There is a guy at MobileRead with $400 in geo-restricted books sitting on his Fictionwise wish list unable to be bought. I just can’t believe that publishers who really cares about their readers would really sacrifice that guy, his wishlist and his $400.
All this just to save a few hardback sales? And because he lives in the UK instead of elsewhere? Most e-book readers I know don’t buy hardback novels anyway, so it’s not quite the same market.
I would love to get an educated take from publishers. My bottom line on this is, I think the time has come for them to stop explaining why things are the way they are. Instead publishers should tell what their timeline is for fixing this mess, what steps will be involved, and to whom we as readers (and customers!) might address our emails to get things moving along.
We need to show the ones in charge how much we care about this and how much money the publishing industry stands to lose here.
Let me say upfront that I think geo restrictions are foolish as regards ebooks.
Let me also say that often the problem IS NOT because of publishers but because of authors and their agents. In the case of geo restrictions, consumers often blame the wrong person/entity.
Authors and their agents sell to publishers rights. Those rights dictate what a publisher can and cannot do with the author’s work. It is not unusual for authors and their agents to limit where a particular publisher can sell the book because the author/agent expect to negotiate yet another agreement with yet another publisher for sale rights in another geographic region.
Very few authors give to a single publisher worldwide rights in all languages in all formats in a single contract. That is why there are delays in books published in the UK appearing in the US (and vice versa) and why a book that appears in both countries are often by different publishing houses.
Publishers negotiate resale rights to distributors/wholesalers. But the publisher can only give the distributor resale rights that the publisher “owns” based on the publisher’s contract with the author. If Penguin UK only has rights sell author’s novel in the UK, then Penguin UK cannot give a distributor in the US resale rights for the US. The publisher doesn’t have them.
Geo restrictions for ebooks should disappear but the first step has to be taken by authors and their agents to expand the geo rights given to publishers as part of their contracts. Let’s be fair when assessing blame; publishers certainly have plenty to be held accountable for, but they can’t sell what they don’t own.
Rich, funny you should say that the blame rests on authors/agents since, just the other day, author Marilynn Byerly blamed the publishers…
http://newteleread.com/wordpress/2009/10/20/geographical-restrictions-tightening-ereader-refusing-to-download/#comments
Left hand, meet right hand. Right hand, meet left hand.
Mark, I saw her post and couldn’t figure out why she blamed the publishers. If she gave her publisher worldwide all-language rights then there would be no geo restrictions. Generally, publishers want as braod rights as they can get. I’m not familiar with her work and so have no idea who her publisher is, but she should check on what rights she gave her publisher.
Sorry, wasn’t trying to be serious about my previous post. Once again, I have failed bitterly at injecting humour and irony into my typed comments. I think the whole thing about geo restrictions is really a shame and basically protectionist hogwash. I expect more and more authors will simply do away with traditional publishers unless the publishing industry drastically changes. It’s quite surprising since the music and movie industry were in the same position 10 years ago. You’d think they could actually learn from history, but I guess the publishers don’t actually pay attention to anything beyond their microcosm.
Then we just blame them all, authors, agents and publishers. 🙂
Btw, I also deleted closing on 20 books from my Fictionwise wishlist that were US or US/CA only, mostly the former.
If a huge chunk of books don’t earn their advances – then reduced sales because of this hurts the publishers most?