Disappointment

[sabredog]

To add to the sage advice Nashira offers, try Double Dragon and Kobo ebooks as well.

The problem is that publishers have decided that ebook purchasers outide of US/CAN should not be offered the same range as those residing in US/CAN. The reasons for doing so are complex admittedly but in reality, publishers are forcing those affected to go through convoluted means to purchase the ebook(s) or even to find "other means" to obtain the ebook(s) they want to buy but are prevented too.

In my opinion Geographic restrictions rate as the single biggest problem ebooks face today. DRM and pricing does not come close to this issue.

[nashira]

Ha. Sage. XD More like "extremely tired of how they're screwing us over, here are some nicer publishers" advice. :P

Also I forgot, there is Fictionwise though it's having an interesting moment or two of late which might not bode well, but they have some multi-format books that are DRM free and you should be fine as long as you download them immediately, and always, with any ebook store you should do this anyway. And back. Them. Up. You'll thank us if anything happens.

http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/multiformat.htm

[iandix]

There are very easy ways around Geo restrictions. I have no problem buying books from a number of sites in the US.

Now I should not have to do this.. but I do. .. people might think that what I'm doing is wrong, but I'm paying for the book the author and publisher is getting money, if I didn't do this my only other option would be to pirate books. I think this is the main reason why pirated books are on the increase.

[nashira]

Originally Posted by iandix

There are very easy ways around Geo restrictions. I have no problem buying books from a number of sites in the US.

Now I should not have to do this.. but I do. .. people might think that what I'm doing is wrong, but I'm paying for the book the author and publisher is getting money, if I didn't do this my only other option would be to pirate books. I think this is the main reason why pirated books are on the increase.

There are, but they're not always the amount of effort one would want to go to, and they don't always last. The sites or the publishers seem to be pushing to close any and all gaps they can. Not that it's helping them. But.

Not that some of the prices are helping them, either. Dymocks is downright scary sometimes.

[MikeB1972]

Try WHSmiths in the UK
http://ebooks.whsmith.co.uk
A fair amount of their titles have New Zealand in the allowed distribution list (Most of the Grisham books seem to)

[sabredog]

Not only that, ebooks previously purchased and in ones bookshelf are unavailable after the new Agency 5 price collusions. I requested and received a refund from Diesel due to this.

Geographic restrictions are driving legitimate customers underground. Publishers are encouraging piracy by stupid, anachronistic distribution models.

[GhostHawk]

Exactly, well said sir!

Originally Posted by sabredog

Not only that, ebooks previously purchased and in ones bookshelf are unavailable after the new Agency 5 price collusions. I requested and received a refund from Diesel due to this.

Geographic restrictions are driving legitimate customers underground. Publishers are encouraging piracy by stupid, anachronistic distribution models.

[astra]

Originally Posted by ronw

The latest books by Jeffery Archer, John Connolly, John Grisham, Robert Goddard and other popular authors.

Could you give book names please?

[neilmarr]

Don't be too quick to blame the publisher. Some may well be playing games -- others are playing fair. I'm tired of seeing geographical restrictions arbitrarily slapped on titles from my own wee indie press when we hold international rights to paper and all digital formats and make this absolutely plain on the conditions page of every book we publish. Cheers. Neil

[nashira]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

Don't be too quick to blame the publisher. Some may well be playing games -- others are playing fair. I'm tired of seeing geographical restrictions arbitrarily slapped on titles from my own wee indie press when we hold international rights to paper and all digital formats and make this absolutely plain on the conditions page of every book we publish. Cheers. Neil

Indie Publishers I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt. I don't generally have problems with them, I don't think most people who like them do. Especially since most of them can easily be emailed or something and have more hope for a proper response.

The big houses, though? Pretty sure most of them are playing games on purpose, if not to get a stranglehold on the market, then to make it unappealing to bother with anyway.

[GhostHawk]

Face it, most publishers really do not want to change their business model.
The majority of their business is that of selling paper, granted they are selling the words on that paper as well. But if they truly felt their primary business was that of selling words they would embrace the ebook revolution. (See Baen)

That leaves the majority seeing that if they allow ebooks to thrive, at a low price point, that in fairly short order they are no longer going to be selling paper. At least not at the rate, and for the prices they are selling it for now.

In short, their business would be turned upside down, and sideways and shaken hard to remove the dead wood. The dead wood is happy where it is, and does not wish to leave.

So they do pretty much everything in their power to stifle this whole new ebook thing.
Be it pricing, availability, Geographic restrictions, DRM, you name it they will try it.

Now I'm not saying everyone at every publisher is that way.
But out of 100 people in the top echelon of a big publishing house, if 10 drag their feet, and oppose ebooks. Just how much progress do you think they will make in that direction?

As a result we see the "steady by jerks" flow of ebooks.

I think those people who are dragging their feet are short sighted. But that is my opinion, and like any opinion it is just as irrelevant as any one else's.

All we can do, is vote with our feet. Communicate positively with those who are doing it right. And refuse to buy at all from those who are not.

In that respect, they are cutting their own throat. They are pushing people to the dark net. Costing themselves revenue streams that do not rely on killing trees, and shipping vast quantity's of paper. Thus burning fuel, and further increasing our dependence on foreign oil.

Save the trees, save the fuel, save the incredible amounts of waste.
Get everyone you know to switch to Ebooks.

Viva La Revolution!

[neilmarr]

***The big houses, though? Pretty sure most of them are playing games on purpose***

Thing is, Nashira, that rights to a book might be held by different publishers in different countries (indies like my own tend to publish a single international edition). But this is a mere smoke-screen for lazy retailers with agendas of their own. There is absolutely no reason why the major retailers shouldn't get off their arses and simply open retail websites in other countries to deal with local rights in, say, Europe, Australia, Hong Kong. It's all a piece of nonsense and we're all -- readers, writers and publishers -- getting bloody tired of it. Hoots. Neil

[SameOldStory]

Originally Posted by ronw

As a new convert to R-Reading I recently purchased a Kobo when it became available in New Zealand. I love the Kobo but what really disappoints me is the lack of material to read. I have compiled a list of around 10 e-book shops on Internet and the range of their offerings is minuscule. I want to be able to read new fictions books and also have a good range of Non Fiction material.
The online shops have almost no new material in either category. They pad their offerings out with material that can be legitimately obtained freely else where on web. What are other E-Readers doing for material. Maybe I am missing the better E-Book sites so if you have any suggestions I would appreciate.
What I want to be able to read on my Kobo is
The latest books by Jeffery Archer, John Connolly, John Grisham, Robert Goddard and other popular authors.

Check out "Buying ebooks with a foreign credit card.". Post #4 about Entropay.com

This may be really good but I need more info from Entropay.com users.

[nashira]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

***The big houses, though? Pretty sure most of them are playing games on purpose***

Thing is, Nashira, that rights to a book might be held by different publishers in different countries (indies like my own tend to publish a single international edition). But this is a mere smoke-screen for lazy retailers with agendas of their own. There is absolutely no reason why the major retailers shouldn't get off their arses and simply open retail websites in other countries to deal with local rights in, say, Europe, Australia, Hong Kong. It's all a piece of nonsense and we're all -- readers, writers and publishers -- getting bloody tired of it. Hoots. Neil

Oh, I realize. I've known the basics of how publishing works for years. But presumably if something is published to ones country in paper, someone, somewhere has the rights or means to get them for the ebook in the same country. Not saying it's easy as pie all the time - and some Authors (JKR comes to mind) don't want ebooks at all... which might be more short sighted than the publishers dragging their feet, actually. I'd love the HP series (the English version) in ebooks. Sincerely doubt I'm the only one.

...though I do have like two sets of the things in paper.


To the OP: lulu.com also has ebooks http://www.lulu.com/browse/search.ph...ass=5&fSearch=

Try not to buy PDF's, they're S.O.B's if you ever need to format shift.