"not available in united states"

[yogibear]

Has anyone else come across the following problem and knows the answers?  Lately, I found that almost all romance books I am interested in ( that are newly published or on pre-order) have no place to request the book be published in e-book kindle format.  When i asked amazon - they stated it is because the book is either about to be published in kindle format or the publisher has said they no longer want requests to have the book become a kindle e-book.  So , no way to request the book in kindle form.

Also, there are contradictions.  The book Shadowlight by Lynn Viehl.  It is in e-book form , but it is "not available in the united states".  This per an amazon rep is because of copyright laws.  However, at Barnes and Noble you can buy it in there e-book form now from the united states.   

So , what is really going on?  Is this some glitch due to the new international kindle version that is going on sale around Oct 17?  Or are the e-book format kindle version on the way to being out of business-- no more new e-book kindle formats?  It seems like there are less and less new books available on kindle in the united states and the ones that are , seem to be selling for more than the 9.99 that kindle quoted as stating to be for most new hardcover books.  And these new books are paperbacks- not hardcover - and they are selling for 10, 13 and $14 dollars.

[suicidepact]

I just came across this thread http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,13941.0/topicseen.html and there seems to be more comments there. Hope this helps.

[Betsy the Quilter]

You actually spoke to a rep about this?  Well, my first thought is that the Amazon rep didn't know what he or she was talking about or was just making stuff up; this happens occasionally.  

The paper version is sold by Amazon.com and is in stock, so the paper version is legally for sale in the US.  Not sure why the e-version copyright laws would be different, and you say B&N has an e-version available.  You might call back and speak to a different rep...

Or just click for it to be on Kindle, which I did, and got the standard "We're trying to get ALL books on Kindle" message.

Betsy

[Ann in Arlington]

There have been several posts where folks noticed that books that should be available in the US are shown as not.  If you're the author of said book, send feedback to the DTP people for sure.  If not, I'd suggest using the feedback link at the bottom of the book's Amazon page.  I'm sure it's a glitch. . . . .

[Oldpilot]

When Amazon rolled out the 'international Kindle', it also set up separate Kindle stores for folks in other countries wishing to download books from Amazon.com, with the prices adjusted for VAT and miscellaneous expenses (e.g. $8.04 for a book I have listed in the US store for $4.99).

Like most software rollouts, this one was not without bugs, and a number of independent publishers (I don't know about mainstream publishers) had their books labeled not for sale in the -- US! The DTP Guys swear that this will be fixed very soon.

In the future, independent publishers will have a default of world-wide rights when they upload books to the Digital Text Platform. They can then opt out of selected nations or regions (presumably including the US) as appropriate.

[Betsy the Quilter]

Thanks, Oldpilot, good info!

Betsy

[Anju No. 469]

Good info to have Old Pilot - thanks.  Even though I live out of the country I do most of my buying in the U.S. and have many friends doing the same.