…because they are so rarely open to international fans. When one does not live in the US, Canada, the UK (or even Australia and New Zealand – I have seen you libraries!), that it can be less than simple and quite expensive to get a book.
Honestly, I hate to see the words “open to residents of the US and Canada only”. I could blame the authors, or the websites, or fate for having been born on the wrong side of the planet. I do not – I get it – shipping outside the US and Canada is expensive. I know.
I also know that I feel resentment to in being thus excluded. I am only human.
We also read SF. We also buy genre books. We also organize conventions. And we also have internet.
Our libraries, as a rule, do not stock English titles. (On top of of that there are other issues, like all libraries in Croatia are all subscription libraries.)
Our book stores do attempt to mimic a wide variety of titles but truly cannot even dream of being stocked as richly as any of American ones. Ever. You may regret the big book store that have gone in recent years… we never had them.
Our postal fees can be HUMONGOUS! (And we do not have your paychecks! And sometimes we also have to pay customs because we ordered one book too many!)
So, when bloggers and websites do giveaways for promotional purposes, for every person in the US and Canada you have made happy, there are some international fans whom you’ve made feel very, very excluded. Like we are simply too few to even be considered. 🙁
All this, of course, because I wanted to enter the giveaway for the Kate Elliott book. 🙂
