UK Borders to start selling ebooks from April

[garygibsonsf]

According to an article on the Bookseller website,

"Borders will begin selling e-books on its site from April. It will sell e-books that are available from Gardners' digital warehouse, which has more than 60,000 titles. Gardners already fulfils orders of physical books on Borders' website."

This is apparently part of a deal whereby Gardners, a book wholesaler, is looking at supplying ebooks to several major booksellers. Given that The Bookseller is (I believe) a UK publication, I think this deal involves only the UK branches of Borders rather than those Stateside. But still one more step towards an increased number of outlets, and (hopefully) towards greater choice and competition.

The article also mentions that "Last month, Waterstone's hit out at the number of e-books being produced, saying that not enough were available to meet growing demand."

[pthwaite]

Well it's about time Border's started selling ebooks. I've been emailling them since around Sept last year & never had a reply. It will be interesting to see what format(s) become avail & price... As they sell the iliad, one would expect Mobi to be avail at least, but we shall see.

[lilac_jive]

Wow that's awesome! They should have a better selection than Waterstones, right?

[Curly]

We can only hope...can't be worse surely?!

[zelda_pinwheel]

good news !! more ebooks is always a good thing. and it's about time somebody realised that there are not enough of them :

Originally Posted by garygibsonsf

The article also mentions that "Last month, Waterstone's hit out at the number of e-books being produced, saying that not enough were available to meet growing demand."

another excellent quote :

Publishers are beginning to take it more seriously with growing sales of e-readers. E-books are much further forward than they were even four months ago.

that is a very good sign.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by garygibsonsf

According to an article on the Bookseller website,

"Borders will begin selling e-books on its site from April. It will sell e-books that are available from Gardners' digital warehouse, which has more than 60,000 titles. Gardners already fulfils orders of physical books on Borders' website."

This is apparently part of a deal whereby Gardners, a book wholesaler, is looking at supplying ebooks to several major booksellers. Given that The Bookseller is (I believe) a UK publication, I think this deal involves only the UK branches of Borders rather than those Stateside. But still one more step towards an increased number of outlets, and (hopefully) towards greater choice and competition.

Is there any indication that BritBorders will pull an Amazon and only sell within the boundaries of the UK? Or that they will be operating with the atrocious Sony Library?

I have on occasion had to purchase treebooks from UKAmazon or other Brit sellers because the books were not available in the US, and once in a while run into a problem with being able to buy them at all, not being within the UK. For instance, I found it very difficult to acquire some of the volumes of the most recent translation(s) of In Search of Lost Time, though I was ultimately successful, being a stubborn...um, tenacious sort.

I've never grasped why Amazon blocks the sale of ebooks outside the US. Maybe someone can enlighten me...

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Harmon

I've never grasped why Amazon blocks the sale of ebooks outside the US. Maybe someone can enlighten me...

It is not just Amazon. Publisher rights to a book generally specify a geographic area and not the whole world. This is how it has been for years and years. Often the eBook rights are just a line item in the book contract. There are lots of implications to this. First the contract between the publisher and the author has to be enforced on the dealer which worked with Book stores for a long time but it less enforceable with web sites. Second, theoretically, if the book goes out of print (withdrawn by the publisher) the eBook could be withdrawn as well. Contracts are funny things sometimes.

dale

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Harmon

I've never grasped why Amazon blocks the sale of ebooks outside the US. Maybe someone can enlighten me...

Apparently, legally speaking, when you buy a paper book from Amazon US, the sale is deemed to have taken place in the US, so Amazon are allowed to supply it, no matter where the customer lives. When you buy an eBook on the other hand, the sale is deemed to occur at the customer's location, so if it's an eBook that Amazon only has US distribution rights for, they aren't allowed to sell it.

Why this difference should exist, I don't know; but from what I've read, that is the reason the eBook stores have to impose geographical restrictions.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Apparently, legally speaking, when you buy a paper book from Amazon US, the sale is deemed to have taken place in the US, so Amazon are allowed to supply it, no matter where the customer lives. When you buy an eBook on the other hand, the sale is deemed to occur at the customer's location, so if it's an eBook that Amazon only has US distribution rights for, they aren't allowed to sell it.

Interesting. Does it work the other way around, too? I mean, if I buy a treebook from Amazon UK, do they consider it to be a UK sale?

Why this difference should exist, I don't know; but from what I've read, that is the reason the eBook stores have to impose geographical restrictions.

Sigh. What is wrong with these people? Are we going to have to wait for them to die to get things running right?

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by lilac_jive

Wow that's awesome! They should have a better selection than Waterstones, right?

Really? That's impressive. For a while, here in Chicago, we had a Waterstones, and it was head & shoulders the best bookstore in the city.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Harmon

Interesting. Does it work the other way around, too? I mean, if I buy a treebook from Amazon UK, do they consider it to be a UK sale?

I would certainly imagine so, yes.