Japanese Sales
Posted Sun, 06/16/13
I want to sell more books on Amazon Japan!
On or around the 15th of every month, Amazon sends authors their sales reports in spreadsheet format for the previous month, which includes the USA, UK, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan and Spain. Last night I perused the report for May 2013, and nearly fell off my chair.
I'm accustomed to seeing high sales in the USA and UK (especially for my fiction tiles and the culinary nugget known as Medieval Cuisine), but was unaware and unprepared for the yen to US dollar exchange rate.
I sold three books on Amazon Japan in May 2013. The titles include Japanese Culture & Cuisine (sold for $1.50 across the board), Medieval Cuisine ($1.25) and Polish Kuchina ($0.99). Under normal circumstances, my royalties for the three books would have totaled around $1.15. No big deal, right? However, when the sale and royalty amounts converted from the yen, a different story unfolded.
Instead of mere cents, the three Japanese sales resulted in a royalty of $120.00. I won't see the money for awhile, but the idea that three book sales came to such largesse just boggles my mind.
According to Wikipedia, the yen-to-US-dollar exchange rate is at 97.74% (as of April 2013). Wow! I'm not a wizard of finance by any means, but I certainly recognize the lopsided scale.
The sum of $120.00 is a mere drop in the bucket for some people, yet to me it represents getting by a little easier without daily doses of stress, hopelessness and desperation. Every time I take a step, I'm reminded of the botched hip job my former doctor performed and has since refused to take responsibility for. (By the way, the quack's name is Peter Larcom and I highly un-recommend him).
However, three book sales in Japan have put a genuine smile on my face.