There's two parts to the answer to Q1.
1a) Publisher's contracts with authors were usually for US & Canada rights or UK & Rest of world rights. This sort-of makes sense with physical books. Unfortunately, contracts didn't change for ebooks, so publishers often only have the rights to sell ebooks in certain parts of the world.
1b) For sale of a physical book, the point of sale is the location of the seller, so it's possible to order US books from outside the US. For ebooks, it's been agreed (who by? I'm not sure. I suspect the tax authorities in various countries) that the piint of sale is the location of the customer. So US publishers with US-only rights can't sell outside the US.
The answer to Q2 is simpler.
Many publishers are idiots when it comes to ebooks, wish they'd go away, and are terrified of going out of business because of them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katti's Cat
1) Why can I order a hardcover book in the US (or anywhere else in the world), get it mailed to me, but not an eBook? 
2) Why the heck (pardon my french) does an eBook ordered (if you are silly enough) from an Australian site costs as much as the hardcover version?  Who in his / her right mind would pay A$33 (roughly US$30) for a new book if ordered as eBook? Is it just greed by the Australians? Can't be explained by the increased transport cost. |