Top Ten Books Missing as eBooks

[anamardoll]

I don't see a way to buy a UK card from my US account, if that's the question.

Did you recommend gift cards because you've done this before or because you reasonably assumed that Amazon's head wasn't Hidden Up Its... never mind.

[anamardoll]

So, just as a summary.

I managed to buy one book before EntroPay "randomly" locked down my account until I provide a copy of my license, of my credit card, and of a utility bill that doesn't exist. I can see no way to gift myself money on the Amazon UK site.

So: 1 book. Not repeatable. 5 hours and counting. Blood pressure: not good.

[kennyc]

I prescribe Atenolol. It's what I take.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by kennyc

I prescribe Atenolol. It's what I take.

Before or after you turn into a kitty and start shooting?

[anamardoll]

AHA.

If you go to the Amazon UK site and send a gift card from there, THAT can be used on Amazon.co.uk. CS says give them 1-2 days and they'll totes refund the *.com amount.

Why the two sites can't talk to each other is a mystery for the ages, naturally.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

Did you recommend gift cards because you've done this before or because you reasonably assumed that Amazon's head wasn't Hidden Up Its... never mind.

All I will admit to in a public forum is that for my fellow Canadians, gift cards from our local Indigo Chapters stores wil also work a treat in Kobo's store, even if they happen to think you are travelling outside Canada at the time.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That's sadly a common situation. For example, there are no Anne McCaffrey eBooks available in the UK, but they are available in the US.

Some of Anne McCaffrey's books are available as e-books. It's kind of hard to figure out a rhyme or reason for which ones are available and which ones aren't. It's a bit like the Darkover series, the gaps are more than a bit maddening.

[ATDrake]

I think it mainly goes by publisher who still owns the rights. Thus, Pern books from Random House and Ship books from Baen are available, but the original Ship Who Sang was some other publisher IIRC who has not yet seen fit to e-release.

Same with MZB as DAW/Penguin are sluggish about putting out the older backlist (even mid-2000s titles for some series I read which have later volumes out).

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

Before or after you turn into a kitty and start shooting?

OOHH!! Kitty shoot! Count me in!

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Agency pricing has absolutely nothing to do with geo restrictions; those are due to the contract the publisher has with the author. It's exceedingly common for books to have different UK and US publishers, each with regional restrictions on where they are permitted to sell.

Yeah, but then explain

book available
book not available
book available again

same contract

And certainly seen cases where I have specifically asked the editor of a book if it should be available, they say yes, and it isn't.

So in some situations this is just incompetence.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

I'm doing the latter, as suggested by HarryT: HideMyAss.com.

I do not know how to do the former. I've tried in the past and it...hasn't worked. Can you help?

No, I'm not using the HideMyAss web proxy; I'm using their paid-for VPN software which you install on your PC. Sorry if I wasn't clear about that.

[Blue Tyson]

The savings on one Macmillan book for Australians would pay for more than a month's VPN most likely. Which you can of course use for other things.

[Pinecone]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt series is a true pain in the ass. We have some books in the series here in the US but not all. Seems the UK may have them all. And we cannot buy the ones we'd want to fill in the series. We didn't have this problem before Agency pricing came about. So not only do they now charge more, they take away our access as well.

I did not realize they were available in the UK.

Bizarre.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Pinecone

I did not realize they were available in the UK.

Bizarre.

Some are available in the UK, but certainly not all.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

I think it mainly goes by publisher who still owns the rights. Thus, Pern books from Random House and Ship books from Baen are available, but the original Ship Who Sang was some other publisher IIRC who has not yet seen fit to e-release.

Same with MZB as DAW/Penguin are sluggish about putting out the older backlist (even mid-2000s titles for some series I read which have later volumes out).

Actually, it was the Pern books that I was talking about. It appears that the Dragonriders of Pern (the three combined books) and a number of the later books are available, but a number of the middle books (the harper hall books, for example) aren't. It's kind of hard to figure out since the Harper hall books came out about the same time as the White Dragon. They were all published by the same publisher.