Live in China .. where can I buy books?

waxwing · 10-06-2010, 12:36 AM

Hi,
I just this week bought the Hanvon N618 here in Shenzhen after trials and tribulations looking for ereaders in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, and finding Hong Kong to be a more or less complete waste of time (its reputation as a hub for electronics is more or less irrelevant nowadays...).

I have already found that I like the product and am able to use it (for both free books and rss feeds for news), but now I'm starting the daunting task of trying to find out where I can buy books.
So far these appear to be clearly out: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders, WH Smith.
The only place I have successfully used my credit card (HSBC Visa card from my bank in Hong Kong, the billing address for the card is in Shenzhen, China) was Waterstones. I stripped the DRM from the epub, not through ill intent but because Adobe Digital Editions can't recognize the Hanvon.

Today I've been looking at various websites and am finding it very time consuming - in most cases you have to drill down through several layers of registration forms before you can find out whether a "foreign" credit card/address will be accepted.

So, short version: trying to save time, can others who are not US/UK/Canada based tell me which websites might allow me to buy ebooks using a "foreign" or international credit card/address?

Bikeridr · 10-06-2010, 02:10 AM

How about Smashwords or Baen?
Webscription is a Baen webplace as well.
Also, there are quite a few authors attending this forum and who sell their books directly from their website.

Have a look in the "Self promoting" part of the forum.

viviena · 10-06-2010, 02:18 AM

I was about to suggest Waterstones, but I see you've already found that. One bookstore with a reasonably large selection of ebooks from major publishers is Kobo Books. Not that they're necessarily much better than the other big names when it comes to geo-restrictions, but at least they won't show you books only to deny you a purchase once you've signed up and checking out.

Otherwise, to get the books you want from most commercial bookstores, you'll have to use US/UK billing or shipping addresses and perhaps a proxy too.

waxwing · 10-06-2010, 02:34 AM

Many thanks for the suggestions guys, I am continuing to look into all this stuff. I will follow up Kobo in particular, already looked at it but not registered yet. A couple of things:

I tried ebooks.com . I was very suspicious ( partly because of the name, also I saw a few negative comments floating around), but was pleasantly surprised to see that it worked OK. They had a delay of about half an hour between placing the order and sending me an email with the download link, but that's fine.

Doubtless places like ebooks and Waterstones have inferior prices but I'll take what I can get. The biggest drawback of course is small selection, but I think there's just no way round that.

Mostly I like to read non-fiction (topics like science, economics, maths, politics, philosophy etc.). A good example, a few days ago I bought a paper copy of "Factory Girls" written by a WSJ journalist about life in the factories of Dongguan. This is the kind of stuff I read all the time, and would happily buy 5 or 6 a month if I had access to them.

Although I read novels, it tends to be when I'm on holiday a few times a year. I don't think those sites like "smashwords" can really help me with the former (non-fiction, up to date) type of book, or am I wrong?

By the way I am finding the N618 quite a nifty machine

.. although I don't have much to compare it with!

neilmarr · 10-06-2010, 05:19 AM

Good to have your company, Waxwing. And sorry to hear of your difficulties. If you like, you can try the bookstore section of my own site (link below) no foreign CC problems or georestrictions there, and everything is DRM-free. In fact, if two or three titles catch your eye, just drop me an email to let me know which they are and which format you prefer and I'll be happy to send them to you with our compliments. Best wishes. Neil -- ntmarrATbewrite.net (use the @ sign, of course)

ATDrake · 10-06-2010, 05:38 AM

The University of Chicago Press offers at least one free e-book per month that's available to everyone just for giving them your e-mail address. The current freebie is fiction, but the previous 6 or so have been reasonably serious non-fiction titles (mostly cultural commentary and some socio-political history).

I don't know if you'd be able to buy e-books directly from them or they limit actual sales to US-only customers, but it may be worth a try (they've two pricing models: 30-day rental for $7 or keep for full price) and if it doesn't work out, at least you've expanded your possible reading list by one free e-book per month.

Also, welcome to MobileRead!

TenaciousBadger · 10-06-2010, 06:40 AM

since you're used to stripping your ebooks, amazon has a wide range of ebooks even for readers who are from outside the US. it's the one i've bought most my books from.

some publishers impose geographical restrictions on their books preventing amazon from selling those books to certain regions (read outside the US) but amazon don't have an issue about international addresses. so even if you are from China or from Argentina, if the ebook you want to buy is not restricted by the publisher, amazon will sell it to you.
to my dismay, however, B&N don't. as far as i can tell most ebooks from them are restricted to the US and Canada, even if the publisher sells it elsewhere. (i haven't found one that's available to the rest of the world)

waterstones, i also have a problem with. i can't register for instance because i'm not from one of the countries in the roll-down list, china is there but nevertheless the list of countries they can sell to is severely limited.
their loss....

welcome to mobileread!

waxwing · 10-06-2010, 07:56 AM

Thanks for the kind welcomes and suggestions

Having read more and more of the messages on the forum, I can see how tiresomely familiar my questions will be.

One thing I find very confusing: some people on these boards seem to give the impression that Amazon's geographical restrictions are something quite easy to get round. This I don't understand, because even though I have (and constantly use) a VPN which makes me appear to be in the USA, surely it would also be necessary to have a USA billing address on one's credit card to successfully order ebooks there?

Tenacious Badger wrote:

Quote:

since you're used to stripping your ebooks, amazon has a wide range of ebooks even for readers who are from outside the US. it's the one i've bought most my books from.

I wouldn't say I'm "used to it" (only learnt of its existence yesterday

) but it worked OK for a pdf and an epub. But that's DRM, right, which is different from georestriction? As I was saying in the above paragraph, I don't quite see how I can get stuff from Amazon at all, as it just recognizes my account as from China. Should I just change the shipping address to something else (no point changing the billing address as the card wouldn't work then)? Is that reasonable/possible/ethical/insert adjective?

waxwing · 10-06-2010, 08:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by neilmarr

Good to have your company, Waxwing. And sorry to hear of your difficulties. If you like, you can try the bookstore section of my own site (link below) no foreign CC problems or georestrictions there, and everything is DRM-free. In fact, if two or three titles catch your eye, just drop me an email to let me know which they are and which format you prefer and I'll be happy to send them to you with our compliments. Best wishes. Neil -- ntmarrATbewrite.net (use the @ sign, of course)

I like the design of your website. Thanks for the suggestion. If I find something I like there, I'll give it a try!

TenaciousBadger · 10-06-2010, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by waxwing

I don't quite see how I can get stuff from Amazon at all, as it just recognizes my account as from China. Should I just change the shipping address to something else (no point changing the billing address as the card wouldn't work then)? Is that reasonable/possible/ethical/insert adjective?

and you're saying amazon won't let you buy because your address is from china? that's the first time i've heard that. i haven't been around here for a long time, but i haven't heard people from China complaining about that in any thread i've surfed.
there must be someone else in these fora from China you can check with.

changing the address... hmmm, honestly it's can of worms. a lottery. it's worked for some while others are getting emails from amazon requesting them to prove that they are from the country they claim they are from (mostly if they say they're from the US, trying to buy geographically restricted ebooks.)

abookreader · 10-06-2010, 12:29 PM

Amazon's official policy is that they will not ship Kindles to China and cannot provide Kindle content to China although I've been told that if you travel to China the Kindle will receive a 3G Whispernet connection throughout most of the country.

There are numerous people around who get around those restrictions with the standard methods of circumventing geographic restrictions ... ie using gift cards for payment, putting an address in on the Manage My Kindle page that isn't the address in China, downloading via a VPN to disguise the IP address.

I think it would be hard without a physical Kindle though since from what has been posted on various boards recently Amazon seems to be "catching" those downloading via Kindle for PC pretty quickly when their address doesn't match up with their location.

beppe · 10-08-2010, 03:07 AM

i live in Italy. I gave them the address of Yankee Stadium and they accept my credit card without an itch.

Of course I had to wash the stain that the lie left in my soul very carefully.

waxwing · 10-08-2010, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by beppe

i live in Italy. I gave them the address of Yankee Stadium and they accept my credit card without an itch.

Of course I had to wash the stain that the lie left in my soul very carefully.

Hi beppe, are you talking about Amazon? If so, did you use Kindle PC to register your "Yankee" account?

beppe · 10-09-2010, 01:56 AM

I did it with practically all of them. They are happy to fool their accounting system. They just want to be able to prove that they do efforts to protect copyrights. But they are in business to sell. Just do it man.

speakingtohe · 10-09-2010, 06:59 PM

Perhaps if everyone with a geographical restriction problem wrote the author and if possible the authors agent stating they tried to buy the book and failed so they are waiting for a library copy to become availanle something would be done.
A few hundred letters would have an effect and I am sure that if an author recieved a thousand or so they would be trying to reform the sysyem

10-06-2010, 12:36 AM	#1
waxwing Junior Member Posts: 8 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Hanvon N618	Live in China .. where can I buy books? Hi, I just this week bought the Hanvon N618 here in Shenzhen after trials and tribulations looking for ereaders in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, and finding Hong Kong to be a more or less complete waste of time (its reputation as a hub for electronics is more or less irrelevant nowadays...). I have already found that I like the product and am able to use it (for both free books and rss feeds for news), but now I'm starting the daunting task of trying to find out where I can buy books. So far these appear to be clearly out: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders, WH Smith. The only place I have successfully used my credit card (HSBC Visa card from my bank in Hong Kong, the billing address for the card is in Shenzhen, China) was Waterstones. I stripped the DRM from the epub, not through ill intent but because Adobe Digital Editions can't recognize the Hanvon. Today I've been looking at various websites and am finding it very time consuming - in most cases you have to drill down through several layers of registration forms before you can find out whether a "foreign" credit card/address will be accepted. So, short version: trying to save time, can others who are not US/UK/Canada based tell me which websites might allow me to buy ebooks using a "foreign" or international credit card/address?

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Outlook for electronic books in China appears bright (WSJ)	Nate the great	News	3	01-04-2010 10:35 PM
When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.	brecklundin	News	2	10-10-2009 02:21 PM
Going to live in China	sylvia ruth	Which one should I buy?	4	05-02-2009 12:31 PM
where to buy in china	stickman	HanLin eBook	4	04-21-2008 10:05 PM
Wired story on online books in China	grimo1re	News	0	08-17-2007 07:50 AM

10-06-2010, 02:10 AM	#2
Bikeridr Information Acquirer Posts: 436 Karma: 4265156 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Latvia, Rigas Rajons Device: Kindle 3 International, Pocketbook Color	How about Smashwords or Baen? Webscription is a Baen webplace as well. Also, there are quite a few authors attending this forum and who sell their books directly from their website. Have a look in the "Self promoting" part of the forum.

10-06-2010, 02:18 AM	#3
viviena Evangelist Posts: 412 Karma: 520610 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Canberra, Australia Device: Currently Kobo Clara HD and Aura One, iPad	I was about to suggest Waterstones, but I see you've already found that. One bookstore with a reasonably large selection of ebooks from major publishers is Kobo Books. Not that they're necessarily much better than the other big names when it comes to geo-restrictions, but at least they won't show you books only to deny you a purchase once you've signed up and checking out. Otherwise, to get the books you want from most commercial bookstores, you'll have to use US/UK billing or shipping addresses and perhaps a proxy too.

10-06-2010, 02:34 AM	#4
waxwing Junior Member Posts: 8 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Hanvon N618	Many thanks for the suggestions guys, I am continuing to look into all this stuff. I will follow up Kobo in particular, already looked at it but not registered yet. A couple of things: I tried ebooks.com . I was very suspicious ( partly because of the name, also I saw a few negative comments floating around), but was pleasantly surprised to see that it worked OK. They had a delay of about half an hour between placing the order and sending me an email with the download link, but that's fine. Doubtless places like ebooks and Waterstones have inferior prices but I'll take what I can get. The biggest drawback of course is small selection, but I think there's just no way round that. Mostly I like to read non-fiction (topics like science, economics, maths, politics, philosophy etc.). A good example, a few days ago I bought a paper copy of "Factory Girls" written by a WSJ journalist about life in the factories of Dongguan. This is the kind of stuff I read all the time, and would happily buy 5 or 6 a month if I had access to them. Although I read novels, it tends to be when I'm on holiday a few times a year. I don't think those sites like "smashwords" can really help me with the former (non-fiction, up to date) type of book, or am I wrong? By the way I am finding the N618 quite a nifty machine .. although I don't have much to compare it with!

10-06-2010, 05:19 AM	#5
neilmarr neilmarr Posts: 7,216 Karma: 6000059 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Monaco-Menton, France Device: sony	Good to have your company, Waxwing. And sorry to hear of your difficulties. If you like, you can try the bookstore section of my own site (link below) no foreign CC problems or georestrictions there, and everything is DRM-free. In fact, if two or three titles catch your eye, just drop me an email to let me know which they are and which format you prefer and I'll be happy to send them to you with our compliments. Best wishes. Neil -- ntmarrATbewrite.net (use the @ sign, of course)

10-06-2010, 05:38 AM	#6
ATDrake Wizzard Posts: 11,517 Karma: 33048258 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Roundworld Device: Kindle 2 International, Sony PRS-T1, BlackBerry PlayBook, Acer Iconia	The University of Chicago Press offers at least one free e-book per month that's available to everyone just for giving them your e-mail address. The current freebie is fiction, but the previous 6 or so have been reasonably serious non-fiction titles (mostly cultural commentary and some socio-political history). I don't know if you'd be able to buy e-books directly from them or they limit actual sales to US-only customers, but it may be worth a try (they've two pricing models: 30-day rental for $7 or keep for full price) and if it doesn't work out, at least you've expanded your possible reading list by one free e-book per month. Also, welcome to MobileRead!

10-06-2010, 06:40 AM	#7
TenaciousBadger Mrawr? Posts: 1,109 Karma: 15039064 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: kindle 3 wifi	since you're used to stripping your ebooks, amazon has a wide range of ebooks even for readers who are from outside the US. it's the one i've bought most my books from. some publishers impose geographical restrictions on their books preventing amazon from selling those books to certain regions (read outside the US) but amazon don't have an issue about international addresses. so even if you are from China or from Argentina, if the ebook you want to buy is not restricted by the publisher, amazon will sell it to you. to my dismay, however, B&N don't. as far as i can tell most ebooks from them are restricted to the US and Canada, even if the publisher sells it elsewhere. (i haven't found one that's available to the rest of the world) waterstones, i also have a problem with. i can't register for instance because i'm not from one of the countries in the roll-down list, china is there but nevertheless the list of countries they can sell to is severely limited. their loss.... welcome to mobileread!

10-06-2010, 12:29 PM	#11
abookreader Wizard Posts: 1,516 Karma: 2567610 Join Date: Oct 2009 Device: Kindles - Keyboard, Fire, 2-US, iPhone, iPAD	Amazon's official policy is that they will not ship Kindles to China and cannot provide Kindle content to China although I've been told that if you travel to China the Kindle will receive a 3G Whispernet connection throughout most of the country. There are numerous people around who get around those restrictions with the standard methods of circumventing geographic restrictions ... ie using gift cards for payment, putting an address in on the Manage My Kindle page that isn't the address in China, downloading via a VPN to disguise the IP address. I think it would be hard without a physical Kindle though since from what has been posted on various boards recently Amazon seems to be "catching" those downloading via Kindle for PC pretty quickly when their address doesn't match up with their location.

10-08-2010, 03:07 AM	#12
beppe Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,161 Karma: 81026524 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Italy Device: Kindle3, Ipod4, IPad2	i live in Italy. I gave them the address of Yankee Stadium and they accept my credit card without an itch. Of course I had to wash the stain that the lie left in my soul very carefully.

10-09-2010, 01:56 AM	#14
beppe Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,161 Karma: 81026524 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Italy Device: Kindle3, Ipod4, IPad2	I did it with practically all of them. They are happy to fool their accounting system. They just want to be able to prove that they do efforts to protect copyrights. But they are in business to sell. Just do it man.

10-09-2010, 06:59 PM	#15
speakingtohe Wizard Posts: 4,812 Karma: 26912940 Join Date: Apr 2010 Device: sony PRS-T1 and T3, Kobo Mini and Aura HD, Tablet	Perhaps if everyone with a geographical restriction problem wrote the author and if possible the authors agent stating they tried to buy the book and failed so they are waiting for a library copy to become availanle something would be done. A few hundred letters would have an effect and I am sure that if an author recieved a thousand or so they would be trying to reform the sysyem

Advert

Advert