geographic restrictions at Fictionwise

[geertm]

Originally Posted by hapalochlaena

I (Don't forget to change the profile back as soon as the transaction is completed and the books downloaded.)

I just leave my profile set to USA, because at the moment it seems that all the new books by popular writers at Fictionwise have geographic restrictions. Almost every book I buy at Fictionwise is only available for the USA.

I wonder how many customers they are losing because of these short-sighted restrictions? By restricting their sales to just the USA they are left with a market where they have to compete with Amazon/Kindle.
As the Fictionwise books cannot be read on the Kindle (at least for the average Kindle reader) they already loose half of that market. I wonder how long Fictionwise is able to make a profit that way? Or is Barnes & Noble converting Fictionwise to an USA-only store like the Amazon Kindle store?

[GeoffC]

It is the publishers who are being crazy - not FW ....

[Ea]

Originally Posted by geertm

I just leave my profile set to USA, because at the moment it seems that all the new books by popular writers at Fictionwise have geographic restrictions. Almost every book I buy at Fictionwise is only available for the USA.

I wonder how many customers they are losing because of these short-sighted restrictions? By restricting their sales to just the USA they are left with a market where they have to compete with Amazon/Kindle.
As the Fictionwise books cannot be read on the Kindle (at least for the average Kindle reader) they already loose half of that market. I wonder how long Fictionwise is able to make a profit that way? Or is Barnes & Noble converting Fictionwise to an USA-only store like the Amazon Kindle store?

AFAIK, it's the publishers who is to blame - and even, I think(?), the European publishers, who have the publishing rights for Europe. Apparently that restricts what can be sold from USA to Europe via download. Idiotic as it seems to us, there are little FW can do.

I must admit, I doubt that there are enough international customers to actually have much, if any, impact, or to make this issue a priority for anyone but us.

[zerospinboson]

Originally Posted by Ea

AFAIK, it's the publishers who is to blame - and even, I think(?), the European publishers, who have the publishing rights for Europe. Apparently that restricts what can be sold from USA to Europe via download. Idiotic as it seems to us, there are little FW can do.

I must admit, I doubt that there are enough international customers to actually have much, if any, impact, or to make this issue a priority for anyone but us.

*shrug*. It impacts 100% of prospective European buyers, as there are no real competitively priced (i.e. actively competing) european ebook stores yet, nor are they often very interesting, if they're interested in something other than 'local' publications. (For instance, I personally do not care for Dutch translations of, say, Dostoevsky; which is why I'm very happy to be able to order English-translated HCs from Amazon for less than a Dutch-translation pb will set you back).

[Ea]

Originally Posted by zerospinboson

*shrug*. It impacts 100% of prospective European buyers, as there are no real competitively priced (i.e. actively competing) european ebook stores yet, nor are they often very interesting, if they're interested in something other than 'local' publications.....

Of course it does, but I doubt that there are that many of us in comparison to the USA market, that are interested enough in fiction in English (except Britain) to be a market segment worth worrying that much about. If ebooks make up 1.8% of the USA market, and about 50% of ebook readers sold is Kindles (the latest figures I've read), how many prospective customers do you think there are in Europe?

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by Ea

how many prospective customers do you think there are in Europe?

It'd be interesting to ask the ebook sellers who don't restrict sales on geolocation (Baen...um...anyone else?) about this.

[Ea]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

It'd be interesting to ask the ebook sellers who don't restrict sales on geolocation (Baen...um...anyone else?) about this.

A good question, though your quote takes it out of context - I was talking about prospective buyers of English-language books (primarily fiction). Baen is a bit specialised, since they sell mostly fantasy and sci-fi, though I can imagine that a lot of us gadget lovers and ebook device first-mover types are the ones who buy books in English and read more sci-fi and fantasy than the general population.

I read in the paper today, about an editor at a Danish publishing house, who had a Sony 505 but only used it for manuscripts. She'd never bought an ebook for download, but stuck with p-books. I assume she prefer Danish for leisure reading.

[JSWolf]

What's silly is they'll restrict eBooks, but not pBooks.

Baen has the rights in the contract. So they can sell world wide.

[Ea]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What's silly is they'll restrict eBooks, but not pBooks.

....

Yes, but apparently ebooks are software

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by Ea

A good question, though your quote takes it out of context - I was talking about prospective buyers of English-language books (primarily fiction).

Well yes, but are there any fiction publishers who use worldwide liscences for ebooks? I used Baen there because they do, and they've been open to discussing some data before (I'm thinking per-continent here).

I'd agree more reprisentative data would be good, but this is a case of the data we might potentially be able to get, because I don't think that reprisentative data exists.

[sianon]

What is truly ridiculous is an Australian based store selling titles that have geographical restrictions which mean the e-book cannot be purchased in Australia, however if I lived in the philipines I could. http://www.ebooks.com/ebooks/book_di...asp?IID=347073 I actually purchased the book with no issues from Waterstones.

[moespook]

[QUOTE=geertm;562568]I just leave my profile set to USA, because at the moment it seems that all the new books by popular writers at Fictionwise have geographic restrictions. Almost every book I buy at Fictionwise is only available for the USA.

I just downloaded some books supplying an US address in my profile. I don't like having to do this, makes me feel like a criminal I wonder if keeping this address in the profile has dire consequences I'm unaware of now. I don't think so really, can't think of any. I hope this method will keep on 'working', lots of books I want are US customers only

[GeoffC]

[QUOTE=moespook;563550]

Originally Posted by geertm

I just leave my profile set to USA, because at the moment it seems that all the new books by popular writers at Fictionwise have geographic restrictions. Almost every book I buy at Fictionwise is only available for the USA.

I just downloaded some books supplying an US address in my profile. I don't like having to do this, makes me feel like a criminal I wonder if keeping this address in the profile has dire consequences I'm unaware of now. I don't think so really, can't think of any. I hope this method will keep on 'working', lots of books I want are US customers only

i could not agree more - i'm more worried about what would happen if the publishers discovered the ploy and penalised Fictionwise.......

[tompe]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

It is the publishers who are being crazy - not FW ....

And the customers that cirumvents that. They destroy the feedback system by continuing buying books and will delay the change of the contracts.

You also get threads here that encourage to immoral behaviour (lying).

[kaan]

Originally Posted by tompe

And the customers that cirumvents that. They destroy the feedback system by continuing buying books and will delay the change of the contracts.

You also get threads here that encourage to immoral behaviour (lying).

Falsifying a document in a trade agreement is fraud.
Doing it to circumvent trade restrictions might be worse.
In Denmark it would be a criminal offence. I'm not sure about the rest of the world.

Again we are in a situation, where absurd restrictions are making criminals of normal paying customers.