Poll on obstacles to ebook buying

[Ben Thornton]

Originally Posted by dmikov

All this editing/proofreading/preparation cost they recite like a mantra, done not once, but twice or more times because the same book/manuscript is sold to multiple publishing companies?

That's an interesting question. Lots of books have different titles in the US and UK (in fact you have to watch out that you don't buy 2 copies!), but I don't know whether the insides are ever different in terms of editing etc.

In another thread, someone said that it was more common to sell to one publisher who then sold on the rights to other regions, which would avoid duplicated effort, but this isn't always the case.

[alvico]

Originally Posted by Ben Thornton

That's an interesting question. Lots of books have different titles in the US and UK (in fact you have to watch out that you don't buy 2 copies!), but I don't know whether the insides are ever different in terms of editing etc.

In another thread, someone said that it was more common to sell to one publisher who then sold on the rights to other regions, which would avoid duplicated effort, but this isn't always the case.

The spelling is different at least.

[Snowman]

GR definitely needs to be included in this and other polls.

In another thread someone reminded me that the Fictionwise advanced search included location as a criterion. So I used this for a little research.

I selected all "secure" books from April last year (when GR really started to bite), and compared availability between GB and US both overall, and for the categories that I often browse.

All books : 37% available for GB (4787/12671)
Fantasy : 59% available for GB (267/449)
Mystery : 17% available for GB (104/605)
SciFi : 11% available for GB (31/280)
Suspense : 27% available for GB (146/527)

Ouch! On average 63% of secure ebook sales are unavailable outside of the US, and worst case 89%? And remember that very few of that 63% are epublished elsewhere (at the moment, anyway).

No surprise then that my own FW purchase value over the same period dropped by over 90%, from >$500 to a few 10s of $$.

Somewhere somebody must be starting to itch, if not yet to hurt. It's not me though. I have a huge reading and re-reading list, and can always find someplace else that is happy to take my money.

Snowman

[alvico]

Originally Posted by Snowman

GR definitely needs to be included in this and other polls.

In another thread someone reminded me that the Fictionwise advanced search included location as a criterion. So I used this for a little research.

I selected all "secure" books from April last year (when GR really started to bite), and compared availability between GB and US both overall, and for the categories that I often browse.

All books : 37% available for GB (4787/12671)
Fantasy : 59% available for GB (267/449)
Mystery : 17% available for GB (104/605)
SciFi : 11% available for GB (31/280)
Suspense : 27% available for GB (146/527)

Ouch! On average 63% of secure ebook sales are unavailable outside of the US, and worst case 89%? And remember that very few of that 63% are epublished elsewhere (at the moment, anyway).

No surprise then that my own FW purchase value over the same period dropped by over 90%, from >$500 to a few 10s of $$.

Somewhere somebody must be starting to itch, if not yet to hurt. It's not me though. I have a huge reading and re-reading list, and can always find someplace else that is happy to take my money.

Snowman

And yet they claim something like only 10% of books are affected! Thanks for this.

[asjogren]

Originally Posted by Ben Thornton

That's an interesting question. Lots of books have different titles in the US and UK (in fact you have to watch out that you don't buy 2 copies!), but I don't know whether the insides are ever different in terms of editing etc.

Yes, I have by accident bought a book that I already owned several times while visiting used bookstores in London and Sydney. The titles do change.

I doubt many have different editing, but here is one detailed example from one of the Harry Potter books:
http://www.hp-lexicon.org/about/book...ences-hbp.html

Many, many changes. Besides spelling, we differ in some ways with the past tense of verbs and pluralization. And, of course, what the words mean:

"A few words are "translated" when using the original would be confusing. For example, the British "pants" is translated to the American "briefs", since the British word refers to underwear, while that same word in American refers to outerwear. And Mrs. Weasley makes her kids "jumpers" in the British version, but since Americans see that as referring to a girl's dress, we find that she makes her children "sweaters" instead."

[dickon25]

Alvico
And yet they claim something like only 10% of books are affected! Thanks for this. ....

Really?? I haven't seen that claim before - can you recall where you saw it?

My experience of Fictionwise and other US etailers is like Snowman's - just about everything I would like to buy there these days is unavailable for me in the UK.

[basschick]

well, i went back and voted, but imo a poll missing several important options gives an askew view of the subject.

[alvico]

Originally Posted by dickon25

Alvico
And yet they claim something like only 10% of books are affected! Thanks for this. ....

Really?? I haven't seen that claim before - can you recall where you saw it?

My experience of Fictionwise and other US etailers is like Snowman's - just about everything I would like to buy there these days is unavailable for me in the UK.

My experience here in Australia is exactly the same.

"Fewer than ten percent of our titles are restricted in any way." : http://www.ereader.com/help/Geograph...ictionsFAQ.htm

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by Snowman

GR definitely needs to be included in this and other polls.

In another thread someone reminded me that the Fictionwise advanced search included location as a criterion. So I used this for a little research.

I selected all "secure" books from April last year (when GR really started to bite), and compared availability between GB and US both overall, and for the categories that I often browse.

All books : 37% available for GB (4787/12671)
Fantasy : 59% available for GB (267/449)
Mystery : 17% available for GB (104/605)
SciFi : 11% available for GB (31/280)
Suspense : 27% available for GB (146/527)

Ouch! On average 63% of secure ebook sales are unavailable outside of the US, and worst case 89%? And remember that very few of that 63% are epublished elsewhere (at the moment, anyway).

No surprise then that my own FW purchase value over the same period dropped by over 90%, from >$500 to a few 10s of $$.

Somewhere somebody must be starting to itch, if not yet to hurt. It's not me though. I have a huge reading and re-reading list, and can always find someplace else that is happy to take my money.

Snowman

Thanks for that. Further confirmation that publishers involved in applying GR are closely related to Dodo's.

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by alvico

My experience here in Australia is exactly the same.

"Fewer than ten percent of our titles are restricted in any way." : http://www.ereader.com/help/Geograph...ictionsFAQ.htm

I would happily second that statement

[dickon25]

"Fewer than ten percent of our titles are restricted in any way." : http://www.ereader.com/help/Geograph...ictionsFAQ.htm

Hmm. A good explanation of GR but they're clearly talking about their own catalogue. I think the consensus on MobileRead is that the problem is far more widespread, particularly on the more mainstream sites and especially with bestsellers and recent titles. Thanks for the link Alvico.

[alvico]

Originally Posted by dickon25

"Fewer than ten percent of our titles are restricted in any way." : http://www.ereader.com/help/Geograph...ictionsFAQ.htm

Hmm. A good explanation of GR but they're clearly talking about their own catalogue. I think the consensus on MobileRead is that the problem is far more widespread, particularly on the more mainstream sites and especially with bestsellers and recent titles. Thanks for the link Alvico.

Maybe, but every single book I've been looking to buy from ereader.com is restricted. (Haven't bought from them in months.) I think if Snowman's research was conducted there, it would produce similar results to his other survey. Fewer than 10%? I don't think so.

[lene1949]

Originally Posted by alvico

Maybe, but every single book I've been looking to buy from ereader.com is restricted. (Haven't bought from them in months.) I think if Snowman's research was conducted there, it would produce similar results to his other survey. Fewer than 10%? I don't think so.

Long ago I actually sent them an email about these 10%, telling them they had it backwards... It's roughly 10% which are non restricted.

[Tattncat]

I would say DRM is the biggest issue and then price. If you have to deal with DRM it should be either cross platform (works on all devices) or multi (cloud) platform allowing a single eBook purchase to be downloaded into the various platform necessary to be put on all of an individual's reading devices. After that I would like to see reasonable pricing ang timely releases of eBooks.

[Pardoz]

Originally Posted by rhadin

Publishers did not invent geo restrictions within the past year; geo restrictions have been part of publishing for decades.

They have indeed, and for all of those decades nothing has prevented individuals from buying books from stores located in other countries, as up until the past year nothing prevented individuals from buying e-books from stores located in other countries - the point of sale was defined by the location of the seller, not the format of the book. Trying to hand-wave that away is disingenuous at best.