I run this blog as an author who writes and sells books, but I have never written or tried to sell any non-English books. How would I go about it? Not the writing, I have learned seven languages to a high standard, although I am now rusty. However, I wouldn’t have a clue about selling them even if I did.
However, surely, foreign authors try to sell their books in much the same way as I do? By which I mean through the use of Social Media, blogs, websites and the like. However, my network of promo sites works exclusively in English.
Are there parallel networks of non-English books where they sell their foreign-language books in a like manner? I suppose there have to be, but how would I access them?
Networks for Non-English Books
The reason for my interest is that several of my books are now being translated into other languages, some of which I used to/still speak and others which I have never learned.
However, I am now going to have to address the problem of how to sell non-English books, and to be honest with you, I am looking forward to it! I am even hoping that promoting my translated books in French, German and Dutch will re-awaken my ability to converse in those languages…
My style is forty years out of date, but I can learn… I hope 🙂 Posting on blogs in those languages will be… unusual, at least to begin with… However, I have no idea yet how I am going to deal with promoting my non-English books in the Scandinavian languages, Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi and Japanese!
One step at a time, eh?
And to think… when I finished my first book six years ago, I thought that that was the end of the line!
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Owen Jones, Amazon Best-Selling Author from Barry, Wales, has lived in several countries and travelled in many more. While studying Russian in the USSR in the '70's, he hobnobbed with spies on a regular basis; in Suriname, he got caught up in the 1982 coup; and while a company director, he joined the crew of four as the galley slave to sail from Barry to Gibraltar a home-made concrete yacht, which was almost rammed by a Russian oil tanker and an American aircraft carrier.
“I am a Celt, and we are romantic”, he said when asked about his writing style, “and I firmly believe in reincarnation, Karma and Fate, so, sayings like 'Do unto another...', and 'What goes round comes around' are central to my life and reflected in my work. I write about what I see, or think I see, or dream... and, in the end it is all the same really”. He speaks seven languages and is learning Thai, since he lives in Thailand with his Thai wife of fifteen years.
His first novel, Daddy's Hobby is from the seven-part series 'Behind The Smile: The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya', but his largest collection is 'The Megan Series', twenty-three novelettes on the psychic development of a teenage girl, the subtitle of which, 'A Spirit Guide, A Ghost Tiger and One Scary Mother!' sums them up nicely. He has written fifty novels and novelettes, including: Dead Centre; Andropov's Cuckoo; Fate Twister; The Disallowed (a philosophical comedy); Tiger Lily of Bangkok; and A Night in Annwn (Annwn being the ancient Welsh word for Heaven). Many have been translated into foreign languages and narrated into audio books.
Owen Jones writes stories set in Wales, Spain and Thailand, where he now lives. He is a life-long Spiritualist, and this belief is interwoven, in a very realistic way, into many of his books and storylines. If you like a touch of the 'supernatural', try his books
He sums his life up thus: “Born in the Land of Song, Living in the Land of Smiles”.