Books you would love to buy but can't....

[TheSmitty]

My impression is that this is a problem more for people not in the US than those in the US, but I could be wrong.

It is frustrating that I cannot buy the books I want although I know these exist and are available outside the US. Case in point:

"Between the Strokes of Night" by Charles Sheffield
"Excession" by Iain M. Banks

These two are not available anywhere as ebooks in the US (Amazon, Baen, etc)

There are a few others but those two come mind. Anyway, what books would you love to buy but are denied?

[maddz]

Open Road Media publications. Often the UK rights are owned by Gollancz who rarely discount (and don't permit ORM to discount), but even if there is no UK rights holder then I still can't purchase the title.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by maddz

Open Road Media publications. Often the UK rights are owned by Gollancz who rarely discount (and don't permit ORM to discount), but even if there is no UK rights holder then I still can't purchase the title.

Most of the UK “SF Gateway” (Gollancz) books aren’t available in the US due to the fact that US rights are held by a different publisher.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by TheSmitty

My impression is that this is a problem more for people not in the US than those in the US, but I could be wrong.

I actually get the impression that more British books are unavailable in the US than vice versa.

"Between the Strokes of Night" by Charles Sheffield

All of Charles Sheffield’s books used to be sold by Baen (I have them). I think they lost the rights when he died. A good reason to always buy books that interest you when you see them - there’s no guarantee they’ll continue to be available. I have every ebook Baen have ever published (I’ve been buying their monthly bundle since 1999, when it started) and I reckon that a good 10% of those books are no longer available for sale.

"Excession" by Iain M. Banks

Available from Amazon UK.

[GlenBarrington]

Edgar Pangborn's "Davy". Seems to be out of print, forever.

[Little.Egret]

This will shortly be available


Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants by John Drury Clark plus foreword by‎ Isaac Asimov

John D Clark's cult favorite - a history of the first thirty years of rocket propellants - is being reprinted this May by Rutgers University Press.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/...eing-reissued/


https://www.amazon.com/Ignition-Info...dp/0813595835/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ignition-In...dp/0813595835/

https://www.amazon.ca/Ignition-Infor...dp/0813595835/

[ZodWallop]

I'd like to buy an e-book of the Canadian literary/horror book The Town That Forgot How to Breathe by Kenneth J. Harvey. It's available at Amazon UK (cheap!), but not available in the US (or Canada, for that matter).

[pwalker8]

I think you will see a number of thread lamenting geo restrictions, i.e. books being available as ebooks in one country but not another.

I think that HarryT has the right of it. The good news is that books slowly become available. Both Fiest's books and Eddings books were available in England well before being available in the US.

I have a number of books that were available as ebooks a number of years ago and are no longer available. It's not really what I expect with ebooks, but there you have it. It seems to me that books where the author is dead are more likely to fall in that category than books where the author is still active.

[AnotherCat]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

Edgar Pangborn's "Davy". Seems to be out of print, forever.

Davy is available on Kobo for NZ purchasers, at least, so still in print. Maybe a geo restriction for you?

[gweeks]

Originally Posted by HarryT

All of Charles Sheffield’s books used to be sold by Baen (I have them). I think they lost the rights when he died. A good reason to always buy books that interest you when you see them - there’s no guarantee they’ll continue to be available. I have every ebook Baen have ever published (I’ve been buying their monthly bundle since 1999, when it started) and I reckon that a good 10% of those books are no longer available for sale.

I'm still trying to find a way to get my hands on some of the John Dalmas that Baen had and I didn't buy it when they did.

Greg

[TheSmitty]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I actually get the impression that more British books are unavailable in the US than vice versa.



All of Charles Sheffield’s books used to be sold by Baen (I have them). I think they lost the rights when he died. A good reason to always buy books that interest you when you see them - there’s no guarantee they’ll continue to be available. I have every ebook Baen have ever published (I’ve been buying their monthly bundle since 1999, when it started) and I reckon that a good 10% of those books are no longer available for sale.



Available from Amazon UK.

I completely agree, i’ve learned to pull the trigger and buy once I have decided I would like to read something because of this. It’s just unfortunate all around. Of course my backlog continues to grow.

It’s one of those “shut up and take my money” situations but no one there to sell. Of course you can buy used pb versions or go to the seedy side of the internet neither of which benefits the author or publisher.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

Edgar Pangborn's "Davy". Seems to be out of print, forever.

Another one SF Gateway puts out in the UK and other places, but unfortunately not the US.

[OddCosine]

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. The original Spanish version is available as an ebook in the US, but not the English translation. It is available from Amazon UK, but not to me.

[barryem]

The thing about books being unavailable in ebook form is really about waiting. I kept watching for William Humphry's "Home from the Hill" for years and finally it became available and I bought it. I'll bet I checked for that one for 7 or 8 years before it did.

Till a couple of years ago ebooks by John O'Hara, one of the more popular writers of the 50's and 60's weren't available and then over a few months they all were.

One book I have fond memories of reading when it was new was MacKinlay Kantor's "Spirit Lake". I've been trying to find that in ebook form for a couple of decades.

And one of the best selling writers of them all in the 1940's and 1950's, Frank Yerby, the guy who almost single handedly invented the romance novel, wrote a lot of really good historical novels that weren't romance novels. The only ones in ebook format are the few that are novelized stories from the bible. After 20 years of being a writer of so many best sellers he made the foolish mistake of revealing that he was black and now no-one knows his name.

Barry

[bgalbrecht]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

Edgar Pangborn's "Davy". Seems to be out of print, forever.

I believe Peter S. Beagle is the literary executor for Pangborn's estate. My suspicion is that Beagle's own writing and his own legal issues are impeding any chance of Pangborn's return to publishing. There are a couple of Pangborn's works which did not have the copyright renewed, and are available at Project Gutenberg.