A note on buying The Albatross outside of the U.S. and Canada

February 5, 2015 • 9:15 am

I’ve received both emails and comments about my post from two days ago flogging Faith Versus Fact and telling you how to order it. Readers in places like New Zealand, the UK, and Australia wanted to know how they could order the hardcover, which comes out May 19.

First, a correction: I gave a number of ordering links, one of which, it turned out, was an error, though not on my part. Although Amazon UK does list the book on its site, it is not allowed to do so, as English-language rights were sold for publication and distribution only in the U.S. and Canada. That meant that you could order it only from sites in those countries. The Amazon UK link will shortly be taken down (temporarily), so don’t pre-order from them—yet. If you have, check with them.

But, in view of what seems to be an appreciable number of non-U.S. and non-Canadian anglophone readers who would like the book, yesterday I transferred all English-language rights to Viking/Penguin Random House. That means that they can distribute it far more widely, and the book will, I hope, soon be available for order or pre-order in a lot more places outside north America. Here’s what I heard from the sales division of my publisher:

International readers will be able to buy the print book from all the major international online retailers (so all the international Amazon sites, plus online retailers in the UK, Europe, Australia, South Africa, India and Asia).

They will also be able to order the book from local booksellers.

The ebook will be available on all Amazon sites, Apple iTunes, Kobo, Google, as well as from smaller digital retailers (those that are serviced by the digital aggregators).

So, especially if you want an e-book, it will be dead easy to get. The deal with be implemented very soon, so be patient. You can check your local online retailer and see if and when when the book is listed.

As before, I’m asking readers to pre-order the book, for all advance sales count towards first-week sales, which are the most important ones. (If you haven’t done so already, and live in Canada or the U.S., go here for to preorder.) I’m told that Amazon doesn’t charge you until the book is shipped, so you’ve nothing to lose. I

‘ll also ask ask my local bookstore to stock signed copies, so you might be able to order autographed copies from them (no extra charge, but cat drawings will not available on those). More about that later.

Thanks for your indulgence.

34 thoughts on “A note on buying The Albatross outside of the U.S. and Canada”

  1. I’m not sure if your first two paragraphs concern only Ebook downloads from amazon, but ordering the book (as in “made of atoms”) from amazon.de was not a problem.

    Anyway, regarding signed copies: since they will be cat-less will there be at least copies with albatross drawings in them?

    1. Perhaps Jerry could draw a cat & an albatross, post it, then we could download it & stick it in?!

    3. I’d be a bit worried about ordering the book from Amazons that aren’t in the US and Canada. But maybe it will be okay after the new agreement sets in.

      No albatrosses will be drawn!

      2. Yes, I can let you know if there’s a change in ETA – if there is, they usually announce that by email. At the latest, I should know after May 29, of course …

    1. I hope it later comes out in a nice Penguin edition. Most of their books now have a really tactile surface now – almost rubbery.

  3. Am I the only one surprised this whole international distribution complication is still a thing? I don’t mean to denigrate the publishers if there are territorial, profit, whatever reason – it’s a business.

    It’s just surprising. Seems so 20th Century.

    2. From NZ, I’d ordered via Amazon.com without problem. I didn’t realize this was an issue. The only way I can get stuff on my Kindle is via them. I use Amazon.co.uk a lot because the post is quicker and no more expensive, but I can’t use their Kindle store.

      NZ Post has a warehouse in the US (and the UK) that you can use as your address, so you have a local address, then they forward the stuff to you. It’s free to set up and you get a unique identifier, but it costs double postage. As long as you’re not importing anything illegal, it gets around the licensing issues that prevent you getting stuff directly.

  5. Are you privy to advance sales figures? If so, I’m sure we’d all like to hear running totals from time to time.

  6. Although Amazon UK does list the book on its site, it is not allowed to do so, as English-language rights were sold for publication and distribution only in the U.S. and Canada… I transferred all English-language rights to Viking/Penguin Random House

    I’m confused by all this. I’m assuming that Viking/Penguin Random House (VPRH) is the publisher? Didn’t it already have the right to distribute the book as it saw fit?

    Any why would they think that people outside the US wouldn’t be interested? Didn’t the other New Atheist books sell well internationally?

      1. I’d just stay put; if you’ve ordered from Amazon UK, I suspect strongly it will go through, as the distribution deal will be finalized quickly.

        I don’t understand all the ins and outs of publishing and distribution, but I do know that the book wasn’t supposed to be on any Amazon site except Canada and the US. But very quickly it will all be kosher. I wouldn’t cancel any orders yet.

    2. It can me profitable to limit the sales of a new book to a certain territory for a time. If the book is a success in the first territory then better deals, for the author, can be negotiated with other publishers (or even the original one) for the rights to sell the book in other territories.

  7. I live in Mexico and have a credit card that is valid worldwide. I had no problem pre-ordering the Kindle version of The Albatross on the US Amazon website. It’s not the first time I buy from the US Amazon shop. I’ve ordered both hard copies and Kindle versions of books in the past, and even other stuff from Amazon without problem (even some kitchen appliances). The Amazon shop ships many items worldwide(not only books). The cost, however, is slightly more expensive as they do add some import taxes.

  8. Hi there, I pre-ordered your book through the Amazon UK site yesterday, and it is still there on my account page. I think it’s sensible to assume that Amazon will just fulfill the order from there, even if the edition needs to be changed, or what-have-you.

  10. Pre-ordered in New Zealand through Amazon but no idea which one. I thought it was UK where I first created an account but my country setting is NZ. I get messages suggesting I switch to Amazon Australia-no idea why. However it all seems to work.

  12. I prefer getting the eBook version over print. Do ebooks count as much as print in the bestseller lists?

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