Is there any way to buy an international kindle book?

[DMB]

One of my favourite writer is British and died several decades ago but her books are still subject to copyright. I first bought her in paperback in the UK in the 1960s. Some of those books have become virtually unreadable (it happens, particularly with paperbacks), so I bought new copies during the past decade. Now, because I would prefer to have stuff on the Kindle, i'd be happy to buy them again in eformat. But they're not available in the UK. They are, however, available in ePub from the States. But strictly speaking, I can't buy them.

[JD78]

Originally Posted by Darkitow

I really don't get why can't I buy an american book from Europe. The writter is oing to get the same money, all the rest is just selfishness from editors.

Ironically, I started this thread because the book/author (Clive Cussler's Pacific Vortex!) I wanted is an American author, but the book is available in Kindle format on the UK store (not the US one).

As I looked into other books in his Dirk Pitt series, I have found several others that are in the same situation (Kindle format available in the UK, but not the US).

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by JD78

Ironically, I started this thread because the book/author (Clive Cussler's Pacific Vortex!) I wanted is an American author, but the book is available in Kindle format on the UK store (not the US one).

As I looked into other books in his Dirk Pitt series, I have found several others that are in the same situation (Kindle format available in the UK, but not the US).

This is because you are not entitled to buy it in the US version but have your own British version. US residents are entitled to buy the US version and get it shown in their Amazon accounts. Nothing to worry about.

[Pushka]

Apparently the legislation in Australia does not prohibit people from obtaining ebooks Internationally for personal use. It relates only to commercial use but our publishers don't want people to know that.

[hautecontre]

Even though I spend most of the year in Europe and only have a European credit card, I still have my Kindle registered to the American address of a family member because I want the American selection and American prices. I never use my credit card to pay for my purchases, though, but instead just give myself gift certificates that I draw off of to pay for my books. To make sure that I don't harm my fellow readers by making things more expensive for Amazon (which all of us will ultimately have to pay for at one point, right?) I always download my purchases by computer so Amazon doesn't have to bear the cost of my overseas use of Whispernet.

[Darkitow]

Originally Posted by JD78

Ironically, I started this thread because the book/author (Clive Cussler's Pacific Vortex!) I wanted is an American author, but the book is available in Kindle format on the UK store (not the US one).

As I looked into other books in his Dirk Pitt series, I have found several others that are in the same situation (Kindle format available in the UK, but not the US).

Well, last week was my birthday and I got a chunk of money to spend in eBooks as a present. I wanted to purchase Dune series and my surprise came when I could buy ALL books EXCEPT Chapterhouse: Dune.

But it was aviable in the US. I'm really sorry, but then I automatically went to my account and created an US address to get it. The book is like 26 years old, and it has been published a gazillon times everywhere. I mean that is not like if I wanted to purchase the 4th book of Eragon that was released yesterday (i.e) and it was in US only for some weeks till it get's here. I spent like 40 euros in books and Amazon decided that I wasn't going to read the whole Dune series because I'm not american. So I cheated, and gladly. If I had known that the whole series was unaviable for me I'd just go somewhere else and get it. Of course, the two new books of the main series by Frank Herbert's son are not aviable in Europe as eBooks.

In any case, this is not some kind of whim, I got my book, and I backup'd them for if Amazon decides to pay a bisit to my Kindle, so I'm happy. But I don't understand why there has to be a distinction between countries for digital services. I understand that there is one between Kindles, of course, because they have to go and send the machine, but between items that are just computer data? What's the difference?

Another thing was two books I wanted to get: The adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The tale of Sleepy Hollows. In America I could get them free, but in EU, I had to pay 3$. Can someone explain me why?

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by Darkitow

Another thing was two books I wanted to get: The adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The tale of Sleepy Hollows. In America I could get them free, but in EU, I had to pay 3$. Can someone explain me why?

Whispernet surcharges. Amazon still charges something like 2 euros + VAT for every book, regardless of whether or not you actually ever use the 3G or are in a position to.

If you haven't already shelled out, I suggest you check the ebook upload library here at MR, and also perhaps Feedbooks/Manybooks/Project Gutenberg for totally free versions of the public domain books. (Or if your purchase was within the past 7 days, in which case Amazon lets you return and refund it, no questions asked.)

We'll probably have nicer formatting than many of the PD repackagers at Amazon, too, thanks to the members who take the time to hand-tweak the files.

[abookreader]

I'm really sorry, but then I automatically went to my account and created an US address to get it.

I wouldn't be sorry.

It all has to do with the Publishing contracts and they way the break up territorial rights. When a Publisher buys the rights to sell the paper books in a place such as North America - they can ship the book to all the stores in North America and then when the stores make the sale - even if it is an internet sale that they ship to Australia - it is counted as a North American sale.

eBooks (digital sales) are counted as the residence of the buyer. So as a buyer/citizen of the United States, the Publisher who buys the right to sell the book in North America is the one who is supposed to sell it to me. So if Hatchette buys the rights to the UK and Penguin buys the rights to North America, but only Hatchette manages to actually put an eBook up for sale, then theoretically I'm not supposed to buy the eBook because Hatchette doesn't have the right to sell it to me. Penguin does. Even though they haven't made an eBook.

Even worse, sometimes nobody has bought the rights and they just sit there with the author, who may not think it is worth their time to publish in certain markets or has no idea how to accomplish it.

It's dumb. It's anti-buyer. It is one of those things that people will say left and right "Gosh, there has to be a better way" but nobody ever seems willing to fix.

[chamekke]

Just so you know... "North America" isn't a unit.

There are tons of books available to Amazon.com readers in the U.S. that are not available to me in Canada, even though I buy through Amazon.com.

I would love to buy Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping, for example - it's freely available to anyone with a U.S. address, but not to us Canadians. This is the case with several books I would readily buy again in Kindle format even though I already own hard copies.

The temptation to scan/OCR my existing hard copies is immense....

[Darkitow]

I understand the Whispernet fee, and in that case I wouldn't care to pay for that (even if I downloaded the book by Wi-Fi, I've never used the 3G feature of my Kindle and now I'm regretting the extra 50$ payed but, oh, well). But fror the other issues, it's really stupid.

Internet is not a country. You can't put boundaries or frontiers to internet based on physical conutries, that's just retarded. I don't care about Penguin ed. not publishing paperbooks out of the US, heck, I don't even know if I'll ever go to the US. But not letting me buy a book I CAN buy (meaning that, fuck, I'm at the screen, I have the credit card, I only need to push the OK button), is as stupid and senseless as not letting me buy a Penguin book from the shop because in my passport says I'm Spanish.

Attitudes like that are the ones that drag market progress down, trying to punish and avoiding ANYTHING related to online downloads labelling them as "piracy" when they should work to outsmart them, make purchases more appealing to the possible customer than downloading them by internet.

A simple example are actually eBooks (save the country thing). I download "hacked" books sometimes (basically the ones that I own already as paperbooks), but the truth is that, when you own a Kindle, going to the Amazon store and buying books from them is so infinitely more comfortable, easy and fast that it's worth every $ you'd save looking for the hacked book (because you gotta look for it, first, that will take even weeks if you're looking for a "rare" book. Then you gotta download it and in most of the cases you'll find the surprise! The book is so crap formatted that you gotta spend more time fixing it with eBook editors).

But that's not the same with other digital content, unfortunately.

Originally Posted by chamekke

The temptation to scan/OCR my existing hard copies is immense....

Well, you paid for it already. I wouldn't even feel "temptation", I'd just do, but that's a problem between you and your morals to solve...


Last thing... Does Amazon do something serious when they catch you switching addresses to buy books from other countries? I did it once to buy the Dune one, but I still gotta buy two more and I'm a bit afraid, lol. If nothing serious happens then I'll do again, though.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by Darkitow

Last thing... Does Amazon do something serious when they catch you switching addresses to buy books from other countries? I did it once to buy the Dune one, but I still gotta buy two more and I'm a bit afraid, lol.

Some people here at MR have said that they give you a warning notice, and occasionally block your account until you supply them with proof of residence or somesuch.

Frankly it's probably safer to set up a completely separate "US" account from the beginning, always use a VPN IP proxy when making purchases and downloads to your computer, and pay for any books you buy using gift cards if you hope to regularly tiptoe around geo-restrictions (really, they should be offering books worldwide and splitting up the rights among publishers according to language instead of territory).

[chuck_glenn]

There is at least one book I'd love to get that is available outside the U.S. only. I'll have to wait until I am on vacation in Mexico, and see if I can purchase it while there. It will be interesting to try!

[chuck_glenn]

Maybe the solution is for people to get "KINDLE BUDDIES" between inside-the-USA versus outside-the-USA people. If you register my kindle and purchase a book for me, then de-register it, I'll return the favor. Do you think this would work, or are there too many opportunities for abuse?

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by chuck_glenn

Maybe the solution is for people to get "KINDLE BUDDIES" between inside-the-USA versus outside-the-USA people. If you register my kindle and purchase a book for me, then de-register it, I'll return the favor. Do you think this would work, or are there too many opportunities for abuse?

You mean by using the lending function? Hm, then you just might ask for at the forums. On the other hand, some of us do the deDRM thingy...

[chuck_glenn]

No, I mean if you really want to stay legal, just temporarily register the device to someone who's really in the right territory, purchase and download the book, then switch the registration back.