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A question for kindle publishers

by Sandra Martinez
29 replies
Hi guys,
Only now I am about to get into kindle, I wanted to ask those who are already there. Do you expand the market of your ebooks translating to other languages? Does anybody know what niches work well or not? I saw that there are many possible languages besides English accepted.

I can translate all my material to Spanish, and with some effort to Portuguese, but I don´t know if it is worth it.

Another little question, can someone recommend me a good book or ebook for advanced kindle formatting? I´m looking for one with css and the whole enchilada.


Thanks for any help,
Sandra
#kindle #publishers #question
  • Profile picture of the author tpw
    The Kindle DX and Kindle Fire have full support for HTML 5 and CSS 3.

    I am unsure about CSS with older versions.

    As far as translations, it would depend on the subject of your book. Many topics will cross language barriers such as cooking, relationships and health.
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    Bill Platt, Oklahoma USA, PlattPublishing.com
    Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
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    • Profile picture of the author Sandra Martinez
      Originally Posted by tpw View Post

      The Kindle DX and Kindle Fire have full support for HTML 5 and CSS 3.

      I am unsure about CSS with older versions.

      As far as translations, it would depend on the subject of your book. Many topics will cross language barriers such as cooking, relationships and health.
      Thanks!!

      I think I am going to translate after all.

      The old versions also accept some css for what I saw, just bought this one:

      Amazon.com: How to Format Perfect Kindle Books:...Amazon.com: How to Format Perfect Kindle Books:...

      lets see how it goes

      Sandra
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  • Profile picture of the author tpw
    Over the years, my articles have been translated into several languages:

    Russian
    French
    Arabic
    Chinese
    German
    Spanish
    British English :p

    Of course, in those days, I was primarily doing article marketing, but the interest in other languages has stuck with me.
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    Bill Platt, Oklahoma USA, PlattPublishing.com
    Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
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    • Profile picture of the author Sandra Martinez
      Originally Posted by tpw View Post

      British English :p
      LOL that´s funny!

      I do translations as a service since long ago, actually it was the first service I offered, even before web design and writing.

      For Clickbank it seems to work, but I haven´t seen so many translated versions in kindle yet. Maybe I missed it.
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  • Profile picture of the author rooze
    Remember that you can still sell into Spain/Germany/Italy/France/(UK) without the books being translated. I've sold a few of my (English) books into those countries and in the niches I publish into it wouldn't seem worth the effort to actually translate the books, but YMMV.

    Cheers
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    • Profile picture of the author tpw
      Originally Posted by rooze View Post

      Remember that you can still sell into Spain/Germany/Italy/France/(UK) without the books being translated. I've sold a few of my (English) books into those countries and in the niches I publish into it wouldn't seem worth the effort to actually translate the books, but YMMV.

      Cheers

      LOL

      I wouldn't expect Dutch-language books to sell very well in the United States either...

      Just Saying... :p
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      Bill Platt, Oklahoma USA, PlattPublishing.com
      Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
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      • Profile picture of the author rooze
        Originally Posted by tpw View Post

        LOL

        I wouldn't expect Dutch-language books to sell very well in the United States either...

        Just Saying... :p
        No, but the point is some of my niches don't sell well in the USA (they're very specific technical guides) so they're hardly likely to do better if translated into German and offered in Germany.

        Jessups, I have a hard enough time with English and now you want me to learn Eurospeak :p
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        • Profile picture of the author tpw
          Originally Posted by rooze View Post

          No, but the point is some of my niches don't sell well in the USA (they're very specific technical guides) so they're hardly likely to do better if translated into German and offered in Germany.

          Jessups, I have a hard enough time with English and now you want me to learn Eurospeak :p

          Ah yes, that makes sense.

          I certainly would not expect a book about Okie slang to sell well in France either. :p

          Heck, I reckon most Okie's would not even buy it, because they would need to find someone to read it for them... LOL
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          Bill Platt, Oklahoma USA, PlattPublishing.com
          Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
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          • Profile picture of the author rooze
            Originally Posted by tpw View Post


            Heck, I reckon most Okie's would not even buy it, because they would need to find someone to read it for them... LOL
            Exactly! and how would you explain something like 'Darn tootin' to a French linguist to begin with ??
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            • Profile picture of the author tpw
              Originally Posted by rooze View Post

              Exactly! and how would you explain something like 'Darn tootin' to a French linguist to begin with ??

              Or why they don't sell French Fries in France...



              p.s. As you might reckon... I am out of Thanks buttons for the day. Sorry.
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              Bill Platt, Oklahoma USA, PlattPublishing.com
              Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
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    • Profile picture of the author Sandra Martinez
      Originally Posted by rooze View Post

      Remember that you can still sell into Spain/Germany/Italy/France/(UK) without the books being translated. I've sold a few of my (English) books into those countries and in the niches I publish into it wouldn't seem worth the effort to actually translate the books, but YMMV.

      Cheers
      Thanks!!

      well, one thing at a time... first lets see if I can manage to format in kindle like I want to.. then will move forward or not.
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  • Profile picture of the author ocflyfish
    Originally Posted by Sandra Martinez View Post

    Hi guys,
    Only now I am about to get into kindle, I wanted to ask those who are already there. Do you expand the market of your ebooks translating to other languages? Does anybody know what niches work well or not? I saw that there are many possible languages besides English accepted.

    I can translate all my material to Spanish, and with some effort to Portuguese, but I don´t know if it is worth it.

    Another little question, can someone recommend me a good book or ebook for advanced kindle formatting? I´m looking for one with css and the whole enchilada.


    Thanks for any help,
    Sandra
    Hi Sandra,

    Not to throw water on the fire but I probably wouldn't waste my time translating. 99% of all of my sales happen in the US store. Very few if any book sales for me occur in the other stores.

    Now you may think "that's because it's in English" and you would be correct in part. However, I have half a dozen apps in the iTunes store and converted one of them over to German, French, and Spanish. I spent a LOT of money on the translation and hardly got any sales in the other languages.

    If you are doing the translation yourself, AND you are exceptionaly fluent in the language, then give it a try. At most you will only be wasting your time and not any money. But keep in mind, people will give you bad reviews (1 and 2 stars) if your translation is not up to par.

    As far as formatting, you might want to check out the video training series in my signature. It walks you through the entire process to convert from Word to MOBI.

    Thanks,
    Bryan
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  • Profile picture of the author ProScribe
    I would tend to assume that what OCflyfish saying is true because as is the case with most Kindle publishers my UK sales are significantly lower than in the US (Smaller market though)

    If it was me though I would be tempted to try, one of the things I really like about Kindle is that it is easy to put new ideas out there to see if it flys, sometimes what works can be surprising . I'm not sure how long translating will take you but if you have the time why not give it a go, you may have an untapped market and you won't know unless you try
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