Amazon Kindle for SA

I am actually a bit disappointed with Fictionwise - used to buy there all the time and suddenly I see they have the Geographic Restrictions in place. Every book I considered buying there today had them.

For example, Stephan Baxter's books have them - a couple of months they didn't! :(
 
ebendl said:
I am actually a bit disappointed with Fictionwise - used to buy there all the time and suddenly I see they have the Geographic Restrictions in place. Every book I considered buying there today had them.

For example, Stephan Baxter's books have them - a couple of months they didn't! :(
Click to expand...

Yes, that's a sad fact of the state the publishing industry is in today. Luckily Fictionwise has quite a lot of books that aren't geo-restricted, but you need to do an advance search to find them. Their saving grace is their Micropay rebates. It really brings down the prices immensely.

I'm including a list of 100% rebate books I found that don't have geo-restrictions, just in case someone finds it useful. I might have missed some and I skipped genres that don't interest me.

FANTASY
Lord of the Rings (3 Vol)
The Hobbit
Children of Hurin
Small Favor [Dresden 10]
Dopplegangster
Prey [Werecats 4}
Unbound
The White Gryphon
Redemption Alley
Gossamyr
Magyk

HISTORY
Airborne

MAINSTREAM
Cold River
Aposte: A Thriller
Art of racing in the rain
Sacred Sins
The Weight of Silence
Cold War Reprise
Certain Girls
What dreams may come
Final Resort
The Lace Reader
86'd
And Sometimes Why

MYSTERY/CRIME
Darkest Fear Harlen Coben
Valediction
But I trusted You
Blindman's Bluff
Hound
Picture me dead
Shadow Play
A weekend at Blenheim

SCI-FI
Second Foundation
Project Aura
Death Cry
Star Trek Titan #1

THRILLERS
Blood Game
Arctic Drift
Heat Wave
Die Trying
Splinter Cell: Conviction
Sum of all Fears
Red Storm Rising Clancy
Hunt for Red October
Mercury's War
Tell No One/Gone for good
The Gatekeeper
The Soul Stealer
Thriller 2
Dead Run
Desperate Passage
Mission to Burma
Patriot Acts
Blown Coverage
Breathing Water
Hostile Odds
loose Cannon

SCIENCE
The Greatest Show on Earth: Evidence for Evolution
 
Ebooks.com

Has anyone bought from www.ebooks.com? It looks like they have a very large selection and I can't seem to see any geographic restrictions in place.

Edit:
I tested using a valid US address as billing address and having the country set to US and Fictionwise, and it works perfectly. My previous attempts failed for some reason. I suspect there might have been a cookie from my previous SA based purchases stored in my browser. Cleaned out the cookies and this time it worked fine. So it seems as if they do not match your billing address with CC address (yet).
 
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I think one thing that Amazon, and fictionwise (since they're the only two I've trawled so far) are lacking is an decent search and filter option...

(Granted yes, I work with data everyday so I'm spoilt, but it would make a HUGE difference to the shopping experience)
 
Yes, their filter system is a bit poor. Best method is to use the advanced search and then limit the genre and formats.
 
i only shop from my Kindle. i dont think it can shop on ebooks.com. I'm happy with what i'm buying on Amazon and I'm a Brand Kiddie so once i have a brand i like im very loyal :)
 
Well my Kindle is now in Joburg, lets see how long SA incompetence takes to get it the remaining 600kms to me in Durbs.
 
I did a little thought experiment and compared Fictionwise pricing with Amazon for the 17 books I recently purchased from Fictionwise. 2 of the books weren't available at the Kindle store so I used the lowest average from my selection, substituting $5.59 as price for the two books.

The results:
Kindle store: $119.97 (list pricing used)
Fictionwise: $105.59 (list pricing used)

Pretty even so far BUT Fictionwise has Micropay rebates. Basically when you buy certain books you get a percentage of the amount paid back as a Micropay rebate which you can then use on further purchases. These can range between 30-100%.

With some planning you can get a surprising amount of books for the lowest amount of actual money spent. For my purchases, using a combination of CC and Micropay I ended up paying only $42.51!

So, taking Micropay into account the picture looks much different.

Kindle store: $119.97 = $7.05 avg per book.
Fictionwise: $42.51 = $2.50 avg per book.

So I guess that it pays not to be tied exclusively to the Kindle and Amazon. Don't think of the Kindle shop as the only store for your Kindle. If you are savvy enough to be able to remove DRM from your purchased PRC files then there are quite a few other viable online shops to buy from.
 
Idiot guide?

After following this thread for months (or so it seems) I've finally taken the plunge and ordered a Kindle. I think I have a handle on how to get it all to work over here but if any of you gurus would like to share the love, I'd really appreciate some pointers. I have a slightly different setup to the rest of you, I think.

First complication: I am actually from the UK and have a valid UK credit card and genuine UK billing/shipping address, although I live over here now and only get to the UK every few years - if I get anything shipped to the UK, my mom forwards it to me by normal post. I used my UK credit card to buy the Kindle but I'm having it shipped to SA. Not sure what Amazon thinks of me now? I assume the shipping address is the critical one here.

From what I can see, most of you have had to set up an address in the US to get the most out of Amazon. Or am I wrong there? I'm assuming that although the list of available books in the UK is slightly lower than in the US, it will still be more than we can get in SA. The thing is, how does Amazon work out where I am if I download to my PC rather than the Kindle itself (which is likely what I'll do, since my cellphone signal at home is pants)? Will I be able to get at the UK books (eg by using some kind of proxy that places my IP in the UK? or is it sufficient just to buy from the UK store with my UK card?) or will I be stuck with what's on offer from the SA store? Do I need to change the default settings in my Kindle account to do this? What's the best way around the miniscule list of books in SA?

I am happy to use other stores but, on my brief visits so far, I haven't found much that interested me other than on the Gutenburg press site (freebies). I'm not really into sci-fi, fantasy, romance etc, which is what most of the cheap alternatives seem to offer. So I'll probably stick with Amazon for the most part. I'm thinking I might try downloading some books from other UK sites (non Kindle) to see how that works. Will report back on this thread if it works well.

Any tips? I'm waiting for the Idiot's Guide to Circumventing Ridiculous Ebook Geo-restrictions... :D
 
wordhog said:
After following this thread for months (or so it seems) I've finally taken the plunge and ordered a Kindle. I think I have a handle on how to get it all to work over here but if any of you gurus would like to share the love, I'd really appreciate some pointers. I have a slightly different setup to the rest of you, I think.

First complication: I am actually from the UK and have a valid UK credit card and genuine UK billing/shipping address, although I live over here now and only get to the UK every few years - if I get anything shipped to the UK, my mom forwards it to me by normal post. I used my UK credit card to buy the Kindle but I'm having it shipped to SA. Not sure what Amazon thinks of me now? I assume the shipping address is the critical one here.

From what I can see, most of you have had to set up an address in the US to get the most out of Amazon. Or am I wrong there? I'm assuming that although the list of available books in the UK is slightly lower than in the US, it will still be more than we can get in SA. The thing is, how does Amazon work out where I am if I download to my PC rather than the Kindle itself (which is likely what I'll do, since my cellphone signal at home is pants)? Will I be able to get at the UK books (eg by using some kind of proxy that places my IP in the UK? or is it sufficient just to buy from the UK store with my UK card?) or will I be stuck with what's on offer from the SA store? Do I need to change the default settings in my Kindle account to do this? What's the best way around the miniscule list of books in SA?

I am happy to use other stores but, on my brief visits so far, I haven't found much that interested me other than on the Gutenburg press site (freebies). I'm not really into sci-fi, fantasy, romance etc, which is what most of the cheap alternatives seem to offer. So I'll probably stick with Amazon for the most part. I'm thinking I might try downloading some books from other UK sites (non Kindle) to see how that works. Will report back on this thread if it works well.

Any tips? I'm waiting for the Idiot's Guide to Circumventing Ridiculous Ebook Geo-restrictions... :D
Click to expand...

Basicly the shipping adress has nothing to do with it, there is a "One click" option and you set a adress there that address is the one used to detirmine the store you are in. The credit card assosiated with the "One Click" can be anything....

So as things stand the fact that you are here but have a uk adress just means according to Amazon you are "Roaming" and you will pay the $ 1,99 or prob a similar amount in GPB....
 
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herbertk said:
Basicly the shipping adress has nothing to do with it, there is a "One click" option and you set a adress there that address is the one used to detirmine the store you are in. The credit card assosiated with the "One Click" can be anything....
Click to expand...

So what's to stop everyone in SA using a One-Click address in the US? It can't be hard to find a random US address and type it in. How does Amazon know whether it's genuine? Surely there's more to it than that?
 
fastesthamster said:
Watching the convoluted route my Kindle took was painful.
Click to expand...

Mine went through about 3 states and then to Kologne...

It has now cleared customs, but SA Incompetence has thrown its ugly head up and had a good laugh... there is now a possible delivery delay due to extra carrier processing.... aka, Someone is too sodding lazy to do their job properly.
 
ToxicBunny said:
Mine went through about 3 states and then to Kologne...

It has now cleared customs, but SA Incompetence has thrown its ugly head up and had a good laugh... there is now a possible delivery delay due to extra carrier processing.... aka, Someone is too sodding lazy to do their job properly.
Click to expand...
Mine went across America, then to Germany, then England, then South Africa. Cleared customs after a processing delay, went to the wrong DHL center, then went to the right DHL center and was given to the wrong driver (apparently, but I'm suspicious), went back to the right DHL center, and was given to the right driver the next day.

They certainly know how to suck the fun out of waiting for your toys!
 
Great news is that there's a lot of new (popular books) in the Kindle africa store. Dan Brown is there and so are good authors like Terry Pratchett! All at fairly decent prices (still much better than buying local paperbacks).
 
Yeah, they have just added a WHOLE lot of new books it seems....

Now just to wait for the UPS branches in this country to catch a wakeup... my kindle has passed customs and is now just sitting in JHB sucking its thumb
 
oronte said:
Great news is that there's a lot of new (popular books) in the Kindle africa store. Dan Brown is there and so are good authors like Terry Pratchett! All at fairly decent prices (still much better than buying local paperbacks).
Click to expand...

Yip, now standing at 303 250 titles (compared to the 170 000 odd titles at the launch of the international version).
The US store is standing on 402 611 but the SA store is definitely catching up :D
 
Nice to see these devices are taking off, I wonder how long it will be before public libraries become niche.
 
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