Do some publishers have any idea?

Originally Posted by asleyam

I use an always on vpn, I am located in Australia. That vpn does not mean I can circumvent geoblocking (books not licensed for sale in AU) or buy those in the Amazon Store (that are licensed for sale in AU) without paying conversion rates that are close to buying in $AU.

Both amz and apple stores require the residential address to match the account. To get the same rates as American residents I would have to have an American address. Simply having an ip showing me in US will not allow me to get the US prices available to people in USA.

There are ways to deal with this too. Similar to the MR policy of not discussing how-to details of using the DeDRM tools, I will leave it in your capable hands and online research skills.

[darryl]

I know of no MR policy that prevents even detailed discussion of by-passing geo-blocking. There is an earlier thread discussing legality of various actions. I'm not sure if this has changed, but at the time of that thread Amazon was not even asking for a residential address when signing up. Signing up with a local forwarding service address would not seem to breach any terms or conditions whatsoever. I may be wrong but I also saw no terms or conditions preventing one having Amazon accounts in different countries.

[bgalbrecht]

I don't want to belabor the publishers pricing policies, because I think they've been discussed many times, and the gist of it is that for various reasons, the publishers have set price points for hardcover, trade paperback, and paperback books, and they don't want to cannibalize the paper book market by setting the ebook prices below that. Except for the hardcover bestseller market where the booksellers are routinely discounted, the publishers don't like to discount ebooks below the lowest list price of a paper book.

It's pretty rare these days, but before 2010, when the publishers gave up and started selling ebooks of everything they published, I saw a number of ebooks where the publisher of the hardcover had the ebook rights, and a different publisher had the paperback rights, so the ebook was priced at the hardcover price even though the paperback had been out for years. I think Little Egret's right, and most cases today where the ebook is more expensive than the paperback is when either because the paperback hasn't been released yet, or for some reason, the retailer is discounting the paperback, but can't discount the ebook because of the Big 5 ebook pricing contracts.

BTW, Amazon and Apple may be doing hard geoblocking, but at this time, Kobo is pretty lax. And even if Kobo doesn't have the Amazon UK deals on sale, they will price match them, although I don't know whether they'd price match for someone who is clearly from a different country.

[Timboli]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

It seems to me that the problem lies with the Australian publishers, not publishers in general. Both The Darkling Child and The Sorcerer's Daughter are about 5 USD for me.

I feel for your situation, but there's not much that people in other countries can do. Frankly, if I were you, I would just use a VPN.

I have already looked into the VPN approach, also how I found out that the main ebook in question was $7.99 USD for Americans back then. Everything hangs around having an American credit card, which my research has determined is complex to obtain from another country. If I was really motivated enough, I could do a deal with some American I know, and have a dedicated device for a new American Amazon account, but that is a substantial outlay for something, that I am trying to save a pretty penny on, so would take a lot of purchases to make it worthwhile ... and I'm just not that desperate.

[Timboli]

Originally Posted by HarryT

£5.99 at Amazon UK, with the paperbacks at £9.99. That seems reasonable enough to me. I should add, though, that every single book in Terry Brooks' "Shannara" universe has been at sale at Amazon UK for 99p. That's how I bought them. Amazon's occasional "Big Deal" offers where they put an entire series on offer for a day are the way I've bought many whole series.

Alas, I have not seen that here much for the ebooks I am interested in. AUS is often left out in the cold, certainly for overseas authors. I am guessing the UK customer base is too big to ignore, so lucky you.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Timboli

I have already looked into the VPN approach, also how I found out that the main ebook in question was $7.99 USD for Americans back then. Everything hangs around having an American credit card, which my research has determined is complex to obtain from another country. If I was really motivated enough, I could do a deal with some American I know, and have a dedicated device for a new American Amazon account, but that is a substantial outlay for something, that I am trying to save a pretty penny on, so would take a lot of purchases to make it worthwhile ... and I'm just not that desperate.

No need for a credit card at all, if the only things you'll buy are ebooks. The US address and gift cards applied to the account will do.

[Timboli]

Originally Posted by Little.Egret

It's been tried. Giver and receiver have to use the same Amazon, usually Amazon.com AND the exact book has to be available in both counties but can be a different price (I think). If the gift is disallowed it is replaced by a giftcard.

Yes, I have looked into this and it is so, probably complicated by the fact I do sort of have an American Amazon account, which detects me as an Aussie ... a left over from the days before AUS had its own Amazon store, which they keep trying to lure me to.

Clearly despite being an American Amazon account, showing US dollars, the prices an American see are not the same as the prices I see, which I can view the difference of by using a VPN, without logging in.

[Timboli]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

No need for a credit card at all, if the only things you'll buy are ebooks. The US address and gift cards applied to the account will do.

Are you sure?
My recollection is that you had to provide a credit card for Kindle ebooks, because of the mandatory 1-click purchase option. An American friend could not even gift me a free ebook.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Timboli

Are you sure?
My recollection is that you had to provide a credit card for Kindle ebooks, because of the mandatory 1-click purchase option. An American friend could not even gift me a free ebook.

Yes, I'm sure. At least that was the way a few years back. Mind you, for pre-orders and KU you'd still need a card.

[Timboli]

Just for the record, when I tried the VPN method, everything worked fine until I went to buy, then country of origin for my credit card, gave an error message.

That means at the very least, I need an American credit card, which requires an American address, and if my memory serves me correctly, needs some confirmation of living at that address for a few months (power bill or something) ... not with Amazon, the bank.

Then you need a dedicated device for the American Amazon account you create. I did start going down the road of a multi-boot PC, because I wanted to use my Kindle For PC for my wife's Amazon account, and it only allows one account (user) by default (truly dumb).

I also speculated on being able to use the multi-boot method to assign another credit card and Amazon account, so that I could use the Aussie Amazon store, without losing access to my current US Amazon account. I believe that would have worked, because both are based on an Aussie address (country of origin).

My apologies for the complexity of multi-boot for some. Essentially, if you boot into another instance of Windows, you get a fresh copy of Kindle For PC.

P.S. Just logging into another user on the same PC, was not enough I discovered, as Kindle For PC is not user based, but setup for All Users. In other words, the same copy of the program is always used, regardless of who is logged in. Another copy of Windows solves that.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Timboli

Just for the record, when I tried the VPN method, everything worked fine until I went to buy, then country of origin for my credit card, gave an error message.

That means at the very least, I need an American credit card, which requires an American address, and if my memory serves me correctly, needs some confirmation of living at that address for a few months (power bill or something).

Then you need a dedicated device for the American Amazon account you create. I did start going down the road of a multi-boot PC, because I wanted to use my Kindle For PC for my wife's Amazon account, and it only allows one account by default (truly dumb).

I also speculated on being able to use the multi-boot method to assign another credit card and Amazon account, so that I could use the Aussie Amazon store, without losing access to my current US Amazon account. I believe that would have worked, because both are based on an Aussie address (country of origin).

Well, all I can say is that it worked for me with gift cards applied to the account before buying. I used the VPN approach because of the international surcharge, which Amazon has since discarded, so I have no need for VPN any longer.

[Timboli]

Originally Posted by darryl

The large Australian publishers do indeed bear a good share of the blame, though they are of course mostly local offshoots of the Big 5.

It's not just that, sometimes an Author just has a deal with a Publisher in a different country. Especially an author like Terry Brooks, that can do better deals for themself, because they are a popular best seller. So it could be totally independent to his US publisher, but involve a clause about no competition.

It may be, that Terry was not very forward thinking, when it came to ebooks and consequences. Perhaps he is tied into some long stupid contract. This can sometimes happen on a by book basis, so not all his books are affected.

[Timboli]

@Sirtel - Thanks for the info, though I am not sure I understand fully.

I am but a simple man who gives up when it gets too complex.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by darryl

I know of no MR policy that prevents even detailed discussion of by-passing geo-blocking. There is an earlier thread discussing legality of various actions. I'm not sure if this has changed, but at the time of that thread Amazon was not even asking for a residential address when signing up. Signing up with a local forwarding service address would not seem to breach any terms or conditions whatsoever. I may be wrong but I also saw no terms or conditions preventing one having Amazon accounts in different countries.

This. I see no technical, legal or moral difference between buying a physical book and having it shipped to you via forwarding service and buying an ebook that way. Heck, back in the colonial days, rich Americans would have agents in England buy and ship them books, not because of Geo-restrictions but because that's where the book stores were.

[asleyam]

Originally Posted by maximus83

There are ways to deal with this too. Similar to the MR policy of not discussing how-to details of using the DeDRM tools, I will leave it in your capable hands and online research skills.

Oh I know how to deal with it. Dealt with it years ago. Just that I don’t want to fall foul of the rules here. Not that my dealing with it is unlawful. In fact here in AU, I don’t think it’s illegal to circumvent geoblocking.
There was an audiobook I wanted to buy from audible (I have a subscription with the AU audible store) and found it wasnt in that store, though it was in the US store. No way could I get it without an American address, or even with a gift card, as somehow my AU address came up at delivery and i was informed that it wasn’t available for sale to AU.
I emailed the author and asked her if she knew her book was unavailable in audio in AU. No she replied, perhaps I should contact the AU govt to make it available there. Well that told me all I needed to know, which was that many authors have no idea what geoblocking is and who is responsible. I told her it was her publisher she should contact, govts don’t do commercial marketing that creates geoblocking.
Meanwhile I am still waiting for that book in audio.