If there’s one topic (besides the whole A5 issue) that’s been raising the ire from just about everyone we speak with these days, it’s the whole territorial restriction thing. The vitriolic feedback we’ve been getting from many of those who’ve been unable to purchase the eBooks they want to read, in the country of their choice, really drives the point home that all is not well with the state of international eBook marketing.
So, we ask ourselves: “Selves, why the heck would someone trying to sell something make it so hard for someone else trying to buy it?”
The only thing that’s pretty clear is that nothing at all is very clear. Basically, confusion reigns supreme. Here is just a small sampling of the barrage of questions we’ve been getting from many of our very smart and insightful customers…
Why are publishers willing to limit their sales by imposing territorial rights?
What were territorial rights intended to do? What is the advantage to a publisher?
Is it different international market pricing models that prompt territorial restrictions?
Why are publishers willing to risk the subsequent alienation of customers because of digital strategies such as territorial restrictions?
Since eBooks are digital and thus, due to their inherent nature, know no boundaries. Then why do many publishers enforce territory?
So, what’s going on here? Is there some sort of nefarious, grand A5 conspiracy out there? Although that would be fairly cool, we’ll put away our tin foil hats for now. We’re afraid that the answer is not quite as exciting as that. To help us get to the bottom of the territorial rights conundrum, we did what any sensible eBook retailer would do – we asked someone else.
Yup, we reached out to one of our esteemed industry colleagues, for some much needed elucidation. The lucky winner we picked to educate us is none other than Richard Curtis of Richard Curtis Associates, Inc. Richard is a leading New York literary agent and well-known author advocate. He is also the author of numerous fiction and non-fiction works, including several books about the publishing industry. Not to mention, Richard has a great blog, found here.
Here’s what Richard thinks…
First off, and most importantly, the old world of publishing is having major issues adapting to the new one. Both have many things in common, but in some instances the digital format just doesn’t fit over the print model. Territory is one of those cases.
In the pre-digital days the publishing world was divided into territories characterized almost entirely by language. “Almost” because there were a number of subdivisions of language. For example, the English language was divided into two mutually exclusive territories: United States/Canada and United Kingdom/British Commonwealth. Spanish was divided into Spain, on the one hand, and Latin America on the other. Portuguese was divided into Portugal and Brazil.
In many cases, a publisher in one of those territories would acquire worldwide rights in that language and that solved the problem of competing editions in the same language. In other cases, there were restrictions that the US/Canada edition could not be sold in England and vice versa.
When digital books were introduced, publishers maintained the same territoriality failing to realize that the barriers – and the cost of penetrating those barriers – had fallen. Yet the publishers, in all their infinite wisdom, still jealously guard those territorial rights – even at the risk of alienating customers.
There are a couple of other factors at play in the territorial issue. One is technology – some foreign nations just don’t have an adequate wireless network to accommodate devices like the Kindle. Another is foreign statutes: Some nations have restricted or banned devices on a variety of grounds, making it hard if not impossible for their citizens to access e-content.
According to Richard, that’s where we are today. Essentially, the issue remains unresolved. Perhaps the industry will get its act together in the future but, for now, the US electronic book stops at the shores of England, or at least it’s supposed to.
So, it’s as we suspected. When it comes to international rights, the publishing sphere is still acting like an old, over protective, territorial guard dog. Hey, guys…it’s a big interconnected, digital wonderland out there. The world is getting smaller by the day. Isn’t it time you let go of your self-imposed shackles and act like the progressive, visionary industry you should really be? C’mon, kick off your shoes, undo your belt a couple of notches and give it a try. You might actually like it.
As always, you know where we stand.
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I had an interesting email conversation with Stan Nicholls recently. He was quite annoyed that one of his fans was unable to buy his book. He was very helpful but in the end I had to resort to stripping the drm from a kindle book ( a tip: if you tell Amazon you live in the USA then they will believe you even if you have a UK credit card).
I understand your explanation about the US ebook stopping at the shores of England but why is it then not available elsewhere too? The last time I checked, Singapore (where I live) is not a part of England and has not been for quite some time now.
In Stephanie Laurens latest newsletter she states that ebook versions of “The Brazen Bride” should be available to Australian purchasers, so why is it that I am unable to purchase it from your website?
I will be contacting the publisher to get their take on the issue, & would like you to do the same.
Despite views such as those expressed by Frank , I can’t help but feel that ebook retailers, such as Diesel ebooks, are happy to go with the flow when it comes to the territorial restrictions of ebooks.
Hello Linda, Good question. I will contact HarperCollins to find out myself. Will get back to you shortly. — Just to note: we here at the Diesel eBook store are personally not all that pleased with territorial restrictions ourselves, hence our blog about the aforementioned subject. Over the years, we have carefully observed that ticking off one’s customers is not a very good business practice.
Gnawing at the same bone, I think, but just as Singapore (hi, Justine) is really far away from England, so is Romania, and is not under the umbrella of either the US or England group of English language publishing. As much as I like Amazon, this whole issue of ebook territorial restrictions did not apply to the kindle versions of the books I have finally had no choice but to buy – at a higher price – as Kindle. Wonder why? And the limitations on devices in some countries: as far as I know, e-readers are available for PC, even Kindle, so any other excuses? Are the publishers even aware how many people around the world whose first language is not English actually buy and read English? Or should we just give up?
Hello Linda, I just heard back from HarperCollins (US) in regards to “The Brazen Bride”:
“Unfortunately we don’t turn on any of our books in the Australia/New Zealand territory at this point. We are trying to work this out and hope that this won’t be the case for long.”
I wrote to HarperCollins weeks ago, but have still not received a response. Maybe you’ll be luckier.
Some weeks ago, Lynsey Sands announced on her website that three early volumes of her Argeneau series were being released in ebook for the first time. I had bought volumes 1 and 5-12 at Fictionwise before geolims were imposed. Inkmesh showed that Amazon had the best deal, so I rushed over there and bought volume 2, then volume 3, but volume 4 said “not available in Australia”. WTF?
I asked Amazon about this, and they sent me a predigested response blaming the publisher, so I then asked HarperCollins why three consecutive books in the same series by the same author, released by the same publisher to the same retailer on the same date, were not available to the same country.
By comparison, Diesel eBooks allows me to buy volume 2, but not volume 3 or 4:
2. Love Bites (K)
3. Single White Vampire (K)
4. Tall, Dark and Hungry -
as you can see, I now have volumes 2 and 3 in Kindle, but don’t have volume 4.
Does this make any sense to you? Would you be willing to query this with the publisher?
Also, on improvements, would it be possible for you to show in the summary if a title has geographic limitations or not (possibly with an icon)? That way we don’t have to go to the details page to see if we’re allowed to buy the book. It’s actually more frustrating, the more work you do to achieve nothing.
I am very disgruntled at the lack of ebooks available for Australians (Well, there are plenty that I can get, but just the same, there are also many I can’t get). But until you guys explained it, I had no idea why (I am only new to the whole ebook thing, after all). I just wanted to say thanks for having the territorial rights explained.
Harper Collins are maintaining their usual silence on the subject of territorial restrictions. I wonder at times if they even have a support department. I also wonder what would happen to territorial restrictions if they impacted on the lucrative USA market.
Hello Clytie! I wanted to let you know that I did talk to our rep at HarperCollins on the phone today about the Lynsey Sands eBooks. She is investigating and will be getting back to me shortly. Stay tuned.
Our pleasure. We noticed a lot of ticked off customers (especially Australians! ~ Not good ) and wanted to explain what was going on. I used to work at several publishing houses and can speak firsthand about subsidiary rights complications in print publishing and how oddly / profoundly they affect eBooks. Let us know if you have any further questions and we’ll try to respond to the best of our ability.
Hello Linda, I just spoke with our HarperCollins Rep today on the phone about all our disgruntled customers (specifically, Australians!). She is investigating and will get back to us shortly with more information. Stay tuned.
Thanks for the update. I’m glad you managed to reach HarperCollins: my email didn’t even get an auto-reply.
Australians are indeed seriously p*ssed off by the sudden and ongoing imposition of geographic limitations. Ebook access is the hottest topic on Australian tech site Delimiter and among the many Australian members of the ebook forum MobileRead. In particular, we are confused and frustrated as to why publishers are suddenly complaining about the difficulties of selling ebooks internationally, when they did it successfully for years.
Are the publishers aware that Australia/NZ is half the UK book market, despite our much smaller population? (I’m asking you, since publishers won’t talk to us.) We read a lot, we’re early tech adopters, and we really hate being pushed around. They’re not winning any friends here.
As you’ve observed in a later blog article, the Agency 5 behaviour is driving sales of indie ebooks. I buy a lot of ebooks (and only ebooks, due to disability), but since the geographic limitations were imposed, I have bought very few. Those I have bought are from independent publishers or directly from the author. Now I’ve had to look into buying directly from authors, I’m going to take that option first.
Being barred from access to the books I wanted to buy, I have also spent a great deal of time trying to find out WTF is going on, and in reading writers’ blogs and other information online. In effect, I’m getting my reading fix for free. The Agency 5 behaviour is forcing a change in my behaviour as a reader and purchaser. It’s not a change likely to make them any money. So far, judging by my purchasing pattern in pre-geolims years, Agency 5 publishers have lost thousands of dollars from me alone. Every time I come to your site and see “this title is only available for download in the U.S.”, you lose a sale. When I get your newsletter, I’m much less enthused and likely to click on titles, because experience has taught me I won’t be allowed to buy them. I find your blog much more useful than looking through your store for books I might be able to buy. This is not a criticism of you: you’re doing a great job of keeping us informed, and obviously had no desire to damage your business by refusing to sell books. But do the publishers get it? Do they really understand that they’re losing a large number of sales every day, and progressively losing long-term customers?
Thanks for working your way around some of the deliberately-created blockages on this issue. Nobody else is doing it, and as readers and customers, we’re lost and confused.
I will be interested to see what “getting back to us shortly” means in HarperCollins terms. Will we actually find out why the same titles have different geographic limitations in different stores? Will they explain why they don’t “turn on their titles for Australia/NZ”? After months of researching this issue, I’m still completely confused by the inconsistencies and lack of action or communication. (Again, I’m not criticizing you: your site is a much-appreciated exception to this self-destructive behaviour by the main publishers and retailers.)
Hello Clytie,
Thank you again for your well-written comments and thoughts in regards to your Agency Five eBook-buying frustrations. As per your previous post, I will forward on your latest to HC as well. However, I do have some good news for you: I just spoke with our rep from HarperCollins again about the eRights issue of the aforementioned Lynsey Sands books. She informed me that HarperCollins is currently working with their counterpart in Australia to address various eRight restrictions such as this. Based upon our conversation, HC is aware and is working towards a resolution to free up those books. I worked with HC before as two other eBook retailers and from my experience, they tend to be quite good on such matters.
Thanks again for being so vocal. It definitely does help when we can forward our Readers’ voices to our publishers. In the meantime, we’ll all keep fighting the good fight!
BTW. Diesel was just featured in a great interview with O’Reilly Media about the Agency Five. Hope this is of interest to you: http://blog.diesel-ebooks.com/?p=201
Clytie, you have articulated my issues with Geographic Restrictions perfectly. I too have spent lavishly on ebooks in the past, but no longer.
Most of my favourite ebook retailers can no longer sell me the books I want to read, and I must confess that the “Dark Net” beckons, particularly after I was allowed to buy the latest JoAnn Ross ebook last week from Diesel, only to be denied the right to download the book because I live in Australia. To be fair to Diesel, they gave me a prompt refund, but occurrences such as this only add to my frustrations with the Agency 5 .
My saviour since April 1st 2010 has been Harlequin ebooks, and now their subsidiary, Carina Press. Their prices are stable and very reasonable, they impose no Territorial Restrictions, and the Harlequin ebooks, although DRMed, are available in multiple formats. Carina Press titles are available only in the despised (by me), EPUB format, but are DRM free, so I can actually read them on my little iPAQ 1940.
The Agency 5 could do worse than follow their example. Hopefully they are losing out big time to these two shining lights who must be laughing all the way to the bank as a consequence of their competitor’s greed and intransigence.
I am another Aussie ebook reader, and have purchased hundreds of ebook titles.
Alot of titles/ authors I would never have purchased in paperback format.
My ebook purchases have seriously dropped since territorial restrictions have been placed. I now only buy books if I really want to read them, and order others from the library.
It is extremely frustrating to have parts of a series in ebook format and no longer be able to buy the rest as an ebook or even in the same format.
What is even more ridiculous is that I can by the title I want from the US or UK for the same price in paperback and have it shipped to Australia.
Where is the difference then in purchasing as an ebook with its territorial restrications as opposed to a paperback copy, which allows you to buy?
Publishing houses need to get with the 21st century.
I was able to buy two books recently from Amazon Kindle, books that were unavailable outside the US as ebook on both Diesel and other ebook sites. They were more expensive, too. So, what is really going on, because it makes no sense.
Hello Emese, Out of curiosity, which two books did you buy? I would like to investigate.
I can understand Territorial Rights. I can not understand what is the key difference that allows me to buy a paper book printed in USA from amazon.* or from bookdepository.co.uk or even a from brick-and-mortar bookstore in Poland, but forbids me to buy the same book in electronic format because it’s not to be sold outside USA.
I have just read all about the Territorial Rights. I agree with all the the comments that I have read. What is the difference with buying a paper book from overseas and an ebook? One of my favourite authors is Ann McCaffrey and I have almost all of her books in paper form but I am restricted from purchasing them in ebook form as I am a resident of Australia. If the publishers don’t wake up to themselves peopls will find other ways of accessing the books they want. They and their authors will be the losers if they keep these restrictions in place as people will find other authors to read and sideline the major publishers and their restrictions.
Cristina Dodd’s Dangerous Ladies and Thigh High
I’m just a bit paranoid (comes from growing up in communism, I guess) but what if: we keep telling the publishers we can still buy the print books and instead of making the ebooks available they will make the print books unavailable, too?
It’s not just australians suffering from the territorial restriction. I live in holland and read a lot of english books. The prices are better, and most english books never get translated in dutch. (not that I’m particularly eager to read them in dutch)
It didn’t use to be this bad, but now almost any book I want to buy I can’t. This is crazy. I can order paper books from the US just fine, but ebook are somehow different and special in that they can’t be sold to me.
I understand why they do it, but I hope they see that this is not helping anyone. I can’t buy the books here in holland or I would, but nobody sells them. (in ebook format)
If the major publishers did make print books unavailable, then the authors would leave them or be so vocal about not getting any royalties from other countries that maybe the publishers would finally listen them and us, the reading public, who pay their wages when you think about it. Without us, they would be out of a job.
Thanks, Emese. I just contacted the publisher, Penguin, to find out more information.
Scott/Kelley (you know, that provides an intriguing image of a dual personality and possible trans character
), thanks for your help on this.
I suppose I should be impressed that HarperCollins “are working” on these issues, but they still don’t answer specific questions. Why are the same ebook titles restricted differently in different stores? It’s bad enough that publishers have imposed these unreasonable and legally unenforceable geolimitations, but it makes things even worse when the restrictions are applied inconsistently.
How do you feel when you ask a specific question and they give you a (so far) meaningless reassurance? This is your business. It must be even more frustrating for you than it is for us.
Or do the publishers simply not know what they are doing? Are they like someone playing a new video game, who manages to take off in the shiny helicopter, but then doesn’t know how to land?
Hey Guys:
I just joined Diesel yesterday, and today was told I couldn’t buy two of the books which I had placed in my cart. The reason? Territorial restrictions. I emailed Diesel and they told me it was an ongoing problem and linked to this blog. I am a little stunned!!!
Just to update the borders. I live in Canada. It is supposed to be within the 01 isbn territory as well, and we are excluded. So the territories for some publishers seem to be, in Aristotlian terms, the USA, and the NOT USA. I can’t this helping Diesel at all.
There’s some informative and straightforward opinion on this issue at
http://www.scribepublications.com.au/blog/territorialrightsandwrongsakaperfidiousalbion
by someone who’s been in the business a long time. Basically TR is greed. It might have some original basis in the different English/s and the difficulty of transposing a book between markets but at the bottom line it’s just plain gouging. Hopefully ebooks will eventually kill it.
Ian.
Here we are in 2012, with e-book readers taking off and yet we are still stuck with stupid TRs. In my case here in Canada, the publisher is selling the book I want in hard cover at a bookstore down the street, and the e-book version is available to on-line buyers in the USA, but not to me. Even more ludicrous: that same bookstore sold me my e-book reader.
It’s high time the dinosaur publishers woke up to the fact that they can only blame themselves for losing the money that tons of people like me want to give them!
Hi I periodically check this blog and appreciate the information. I periodically write to the for mentioned publishers, they as yet have not responded over the years to the emails apparently Australians to them don’t have internet access so how could we email. I now contact the authors (my favourite) to let them know their book are not available to australia usually both ebook and hardcopy (they are usually unaware of the issue and surprised) cheers rosheen
Just ditto-ing everyone else, really, but it’s incredibly frustrating. I’m a British ex-pat living in Holland and, although I speak Dutch, I much prefer to read in English. Amazon UK (with whom I have spent literally thousands over the last couple of decades) wouldn’t sell me a Kindle or e-books. Amazon US would sell me one, but I would have to pay in USD (incurring exchange rate charges on my UK or Dutch bank account), pay more for shipping and pay more for e-books (consistantly higher priced than those at Amazon UK). I bought a Be-Book, but cannot find anyone that offers a normal range of English language e-books available to people living in Holland. Amazon have lost out on hundreds of pounds of sales to me and other publishers/companies have lost out on all the e-books I would have bought from them if only I could. The truly ridiculous fact is that all suppliers will sell and ship hard copies of any book to me, yet in this technological age will not sell me a file to download. There are hundreds of thousands of English speaking expats in the world, never mind the people who read English as a second language. We want to buy books for our e-readers and if publishers will not let us access them via normal channels they give us no choice but to find (*darkly*) other means. To my mind, this shows utter stupidity and appalling business strategy on the part of the publishers. I cannot believe that these territorial restrictions save them more money than they are losing in the millions of lost sales they are amassing.
My advise,STOP doing business with these publishers,until, they get into the NOW.
Considering,most of the books I want can only be found on your wonderful website
you should lead the boycott.
Sincerely,
Renée.
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