The other day I was looking at the countries that have gotten my ebooks and I was amazed at some of them.
For those who don’t recognize some of those flags here’s the list, by their two letter country codes.
- AR – Argentina
- AU – Australia
- BO – Bolivia
- CA – Canada
- CH – Switzerland
- DE – Germany
- ES – Spain
- GB – Great Britain (England)
- GR – Greece
- IE – Ireland
- IN – India
- NZ – New Zealand
- PO – Poland
- US – United States
Some of those really surprised me. Bolivia? Germany? Greece? Wow! The majority of these downloads are thanks to Smashwords, the company that distributes my ebooks. When they say they want to help independent authors get their ebooks to readers worldwide they aren’t kidding. And don’t forget, you can get all of my ebooks free from Smashwords until 31 July.
If you wonder why that map looks kind of funny it’s because it’s not the world map you’re used to seeing. Most people use the Mercator Projection maps but it turns out those maps give an inaccurate view of the world. I’m using the Gall-Peters Projection map, which not only shows countries in their proper sizes compared with other countries it’s also said to put them in their proper places. I first heard about this on Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing and I have to say it blew my mind.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8zBC2dvERM
For a non-video explanation of why the Gall-Peters map is better I’ll refer you to ODT Maps’ Explanation & Guide of the Peters World Map. After seeing how inaccurate the Mercator Projection maps are it’s amazing anyone still uses it.