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This keeps coming up in various BR&BC threads, and I think it deserves a discussion of its own.
People keep saying that publishers (particularly small ones) shouldn't buy worldwide rights to an e-book if they can't sell worldwide. (Or words to that effect.) Some say that, for example, a Canadian micropublisher ought only to buy North American rights because people anywhere can download the e-book.
But I don't think this is true at all. The proper online e-book sellers do appear to limit sales to people in countries where e-books rights have been sold for the book in question.
For example, Fictionwise will not let you buy an e-book if the computer you're using is located in a country to which rights for the e-book haven't been sold. I know this from personal experience. I'm in the UK and had to buy book 2 of a series for $40 on eBay [instead of $5 for the e-book on FW] because it was out of print and UK rights to the e-book hadn't been sold. I have a friend who's an avid and voracious reader and is extremely frustrated that he can't buy many popular US e-books because UK rights haven't been sold.
So I'm beginning to fall on the side of publishers buying worldwide e-book rights so that people all around the world can actually buy the book. Not being able to buy it leads to hacking, and then the writer earns nothing. And as in the case I mentioned above, because I bought a second-hand book, the author didn't get a royalty for it, when I would've been happier to buy the e-book so she'd get her royalty.
What do others think about this?
People keep saying that publishers (particularly small ones) shouldn't buy worldwide rights to an e-book if they can't sell worldwide. (Or words to that effect.) Some say that, for example, a Canadian micropublisher ought only to buy North American rights because people anywhere can download the e-book.
But I don't think this is true at all. The proper online e-book sellers do appear to limit sales to people in countries where e-books rights have been sold for the book in question.
For example, Fictionwise will not let you buy an e-book if the computer you're using is located in a country to which rights for the e-book haven't been sold. I know this from personal experience. I'm in the UK and had to buy book 2 of a series for $40 on eBay [instead of $5 for the e-book on FW] because it was out of print and UK rights to the e-book hadn't been sold. I have a friend who's an avid and voracious reader and is extremely frustrated that he can't buy many popular US e-books because UK rights haven't been sold.
So I'm beginning to fall on the side of publishers buying worldwide e-book rights so that people all around the world can actually buy the book. Not being able to buy it leads to hacking, and then the writer earns nothing. And as in the case I mentioned above, because I bought a second-hand book, the author didn't get a royalty for it, when I would've been happier to buy the e-book so she'd get her royalty.
What do others think about this?