Ever since Amazon.ca opened, I’ve been in a kind of book-buyer’s bliss. The Canadian variant of Amazon has a broader selection than native Chapters, and typically has lower prices–all good stuff.
Even better, though, Amazon.ca put me in a position to leverage my special status as a Canadian lover of books: we can get both American and British editions from local distributors. And, with Amazon.ca, I was in a position to easily get British hard covers at a substantial discount without paying any international shipping. Since I fairly regularly (at least several times a year) want to get a British hardcover–when either there will be no North American hard cover, or the North American one will be significantly later in publication–this is a big plus.
At least it was until just recently. I don’t know what happened, but suddenly British hard covers are ridiculously expensive.
An example: I just got an email from Amazon.co.uk notifying me that I can now pre-order Justina Robson‘s latest novel Selling Out (sequel to Keep It Real, which I discussed at some length earlier). I immediately grabbed the ISBN from the Amazon.co.uk page, popped over to Amazon.ca and searched for the book. And there it is. For FORTY-TWO freaking dollars, and no discount–I’m kind of used to at least a 30% discount from Amazon, and often 40%. (A comparable hardcover–at least in terms of size/audience/publisher–work, say John Meaney’s Resolution, from Justina’s North American publisher lists at Amazon.ca for less than $20 after discount. That’s roughly where I expect new hardcovers to be at Amazon.ca.)
So, what’s up with that? I should totally write Amazon a letter.
Here’s the kicker. At Amazon.co.uk the book lists for £12.53, which is (at today’s exchange rate) about $27.50 Canadian. So it’s not only that the book isn’t discounted, it’s that Amazon.ca has marked it up $15, or to look at it even more offensively, 55%, from the price at Amazon.co.uk. It is significantly cheaper for me to order the book from the UK and pay international shipping–surely this is madness?
(Of course I don’t really have an alternative if I want the hard cover–Chapters doesn’t carry the book, US Amazon doesn’t carry the book, and if I wait and try to buy it on the after market I’m going to pay through the nose. Amazon.ca’s cheapest seller for the first volume HC is around $80, and ABE’s North American copies start at $50 before shipping.)
It’s not just Robson. I just went through the same thing with Hal Duncan‘s Ink. When Vellum came out, I ordered the British HC from Amazon.ca. It cost me $24.39–it’s still listed now at the slightly better $23.28 after a 37% discount. So, naturally, I wanted to get the followup also in hardcover, and expected to pay roughly the amount. Except, guess what? Ink has no discount, and runs $40+. (Ink hardcover at Amazon.co.uk is £11.17 which works out to $24.50CAN.)
It’s not all British HCs, though. The British HC of John Meaney’s latest, for example, is offered at the sort of price I expect.
There’s got to be something going on behind the scenes to drive this. I’m sure I’ll eventually find out some distributor went belly-up, and suddenly half the British books (at least the SF ones) look to Amazon’s computer like small press / special order titles, or something. I wish I knew what it was, so I would know how to get around it.
I’m definitely writing them a letter. And in the meantime, I guess I’m queueing up stuff to order from the UK, so that I can minimize shipping costs.
