Purchasing books from a different country - how easy?

[Timboli]

Originally Posted by HarryT

This is totally incorrect. A book can be sold in whatever regions the contract between the author and the publisher says it can be sold in. The publisher may have world-wide publishing rights or it may have rights that are restricted to one or more specific countries. The publisher may have exclusive rights, or the author may be free to sell the book through other channels, too. These are not "unjust laws", but simply contractual obligations.

Not unjust laws, but certainly unjust behavior to the point of being immoral and unethical.

The digital ebook format, should have made things better, but in many cases hasn't, all down to corrupt and self-serving publishers, perhaps even authors.

Many years ago, before getting my first ereader, I used to have to order some books through a local bookstore (in AUS) from American distributors. Sometimes it cost a pretty penny, but that was mostly down to postage/shipping. Then several years ago, I started making purchases online myself from all over the world, especially from America. I bought a lot of books new and a good number secondhand from both American and Canadian libraries.

Then I bought a Kindle, and discovered about exclusivity and corruption.

There are books I can simply not buy now, in ebook form, though they are available in America. I can buy them in hardcover or paperback, but not in the ebook format, which is the only format I want now.

The publishers are playing games. They claim it is due to publishing rights, but where is the justice, when I cannot get the ebook, because of some deal with a company/publisher that doesn't do ebooks. They are not the same product, and just like profits from ebooks shouldn't be used to cover the losses of physical books, and thus drive up ebook prices artificially, they shouldn't dictate availability of ebooks.

P.S. Sorry to revive your old post, blame Victoria.

[Timboli]

@rossi - No worries.

These are the same people, who put pressure on governments all over the world to increase the time period before public domain. They are also the same ones who put pressure on governments to make second hand bookshops pay a levy to publishers.

They are not satisfied, that we cannot re-sell ebooks, where in the past books were often re-sold many times over, with little or no profit going to them after the first sale. They want full control, unreasonable control. Mostly it is the Publisher, and often to the detriment of the Author, because the Publisher has engaged in special deals with others, sometimes conflicting ones.

I could rant about this all day, and the games many Publishers play with ebook prices and so on, and the many false claims they make. But I won't.

Long Live Indie Authors!

P.S. This does not apply to all Publishers, as there are also many good ones that have a conscience and play fair.

[Sarmat89]

Originally Posted by Timboli

They claim it is due to publishing rights, but where is the justice, when I cannot get the ebook

The justice? The publisher cannot send the physical books across continents for that small price you pay for purchase the digital one. That is unfair competition and it must be restricted.

[Timboli]

Originally Posted by Sarmat89

The justice? The publisher cannot send the physical books across continents for that small price you pay for purchase the digital one. That is unfair competition and it must be restricted.

What small price?
I cannot purchase the ebook full-stop.

And last I looked, many if not most ebooks are far dearer than print ones. They are certainly not as cheap as they should be, ALL things considered.

How can they be unfair competition, when they are not even the same product?
What is the point of restricting me to a physical book, when I am only wanting the ebook?
In reality, you are saying buy the physical book or go without. That is immoral and unethical.

P.S. I have had my say here now, and any further discussion should really be in a separate topic, unless sanctioned here by a MOD.

[__Claire__]

Amazon Japan operates separately from most of the other sites. With my amazon.fr account, I can buy books from amazon US, DE, U.K., IT, SP and have done it many time. But for Amazon Japan, you need a special, separate account. Which means that you can’t have books from your regular account and books from your Japanese account at the same time on your kindle, unless you follow the advice of Alf... which, for Japanese books, is more complicated, because Amazon.co.jp won’t let you download to your computer, only to your kindle. Which you then have to connect to your computer to transfer books, let Alf run his magic, then transfer back again.

The good news is, you don’t need a Japanese address or a Japanese credit card to have a amazon.co.jp account.

Depending on how much you read in Japanese, in English, and in other languages, it might be easier to just register your kindle to your Japanese account, and buy all books from there. It’s not very much more expensive, at least for me, but while the English language selection is the same as on Amazon.com, you might struggle with European books.

[chompop]

Originally Posted by __Claire__

because Amazon.co.jp won’t let you download to your computer, only to your kindle.

That information may be a bit outdated since I have been doing that (download books to Kindle for PC/MAC) for the past two years.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by chompop

That information may be a bit outdated since I have been doing that (download books to Kindle for PC/MAC) for the past two years.

That is not the same as Amazon's transfer via USB option.

[__Claire__]

Originally Posted by chompop

That information may be a bit outdated since I have been doing that (download books to Kindle for PC/MAC) for the past two years.

From Amazon.co.jp ? That’s interesting. My computer kindle app never shows up as a destination, even with th ériger account. It does from the other international sites, though

[chompop]

Originally Posted by __Claire__

From Amazon.co.jp ? That’s interesting. My computer kindle app never shows up as a destination, even with th ériger account. It does from the other international sites, though

Yes, from amazon.co.jp. Of course you have to register it with your amazon.co.jp account. You cannot mix it with other amazon account.

[chompop]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

That is not the same as Amazon's transfer via USB option.

Oh, I didn't realize that it is about the transfer via USB option. My bad.

[Lady Stardust]

You can download to PC/Mac and transfer via USB from Amazon Japan without problem.
Go to manage your content and devices, select books and you get list of your books. Check the square with 3 dots, one of the options is download&transfer via USB.