Amazon 1, Kobo 0

[AnemicOak]

A few off the top of my head...

https://bookviewcafe.com
https://weightlessbooks.com/
https://www.angryrobotbooks.com
https://dragonmount.com/store/

[Sweetpea]

None of thsoe sell books in any language but English. And none of those publishers sell books from the larger publishers.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

None of thsoe sell books in any language but English. And none of those publishers sell books from the larger publishers.

Well, yes, of course. But it isn't true that you can buy Kindle-compatible books only from Amazon. Whether you want to buy elsewhere or not, that's another matter.

Books are sold only in epub format in my native language too. But as Kindles were rather popular here a few years ago, most local booksellers put instructions on their webpages how to convert the books with Calibre (ebooks here use watermarking for DRM). I have to confess that I rarely buy ebooks in Estonian, though, because they're generally much more expensive than English-language ebooks.

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

None of thsoe sell books in any language but English. And none of those publishers sell books from the larger publishers.

Also Gutenberg.com (which also has books in languages other than English)

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Books are sold only in epub format in my native language too. But as Kindles were rather popular here a few years ago, most local booksellers put instructions on their webpages how to convert the books with Calibre (ebooks here use watermarking for DRM). I have to confess that I rarely buy ebooks in Estonian, though, because they're generally much more expensive than English-language ebooks.

That's why I started with leaving Calibre out of the equation. I don't even want to try to explain to my mother-in-law how to work with that...

And the Dutch spelling has shifted terribly since the 1950's or 1960's. I find reading books from the gutenberg library very difficult to read. And again, no recent authors I might want to read.

If I want a book, from a popular author, in Dutch, without using Calibre on my Kindle, I can only go to Amazon. If I want a book, from a popular author, in Dutch, without using Calibre on my Kobo, I can go to 3 or 4 stores.

No matter that there are some small publishers and/or stores that sell DRM-free books, in English, or sites that offer ancient books, the fact is that if you have a kindle and don't know how to remove DRM and work with Calibre, and want to read the books that are currently popular (which is the majority of the ereading world), you are forced to go to the Amazon store. If you have a reader that can also read epubs, you have a much larger selection in stores where you can buy books.

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Silly copyright laws force Amazon to block me from amazon.de, amazon.co.uk, amazon.whatever.

You've heard of VPN's, right?

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by maximus83

You've heard of VPN's, right?

Of course, the issue is book contracts, not copyright laws, as well. There is nothing in copyright laws that says I can't buy a book in England that isn't available in the US. Heck, people do that with paper books all the time. My original copy of Campaigns of Napoleon by David Chandler was purchased for me by my parents a long time ago when they were visiting London.

[johnnyb]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Of course, the issue is book contracts, not copyright laws, as well. There is nothing in copyright laws that says I can't buy a book in England that isn't available in the US. Heck, people do that with paper books all the time. My original copy of Campaigns of Napoleon by David Chandler was purchased for me by my parents a long time ago when they were visiting London.

To sum up, it's not a public/political but a private/economical issue.