Take a look at this Teleread discussion. A reader has noticed that ebook retailer Fictionwise/Ereader.com, recently acquired by big US book retailer Barnes and Noble, appears to be tightening its policies, blocking foreign buyers from purchasing titles.
In the past, under independent ownership, it seems to have had fairly loose territorial restrictions on its customers. I know you’ve been able to buy titles from Fictionwise fairly easily from New Zealand, for example.
Says Teleread’s Paul Biba:
Many, if not most, ebooks have geographical restrictions and I would suppose that eReader/Fictionwse now has access to a larger staff who can take the time to vet such things – and, of course, is now owned by a company who takes such stuff pretty seriously. Sony and Amazon have this problem as well and have limited their distribution outside of the United States.
I think this is probably right. A smaller operator is going to have think seriously about how much time and money it can put into ascertaining and managing the maze of territorial rights across thousands of ebook titles. Frankly, many publishers would have trouble providing the precise scope of digital rights so a pioneering ebookseller like Fictionwise/Ereader could end up spending a huge amount of effort trying to extract this information, and build the database and technology to enforce it. Easier simply not to bother and focus on making sales to stay alive. However, a big player like B&N would have more resources and more concern about its reputation or legal position.
In a post responding to this blog, author Mia Amato makes this observation:
In the future, I do see a market in foreign language digital, especially Spanish, French, German, Japanese, and Portugese. Near future, I would expect rights departments of publishers at least looking into going back to authors and re-acquiring world English digital rights, in the form of a contract amendment, similar to amendments sent out back in 1999 to nail down digital.
Let’s hope this tightening up of geographical rights doesn’t make it even more difficult for those English language markets outside of the US and UK to get moving in this market.
On the other hand, is this an opportunity for local retailers to jump into this market and compete with the big international sites by sorting out their own country rights and offering a comprehensive catalogue to their local ebook customers?
Twitter It!
10 responses so far ↓
1 larry // Apr 22, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Good Points Martin,
I look forward to having our local retailers compete and offer their own comprehensive catalogues at the local level. What a boost to national talent this will be.
LHH
Wellington
2 Keith Mockett // Apr 22, 2009 at 9:08 pm
And so the carziness continues. The authors had better get on top of this quickly as it will probably mean less sales. The authors need to make sure that the publishers actually do publish eBooks in the markets they have the rights and no just sit on them.
This won’t kill eBooks but it will reduce some authors sales. Maybe that’s a bit of leverage the publishers can use at negotiation time, those with a history of publishing for world markets may be more attractive to authors than single market publishers.
Yes, it is an opportunity for locals.
3 Shelley // May 26, 2009 at 3:06 pm
It certainly does mean less sales from me. I am a regular buyer of eBooks and have been reading them for the last couple of years (I use a Palm T/X – not an ideal screen size but great that I can read books in Mobipocket, eReader or pdf formats). I buy and read approximately 300 books per year. I had intended to purchase about 13 books today and had them in my cart at Fictionwise. When I went to check out 6 of them had geographical restrictions on them. If I wanted to I guess I could go and order the paperback versions from Fishpond as they have them available in print format but that defeats the purpose of my wanting to buy eBooks. Of the 6 books restricted 4 were from the same author and she has now lost 4 sales just from 1 person. Instead I will go to the library and borrow them instead and I probably won’t bother purchasing them even when there is no geographical restriction for the eBook. So far this year there have been a minimum of 15 eBooks that I haven’t been able to buy due to geographical restrictions. It amazes me that there are geographical restrictions on some eBooks even when they are available to purchase here in the print format!
4 Donald D. Jones // Jun 9, 2009 at 10:48 pm
The problem is that digital publishing is still being driven by the print publishing industry. It is, in fact, a completely different industry, with its’ own paradigm.
Our author’s contracts are not set up for regional rights, but for language rights. Usually, we contract for all English and Spanish language rights. In some cases, we contract for English and the author’s native language. Digital books are inherently marketed internationally on the internet, so the geographic rights that made sense in print publishing are absolute insanity in the digital publishing industry.
As more pure digital publishers start rising up through the ranks, you can expect geographical restrictions to disappear.
5 sarah catherall // Jun 10, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Hi
I was trying to get hold of Shelley who left a comment above. I’m writing a feature article on ebooks and keen to interview her as she’s a buyer. Please email me with your details if keen. Thanks so much.
Sarah Catherall
6 Barnes and Noble claims world’s largest eBookstore, announces Plastic Logic deal // Jul 22, 2009 at 9:49 pm
[...] its purchase of Fictionwise and its eReader software earlier this year, US bookselling giant Barnes and Noble has launched some early fruits of this acquisition with what [...]
7 Richard Clement // Sep 9, 2009 at 6:47 pm
What a shame this is. Since about 2000 I have been a regular purchaser or eBooks from eReader.com – Peanut Press as it was then. I started on an early Philips PDA and have been through Ipaq’s, Palm’s, Symbian Nokia’s and finally the iPhone. Over this period I have built up a library of hundreds of titles – often at prices not much cheaper than the print book. As a voracious reader I just loved the convenience of buying books from home and always having something to read with me. Last year I bought an e-ink reader BeBook which saw me switch some of my business to Mobipocket – but it seems both now have extensive geographic restrictions. If other countries had ebookstores in place I can see the point – but all that this does is cut off sales within a fledgling industry. Its plain barmy – and Im not switching back to paper – Im just rereading my existing content. I have a simple system – all novels are bought as e versions which keeps the space free on the shelf for nice hardback non-fiction!
8 Janice R // Oct 18, 2009 at 2:19 pm
I agree with comments above. As somebody who lives in Asia and does a lot of travelling in the course of my job, it’s impossible to lug around hard-copy books when my suitcase is already overloaded with training gear. So this lack of availability of ebooks is a real pain in the leisure-time, which I have too little of anyway when I’m training in some obscure spot. I’m stuck doing the same as Richard: re-re-read the books already on my e-shelf. But I’m getting awfully sick of some of them….!
9 Howard T // Dec 15, 2009 at 11:44 pm
Have the same problem,.Apparently it os tied to your credit card details. If you have a UK account or know somebody that has this will solve your problems.
Currently it is driving me up the wall!!
10 Chas. Kearney // Dec 16, 2009 at 8:07 am
Contemplating the purchase of an E-Book Reader I checked out prices at various sites, and was appalled to find that whilst you can buy the print copy of an older book for a few pounds + delivery, they wanted the full retail price for an E-Book. How is that for short sighted! The book sellers of this world can’t see green cheese but they want a big chunk of it, and if they continue in this manner they’ll stop E-Books in their tracks, kill the golden goose and cost authors a fortune. Madness!
Leave a Comment