If any reader doubts this: ask yourself what the economic potential of a German edition of the collected works Goethe/Schiller , Thomas Mann, Heinrich Boell, Guenther Grass, .. is. [ unless you live in a German speaking country ] It is close to zero.
Unless one of those works is becoming favorite reading in Foreign language courses nationwide there is no money to be made from those books.[ for years nearly every school in Germany was reading Catcher in the Rye , Lord of the4 flies and in recent years Dead Poet Society - consequently second hand bookshops are swamped with those ] Now with the German Authors list above I suspect that even translations would not do overly well – certainly the original untranslated stuff is not saleable.

Hope I make sense .

Because the NY publishers are interested in digital rights, I would like to know if they are interested in only buying certain rights– say in the US– or is it the authors/agents who are concerned that the foreign rights may be less attractive package if the digital rights are separated?

Can anyone speak to this?

To be honest, I’ve never noitced paying a higher price for my books than US customers, not taking the exchange rate into account. Most of the time the US prices I see quotes seem quite high; maybe this just reflects the books I buy, though.

I won’t be buying any ebooks from the “big” publishers in future. Too many restrictions and too high a price. I’ll stick to the smaller publishers who allow their books to be in multiformats so that I can actually read them on the Sony, the reason I bought an ebook device in the first place. I want to be able to read books on it :)

On the amazon uk front page the other day, they made a big noise about how you could now buy the Kindle if you lived in the UK. All well and good, but not if you can’t buy the books you want to read on it! Talk about stupidity.

take care,
Annette

But nup, because they are followers, and slow followers only.

Oceania media organisations have demonstrated consistently little interest in innovation over many decades, sporting coverage aside.

As far as the Kindle in NZ that is likely the demands of their extortionate telco monopoly I’d imagine.

It is still pretty funny how the 21st century publishing model is a determination to sell fewer books.

The only exception I make is I will buy a PDF/Adobe for Windows copy of a book by a favorite author that will never be available in a printed copy. Such as some of the Harlequin ebook short stories which I bought the version I can read on my PC.

So I personally don’t feel many sales would be lost by offering a digital copy internationally. The people who wanted the ebook and couldn’t get it would probably either pass on the book (if they hate printed books) or have ordered a US edition already (if it was just that they wanted to get the book fast). The people who prefer printed books will still probably buy the Australian edition or whatever published a year after the American one because they want an actual physical book. Also many casual readers (people who consistantly buy a few popular titles per year but not much else) will continue to buy the local editions of those bestsellers but won’t be able to afford, or don’t feel justified in the investment, of an ebook reader.

What do Harlequin have to say about it? They’re prepared to sell me their titles from their US-based ebookstore. I can also buy their paper titles from my local department store but mostly I choose the digital version.

As for territorial rights, that’s a remnant of print, isn’t it? If agents would separate the e deal from the print deal, that would be a start. But it looks like NY can’t let go; they’re hanging on to the e as if it might save them from what they have become.

Since Amazon.de started I haven’t even needed to pay import postage, it’s included in the price they offer on Amazon.de for the US or UK books (buying the books in Germany all regular shipping is free – no special subscription needed. If I buy other things than books I need to have my order come to more than € 20 and then shipping is free again; regular shipping if the book is available in their German warehouse taking about 2 days, otherwise they’re quite happy to get it from the US in a few days and then ship it to me). This also works with preorders of not yet published books.

I haven’t bought a book written by an English-speaking author in translation for more than 10 years.

The only thing that not offering me the ebooks means to the publisher is that I think more about my purchase (no instant gratification) and buy used books when the books are out of print (International Marketplace Traders are quite willing to send to me, as long as I’m happy with the additional shipping charge, as is Amazon.co.uk for that matter).

As a matter of fact I just received a Kathleen Seidel book, used, yesterday from a warehouse in New Zealand – sent within 12 days.

Aside: if the paperback of a US book is cheaper than the ebook price, I’ll buy the paperback.

In conclusion, Amazon not selling US ebooks internationally = hypocritical.

Honestly, with digital publishing the barriers to being profitable whether your company is based in the US, New Zealand, India, wherever, are simply not there. NZ moaning because eliminating territorial rights would deprive them of a piece of someone else’s pie is simple greed.

Why aren’t publishers in NZ baking their own damn pie? Why aren’t they fostering local talent? Why aren’t they harnessing the technology that makes it as easy for them to sign and publish a Canadian author and sell her books worldwide as it is for a US publisher to do the same?

It seems like they’re clinging by the ragged ends of their fingernails to the profits of an outdated model, and ignoring the newer model that could bring more wealth into their pockets. To be frank, when I’m looking to submit my work to a digital publisher, I don’t care where they’re based–because email, direct deposit, digital edits, etc, means I never have to pay a dime to ship my manuscript, or wait weeks and weeks for payment. My only consideration is “do they buy worldwide digital rights?” Because, frankly, the more books they sell direct from their store–whether to customers in the US, Europe or freaking Antarctica, the more money lands in my pocket.

Why can’t the negotiation be more about quid pro quo/networking. If American pubs have well established markets and distribution. Why not instead harness that by building associations that allow non-US pubs access to these markets on an exchange basis?

Am I being too naive here? Educational systems and businesses operate this way when it suite their needs.

If not, why not?

There’s no conceivable reason for the e-books to cost more, that’s just pure greed on somebody’s part.

Every since B&N bought Fictionwise I’ve bought many fewer e-books (they do not sell new e-books as .lit files any longer and blame the publishers). Good thing I had about half a mil already on my laptop which I’m slowly but surely transferring to my Sony 505; otherwise it would be another useless gadget…

Gah!