Quote:
Originally Posted by llcj
@fjtorres, in general, Amazon can't sell UK published books in the US. Publishers have restrictions on these things. This is the same throughout the world. It is disingenuous to suggest otherwise. Canada is a small market, it went after the UK market instead, a market that is about two and a half times that of Canada.
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Actually, they do.
As long as they are in print they can sell UK books and videos from Amazon UK.
Lots of bookstores have done it for ages. My all-time favorite Bookstore, Moonstone Bookcellars in DC used to have shelves and shelves of UK and canadian titles. I would routinely walk out with dozens of them, books out of print in the US but readily available in the UK that Moonstone brought over.
And, no, it is neither disingenuous nor the same all over the world. Ask aussies about the Book Depository. Print books flow freely across most of the western world. Except when Canada wanted to protect Chapters.
I really don't care what you folks do to yourselves but the fact is that hothouse companies that are "protected" from competition never learn to compete and their development ends up stunted at best and they collapse at worst. That is what happened to GM and Chrysler around the turn of the decade. And several giant Japanese companies...
Kobo's corporate culture legacy from Indigo/Chapters is the single biggest obstacle they face in staying relevant outside Canada. Because it is well-nigh impossible to keep the world at bay forever. Sooner or later the protective barriers collapse. And then the bill comes due.