Which of course is actually a second economically rational backup method when corporate behaviour as mentioned above happens.

As far as I know, no e-book store currently makes such a guarantee, because it’s not possible to keep that guarantee.

The last time that I checked (about a week ago), BooksOnBoard did not have the ability to supply any e-books from Hachette, Penguin, Macmillan, or Simon & Schuster. This is fall-out from the ‘Agency Model’ conversion, which has left most smaller e-book stores unable to obtain e-books from the distributors for ‘Agency 5′ titles.

If you had made backup copies of your e-books, you’d be able to read them no matter where you are in the world, even if the e-book store loses its distributor, and even if the e-book store goes out of business.

Recently my laptop decided it had had enough and unexpectedly died on me. Tonight I attempted to re-download a bunch of ebooks I’d bought from booksonboard only to be refused because I was outside of the region. If I’ve already paid for these books, been allowed to download them just a few months ago, how can they refuse me the right now?

Publishers need to understand that ebooks really are the way forward. Ebooks are ideal for me because – as a student – I am able to move my book collection around without having to carry great big boxes up and down the country.

Whilst I’ve always been a big reader, my switch to ebook resulted in me spending much more money on books than beforehand. Which isn’t to say that I’ve neglected the good-old, money-making paperback. If I enjoy an ebook enough, I buy it in paperback. Indeed, because of my introduction to various writers through ebooks, there are books by certain authors that I will buy only in book-form.

Whilst I wait for my reply from booksonboard as to whether I can ever again read books which I own and which they’ve sold to me, I face the dillema many face. Do I – with my limited funds and many student loan repayments looming in the future – download these books, and others by the authors, again or do I pursue other avenues to get these? Frankly I’m surprised publishers even make any good money now-a-days when they’re practically forcing people down a route which sees them out of money.

Thanks for reading my ramblings – I have never been motivated enough to write my comments to anything like this before.

Thanks for your insights into the publishing industry. However, if what you say is true, then another analogy might be to a dinosaur staring up at the doomsday comet thinking, “yeah, just another day in paradise”.

Really, anyone with a modicum of intelligence would recognise that we are entering a similar phase to the music industry when devices to store and use digital content were becoming more ubiquitous and easier to use. When the price of those devices dropped sufficiently, they became consumer items and people purchased them in droves.

The question publishers need to ask themselves is, when that happens to digital books, where do they want people to get their content from?

So, publishers, keep putting more resources into frustrating people who want to buy your ebooks. And, while you are at it, start preparing your complaints now about how much money you are losing to piracy and hire some lawyers so in future you can prosecute 12 year olds sharing ebooks.

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Does anyone else have a mental picture of publishing industry execs using their computers to play solitaire on Windows 3.1 while waiting for their secretaries to print out their emails?

If you’ve already sold those rights to a different publisher (world rights that is), there’s not exactly much a local publisher can do if they want ebook rights in addition – they can demand all they want, but nothing’s going to change that. Instead they’re left with a choice of getting the paper rights, or no rights at all. Given the current size of the ebook market, I don’t see it being a large factor in whether they pick up an author or not.

In the end all this is part of the negotiation process, and authors do have a lot more power than many realize. It also helps to have a good agent.

Most major publishers insist on ebook rights be included with paper rights, and they, not the author, determine what kinds of rights they want.

I can certainly see why an author would want to split up the regional rights to a work, but claiming there’s nothing you can do is not correct. Whether it’s best for you, is a different matter.

> So, sorry, folks. Don’t expect instant gratification on this issue.

I don’t think anyone expects instant gratification – instead I think that people realize that unless we speak up now, not only is it going to remain a problem, but it’ll just get worse. Forget promoting a unified format like epub – that’ll work itself out sooner or later. Promoting global rights sales and availability however is something that will remain an issue unless steps are taken early to resolve it. I applaud Teleread for bringing it up, and I hope it remains in focus for sites that cover the emerging ebook market. A change in the system is needed, and that’s only going to happen if all of us – we (the consumers), you (the author(s)), the publishers and the ebook stores – push for the changes that are needed

All I have been trying to do is explain the publishing industry to those of you who don’t understand it.

The publishing industry as run by the conglomerates is the Queen Mary. It may change direction, but it does so with infinitesimal slowness. It isn’t a ski boat that can make instant changes in direction and speed no matter how much you want it to.

Right now, because the money isn’t big enough to make the issue worthy of their attention, the captains of this ship aren’t even noticing the issue of ebook geographical rights, let alone, realizing it is an iceberg.

So, sorry, folks. Don’t expect instant gratification on this issue.

Legal issues aside, it seems daft that a company would spend money to prevent me giving them money.

This means the consumer who wants to read a book in HC, PB, or e-book should have that opportunity whether they live in the US or Antarctica. For HC or PB, this is easy – they buy from a bookstore (brick’n'mortar or e-tailer) no matter where they are. For e-books, this has become a major problem due to geographical restrictions as discussed in many articles and comments here.

Your problem in not actually fixing this problem is that others will solve it. Unfortunately, their solution won’t conform to your principles or desires. Just like mp3, Napster, and the internet proliferation of music, e-books will be picked up on P2P, IRC, or “rapidshare” sites to fill that void authors or publishers won’t fix (although the rate and volume of proliferation won’t be as large simply because not as many people read as listen to music). Of course it won’t be legal, but consumers won’t care about that. There are many examples of ideas/things that were illegal in the past that are no longer illegal or enforced because enough people in society either ignored the law (making it extremely difficult to enforce) or changed the law.

In the end, your repeated verbal defenses of the industry won’t be able to keep the status quo going. Just talk to all your buddies in music and movies and ask them how they are doing.