Maelstrom

[bingley]

I see my local bookshop has "Maelstrom" in its sale. I haven't read any of the other books in this series. Does it work as a stand alone or should I read others first?

[eann]

We tried to write them so they could be read independently but you'd probably get more out of it if you read the others first.

[jube]

It'd be helpful so you get some of the background info that they talk about sometimes throughout the book.

[eann]

Of course, you could get it on sale and then collect the rest of the set. I have paperbacks here I could send if you have trouble finding them. Have no idea what postage would cost till I sent them though.

[bingley]

More than the books! But thanks for the offer.

[eann]

Yes, postage to far places is almost always more costly than the books. I think that the whole e-book thing would be a boon for folks who love books but live where it is very expensive to get them. You can download them cheaply to devices or even your laptop. Of course, the devices may be prohibitively expensive in other countries too. But if I found out I was going abroad for an extended time, I'd definitely consider it.

[bingley]

That opens up another can of worms. Ebook publishers often restrict availability based on geographical area. I have been ranting about that in the Pern forum.

[edith]

They're not too expensive here. I was looking at laptops on Saturday and netbooks started at around 300 euros, laptops from 5 to 600 euros (I'll have to spend over 700 though to get one that I can pick up and carry for long distances on the train) and e-readers started from around 200 euros. They looked rather shiny actually, but the laptop is the priority at the moment.

[eann]

I imagine we all prefer real books but it seems like one answer anyway. Bingley, I don't see any point in them restricting access depending on geographical location. That's supposed to be one of the things the ebooks are FOR. Stupid middle guys.

[bingley]

Oh, I agree completely, but apparently authors may have different agreements with different publishers in specific countries, so they are not allowed to sell to people in other countries.

[eann]

As far as I am aware I have made no such agreements with anyone. Now, if we're talking translations--pretty much the country in question has to buy the book themselves and have it translated to put it into any form, hard-copy book or e-book. But for English speaking countries or English speakers in those countries, there should be the English translation of the book available if it has been made available at all as an e-book by the author or publisher. Maybe Del Rey places restrictions on the ebooks of our collabs but I don't know that they do. I know my solo books have no such things on them though--I invested in trying to get them the broadest and longest distribution I could because even if I can't be an overnight success, it's important to me to have my work read at some point by whoever is interested. These days even libraries can't be relied upon to keep books around after a they reach a certain age.

[bingley]

You see, although I'm from the UK I'm based in Jakarta, which is not in an English-speaking country. I started ranting on here because when I tried to order some of the Pern books as ebooks I was told there were geographic restrictions on who the seller could sell to. I've had the same problem with other authors' books (not to mention audiobooks and music). The ebook seller says on their website http://www.ereader.com/help/Geograph...ictionsFAQ.htm :

An eBook I wanted to buy has Geographic Restrictions. What's that?
Due to the way eBook contracts are written, there are times when a particular eBook has geographic restrictions. This means we cannot legally sell the eBook to people who live in certain countries. Books that have this kind of restriction are marked on their description page, in the information area there will be a list of countries allowed or not allowed to purchase the eBook.

Please note that USA residents can buy every single one of our titles. Canadian residents can buy all but a very tiny handful of titles.

Why do publishers make these kinds of restrictions? Don't they want to sell eBooks?
The paper book business has always had the notion of being able to sell the rights of a particular book to different publishers by geographic region. Although we would tend to agree that this notion is outdated in the world of the Internet and eBooks, the fact is those contracts are still in force. If publishers do not take steps to ensure their eBook sales are adhering to the terms of those contracts, they are subject to legal action from whatever other publisher has licensed the rights to the eBook in other countries. Effectively, the publisher's hands are tied. As such, they require us to enforce these restrictions. If we did not obey the publisher's wishes, the publisher would withdraw the eBooks from sale on our web site for all customers.

[eann]

I suppose that may be true in some cases but the Pern books, for instance, were all written and produced way before there even WERE electronic rights.
Well, not all--but many.

[Hans]

But that doesn't matter, right Eann? The rights still do adhere, although I'm with Bingley and find it silly that certain sellers won't sell to certain countries. Silly because technically you will be buying in the country the website/seller is based, not the country you live in. But I'm probably seeing things too simple again...

[eann]

I think it is silly that people can't buy any book published anywhere no matter where they live if they want to pay the money for it. I can't think of any advantage to anyone in not letting them do so.

[StevenB]

So, what happens if readers band together and form a club in which they order an e-book from their own country on behalf of someone else and then forward it by email in exchange for someone else in another country doing the same for them?

"Cheap electrons. Get your lovely electrons here."

[bingley]

I don't think you could email the actual book. Probably the way to do it would be to share your name and password, which is probably against the terms and conditions. Whether they have any way of checking up on you is another matter.

[eann]

Steven, you are making me shudder. I know you would do it only with the best intentions but that's how authors lose control of their work and the payment therefore. I promise one thing. If I do ebooks on my own, without an intermediary, anybody who wants to buy the PDF from me can buy one and I don't care where they live.

[StevenB]

Eann, sorry if I caused any shudders. I was thinking of the e-books as if they were the paper variety. If someone is prevented from buying a particular edition of paper book because it isn't available in their country they can ask a friend to buy it on their behalf (assuming the import restrictions on a book for ordinary people are less strict than the selling restrictions the publisher has to deal with). I think if someone wants to buy a copy of a book they should be allowed to do so regardless of where they live.

But I can see where an e-book could pose a problem. To be fair on the author, the friend should delete their copy of the book once it has been successfully sent (or buy another copy for themselves).

[bingley]

That is similar to what I quite often do if I want a book which isn't available here or is available but prohibitively expensive. I order a book from Amazon and have it sent to a friend's brother who lives in the US. When my friend visits his brother, which he does every other year, he brings the book back with him for me. But there are times when 2 years is longer than I want to wait. But there doesn't seem to be any equivalent way round it for ebooks.

[eann]

You know, I think with the internet and there being so many international sites and people better able to compare notes than they used to be, they are going to have to stop some of these silly restrictions. I do agree with Steven that if a person wants to buy a book they ought to be able to. There are so many stupid counter productive publishing practices and yet, if a book doesn't sell x-number of copies, it's because the author has failed. Geeeeeeeeeeez. And they make these silly rules so all the people who want to buy a book can't do it. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!