h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Just a quick monday morning rush of curiousity.
I know it's a dull question but, it's been a long weekend!

A dull answer for a dull question.

It's a question of distribution. Publishers based in the UK generally have deals with distribution companies in the USA, Canada or wherever, who sell those books abroad. There's usually a different distributor for each country, who has a separate contract, separate terms and separate small print, that details precisely the terms and conditions under which a certain book is allowed to be sold. Some distributors will insist that there's a price printed on the back cover; some will insist that there isn't. All very legal and highly boring.

Anyway, "Not for sale in Canada" really means "There is another officially agreed Canadian distributor's version of this book out there, and if you are a Canadian bookshop, that is the one you should be selling, not this one". So the books you've seen will probably be on sale in Canada, but in a slightly different form - with a different publisher's name on, or a different ISBN number or something else really trivial.

So it's okay. The Canadians are not being cruelly deprived of books. Everything is all right. Trust me, I'm in publishing...

Yeah, but just because a US publisher doesn't have the rights to publish/distribute in Canada doesn't necessarily mean that someone else does. So the Canadians may well be missing out. Trust me, I work in publishing too.

Well, yes, all right. I did say "probably".

Anyway, aren't the Canadians too busy running away from moose to read books...?

Er, the only things I've ever seen a Moose run after is another moose.

And you can always buy directly from the publisher, or find a bookstore that will special order. Like 84 Charing Cross Road, eh?

Sadly, 84 Charing Cross Road hasn't been a bookshop for many, many years. It used to be an excellent CD shop, then it was disused for a time, now it's some poncey bar, so I wouldn't suggest writing in the hope you'll spark up a thrilling correspondence. I suspect you'd be disappointed.

A more interesting question is why some books are not available in libraries in Canada. The next time you are told that there are 100 people ahead of you waiting to borrow a popular book, offer to purchase a copy and donate it to the library if they will put it on the racks. Perhaps some of the earlier posters in the game could comment on the reasons.

I say we take a truck load of paperbacks across the border in the middle of the night. Fill the cabin with fresh fruit and vegetables just to confuse the authority's!

How sad. I mean the part about the bookstore no longer being there. What kind of a bar is a 'poncy' one? [she asked, fearfully]

But, the good news is that there IS an 84 Charing Cross Road in the wonderful, cultural heartland of the Upper Penninsula of Michigan. Munising, actually. [Which is located on the 'running rabbit's' back.]

The complete name of the shop is '84 Charing Cross Road, eh?'. The exterior is a replica of the original shop, and it is a lovely used book store. And you can wander about in it and find all kinds of old friends. It even smells like a bookstore.

Of course, none of this solves the problem with the availability of books in Canada.

The popular book problem is somewhat different, and it isn't just in Canada. Libraries are loathe to buy multiple copies of a book of dubious quality that no one will ever want to read after it leaves the best seller list.

Some libraries rent extra copies of high demand titles to partially meet the demand, but this doesn't usually take care of it completely.

And the titles that are most popular are those which are not yet available in paperback, so if you want to donate a copy you are looking at upwards of $20-30 US to purchase it. The library gets at least 35% off when they purchase it, so it would be really better to donate the money to the library and let them buy the book. But then, they probably wouldnt buy additional copies of high demand stuff, anyway. They would buy some Pulitzer Prize winner that no one has ever heard of. [see first paragraph]

Why libraries buy what they do is a whole 'nother thread...

Libraries typically spend less than 20% of their budgets on book purchases, so it should be far more effective to donate books rather than money - even with their 35% discount. I wonder how long the publisher's 35% discount would be available if the libraries freely provided the public with an alternative to buying popular books? The book publishers would quickly come to hate libraries for the same reason hookers hate debutantes.

Naaahhh, too many Volvos take care of moose...although Ontario has all kinds of problems north of Toronto....

In Vancouver, I usually see the Canadian-branch of the American publishing house distributing books that most want to buy.

I usually go to ridiculous lengths to find the books I want, such as buying directly from overseas publishers or specialty bookshops that order stuff in specifically.

The troubles I have usually come from wanting video-programmes from overseas where a local distributor doesn't own the rights. Then I have to decide how important the show is to me, buy the original and have it de-ressed (resolutioned: change the scan-system from PAL or SEACAM to the tatty-old NTSC), adding usually about $50. - $100.00 to the cost of the show.

Fruitbat

My Mum still works in the Vancouver library system and is almost in tears with the way it's now being run:

The City is cutting back as much as possible on the library's budget. There was a week-long shut-down of the Central (main) library in downtown Vancouver because there wasn't money to run it.

Buying books is now a rather selective job: the purchase must almost be justified every time a choice is made. They have so much money to buy books, those books that are bought MUST go out, and many terrific books cannot be bought because others are.

The feeling is that the library's investing more in computer systems that nobody knows how to run, and which function unsteadily, than in buying terrific/popular books.

Any title that hasn't gone out for a while is now either sold or given away to make room for those books that do move.

Fruitbat

What a shame that is.