Australian ebooks

[trksh22]

Is the shipping price about the same if an individual were to ship the books to you?

[neilmarr]

Ingram/Lightning Source open a print and dispatch depot in Melbourne this month, Trksh. They have pretty well every book under the sun set for PoD print and, of course, Ingram is the biggest book distributor on the planet. In theory, this should mean that should you, say, order a blockbuster from Amazon, it would be printed and shipped locally (though I'm sure geographical restrictions might occasionally apply because point of sale would be Oz rather than US).

It'll be interesting to see how it works out. Certainly, for smaller houses like my own with a international rights in print and ebook to all titles, we'll be set ready for the LS opening and you could buy books from the likes of us at regular prices (much, much lower than the artificially inflated cover prices you've been used to locally) and have them delivered within a day or two at local postal rates.

G'luck and best wishes. Neil

[CazMar]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

Ingram/Lightning Source open a print and dispatch depot in Melbourne this month, Trksh. They have pretty well every book under the sun set for PoD print and, of course, Ingram is the biggest book distributor on the planet. In theory, this should mean that should you, say, order a blockbuster from Amazon, it would be printed and shipped locally (though I'm sure geographical restrictions might occasionally apply because point of sale would be Oz rather than US).

It'll be interesting to see how it works out. Certainly, for smaller houses like my own with a international rights in print and ebook to all titles, we'll be set ready for the LS opening and you could buy books from the likes of us at regular prices (much, much lower than the artificially inflated cover prices you've been used to locally) and have them delivered within a day or two at local postal rates.

G'luck and best wishes. Neil

I have now created a Google news alert for Ingram/LightningSource and bookmarked your blog site so I am hoping this will soon end all my Aussie book-buying woes! If this new outlet is as good as it sounds I would encourage all Aussie MR members to spread the word. We'll vote with our credit cards!

[neilmarr]

Ebooks at our own store (link below), Caz, are already available in all popular formats at regular cover price ($5.95 across the board). Some other indie publishers have their own stores as well as, like us, using the big third-party outlets for the bulk of sales. Always worth checking.

(Some third-party retailers' sales commissions are penal -- Sony, for instance is 70% across the board and Amazon's Kindle store snatches 70% of sales outside the US, Canada and UK. They also load ebook prices outside these favoured areas by about four bucks [but pay publisher return only on RRP] for no reason that's ever been adequately explained. Our own store takes no sales commission at all, so royalties for much higher-than-usual author, artist, editor, designer, technical input, etc, remain 100% intact.)

If you want to browse the catalogue (usually around 150 titles) and two or three catch your eye, drop me a line of the titles and your preferred format and I'll be happy to send them along with our compliments.

SAME APPLIES to anyone else contributing to this thread. ntmarrATbewrite.net (but use the @ sign, of course).

Where Ingram/LS will make a bigger difference will be on the print scene Down Under and in other Pacific Rim countries where the reading public has been stuck with ridiculous brick-and-mortar cover prices for far too long, or who buy more cheaply on line, only to be lumbered with slow and expensive international shipping.

Directly, it won't make a great difference to ebook folks. Indirectly, though, it might. As your grubby-fingered shop keepers lose their grip on the book trade, more and more in Oz and NZ turn to the realistic ebook option. And this Ingram/LS move will be one of the last nails in the high street coffin.

A word of warning, though: Beware some of your locally-based ebook retailers. I've checked them out and many are following the Australian brick-and-mortar policy of artificially inflating cover price way beyond the publisher's RRP. Some crazy prices out there.

As more and more stores, publishers, agents and their authors come to understand the importance of international digital rights on a title, though, (and they MUST) your local ebook dealers will either have to knuckle under to consumer pressure and international competition and price reasonably or shut up shop.

The Welsh half of my family (babies now popping up as the fourth generation) have lived in Australia since the mid-sixties. So I confess to a personal interest. You guys bravely battle through the most horrendous natural disasters. You can do without having to struggle with the frustration of man-made troubles, too.

Bestests. Neil

[CazMar]

Just bought my first ebook from your site and am now holding it out as a "carrot" to make me finish my Uni essay today! Very easy to purchase as the DRM free files can just go straight into Calibre to load to my Kobo along with magazines and Gutenberg books.
I wish it was this easy to buy all ebooks! I will certainly be letting my friends here know about your site.
Best regards
Carol

[neilmarr]

Hey, Caz. Thanks. But this was an invitation to freebies for you and anyone else contributing to this thread to test the waters. Just email me with two or three titles that catch your eye and your preferred digital format. My pleasure to send them along by return as attachments with our compliments. No matter what the 'industry' says, we and our authors firmly believe books are for sharing, whether in print or digital form. But here's karma to ya for giving it a whirl. Best wishes. Neil -- ntmarrATbewrite.net (use the @ sign, natch)