the globe showing up in my searches, etc..

 

[Atunah]

And imagine a writer that gets a "bad" review and knows his book is only available in one country. Then they'll whine that the reviewer could not have read the book since they are in xyz country.

Or how about this. If reviewers are being told that the reviews they write will now be broadcast in all other english language Amazon sites where they might, or might not have access to their own review anymore, how many would not bother writing them anymore.

I can't buy books from amazon.uk or from amazon.de. So why should my reviews be there.
That is what goodreads is for. Its not a seller site, but a consumer driven site. It has worldwide reviews.

 

[James Maxwell]

I find that as a rule the UK'ers are generally more positive than the reviewers from the states.

My books are written in British English, and believe it or not, but many people from the states think that the variations in spelling are mistakes (realise vs. realize).

Amazon.co.uk: 4.7 stars average (29 reviews)

Amazon.com: 4.2 stars average (14 reviews)

It does make sense to regionalise the reviews, as much as I might like it to be otherwise.

 

[Guest]

I honestly don't know why English language reviews are not just lumped together. It doesn't make sense to keep them separate.

It makes perfect sense. English readers are not the same as American readers. The English market is a different animal than the American market. Just look at the Amazon.com bestseller list compared to the Amazon.uk bestseller list. There is barely any connection between the two lists.