Quote:
Originally Posted by bevdeforges
Ah, now we're getting to some of the subtleties of the issue. It's not only a matter of the author's benefit, but also partly that of the publisher's convenience. Far easier to take in a tidy fee (plus future royalties) to allow a publisher in the UK to publish a book by an American author than to have to arrange to ship hard copy overseas.
But then, you have the governments getting in on the action, with the VAT and the fact that VAT is higher on e-books than on p-books definitely comes into play here, as do the various "literature as cultural item that needs protection" laws - and tend to make locally produced books much more expensive than imported ones.
At this point there are lots of vested interests in the current p-book based system. It could take a while for a uniquely e-book system to develop.
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I know why the price in the US is lower... I know we pay 6% VAT on books and 19% on ebooks. But that still doesn't explain why I, from non-English European country can't buy ebooks from the US nor from the UK. It also doesn't explain why I, from a non-English European country can buy pbooks from the US and from the UK. I can (sort of, with a lot of mind stretching) understand why a UK person can't buy from the US and vice versa (sorry, Australia, I'm leaving you out of this now, saves me typing!) But why not from
any other non-English speaking country where the book isn't published. I don't want a translated book, I want the English language book.