Testing links to Kindle ebooks redirecting to country sites

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

At Spain (and my browser knows it):

1. Redirect to amazon.es, book not found
2. Redirect to amazon.es, book found: The Impossible Fortune
3. Redirect to amazon.es, book found: The Black Wolves of Boston
4. No redirect, book found at amazon.com: The Complete Miss Marple Collection
5. No redirect, book not found at amazon.com
6. No redirect, book found at amazon.com: The Black Wolves of Boston

Using a VPN and Edge (not logged into any Amazon with Edge) all is the same except...

4. Redirected to the UK, book not found
5. Redirected to the UK, found The Impossible Fortune
6. Redirected to the UK, found The Black Wolves of Boston

[thescifilady]

I'm located in Australia. I've made a couple of physical book purchases from Amazon AU, but no ebooks, and no books at all from Amazon US. Just in case purchase history somehow factors!

1. Book found, no redirect.
2. Book found, redirected to Amazon AU.
3. Book found, no redirect.
4. Book found, no redirect.
5. Book not found, no redirect.
6. Book found, no redirect.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by jackleen

That’s a good observation. I’ve also noticed regional redirects on Amazon causing books to disappear or show different versions depending on location. It seems tied to licensing limits for each market.

Has anyone found a reliable workaround for these redirect issues?

The English language publishing market has traditionally been split between UK and USA, with other countries being counted as part of the UK market or the USA market.

So it's commonly the case that an author will have two publishers, one in each market. And so two ebooks, or one in one market and none in another.

By using an ISBN in the Amazon link, the book search is for a particular publisher's ebook, not a search for the book by title and author.

The redirect is useful for those cases where the publisher has world rights, or where a country has its own Kindle store, and books can't be bought from amazon.com.

It does look like redirects only happen when there's a tag in the URL. "Luckily", any Amazon URL put on MobileRead will automatically get the MR tag added to it.


CONCLUSION
Using the ISBN is the best way to specify links on MobileRead in the Bargains threads, since discounts on ebooks are almost always publisher-specific, and it's the best way to take people to their own Kindle store.

[ableal]

I'm in Portugal, mostly served by Spanish Amazon, except that for Kindle books I'm usually sent over to US Amazon (that also applies trying to buy from UK Amazon). Paper books I can buy from Spain or UK, or whatever.

My results are:

Redirects to amazon.es, book not found
Redirects to amazon.es, book found, cannot buy it
Redirects to amazon.es, book found, cannot buy it
No redirect, amazon.com, book not found
No redirect, amazon.com, book found, can buy
No redirect, amazon.com, book found, can buy

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by ableal

I'm in Portugal, mostly served by Spanish Amazon, except that for Kindle books I'm usually sent over to US Amazon (that also applies trying to buy from UK Amazon). Paper books I can buy from Spain or UK, or whatever.

My results are:

Redirects to amazon.es, book not found
Redirects to amazon.es, book found, cannot buy it
Redirects to amazon.es, book found, cannot buy it
No redirect, amazon.com, book not found
No redirect, amazon.com, book found, can buy
No redirect, amazon.com, book found, can buy

Oh, that is very interesting. And disappointing. It rather rules out taking advantage of the redirect with ISBN to give one link for everyone.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Fbone

yes sir

Interesting...I'm also in the US, and for all of these, it only takes me to a list of books, never the page for an actual book.

Shari

[pdurrant]

That's because they're searches on the ISBN, rather than a link to an Amazon product page using the ASIN.

The second one doesn't find the book, as it's not available in the USA kindle store.

[Quoth]

I think while all paper books have an ISBN, not all ebooks have one. There is actually no need for ebook ISBNs unless they are somehow sold in physical retail shops.

Also the same ebook might have a different ISBN on different online Marketplaces.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I think while all paper books have an ISBN, not all ebooks have one. There is actually no need for ebook ISBNs unless they are somehow sold in physical retail shops.

Also the same ebook might have a different ISBN on different online Marketplaces.

Yes...the ISBN for the UK edition will probably be different from the ISBN for the US edition, especially since the 2 editions may well have different publishers.

Shari

[shalym]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

That's because they're searches on the ISBN, rather than a link to an Amazon product page using the ASIN.

The second one doesn't find the book, as it's not available in the USA kindle store.

Is the second book supposed to be "The Impossible Fortune" by Richard Osman? If so, the book actually *is* available in the USA Kindle store with an ISBN of ‎ 9780593653265
https://www.amazon.com/Impossible-Fo.../dp/B0DPLW7YFX

Shari

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by shalym

Is the second book supposed to be "The Impossible Fortune" by Richard Osman? If so, the book actually *is* available in the USA Kindle store with an ISBN of ‎ 9780593653265
https://www.amazon.com/Impossible-Fo.../dp/B0DPLW7YFX

Shari

It is indeed. I deliberately chose the UK edition.

I think, although interesting, this shows there is no good way to provide one link for multiple countries.