[Herc- The Reluctant Geek]

An interesting article about Amazon acquiring The Book Depository http://www.theage.com.au/business/amazon-swallows-the-book-depository-20110705-1h00b.html#ixzz1RCVSC1Ir.

'In the week ending December 25 , 2010, Amazon garnered 2.23 million hits by Australian users,...' but what the statisticians don't know is that half of those hits were me checking on my sales numbers.

 

[nomesque]

An interesting article about Amazon acquiring The Book Depository http://www.theage.com.au/business/amazon-swallows-the-book-depository-20110705-1h00b.html#ixzz1RCVSC1Ir.

Hrmmm... interesting indeed! Could end up selling a lot of ebook readers, one way or another. I know a lot of avid paper-book readers who are big fans of Book Depository - pretty hard not to be when the books are half the price and shipping's free. Unlike Amazon, which - deliberately or no - often seems to charge like a wounded bull for shipping to Australia.

'In the week ending December 25 , 2010, Amazon garnered 2.23 million hits by Australian users,...' but what the statisticians don't know is that half of those hits were me checking on my sales numbers.

 

[Casper Parks]

This could be a very good thing for Indie Authors....

 

[Terrence OBrien]

"often seems to charge like a wounded bull for shipping to Australia."

Curious. What do they charge to ship to Australia?

 

[MonkeyScribe]

"often seems to charge like a wounded bull for shipping to Australia."

Curious. What do they charge to ship to Australia?

Two Australian dollars and a pair of matador underpants.

 

[Rin]

Hrmmm... interesting indeed! Could end up selling a lot of ebook readers, one way or another. I know a lot of avid paper-book readers who are big fans of Book Depository - pretty hard not to be when the books are half the price and shipping's free. Unlike Amazon, which - deliberately or no - often seems to charge like a wounded bull for shipping to Australia.

I actually noticed it being better than normal lately - I got the four-pack of ASoIaF + shipping for like $30, but then again, I haven't bought anything online lately, so I could remember it being worse than it actually was.

 

[Gertie Kindle]

The Book Depository, not Amazon, sells my paperbacks in the UK. I wonder how this is going to affect those sales. I have no idea if I've even sold any pb's on UK, but some of those expanded distribution sales might have come from there.

 

[Victorine]

Hmm, interesting. Thanks for the link.

Vicki

 

[nomesque]

"often seems to charge like a wounded bull for shipping to Australia."

Curious. What do they charge to ship to Australia?

Usually more than the cost of the book(s), in my experience. A slightly unfair example, as these are probably heavyish tomes and using the associated sellers rather than Amazon itself - I wanted to buy the two volumes of Isaac Asimov's biography recently. Under $20 for the actual books, plus postage came to over $50. I tried many, many combinations of sellers and editions and copies... no joy. Went to Better World Books, in the end, and got them for $30 and free postage. *shrug* But I've had similar experiences almost every time I've tried to shop with Amazon - it all looks good until I get to the postage costs, then I choke up in horror. Of course, I could just be a cheapskate.

 

[Colin Taber]

I actually noticed it being better than normal lately - I got the four-pack of ASoIaF + shipping for like $30, but then again, I haven't bought anything online lately, so I could remember it being worse than it actually was.

The shipping seems better now because the Australian $ is so strong, going from being about 90c to the USD to $1.06

 

[Dr. Laurence Brown]

This is very interesting, thanks for the link.

 

[VickiT]

...but what the statisticians don't know is that half of those hits were me checking on my sales numbers.

 

[MosesSiregarIII]

I know nothing about the Australian ebook market. Is Amazon selling kindles in Australia? Which website(s) do Australians typically use to buy ebooks?

 

[nomesque]

I know nothing about the Australian ebook market. Is Amazon selling kindles in Australia? Which website(s) do Australians typically use to buy ebooks?

Amazon sells Kindles TO Australia, they don't have a dedicated Australian site. So Aussies (any many others) shop at the main Amazon US store. Anything non-Kindle-related, we have a choice of Amazon UK and Amazon US. Kindle-related, US store only.

I'm not sure about which stores Aussies mostly buy ebooks from, tbh. Amazon US, obviously. I've talked to a few Aussies who use Kobo, and they're the main retailer I go to for epubs, too. Diesel have improved their interface to let people know whether or not an ebook is available in their region BEFORE they buy the book, which is always nice, so they may have a bit more of the market share now. Australian ebook retailers are either fairly small operators so far, or indulge in bizarre practices like adding a flat $4 to the RRP of every non-free ebook supplied to them by Kobo, then wonder why they've gone broke. B&N won't sell to Australians, and I'm not sure that the Sony bookstore will either (I know they didn't when I bought my first Sony, and their interface is so horrendous that I've never tried again). Smashwords is probably a player as retailer over here, too. I still buy at least a dozen books a year from them.

 

[MosesSiregarIII]

Interesting, thanks. So does the UK Amazon site mainly serve just the UK (plus Ireland?)?

 

[nomesque]

Interesting, thanks. So does the UK Amazon site mainly serve just the UK (plus Ireland?)?

Just the UK, to my understanding - which excludes the Republic of Ireland (southern Ireland). UK/Irish folk, feel free to correct me!

 

[VickiT]

Which website(s) do Australians typically use to buy ebooks?

I buy most of my ebooks from Amazon US and Smashwords.

Cheers
Vicki

 

[VickiT]

B&N won't sell to Australians.

I wonder why. I've just realised the free NOOK book I "bought" and downloaded a few months ago has disappeared off my app.

 

[Christopher Hunter]

I would've preferred an Australian kindle store over the German one any day. I think I've sold more books down under than i have across the pond or anywhere else other than America. And it's not even close. There's a HUGE market for e-books there.

 

[Arthur Slade]

Shatzkin (I think that's such a cool name) posted an informative piece about this:
http://www.idealog.com/blog/