Canadian journalists bemoan limited Kindle offerings up North: Where’s Michael Crichton’s latest? Stephen King’s?
Canadian journalists are joining TeleRead community members and other e-book-lovers in complaining about Amazon’s sparse offerings up North—at least when it comes to best-sellers.
Jesse Michaels, finance and tech editor for Canoe.ca, writes: “Sure, Amazon says Canada (and most other countries) has access to a library of 300,000+ eBooks, but there are many big titles we can’t buy because of copyright restrictions.
“Take ‘Pirate Latitudes,’ the posthumous novel from Michael Crichton. The eBook is readily available in the U.S. but Canadian Kindle users are out of luck. Want to read Stephen King’s latest? The same restrictions apply.
“I’ve had the Kindle for about a week now and am growing increasingly frustrated by the inability to buy these and other eBooks. Chances are I was going to purchase them in print anyway, so why can’t I buy the electronic versions in Canada?”
Meanwhile Peter Worthington, a columnist for the Observer, a Sun Media newspaper in Sarnia, Ontario, has picked up Michaels’ complaint.
Hello, big publishers? I love p-books, but it’s time to stop being so bleepin’ print-centric and to grasp the obvious—that it’s much harder to control the movement of electrons than of atoms. About half of TeleRead’s thousands of readers live outside the United States, and I’m delighted. Imagine where we’d be today if we had to worry about territories. Someone, somewhere, has suggested that rights might be sold by language rather than geography. Possible compromise?
December 1st, 2009 at 9:02 am
Canadian publishers should be selling to their readers. Simple as that. Whatever happened to the adage: “The customer is always right”. If we are willing to buy something sell it to us. This Amazon Kindle thing is ridiculous. Sony will sell these books to us in Canada. Barnes & Noble who own Fictionwise & eReader will sell them to us– although for the life of me I don’t understand why Barnes & Noble themselves won’t. Publishers, authors & agents should be thinking that if someone is willing to pay for the ebook then lets sell it to them. Read Douglas Hunter’s online article in the Globe and Mail on his assessment of the Kindle. Very informative. Publishers/authors/agents WAKE UP!!!
December 1st, 2009 at 11:26 am
If Fictionwise has the books in the right format (unsecure Mobi) you can easily put them on a Kindle. I suspect though, that fooks from major publishers will only be available with DRM’d Mobi or similar restrictions.
December 1st, 2009 at 10:29 pm
I seem to recall an Australian publisher having expressed concern that Australians would all purchase U.S. editions of books if both were available to them. So the language limitation won’t make that publisher happy. Never mind the fact that there are likely more people *outside* of Australia than *within* who would like to purchase Australian editions. (I’ve mentioned in other comments that publishers are dumb, right?)
In the meantime, can U.S. publishers *possibly* believe that if I can’t get a title by a French (or fill in your language here) author in the original, I would ever consider reading an English translation? Or do French publishers simply have no idea how many French speakers there are outside Europe?
Publishers are dumb.
December 2nd, 2009 at 5:29 pm
I am impressed with the Kindle but I also noticed right away that many of the books I wanted out of the gate were not available to download in Canada. I may contact a friend in the US and change my address to there… but what about Amazon finding out? Will they delete my ebooks from the US at that point? Probably.
December 3rd, 2009 at 10:43 am
It’s not the publishers or the agents! amazon put kindle into the Canadian market knowing nothing would be available because they want the Canadian publishers to give them rock-bottom deals on electronic rights. amazon are known for this kind of rapacious behavior. They think if they do this everyone will pressure the publishers to knuckle under and give amazon what they want. I think it stinks but I think the people you should be complaining to are amazon.
December 11th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
I really like the Kindle device but I am frustrated by the lack of content in Canada. I contacted Amazon and complained. They suggested I contact the publishers. If Amazon is going to offer an e-book device they should ensure that the content is available. Putting the onus on the reader to deal with the publishers is unacceptable. I will not be recommending the Kindle to any of my friends who are in the market for an e-book reader for just this reason. I’m still undecided if I should send mine back for a refund and go with a Sony.