Why Are Books From the UK Often Not Available for US Kindle?

[Shomeret]

I think that this is not up to Amazon. There needs to be a U.S. edition which has to be negotiated by the author's agent with a U.S. publisher in order for a book to appear in the U.S. If this never happens, the book will never be available on U.S. Amazon in any format. Sometimes there are major delays. Years can pass before a UK book is released in the U.S., but again this is not an Amazon decision unless Amazon is the publisher.

[Kimber]

Thank you Dawn!

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Mark wrote: "Does this all have something to do with Amazon's boycott of Hachette? - Hodder & Staughton are a Hachette owned company aren't they - so perhaps that explains it.

Amazon are wielding their near-m..."

I didn't know there was a boycott on Hachette.
The plot thickens.

[Terri, Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Shomeret wrote: "I think that this is not up to Amazon. There needs to be a U.S. edition which has to be negotiated by the author's agent with a U.S. publisher in order for a book to appear in the U.S. If this ne..."

Makes sense.
To add into that mix though, there are some UK books not available for Kindle US, but you can get them on Apple or Kobo.
We've seen that a couple times on our group reads. US Members cannot get the book on Kindle, but if they can access Apple or Kobo, they can download the book.

[Shomeret]

What U.S. readers are getting on Apple or Kobo is probably the UK edition though. Kobo in particular is very popular in Europe. So by using a more preferred format for e-books in other countries, Americans can do an end run around the publishers which are country specific.

[C.P.]

If, as an author, I enter a book in the US Kindle Store, the subsidiary stores pick it up; I don't have to do anything.

The reverse seems not to be true: I wrote to one UK publisher asking when it might have a US Kindle edition, only to discover that the publisher had no idea that the listing was not worldwide.

But this was a small, independent publisher. The big trade houses probably do time their releases in different markets in such a way as to stretch readers' anticipation to the utmost.

[Saul]

Rob wrote: "Richard wrote: "Amazon is gradually securing the digital rights to more Canadian titles, but it takes money and time, and they don't seem to be in any hurry. Kobo, being the product of a Canadian company (Chapters-Indigo), has a much larger library of electronic books available to Canadians than Amazon."
Sorry but I have to disagree with you. Nook has nowhere near the listings that Amazon.ca has or will ever have--in fact they probably have more Canadian authors as ebooks then Indigo/Chapters. We just don't has the population base to draw from to support large scale publishing.

As Canadians, we have difficulties getting "some" books from the USA but the worst culprit is books from Barnes & Noble--they won't even sell their readers to us.

I've gone to sites from links from here for a free copy of such and such book, only to be told that it isn't available in Canada or the usual response,is that the free price is $1.99 or so.

[Paul]

Darcy wrote: "I just thought of something. I wonder if UK publishers are not allowing books to be sold in Kindle format because of the tax avoidance issue going on there? Although they are available on the UK an..."

I published a book two years ago on Amazon for Kindle readers. As I set the sale price, etc., up, one thing I had to check was in which countries I wanted my book available. If the UK author either is not given the same choices I was -- or if the author is given the choice but does not check ( ) USA -- then the book would probably not be available for me to buy on Amazon.

[Eileen]

When I was in Turkey in March, at one point I was looking at a book on my kindle, but it said it was not available in that country.
Given that my kindle was registered in the US, I thought it was kind of freaky that they knew where I was.