MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - eBooks from Waterstones.com longer selling eBooks outside of the UK and Eire

abookreader · 10-25-2010, 08:45 AM

I was thinking about this issue last night after reading the Publisher complaints on TheBookseller.com that Amazon geographic restrictions are easily circumvented.

1. Exactly how much time, effort and money do Publishers feel retailers should have to burden themselves with in order to protect an antiquated business model that does not fit into modern internet driven commerce?

Refusing a sale because somebody lives in Argentina rather than Canada these days makes about as much sense as saying "No you can't buy this because your last name starts with the letter K. We only sell to A - G."

Is it any wonder that customers are giving this whole thing a big WTF?

2. Is there any other product out there where the Producer sits around complaining that a retailer is selling it? I mean, other than things like alcohol/wine or porn were there are understandable legal reasons not to sell to under-aged buyers?

Its not like people from Australia should be prevented from buying a book because they aren't mature enough to handle the responsibility.

3. And finally, will we ever reach the point where some of the major retailers just say - "Hey you know what? This is not working for us. Figure out your contracts so that we can sell to anybody with a credit card who clicks buy, or just go list your books somewhere else. We have 700,000 other books to sell if you don't want to sell yours."

10-25-2010, 08:45 AM	#7
abookreader Wizard Posts: 1,516 Karma: 2567610 Join Date: Oct 2009 Device: Kindles - Keyboard, Fire, 2-US, iPhone, iPAD	I was thinking about this issue last night after reading the Publisher complaints on TheBookseller.com that Amazon geographic restrictions are easily circumvented. 1. Exactly how much time, effort and money do Publishers feel retailers should have to burden themselves with in order to protect an antiquated business model that does not fit into modern internet driven commerce? Refusing a sale because somebody lives in Argentina rather than Canada these days makes about as much sense as saying "No you can't buy this because your last name starts with the letter K. We only sell to A - G." Is it any wonder that customers are giving this whole thing a big WTF? 2. Is there any other product out there where the Producer sits around complaining that a retailer is selling it? I mean, other than things like alcohol/wine or porn were there are understandable legal reasons not to sell to under-aged buyers? Its not like people from Australia should be prevented from buying a book because they aren't mature enough to handle the responsibility. 3. And finally, will we ever reach the point where some of the major retailers just say - "Hey you know what? This is not working for us. Figure out your contracts so that we can sell to anybody with a credit card who clicks buy, or just go list your books somewhere else. We have 700,000 other books to sell if you don't want to sell yours."