In the ebook department: O Canada

by Diane Duane

23/24 Mar 2011: ETA: There’s been an important change in the situation described below. Please read the posting and then check this one for news on recent developments.

I love Canada. A lot. Peter and I pass through there as often as we can. I have done book tours there: have assisted in the business of helping Peter’s Mum (God rest her) hook up with her fandom, which often appeared to be larger than either or both of ours: have been marooned in Ottawa due to fog and found myself still awake at 2 AM and sitting on some hotel room’s floor singing 50s sad-dead-teenager songs in company with Dave Hartwell and Stephen King; have eaten the cassoulet in La Rapiere in Montreal (apparently shut now, O woe), have explored the Salt Beef havens in that city and in Toronto the Good, and (in merely transitory mode)  have taken the train from Toronto to London ON a bunch of times before crossing the world’s busiest land border. (Though is it really? Has anyone done numbers at the crossing at Basel Bad in the middle of Fasnacht?  I wonder.) I have in that fair land taken pics of the only salmon stream I’ve ever seen inside an airport. And I still remember passing through Canada Immigration and being asked “What’s the purpose of your visit today?” and being able to say, honestly, “Lunch.” (The CI inspector looked at me and grinned and said, “That must be some lunch.” “It will be,” I said. And it was.

Yet Canada and I are seemingly at odds, because it appears that no one can buy the Young Wizards ebooks there from their North American publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. And this just seems wrong.

Before I go to the publisher, who definitely do own the Canadian publication rights, and start shaking their IT department’s tree to get this problem solved, I need data from the book-buying base. Canadian readers especially — for the hardcover and paperback YW books are distributed in Canada via Raincoast — your kind assistance is requested.

The problem comes in two pieces. I get reports that:

(a) Canadian would-be purchasers of the YW books from Amazon.com cannot purchase Kindle / .mobi versions of the books from either Amazon.com or Amazon.ca. Is this the case?

(24 Mar 2011, ETA: My editor at HMH tells me that this problem has now been fixed. Can Canadian readers please confirm? Just search for one of the books and let me know if the upper-right-hand-corner block that says “This book is not available in your area: CANADA” fails to come up. …25 March 2011: thanks to those who checked! This problem seems to have been solved. Now we can go on to address quality control issues. )

(b) B&N.com (which is apparently the only seller of .epub versions of the books)  will not sell Young Wizards .epub books to readers with Canadian addresses. The question I need answered is: does B&N sell any ebooks to readers with addresses outside the USA? If they don’t, fine. HMH needs to find another distributor for ePubs. But if they do, why won’t they sell YW books?

I would be seriously grateful if the Canadian contingent of YW fans would attempt such purchases (don’t complete them, just proceed until they fail — or alternately are about to succeed) and report back in the comments under this message, telling me what happens, so that I have data to take to HMH when I talk to them about this. Please feel free to send screengrabs to verify your experiences. You can send these to our Web lady at lee.enfield.burke@googlemail.com :  please put CANADA in the subject line.

The links to the Amazon.com US-and-theoretically-Canadian Young Wizards ebooks are here:  http://www.dianeduane.com/ebooks-by-Diane-Duane#youngwizards

The Amazon.com / Kindle  and B&N / .epub editions are broken out into separate blocks. Amazon comes first, and then B&N.

Those of you who hear about this issue via Twitter, please retweet to other Canadians at your leisure / pleasure and spread the word. The more data I have, the better.

Thanks for your help, everybody!

ETA:   The excellent Nathan Maharaj has provided us with a complete set of links to the ePub editions of the YW series now available at KoboBooks.com. These are available to Canadian .ePub readers:

So You Want To Be A Wizard (eISBN 9780547545110)  |  Deep Wizardry (eISBN 9780547538662)

High Wizardry (eISBN 9780547540306) |  A Wizard Abroad (eISBN 9780547546797)

The Wizard’s Dilemma (eISBN 9780547546827) |  A Wizard Alone (eISBN 9780547546803)

Wizard’s Holiday (eISBN  9780547546834)  |  Wizards at War (eISBN  9780547546810)

A Wizard of Mars (eISBN 9780547487953)

(…Still remembering the version of The Anthem that Peter wrote on the plane on our way in, last time. “O Canada! We’re just here for the beer: O Canada! The Beer is clear near here!” … There was more, but perhaps mercifully, I’ve forgotten.)

(And one other thing: does anyone else remember who got the American Embassy staff out of Tehran, all that while ago, at the risk of their own lives? “Oh, CANADA!” 🙂   I have a former roommate and very good friend who works for State — she’s in Yemen at the moment, not exactly the quietest place on the planet… and it could have been her, all those years ago. So when I wear the Maple Leaf on a jacket… I have subtext. Thank you, cousins.)

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29 comments

Jc March 22, 2011 - 4:45 pm

I’d be more interested in hearing about whether the widely reported typos have been fixed—making an ebook available to me is a moot point if it’s going to be unreadable…

Jc March 22, 2011 - 4:45 pm

I’d be more interested in hearing about whether the widely reported typos have been fixed—making an ebook available to me is a moot point if it’s going to be unreadable…

Malignant Carp March 22, 2011 - 5:01 pm

(a) is definitely true. I reported this issue to the web store, as it stated on Amazon’s site that the book was unavailable to readers in Canada.

(b) I cannot verify b as I do not have a B&N account (it’s, strictly speaking, not compatible with my Sony eReader). Strangely, the message on their site has changed since I last saw it (It used to say “available only in the US”) and now reads: “These items ship to U.S, APO/FPO and U.S. Protectorate addresses only.” From what I’ve read, just about every ebook in B&N’s store is US only as they are a US-based company and don’t cater to the Canadian market.

The Sony eReader store also has the Young Wizards books, but again, only in the U.S. If you have a Canadian account, the titles are all labeled with the mysterious “Unavailable” button.

Kobo, another very successful ePub store does not have them available at all, strangely. Probably because it’s a Canadian-based company. Kobo’s very friendly to authors and publishers and supports any form of territory restrictions the author or publisher requests.

Andrew Timson March 22, 2011 - 5:31 pm

That’s odd – Borders does have them (in ePub), and Kobo handles all of their fulfillment.

Malignant Carp March 22, 2011 - 7:19 pm

This doesn’t entirely surprise me. Borders is US retailer. I suspect Kobo may be detecting my region based on IP address and not including the titles in my search as a result. From Border’s site for “So You Want To Be A Wizard”: “ebook downloads are available only in the U.S.”

I guess that answers that. 😀

Malignant Carp March 22, 2011 - 5:01 pm

(a) is definitely true. I reported this issue to the web store, as it stated on Amazon’s site that the book was unavailable to readers in Canada.

(b) I cannot verify b as I do not have a B&N account (it’s, strictly speaking, not compatible with my Sony eReader). Strangely, the message on their site has changed since I last saw it (It used to say “available only in the US”) and now reads: “These items ship to U.S, APO/FPO and U.S. Protectorate addresses only.” From what I’ve read, just about every ebook in B&N’s store is US only as they are a US-based company and don’t cater to the Canadian market.

The Sony eReader store also has the Young Wizards books, but again, only in the U.S. If you have a Canadian account, the titles are all labeled with the mysterious “Unavailable” button.

Kobo, another very successful ePub store does not have them available at all, strangely. Probably because it’s a Canadian-based company. Kobo’s very friendly to authors and publishers and supports any form of territory restrictions the author or publisher requests.

Andrew Timson March 22, 2011 - 5:31 pm

That’s odd – Borders does have them (in ePub), and Kobo handles all of their fulfillment.

Malignant Carp March 22, 2011 - 7:19 pm

This doesn’t entirely surprise me. Borders is US retailer. I suspect Kobo may be detecting my region based on IP address and not including the titles in my search as a result. From Border’s site for “So You Want To Be A Wizard”: “ebook downloads are available only in the U.S.”

I guess that answers that. 😀

Peter March 22, 2011 - 5:02 pm

From Amazon: “This title is not available for customers from:
Canada (change region)”

B&N just flat out refuses to sell anything to anybody who doesn’t have a US credit card/billing address.

Peter March 22, 2011 - 5:02 pm

From Amazon: “This title is not available for customers from:
Canada (change region)”

B&N just flat out refuses to sell anything to anybody who doesn’t have a US credit card/billing address.

gerimaple March 22, 2011 - 7:18 pm

Screencap from Amazon.ca sent to Lee.

gerimaple March 22, 2011 - 7:18 pm

Screencap from Amazon.ca sent to Lee.

Nikki March 22, 2011 - 9:33 pm

Huh, the kindle editions don’t even show up for me if I search for it on amazon.com – I had to use the direct links you provided.

Anyway, yeah, both sites refuse to let me purchase.

Nikki March 22, 2011 - 9:33 pm

Huh, the kindle editions don’t even show up for me if I search for it on amazon.com – I had to use the direct links you provided.

Anyway, yeah, both sites refuse to let me purchase.

Tim Thompson March 22, 2011 - 10:02 pm

Diane,

FYI e-book purchases from Canada for the Kindle are only available on Amazon.com. Amazon.ca currently does not have access to e-books. With the current rate of exchange, that’s all right with me. And, as mentioned earlier. the YW books are not available for customers from Canada.

Tim

Tim Thompson March 22, 2011 - 10:02 pm

Diane,

FYI e-book purchases from Canada for the Kindle are only available on Amazon.com. Amazon.ca currently does not have access to e-books. With the current rate of exchange, that’s all right with me. And, as mentioned earlier. the YW books are not available for customers from Canada.

Tim

Nathan Maharaj March 23, 2011 - 3:05 am

Hi there,
When we saw this blog post we contacted HMH directly to inquire about where Canadian rights for the Young Wizards series stand. They confirmed that the titles do have Canadian rights, so as of a few hours ago they’ve been available to readers in Canada: http://www.kobobooks.com/search/search.html?q=diane%20duane%20young%20wizards&

Nathan Maharaj
Manager, Merchandising
Kobo

Jc March 23, 2011 - 3:40 am

And are the errors fixed?

Nathan Maharaj March 23, 2011 - 3:05 am

Hi there,
When we saw this blog post we contacted HMH directly to inquire about where Canadian rights for the Young Wizards series stand. They confirmed that the titles do have Canadian rights, so as of a few hours ago they’ve been available to readers in Canada: http://www.kobobooks.com/search/search.html?q=diane%20duane%20young%20wizards&

Nathan Maharaj
Manager, Merchandising
Kobo

Jc March 23, 2011 - 3:40 am

And are the errors fixed?

Young Wizards in Canada, Part 2: Thank you, Kobo! | Diane Duane's weblog: "Out of Ambit" March 23, 2011 - 11:07 am

[…] the posting that went up yesterday on the unavailability of digital versions of the Young Wizards bo…, we had a really interesting response in the […]

Anonymous March 24, 2011 - 8:52 pm

Ken … Ken somebody… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Caper …ahh, Ken Taylor and others

And thanks for connecting to a Canadian distributor; I use Kobo a lot!

Anonymous March 25, 2011 - 7:52 am

Hey, it’s a pleasure. Kobo has really impressed me — I’ll be doing more business with them in the future.

pholynyk March 24, 2011 - 8:52 pm

Ken … Ken somebody… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Caper …ahh, Ken Taylor and others

And thanks for connecting to a Canadian distributor; I use Kobo a lot!

dianeduane March 25, 2011 - 7:52 am

Hey, it’s a pleasure. Kobo has really impressed me — I’ll be doing more business with them in the future.

Tim Thompson March 25, 2011 - 12:44 am

I’ve just checked it out and they are now available to us in Canada. Thanks for your work on this.

Diane Duane March 25, 2011 - 9:17 am

Tim, thanks for checking on this! Looks like this issue is solved. Now on to quality control matters…

Tim Thompson March 25, 2011 - 12:44 am

I’ve just checked it out and they are now available to us in Canada. Thanks for your work on this.

Publishing concerns April 6, 2011 - 10:54 pm

[…] of items on her blog about the Canadian eBooks recently. If you've not seen them, they're here: In the ebook department: O Canada Young Wizards in Canada, Part 2: Thank you, Kobo! They may partly answer your questions, and […]

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