Amazon, why the latest Ken Follett's book is priced wildly differently in US, UK, and Italy?
US
The prices alone are enough to drive people mad. $19.99 in the US for a Kindle edition, while the same edition in the UK cost £7.20 (= $11.6) and in Italy €10.02 (= $13.14). Both are already available in Europe, and yet to come in the US.
UK
ITA
I know that Amazon blames the publishers for these prices. But I can't help wondering why does Amazon, which is the most powerful book reseller, comply to such nonsense.
What you're looking at is a mixture of issues.
ReplyDelete1. Have you checked the publisher? Usually when this sort of thing happens it's because the publishers with North American rights and those with UK/Commonwealth/EU rights are different and have different pricing policies.
2. VAT -- European sales tax -- varies between EU member states from a low of 3% (Luxembourg) to over 20%. And it's levied on ebooks at different rates in different countries; France pays 5%, but the UK pays 20%.
3. Finally, translation costs money, so for those books that sell well enough to warrant a translation (read: are by best-selling authors) there'll probably be a mark-up.
Different publishers, different price structures.
ReplyDeleteBe sure to blame the store.