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Originally Posted by cadele
It is very simplistic of me, I know, that I would think that the overall main aim of publishers and authors is to sell their work. I would just like an equal opportunity to be able to buy that work.
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It is, and you should.
However, as far as I can tell the ebook market in Australia is still very small. And while it will be faster to get books that are already in a digital form into Australia:
• It takes time for these kinds of major transitions to take place.
• There isn't a big economic incentive to fix this problem yet.
• it won't be long before there is such an incentive.
It is unfortunate that publishers aren't paying attention, but it really is just a matter of time. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I assume that people don't like it when you counsel patience, and to let the transition take its course....
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Originally Posted by cadele
One author has many (paper book) followers in Australia and had no idea that her work was unavailable in ebook form here. She told me that her publisher, Penguin, had worldwide rights and suggested that I write to them. I did, but as usual was completely ignored.
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(Emphasis added) Well, there goes the theory that a single company retaining international publishing rights will fix the availability problem....
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Originally Posted by cadele
Yes, Australia does not have a large population, but last time I heard there were more than a few people in the U.K. etc. Add us all up, and I would think that is a large number of lost sales.
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I don't believe the UK is quite as bad as it used to be; the US certainly isn't. It wasn't that long ago that availability in the US was regarded as an unconscionable issue; with a few glaring exceptions (*cough* Harry Potter *cough*) nowadays it's more a problem of backlist titles than newer books.
The "Australian reader" market is probably a pretty good sized population; but again, until ebooks really start to take off they aren't losing a lot of sales yet.
It's entirely plausible that ebook usage in Australia, UK and Canada hovers around 3% of all book buyers. I'd say publishers aren't missing a huge market yet.
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Originally Posted by cadele
It is easy to be blithe when one is unaffected by the problem, of course.
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There are plenty of books I'd love to see in digital form, which aren't out. In fact, some would compete against public domain books (e.g. specific translations of ancient Roman texts), so it may be a long time before they're out. I manage to survive somehow.